Kim Loper:

I've always been exceptionally interested in the human experience, primarily relationships and our influence on one another. I use anatomical representation to explore social constructions and how identities are assigned to body masses, either by ourselves or by each other. I am curious about how we start out, how our interactions shape the development of our self-identities and how these things affect the ways in which we move through the world.

In my most recent work I have been investigating biological systems, the similarity between human anatomy and plant anatomy. Thinking about the basic ways in which organisms receive nourishment- nutritional and for humans, emotional. I’m especially interested in the choices we make in determining what we feel those nutrients are and in relationships, how we work together or against each other to get our basic needs met.

I'm trying to explore the spaces where our "selves" (or our ideas of our selves) intersect and what those moments of interaction look like.

CK Ledesma

Ck Ledesma was born and raised in Puerto Rico where he began his extensive art education in the Central High de Artes Visuales in Santurce, San Juan. There he attended Middle and High School specializing in ceramics. He studied at the University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras where he majored in anthropology and at La Escuela de Artes Plasticas where his focus was in Art Education.

In 2007 he moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin where he became a professional ballroom dancer and instructor while continuing his art education by attending the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, finalizing his BFA at the University of Milwaukee Peck School of Art.

Currently, Ledesma is a working visual artist at Var Studios and Gallery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where he is pursuing an interdisciplinary approach to his visual arts.