Refracted Reality: The Work of Jim Cantrell

Refracted Reality: The Work of Jim Cantrell is a retrospective of over six decades of work by Kentucky-based artist Jim Cantrell. This will be the third exhibition at the AKMA of Cantrell’s work – the first taking place in 1991.

An opening reception will be held on Friday, November 19, 2021 from 4:00 to 7:00 pm. Opening receptions are free and open to the public. A cash bar and light refreshments will be available. Attendees are requested to wear masks inside the museum when not actively eating or drinking.

About the Artist:

Jim Cantrell was born and raised in Oklahoma and completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Nebraska.  Though his student years coincided with the rise of Abstract Expressionism as the most prominent style of American painting, Cantrell was always interested in representing people, still lifes and cityscapes. In his portraits he often surrounds his subjects with objects with mirrored surfaces or mylar backgrounds that create distorted shapes and colors that are no less real than the person at the center of the composition.

Although Cantrell is trained as a painter, in the beginning stages of his career as a full-time artist he focused on pottery. In the 1970s, he and his wife Jeannette established the Bardstown Art Gallery that they continue to run in Bardstown, Kentucky.