nice art ∙

nice art ∙

The Nice Art Grant provided by Midwest Nice Art is an unrestricted grant of $500 that supports emerging and mid-career artists. this year’s grant was juried by Midwest Nice Art co-founders Tim Rickett + Epiphany Knedler, and previous nice art grant winners Josh johnson and emma mckay ryan.

the second annual nice art grant winners are:
Hannah Smith and Noah Thomas Miller

  • Hannah Smith‍ is an interdisciplinary artist and a Lecturer at the University of Kentucky in digital design and 3D fabrication. Through recognizable imagery and unconventional materials, Smith’s playful artistic practice offers a vision of society in which blue-collar aesthetics embody political and social ideologies of discontent. Over the past few years, they have been awarded a UK Sustainability Council grant to conduct non-toxic material research, a Future Art Award from Mozaik Philanthropy, and an artist grant from the Great Meadows Foundation. Their work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at the Polish Sculpture Center, Oronsko, Poland (2025); QRTC, Athens, Greece (2022); The Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft Triennial, Louisville, KY (2022); Sculptors Alliance, New York, NY (2021); 48-Stunden Neukölln Biennale, Berlin, Germany (2020); and the CICA Museum Seoul, South Korea (2019) among others. 

  • Noah Thomas Miller is Illinois born, but now primarily resides between Memphis & Illinois.

    All his work follows an epoch, archiving a specific time or space, for better or for worse.  This makes most of his work personal in nature, as a reflection and preservation of memory. He works in multivalent mediums, whether that be printmaking, painting, video, sound installation or a combination of materials.

    Day to day, Miller has worked in museums in (the Museum of Science & History & the Brooks Museum of Art) where they teach that our world(s) must be preserved.  "We’re working against time, which has a natural process of erasing most things, stripping the detail. That’s why capturing a window of time with a photograph or magnetic tape is a magical practice in a way!" 

    You can hear Miller's voice & curation on WYXR 91.7FM (Memphis) on Saturdays at 7PM, or see his helping hand screening films with the Crosstown Arts film program.​

  • Ryan Parker (b. 1989, Twentynine Palms, CA) is a lens based artist and documentarian based in Bozeman, MT. He was raised on military installations across the US and Japan until the age of 13. These early years became integral to the subject matter within Parkers lens based practice. His work is concerned with the altered landscape, specifically the relationship between industrial standardization and economic factors which lead to upheaval in small communities. His large format photographs document the hinterland, the space subtly forgotten.

    Parker has exhibited his photographs with the Holter Museum of Art (Helena), the Yellowstone Art Museum (Billings), Usage Gallery (Brooklyn), Praxis Gallery (Minneapolis), The Center for Fine Art Photography (Fort Collins), Atlanta Photography Group (Atlanta), Blue Sky Gallery (Portland), Subjectively Objective (Detroit), Ejecta Projects (Carlisle), and Filter Photo (Chicago). In addition to exhibiting his work, it has been included in publications by Light Leaked, Subjectively Objective, and Pine Island Press. In 2016 he received a Sidney E. Frank Foundation Fellowship, and in 2014 the Edwards Family Endowment for the Arts.

  • Catherine Reinhart is an interdisciplinary artist from Ames, IA.  Reinhart creates fiber work and conducts social practice with abandoned textiles around themes of domestic labor, connection, and care. She received her MFA - Textiles from the University of Kansas and a BFA - Integrated Studio Arts at Iowa State University.

    Reinhart exhibits locally, nationally and internationally. She has exhibited at the Department of Land Economy, Cambridge University and Cambridge Artworks, Cambridge, UK, and the Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, KS. Reinhart has been selected as a presenter at “Mending and Making Workshop” organized by the Endangered Material Knowledge Programme at the British Museum.

