Art Alum MANDEM Wins Best in Show for “Medical Trials of the Saints”

MANDEM (the artist conglomerate fronted by FSU Art MFA ’15 Maize Arendsee) won Best in Show for their painting “Medical Trials of the Saints: Artemis and Athena” at the 10th Annual May Show, exhibiting at the Gallery at Lakeland in Kirtland, Ohio, from May 16 to July 12, 2019.

Juror Mary Gray, former director of the Ohio Arts Council Riffe Gallery, selected MANDEM’s oils and mixed media painting for the top honor out of 91 works of art included in the exhibit. The “Medical Trials of the Saints” series takes religious/mythical memes from art history and re-imagines them in a posthuman context. Gray spoke of the haunting nature of MANDEM’s work when presenting the award during the opening reception of the exhibit.

The Gallery at Lakeland is located at 7700 Clocktower Drive in Kirtland, Ohio. It is open to the public from 9am to 9pm (Monday-Friday) and from 9am-5pm (Saturday-Sunday). Gallery director Mary Urbas will be creating a video walkthrough of the exhibit with commentary to be archived on the gallery’s page.

MANDEM will have paintings from this series also on display at the Waterloo Arts Juried Exhibition (selected by juror Anthony Mastromatteo) and Erie Art Gallery Juried Exhibit (selected by juror Hrag Vartanian, editor-in-chief and co-founder of Hyperallergic) in the coming months. Check out MANDEM’s Facebook and Tumblr.