• Art Explorers is the only progressive art studio in Mendocino County.Our program has been running for more than 24 years!
• Art Explorers provides our artists with the opportunity to exhibit and sell artwork in our gallery and online—50% of sales go directly to the artist.
• The Art Explorers studio is a place to build community and be recognized as a working artist. We are part of the local art scene!
Art Explorers, Inc. is a creative arts program and progressive studio in Fort Bragg, California, serving developmentally disabled and neurodiverse artists. We are a nonprofit 501(c)(3) tax-exempt corporation. Our mission is to provide a fun, nurturing, non-judgmental, and artistically stimulating environment for creativity to thrive!
Municipal Bonds and co-curator Solange Roberdeau are pleased to present an exhibition of 13 works on paper by Art Explorers studio artist, Mike Smart.
Artist Mike Smart's drawings are a celebration of first marks. Never sketching in advance, erasing or starting over, his drawings reflect a passion for that first moment of seeing. They are confident and at times awkward; gestural, expressive and alive. Smart is both hearing and vision impaired. The decline of his sight has influenced the characteristic black linework in his drawings, moving him from using a mix of line weights to drawing with thick permanent markers for visibility. When a line drawing is finished, he returns with a brush and colored inks.
This collection of portraits emerged from the active space between what this artist sees and how he feels about what he is looking at—a series rich with humor, curiosity and enthusiasm for observation and narrative.
Art Explorers is a creative arts program and progressive art studio in Fort Bragg, California, serving developmentally disabled and neurodiverse adults. Founded in 2000, Art Explorers provides space and support for creativity and positive community building through workshops, field trips and a dynamic exhibition program. www.artexplorers.org
Municipal Bonds
at Minnesota Street Project
1275 Minnesota Street
San Francisco, CA 94107
917.450.0583
Gallery hours are Wednesday–Saturday, 12–5pm.