    Her works are in collections at the University of Mississippi and Kyoto Keika University, Kyoto, Japan. Reinhart is the recipient of numerous grants and residencies, including the Iowa Arts Council, National Endowment for the Arts, and Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts. Reinhart was recently honored as an Iowa Artist Fellow (2020), a  Terrain Exhibitions Artist-in-Residence in Springfield, IL (2021), a recipient of the Alex Brown Foundation’s Artist-in-Residence in Des Moines, IA (2022), and an Artist-in-Residence at the West Cork Arts Center in Ireland (2023/2024).

  • Jack G. Taylor is a painter, printmaker, and drafter whose work combines cartooning and pop culture in order to explore the absurdities and grotesqueries of contemporary American culture. By adapting mid-century cartooning iconography, Taylor codifies modern actors into anthropomorphic analogues.

     Taylor was born in Seattle, Washington, and is currently based in Iowa City, IA, where he is pursuing his MFA in Painting and Drawing at the University of Iowa. He has shown in multiple galleries around the country, including Zynka Gallery in Pittsburgh, Mount Analogue in Seattle, Smoke the Moon Gallery in Santa Fe, IA&A at Hillyer in Washington DC, Project Project in Omaha, and the Ana Mendieta Gallery in Iowa City. Taylor is currently represented by Zynka Gallery. 

     Taylor lives with his partner and his Boston Terrier in Iowa City. He is an avid collector of ephemera, a union organizer, a teacher, and a student. 

  • Raised in the Southern states of Tennessee and Texas, André Ramos-Woodard (he/ they) is a photo-based artist who uses their work to emphasize the experiences of the marginalized communities while accenting the repercussions of contemporary and historical discrimination. His art conveys ideas of communal and personal identity, influenced by their direct experience with life as a queer African American. Focusing on Black liberation, queer justice, and the reality of mental health, he aspires for his art to help bring power to the people.

  • Steve Parker transforms salvaged military surveillance equipment, discarded brass instruments, and maritime tools into sculptures that make invisible systems audible. His sculptures function as three-dimensional scores, activated by breath and touch. They reveal the hidden infrastructures that shape our collective experience: from military monitoring networks to the ultrasonic territories of urban wildlife.

    Parker's practice has been recognized by the Creative Capital Award, the Rome Prize, the Pollock-Krasner Award, a Fulbright, and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. His work has been presented at the American Academy in Rome, Crystal Bridges Museum, Lincoln Center, MASS MoCA, and the Lucerne Festival. As a soloist and member of Ensemble Signal, he has premiered over 200 new compositions.

    Parker's investigations have produced an opera for 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats, automobile symphonies performed in parking garages, and sonic healing rituals performed by NCAA marching bands. Each project asks: how do we listen—and respond—to systems we cannot see?

    Parker is Associate Professor at UT San Antonio and Artistic Director of Collide Arts. He holds degrees in Mathematics and Music from Oberlin, Rice University, and the University of Texas at Austin.

nice art shortlist

  • Jessica Teckemeyer creates mixed-media animal sculptures to explore the multiplicity in human nature. Her highly finished artworks feature dramatic, glossy human eyes to clue viewers to the introspective nature of her ideation. Some sculptures utilize hidden technology to create unexpected encounters. Her research interests include psychology, mythology, and contemporary monster theory, which result in concepts that reveal the collective unconscious. She is fascinated by the complexities of human experience. According to Curator Laura Burkhalter of the Des Moines Art Center in Iowa, "Touching on broad themes of primal emotion and ancient mythology to specific current issues such as gun violence, Teckemeyer's art engages and unsettles on multiple levels."
     
