Two Collaboration Events in Conjunction with Rimpo and Weiner-Reed Exhibition - Bernice Kish Gallery 

Let us know to Expect You 

April Rimpo & Elaine Weiner-Reed 

Combined, these artists offer over 75 years of artistic professional experience. Their different styles
and backgrounds results in an exciting exhibition, celebrating both the joyous and messy moments of life.

April M Rimpo has been involved in art to some degree her whole life. Her father and grandfather

both painted so her inclination to draw came naturally.  As a young child she would draw cartoon characters which her Elementary School teachers posted on the wall, giving her outside encouragement in her art. In her early twenties she took classes from a local artist, which led to Rimpo’s first exhibit. At the exhibition she was approached by an art material manufacturer representative, who offered to purchase her painting to use in an ad for their materials.  Despite the positive feedback, Rimpo knew she was not ready and has continued to
take over 1,000 hours of workshops from nationally and internationally renowned artists in addition to local classes.

In college Rimpo first studied Anthropology due to her interest in learning about ancient and modern cultures. Later she received her degree in Electrical Engineering. About her art she says,

“I believe my engineering background taught me to see the world in a board expansive way, through the eyes of others, and from different perspectives. My artwork reflects that
background.” 

In 2012 she was able to start focusing on her art full time, allowing her to paint at least 5 days per week. Building not only her technical expertise, Rimpo found she finally had time to explore directions and find her artistic voice. In her art Rimpo shares bits of culture from the places she has visited, depicting everyday
scenes unique to that country. In her paintings of life in the United States, she reveals things people love to do, their passions, and scenes of places that tell about life in large metropolitan cities as well as small rural towns.

Rimpo started to enter exhibitions outside Maryland in 2012. Since then her paintings have been accepted in over 50 national or international exhibitions, most notably the National Watercolor Society, Southern
Watercolor Society, Watercolor Art Society Houston, Missouri Watercolor Society, Pennsylvania Watercolor Socieity, Illinois Watercolor Socieity, Pikes Peak International Watermedia Exhibition, International Society of Experimental Artists, and the International Society of Acrylic Painters. Rimpo has achieved Signature Status
in seven of these societies as a result of the number of their exhibitions in which her art has been selected.

Rimpo has been give a variety of awards including Excellence in Figurative, First, Second, Third Place, and Honorable Mentions. She has paintings published in North Light Books' Best of Acrylic books: two in AcrylicWorks3: Celebrating Texture; one in AcrylicWorks4: Captivating Color; and two in the 2018 edition AcrylicWorks5: Bold Values. Her painting, Lunch with Champagne, is included in North Light Books' 2018
Best of Watercolor book, titled Splash 19.  See more of her artwork on her website, www.AMRart.org

. Elaine Weiner-Reed is an award-winning, internationally known artist. Bilingual in French, she lives
in Maryland, where she has worked for over 38 years as a professional artist, writer, and civil servant. Weiner-Reed’s art has been included in international exhibitions in China, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Spain, France, Poland, Canada, and over 25 national exhibits across the U.S. – including three solo and two international group shows in Chelsea (NYC). Her art is in public, private, and museum collections in the U.S. and Europe. She was one of five American artists in the first U.S. cadre to participate in the 17th annual Poland Ministry
of Culture- and EU-sponsored International Artist Residency Program (WMA 2014). She returned to Poland
in July 2017 for the MWA Jubilee, participating in painting public murals in Myslenice. Those two Residencies propelled Weiner-Reed back to her Sculpture roots.

Weiner-Reed’s connections to each country and cause, specifically children, diversity, and education, makes having her art in the following collections particularly meaningful: (1) EU-Poland’s sponsorship of multiple Art Residencies in Poland: Myslenice Cultural Center Permanent Collection (2 sculptures, 8 paintings); (2) AIAIP and Italy’s exhibition theme of Diversity focusing on UNESCO and human rights in Torento, Italy: Museum/Opera Permanent Collection, AIAIP (Associazione Internazional Arte Plastiche Italia); and (3) the Metropolitan Gallery Las Vegas Art Museum, MGLV (formerly Southern Nevada Museum of Fine Art, SNMFA), Permanent Collection.

Weiner-Reed entered the world a fraternal twin. Her fierce independent and creative streak solidified as she sought to create her own identity independent from her twin and the twin mystique and gender stereotypes
of the day. She drew and composed poems incessantly, and when paper was scarce, mastered the Etch-a-Sketch, her path as an artist quickly becoming irreversible and undeniable. Weiner-Reed’s drive and search
for her distinctive identity sharpened her mind and forged an intuitive soul that fiercely guards and nourishes
her artistic vision. Art helped her find her voice, and eventually, Art became her voice.

Driven to make art and expand her world through travel and her second love, the French language, Weiner-Reed dual-majored in French and Education in college and spent her junior year studying in France. As a freshman, she discovered and fell in love with sculpture. French led her to her 37-year career in the Government and a fulfilling life of public service. During the 1980’s Weiner-Reed studied oil painting with a European Master, and in the early 1990’s entered the world of watermedia, discovering her style through introspection and myriad workshops, classes, and thousands of hours creating. Art and French remain her passions, woven into the fabric of her identity. An empathetic communicator, Weiner-Reed is both storyteller and student of human nature.

Weiner-Reed has three studios, one a shared workspace at Anne Arundel Community College, where she creates her metal assemblages. Her Annapolis Artist-in-Residence Studio (Studio310B) at Maryland Hall for The Creative Arts co-serves as venue for her “Every Painting is A Song” multi-discipline collaborations. Lastly her home studio, ready when inspiration strikes.

She also publishes a blog https://www.elaineweinerreed.com/