Higher Art Gallery is honored to represent many Artists at varying levels in their careers. While we are based in Traverse City, Michigan, we believe Art is a Universal language which needs no words, so the artists we represent are not only based from the state of Michigan, but throughout the U.S. and beyond.
Stop by next time you are visiting the area or browse our artists from anywhere by clicking on their names.
OUR ARTISTS
click images to view Artist's work
Shanny Brooke is a figurative painter focused on themes related to her personal life & exploring the connection between humans and the natural world. She works primarily in oil and cold wax.
Michelle Tock York is a clay artist based in Traverse City, Michigan. Her work combines found objects, hand painted clay components which are all a reflection of her love of storytelling and the beauty found in nature.
Edward Duff is best known for his sweeping water and sky oil paintings which capture his love of travel and scenic landscapes.
Vinnie Sutherland is based in Michigan and celebrates her love of nature by creating embossed metal works of art in which the botanicals are lovingly gathered by hand, honoring their beauty. Her metal work is then embellished with enameled copper .
Polish artist, Kasia Przado is an oil painter based in Norway. Her paintings are both compelling , mysterious and can conjure deep reactions in viewers.
Julie Kradel is a clay artist based in Northwest Michigan. Her subject matter consists mainly of hand sculpted clay animals. She is best known for creating creatures with playful and charming energy and deep soulful eyes.
Kristen Egan is a sculptor based in Pennsylvania working primarily with Gourds as her medium. She combines elements of clay, twigs and other objects which bring her fantastical real & imagined animal world to life.
Mara Manning is a painter working in Oil & Cold Wax. She lives in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and draws much of her inspiration from her travels and the medium of Oil and Cold wax itself. Texture, Mark making and layers of color help take the viewer to some of the very places she has been.
Artist, Fran De Anda is a painter based in Mexico City. Mexico. His recognizable work is both classical and contemporary. Known for his use of gold leaf and iconography and images rooted in alchemy, he includes a charming cast of characters such as toads, racoons and other magical beings.
Cynthia Marks is a clay artist from Indiana, but currently based in Northern Michigan. Her handmade vessels are well recognized for their creative surface texture, bold colors and sense of playfulness. Cynthia takes much of her inspiration from painters such as Hilma Af Klint, and Cy Twombley. Clay is her canvas.
Painter Deborah Bowen is based in Michigan and is well known for her abstract oil paintings which highlight limited color palettes and layers upon layers of mark making to achieve a harmonious painting.
Cara O'Brien is a sculpture working with porcelain, driftwood or other found objects.
Her work can be playful, or mimic formations found in nature. She is known for her clean, contemporary and unique use of materials. Cara is based in Michigan
Mark Gleason is an Oil Painter living in California. His paintings often depict dream-like scenes in which the subject is facing an absurd situation. Mark is best known for his extraordinary use of contrast between light and dark.
Bruce Peeso is known for his unique take on landscape paintings. Over decades, he has perfected a skinny, horizontal look at fields, farms and other landscapes. Along his horizon lines, the viewer finds tiny structures dotting the scene. Bruce paints in acrylic and is based in Massachusetts.
Stephen Kostyshyn creates stunning functional vessels by combining woven basketry and clay. His intricate work and attention to detail is a focal point for collectors . Stephen is based in Northwest Michigan .
Deanna Hergt- Willmott is a clay artist based in Petoskey, Michigan. Her vessels, and other functional ceramics celebrate the wonders of our Great Lakes, and the beauty found in the Michigan forests. Her "Lake Bottom" series of pots and Birch tree platters are popular with collectors hoping to bring some of the outside into their homes.
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Catherine Peet is a Detroit based painter whose work is most recognizable for combining heavenly cloud scenes which are painted onto found objects. This often becomes a hybrid of a painting and a sculpture
Justin Shull is a painter based in Traverse City, Michigan who works primarily in Gouache & Acrylic. His paintings feature both well-known places which are known for their beauty, but also ordinary places in which he elevates them through his artwork. Justin is known for his constructed, multi panel paintings and bold use of color.
Rozanne Hubbard is an oil painter based in Illinois. Her paintings are a mix of classical and contemporary. She is a master at light and dark while creating a sense of etherealness through her soft brushwork.
Deana Bada Maloney is a clay artist who combines hand sculpted ceramic subjects with found objects. Her work has the ability to highlight serious subject matter with a tongue in cheek look, or simply express the beauty of an animal just being itself.
Anna Carll is a well known Abstract Artist whose muse is both collage and acrylic paint. Her work can range from botanical inspired to her series based on Urban landscapes. Her use of color and materials is always recognizable. Anna is based in Tennessee.
Lenore Lampi is a prolific potter who is best known for her realistic ceramic renderings of Birch tree inspired pottery. She is based in Minnesota.
Lisa Muller is based in upstate New York. Lisa's mixed media paintings are layered worlds full of dreamy things both real and imagines. Patterns, collage and texture help bring the viewer in to investigate her whimsical paintings.
Keenan is an Artist whose sculptures were born out of his passion for skateboarding. Broken skateboard decks led him to what is now a world of making art. His assembled broken skateboard sculptures resemble what you might see being done with stained glass. His artwork is unique, contemporary and a snapshot into his life.
Keenan lives in Florida.