    In addition to maintaining an active studio practice, Teckemeyer is the Sculpture Professor at Oklahoma State University. Before joining the faculty at OSU, she taught all levels of sculpture and ceramics at Clarke University in Iowa. She received her Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities in May 2010. Teckemeyer's sculptures have been featured in eleven solo exhibitions and shown in more than fifty-five group exhibits. Her most recent solo exhibitions include "Transfigurations" at MidCoast Gallery, Davenport, IA; "Recent Work" at Lock Haven Gallery, Lock Haven, PA; "Sinners and Saints" at Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, OH; "Whispers" at Coe College, Cedar Rapids, IA; and "Iowa Artist 2015: Jessica Teckemeyer" at the Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA. Viewers in many cities have experienced the work, including Monaco, France; Montevideo, Uruguay; New York, NY; South Orange, NJ; Santa Ana, CA; Baltimore, MD; Chicago, IL; Tallahassee, FL; Cincinnati, OH; Indianapolis, IN; Denton, TX; Minneapolis, MN; Milwaukee, WI; and Des Moines, IA. She has received numerous accolades including "Best in 3D" from the "Art of the Heartland" exhibit at the Indianapolis Art Center, an award at the "Select" exhibition at the Sioux City Art Center in Iowa, "Best in Show" for the "Social & Politically Engaged Art" at the Reece Museum in Tennessee, and "Second Prize" at the "Tallahassee International" hosted at the Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts. Additionally, Teckemeyer has been awarded $10,000 in grants through the Iowa Arts Council supported by the National Endowment for the Arts. Her works are in the Des Moines Art Center, Dubuque Museum of Art, and many private collections.
     
    Teckemeyer fabricated sculptures for internationally known artist Siah Armajani from 2009 until 2013. Prior to graduate school, Teckemeyer worked in the sculpting, mold making, and painting departments at "Tivoli Too," a 3D design and production studio located near Minneapolis, MN. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at Minnesota State University Moorhead in 2004.

  • Jessica Lambert is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Studio Art – Sculpture at Oklahoma State University. Lambert holds an MFA in Studio Art with an emphasis in Sculpture from Texas Tech University and a BFA in Art with an emphasis in Sculpture from Southeast Missouri State University. She has previously taught at University of Arkansas, Arkansas State University, and Texas Tech University. Her work has been exhibited at the Bradbury Art Museum, Monaco Gallery, Historic Arkansas Museum, and Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts. She was a resident at Vermont Studio Center, Farwell House, and a Live/Work Artist in Residence at Charles Adams Studio Project.

  • Craig Miller is an emerging artist based in Des Moines, Iowa. Originally trained as a designer, his graphic sensibility has since collided with a lifelong fascination for fiber artwork, giving way to a vibrant and tactile art practice. Through a combination of his bold illustration style and soft mediums like rug tufting, chain stitch embroidery, and sewing, his work aims to be a charming reminder that the small things which make up the world around us—the commonplace objects, the incidental interactions, the brushes with nature—are a source of magic, and the secret to a beautiful life. Using the skills learned from his time spent studying graphic design and animation he explores the forms of our everyday environment, exaggerating shapes and materials, playing with iconic representations, and personifying the inanimate to create a sense of character, humor, and whimsy.

  • Baylee Schmitt (MFA from Miami University) is currently the printmaking lab manager at University of Cincinnati DAAP. Memory, place, and the indistinguishable difference between childhood-self fact and fantasy are central to Baylee’s practice as a fiber artist and printmaker. Baylee has exhibited work with solo exhibitions at Laisun Keane Gallery, River East Gallery, Living Arts and Science Center, and the Fitton Center for Creative Arts. Baylee has also participated in group exhibitions with BravinLee Projects, at TW Fine Art, DesignTO, the Ohio Craft Museum, and Contemporary Craft. Baylee's work has been featured in the Boston Globe Working Artist column, Boston Art Review.

    This work is the kitchen from my childhood home crocheted from memory. It’s a meditative – and anxious – practice of understanding myself in relation to my family. Crochet is a series of units: stitches that make up rows, rows that make up shapes, and shapes that make up both image and object. It echoes the way memories, relationships, and experiences seem to make up a person; the way rooms make up a house; and the way individuals make up a family. I use yarn to build shapes stitch by stitch, crafting an image to interpret the emotional memory of the spaces we inhabited as a unit. Glimpses of a home well lived-in — tangled chair legs, unclimbable trees, spicy cinnamon potpourri — exist now only as psychological remnants rendered in yarn.

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