The Iowa Hall Art Gallery at Kirkwood Community College welcomes an exhibition by Greg Van Dusseldorp, entitled, “Contrasts in Humanity.”
The exhibit runs Nov. 10, 2025 - Jan. 9, 2026, with a reception on Thursday, Nov. 13, 3:30–5 p.m. Free and open to the public.
📍 Iowa Hall Art Gallery, Kirkwood Community College
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Artist Bio
Greg Van Dusseldorp is a studio artist that works in 2D & 3D formats with clay and paint being the primary materials. He received his BA in art from Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, Iowa. Greg received his MA & MFA in ceramics/drawing at the University of Iowa’s School of Art & Art History. He studied ceramics under the guidance of Chuck Hindes, Clary Illian and Bunny McBride.
Greg has been a resident artist at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts, Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, Red Lodge Clay Center and The New Harmony Clay Project. He has taught ceramics as a Visiting Professor at Kent State University for Kirk Mangus and as an adjunct at The University of Iowa’s School of Art & Art History. He was also an Assistant Professor of Art at Iowa Wesleyan College.
Greg exhibits nationally and lives in Iowa City, Iowa.
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Artist Statement
In this show, I explore the paradoxes at the core of human experience – fragility and strength, permanence and impermanence, tradition and disruption. Drawing from my sculptural and painterly language, my vessels and forms embody a tension between surface and structure, echoing the dualities that define our collective humanity.
The vessel both functional and symbolic, becomes a site of contradiction. These forms held space – sometimes literally, often metaphorically – for the chaos and beauty of the human condition. I treat the surface not as decoration but as narrative: layers of pigment, texture and mark making act as sedimented memory, recording the scars and restorations we carry as individuals and societies.
Through contrast – between polished and raw, order and rupture – I reflect on what it means to be human in an age of conflict and connectivity. Each piece invites a closer look into the emotional landscapes we build and break, asking viewers to consider where they find themselves within these tensions. The result is an ongoing dialogue between material and meaning, one that honors the complexity of being alive in a world defined as much by division as by unity.
