Skip to main content

Feeling Welcome: Works by Stella Nall, April Werle, Cristina Marian, & Willow Kipp in the Main Gallery

Opening First Friday, June 4, 5-8 PM & exhibiting through June

Opening on First Friday, June 4, from 5-8 PM // In the Main Gallery through June
Visit in-person during open hours: Monday through Saturday 10 AM to 6 PM and Sunday noon to 4 PM
Browse and shop online via our Virtual Gallery beginning Tuesday, June 7: https://www.zootownarts.org/shows-events/galleries/virtual-gallery.html

The ZACC is proud to present works by the four artists behind our recently completed 'Feeling Welcome Mural Alley Project' — Cristina Marian, Willow Kipp, Stella Nall, and April Werle.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

APRIL WERLE
https://www.aprilwerle.com/
Since receiving her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drawing from the University of Montana in 2017, Filipino-American International Muralist April Werle has been wall hunting, ticking countries off her list from the shores of Morocco, to islands of Malaysia, the mountains of Montana, and walls in between. Werle’s bursting-of-color murals and works on panel offer short narratives inspired by her navigation through her cultural upbringing and travels to foreign places. Her reoccurring characters, recognized as hand gestures, existing and interacting within their constructed environments, represent themes of the classic coming-of-age tales, exploring who we are and how we navigate through society as we follow our own true identities.

STELLA NALL
https://www.stellamarieart.com/
Stella Nall is a multimedia artist and poet from Bozeman, Montana. She graduated from the University of Montana in 2020 with a BA in Psychology and a BFA in Printmaking with a minor in Art History + Criticism, for which she was elected as the Mortar Board outstanding graduate for the School of Visual and Media Arts. She is a mixed race Indigenous woman, descendant of the Crow Tribe. Her work has been featured in Scribendi Literature and Arts Magazine and she is the 2020 recipient of the Western Regional Honors Council Award for Visual Art. Her work lives in numerous public and private collections, including The Montana Museum of Art and Culture and the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.

WILLOW KIPP
Okii Niitakaiks (Hello friends) My name is Willow Kipp. I come from the Blackfeet and Shoshone-Bannock tribes. I have a Bachelors of Arts degree in Native American Studies and Environmental Studies from University of Montana. I currently attend IAIA (Institute of American Indian Arts). I am a multifaceted artist and pride my skills in being rooted and grounded in my culture. I hope to respectfully represent my tribes and cultural knowledge through my art. Every color and every symbol in my designs are carefully picked with the hopes to inspire love, bring comfort, represent my people and most importantly, honor all of creation.

CRISTINA MARIAN
https://www.cristinamarian.com/
Originally from Romania, Cristina Marian moved to the United States in 2013. In Bozeman, Montana, she divides her time between working in the studio, exhibiting her artwork and teaching. Throughout her life, Marian often found herself on the edge of vulnerability, in which her feeling of belonging to one place was often replaced by the sense of living in constant movement, unpredictable spaces and states of unknown. “’Permanent Transitional Being’ is the expression that best describes my personal circumstances,” Marian says. Moving by herself at the end of 8th grade from the countryside to a city of two million in order to study art, losing her home to a fire, witnessing the violent Romanian Revolution, living between two divergent political regimes and later emigrating to the U.S., all contributed to the feeling of permanent transition. These experiences have a strong influence on her artwork.

Marian’s work has been exhibited in Romania, Austria, France, Israel, Senegal and the U.S. At the moment she has work at the Yellowstone Art Museum in Billings, and two public murals and one sculpture at Tinworks 2020 in Bozeman. Neither Here Nor There is her most recent solo show, now on display at Story Mill, in Bozeman.

ABOUT THE FEELING WELCOME MURAL ALLEY PROJECT
With the financial support of a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the enthusiastic permission of the owners and managers of the building at 201 W Broadway (including the Import Market, the Bodega Bar & Grill, and Monk's Bar), the ZACC hired four women artists to each create their own murals in the alley between the ZACC and the Bodega in downtown, Missoula. Some are complete and some are in progress, and some will be painted in the spring when the weather turns again. We are planning for an outdoor spring public opening with talks from the artists, once all the murals have been completed.

Muralists were tasked to create works on the subject of 'Feeling Welcome', and were expected to reach out to traditionally underserved communities and disenfranchised Missoula residents and include them in shaping the design.

CULTIVATING COMMUNITY THROUGH ACCESSIBLE ARTS EXPERIENCES FOR ALL

© 2024 Zootown Arts Community Center

Powered by Firespring