Kansas City Art Institute

Miguel Rivera joined the KCAI faculty in fall 2008 to serve as chair of the printmaking department. A practicing artist, as well as an experienced educator, Rivera has had numerous solo and group exhibitions in Mexico, Japan and the United States. Formerly, he was chair of the art department at the University of Guanajuato in Mexico and also served as an associate professor of printmaking and computers in art. Rivera also has given visiting artist lectures in Mexico and the United States. He was an associate artist at Inkling Studio in Portland, Ore., and an instructor at West Virginia University in Morgantown, where he completed his M.F.A. degree in printmaking and applied digital media in 1997. He earned a B.F.A. degree in printmaking and painting from Southern Oregon University and an associate degree in printmaking from the University of Guanajuato.

Contact: Mrivera@kcai.edu

Laura Berman has taught printmaking and book arts since 2002. Her work is represented by Weinberger Fine Art (Kansas City), Long View Gallery (Washington, D.C.) and Uprise Art (New York City). She publishes new prints regularly by invitation with Pele Prints (St. Louis) and Círculo del Arte (Barcelona, Spain). Her work is exhibited and collected around the world and featured in The Book of Probes by David Carson/Marshall McLuhan, Printmaking at the Edge by Richard Noyce, A Survey of Contemporary Printmaking by Egan/Ehlbeck/Muise, and Contemporary American Print Makers by E. Ashley Rooney and Stephanie Standish. Berman received her B.F.A. degree from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University and her M.F.A. degree from Tulane University.

Contact: Lberman@kcai.edu

Michelle Dreher is an alumna of the Kansas City Art Institute and later went on to start her own letterpress print shop Two Tone Press in 2005. She has also taught as a studio art instructor for the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art for over a decade. Along with her sister Angie Dreher and fellow colleague Ani Volkan, she recently was one of the founders of Print League KC, a new community printshop that is dedicated to providing easy access print facilities to the community as well as various workshops for beginners and others looking to hone their printmaking skills.

Adam Finkelston is an artist, art educator, and magazine publisher based in Prairie Village, KS. Mr. Finkelston holds an MA in Photography from the University of Missouri- Kansas City, a B.F.A. in Photography from the Kansas City Art Institute, and a B.A .in Art Education from UMKC. He has shown his photographs in many solo and group exhibitions and received several awards for his work. In addition to his studio practice, Adam is the owner, publisher, co-editor of an internationally- recognized quarterly art magazine called, The Hand Magazine: A Magazine For Reproduction-based Arts, through which he has also curated exhibitions of international artists. As an educator, he has received numerous awards and grants, including the 2016 ArtsKC Education Award, recognizing his multidisciplinary student project, Creative Co/Lab.

Kate Horvat received her B.F.A, from Northwest Missouri State University in 2012 and her M.F.A.from Arizona State University in 2016. Her current work explores belief, chance, desire and expectation in American culture  – focusing specifically on the social dynamics of what it means to live in the heartland of the United States. Her works have been displayed in various national and international shows, including Right In Front Of Your Eyes, in Hangzhou, China, Exposición Colectiva: XXV Festival de Marzo 2014, in Chihuahua, Mexico, and So Hot Right Now in Phoenix, Arizona. Kate was also the two time recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Emerging artist award and a finalist for the Teaching Excellence Award at Arizona State University.

Born in Christchurch, New Zealand.  Raised in Texas.  Received an MFA from the University of Kansas.  He most recently was an artist with the Charlotte Street Studio Foundation.

Ani Volkan received her M.F.A. at East Tennessee State University in printmaking. She deals in text, sewing, old family photographs, Armenian folklore, and everything printmaking. She was recently a Fall 2016 artist in residence at The Post Contemporary in Troy NY. She resides in Kansas City, MO where she trail runs with her training partner, a Siberian Husky named Lupo, and aspires to complete her first Ultra Marathon. She is also the director of the Print League KC, a community print shop in Kansas City MO, offering access and education to everything related to printmaking.