Jacob Converse will be the first to admit it: finding meaning in life can be a futile pursuit. Sometimes he finds an aspect of it and sometimes it escapes him. He brings that search to his art. Converse is a recent graduate of the Gwen Frostic School of Art at Western Michigan University. He is taking part in the Ninth Wave Studio Annual Group Exhibition.
“It’s been really exciting to be a new artist in the Kalamazoo scene,” Converse says. “There’s been so much in the past two years since I graduated, so much to explore and continuously open up my world. I’ve had a lot of opportunities to explore different sectors of the art world that exist in Kalamazoo. It’s so much more diverse than I ever realized.”
Converse grew up in the Kalamazoo area, graduated from Vicksburg schools. He says he appreciates that “country-city balance” in his life. His introduction to art was initially at the Kalamazoo Institute of Art and theatre at Miller Auditorium and other local productions. His college degree at WMU had a printmaking emphasis.
“That’s the foundation of my art and my views about making,” he says. “It’s always a layered approach in how I’m thinking conceptually and presenting that idea. Whether it is a print and thinking about the various steps and layers that go into image making, but then I got into sculpture and working with different materials to invoke different ideas through different materials.”
Jacob Converse received a BFA with emphasis in Printmedia from the Gwen Frostic School of Art at Western Michigan University. He received the Presidential Scholar award in 2022 in recognition of his work at WMU. Since graduation, Converse has held multiple positions for the Frostic School of Art as a Recruiting Manager and Lead Preparator at the Richmond Center for Visual Arts.
Converse is one of the many artists currently on exhibit at the Ninth Wave Studio Annual Group Exhibit, 213 West Walnut Street in Kalamazoo. The exhibit continues through January 17, 2025.
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