Mannell
For the month of August, Fishers Arts Council (FAC) will display “Color Coordinates,” the artwork of Carmel artist Jerry Mannell, who was the Best in Show winner at the 2022 Juried Exhibit of Hamilton County Artists, sponsored by Jiffy Lube of Indiana and hosted by Fishers Arts Council. His exhibit is on display now through Aug. 31.
Mannell spent his childhood in Chicago, moving to South Bend as a high school sophomore. After he graduated from Ball State – majoring in literature and art – he spent a few years in Santa Fe, N.M., and has been living in the Indianapolis/Carmel area since moving back from the Southwest.
Mannell began his career after college working as a graphic artist. After he left the field of graphic design, his interests merged into a career-long exploration of the relationships between the concrete and the abstract and the mechanical and the organic.
He creates colorful compositions full of well-defined shapes with hard edges. His vibrant color palette creates an almost tropical feel in his pieces. In Jerry’s work, everything is self-contained, a stand-alone shape or group of shapes, and he incorporates a lot of movement as well. “You can make the eye move from one side of the canvas to the other and relate that to color on the lower right-hand side. The eye keeps on moving in terms of shapes and color, and that’s all in the composition.”
Mannell’s approach to his art is to create works with movement and tension but with unity and color that takes his work in a direction dictated by his own feelings. He is strictly an oil on canvas painter, and a bit of a colorist, which he describes as “an artist whose dominant feature of the work is vibrant color.” He always begins with a sketch – a “cocktail napkin kind of composition in pencil” to see what the sketch suggests. He then transposes his initial plan to canvas and begins to paint.
He encourages his viewers to find their own meaning in his art: he encourages people not to be too influenced by his titles for his abstract pieces, but to instead supply their own. He says there have been times throughout his career where patrons saw something completely different in his work from his own original conception. Once at an art fair, two different customers walked up and described one of his pieces as “sushi,” when that comparison had never before occurred to him. Through interactions like these, he realized that when viewers are encouraged to put their own spin on a piece, they are far more likely to want to own the piece.
Mannell’s art has been recognized and praised by many people, but he said, “My personally satisfying paintings are my greatest successes.” He has been accepted into the Hoosier Salon exhibit more than once, has won both first place and second place in the Carmel Arts Festival, and won Best of Show at the FAC Juried Exhibit of Hamilton County Artists in 2022.
He says he would enjoy traveling as a way to enhance his art: “Experiencing more exotic locales and cultures would certainly inform my art.” Many people see the Southwest in his work, and he attributes that to having lived almost four years in New Mexico.
Come to the Collaboration Hub at Hamilton County Community Foundation, 11810 Technology Drive, Fishers, to meet Jerry Mannell, see a collection of his work, and meet other residents who are interested in art and the artists who create art in the community.
FAC’s Second Friday – a free, public, all-ages reception – will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. on Aug. 11. During the Second Friday reception, there will be live music from the Goodman & Joven Duo, along with snacks, drinks, and a cash bar featuring Sun King beer and Daniel’s Vineyard wines. Additionally, FAC board member Pat Grabill will lead an interview with Mannell around 6:45 p.m. All are welcome and wanted in the FAC Hub Gallery.
The gallery is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Friday gallery visits are by appointment only by contacting Fishers Arts Council directly.
About the Fishers Arts Council
Fishers Arts Council is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts organization whose mission is to support, advocate, and cultivate visual and performing arts opportunities that educate and/or enhance the lives of those who live, work, and visit Fishers. Visit the art gallery space at the Collaboration Hub at Hamilton County Community Foundation, 11810 Technology Drive, Fishers, online at FishersArtsCouncil.org, or call (317) 537-1670.