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Tents will line the sidewalks of South Park featuring artwork showcased by more than 125 local and regional artists as well as artists from around the country on Sept. 19 and 20.
Art in the Park 2026 Featured Artist Shannon N. Roman will be coming from St. Louis. Roman’s brilliant and beautiful painted landscapes express the love she feels for the wild places of the world; mountains, deserts, national parks, and shorelines.
These timeless locations, places where she explored as a child and now brings her own children, speak to her. Her bold brushstrokes and bright colors transform the natural world into a work “that feels both grounded in reality and touched by the dreamlike.”
“My work explores the wonder of wild places — how nature grounds us, surprises us, and stirs something timeless inside. Inspired by the call to adventure found in national parks, I use layered textures, vibrant color, and stylized abstractions to capture the awe we carry home from the trail, the overlook, or the edge of the sea,” Roman said.
Art in the Park artists are selected by an independent jury panel with a level of proficiency in each media, and artists are chosen for their creativity and mastery of their craft. This year, Art in the Park will feature painters, mixed media artists, printmakers, jewelers, woodworkers, glass blowers, ceramic artists, sculptors and photographers.
Another artist making the journey to Lawrence is Katrina Davis-Salazar, “a mixed-media, mixed-Latinx neurodivergent artist” coming from Gurnee, Illinois. Layering acrylic, fabric, paper, gouache, ink, and gel medium to create narrative portraits, she both builds up and obscures faces and visual stories. Her process includes cycles of destruction and restoration which in the end creates a beautiful and textured “worked surface.”
“This process echoes the content of my work; each time our lives are altered by trauma, we pivot and rebuild, in small or big ways, over and over,” Davis-Salazar said. “This is relevant to all of us facing personal challenges amidst a fraught social and political climate. I hope my many works comfort, validate, and uplift others.”
While Lawrence is hosting artists from across the country, many local artists will also be showing at Art in the Park. Ceramicist Adelai Spears-Kennard is one of them. She currently lives in Lawrence and teaches preschool and ceramics at the Lawrence Arts Center. Using both wheel throwing and hand-building she creates a diverse body of work.
“My work is inspired by nature and the beauty, color, and variety that exist within it,” Spears-Kennard said. “I especially enjoy using many different forms of surface decoration in my ceramic pieces to represent different themes from the natural world.”
Whether you are looking to fill an empty wall with a beautiful floral or abstract painting, find a unique piece of jewelry or a one of a kind mug for your morning cup of coffee, Art in the Park offers something for everyone.
The event is set for 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 19 and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 20. Find more information at lawrenceartguild.org/art-in-the-park.
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Courtney Lane / Lawrence Times