Jean Sbarra Jones is a landscape painter working in acrylics. Up-close, observations, her brushstrokes are very deliberate and unique. Standing back, each scene makes you feel as if you are right there. The greens are so lush that you can smell the forest. River bottoms shine through the reflection of the canopy above. Jean is based in Massachusetts.
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April South Olson is a painter working in Encaustic. Her ethereal paintings are full of buttery surface texture and many layers of pigmented beeswax to achieve the cloud and waterscapes she is known for. April calls Michigan's Upper peninsula her home.
Tonya Rund is a clay Artist based in Michigan. Her work can be both quiet and reflective or playful. She is known for her whimsical over-sized clay birds, and also for her mixed media and clay sculpture which combines wood fired clay with driftwood and other objects found in nature.
North Carolina based oil painter, Kimberly Dow is at her best painting the female form. She is primarily a figurative painter and captures her subjects in all of their complexity. She is not afraid to be bold and tell the many stories we all have through her brush.
Based in Saugatuck, Michigan, Ronna Alexander is known for combining Encaustic paintings with scraps of fabric and other objects.
Artist, Lauren Everett Finn's paintings capture subject matter such as florals, still-life or abstracts with bold patterns, unexpected color and energetic sensibilities. She is based in Northwest Michigan.
Melonie Steffes is an artist who embodies art itself. She is not only a self-taught oil painter, but she is a sculptor and singer.
Her paintings can be described as magical realism but are also a glimpse into her life.
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Lee Gordon is a New England-based glass blower. Lee’s work draws inspiration from the natural environments of his coastal hometown. Working with hot molten glass, he layers earth-toned colors, patterns, and textures using an abstract painterly technique that brings life to the landscapes that inspire him.
Angela Larson is a Michigan based clay artist whose work often incorporates reclaimed scrap metal or steel. Her work is sculptural and can include raku totems and tabletop sculpture.
Natalie Williams of Fina Moon Silver Studio is based in Northwest Michigan. Her penchant for unique semi-precious stones and rare turquoise selections makes her jewelry highly sought after.
Clay Artist Sheri Bare is based in Philadelphia. She combines wheel throwing, hand-building and pinching techniques to create creatures with grace & whimsy. She loves to experiment with glazes & even adds encaustic to her sculptures.
Ann Willey's paintings portray a world where myths, fairytales, dreams and everyday life overlap and intermingle. The scenes created in the work hint at a narrative, but they act more like a poem or haiku, providing a quick glimpse into a world below the surface. Ann works mainly in watercolor, Gouache and Acrylic.
Jane Goodman Garrett is a Traverse City, Michigan based photographer. Her subject matter often includes architectural. landmarks throughout the Northwest Michigan region or the breathtaking scenery of her home.
Ohio based painter, Mathew Mcfarren focuses primarily on figurative work and portraits. His loose and energetic style captures the likeness of his subjects while incorporating an abstracted nature.
Helen Hierta's clay meditation totems are rooted in creating a sense of harmonious energy found in the repetition of her stacked sculptures and the little worlds of texture found on each individual component.
Her work is safe for outdoor display, or it can be displayed indoors.
Helen Hierta lives in Michigan along the shores of Lake Huron.
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Artist B. Lucy Stevens is a folk artist whose paintings celebrate the charming and playful side of art. The groups of dogs, cats and other creatures coalesce on the canvas in a raucous , joyous assembly.
B. Lucy lives and works in the Florida Keys.
Joanne Kirkland is a studio potter based in Wisconsin. She specializes in Raku and Wax resist techniques. Her environment is her inspiration for form and surface imagery…. people, prairie, lake and woodland, stories we tell each other. Whether it is metaphoric sculptural vessels, or functional objects decorated with geometric representations of natural phenomena, she enjoys residing in a continuum of thousands of years of tradition.
Elizabeth Paxson
Elizabeth Paxson is multi- disciplinary Artist based in Traverse City, Michigan. Her current focus lies on creating unique & functional works in clay. Her love of nature always shines through.
Magdalena Morey is a multi- disciplinary artist whose abstracted landscapes are explored with color and texture to celebrate nature. She is based in Spain.
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Hartini Gibson is a mixed media artist based in New Jersey. Her artwork is created from fragments of her own paintings which are combined digitally with edited photos and drawings to create an original abstract landscape. The Artwork is then hand embellished using archival inks and acrylic.
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Artist John Leben is an environmentalist whose artwork reflects his love of the planet and all which call it home. John is a digital artist and uses painting software. Humor plays a big part in his imagery, but it also serves to help temper the subject matter of his artwork and make it more palatable to the viewer.
Christy Dunkle's mosaics celebrate the elements which make up our surroundings and the capture the beauty of nature. Through layered assemblages of shale, glass, found rusty metal and other objects found in nature, she tells a story of our environment.
Phil Wilson is a Traverse City based potter working mainly in porcelain. For 35 years, he has worked as a studio potter, developing functional and decorative pottery with an emphasis on contemporary design and elegant utility.
Marcia Guetschow is a watercolor woodblock artist working in the technique known as Mokuhanga . For the artist, this is the most satisfying way to capture the things she sees and feels. She finds each step of the process enjoyable, and it has led her on a wonderful journey.
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The highly detailed and laser-like precision cut constructed paper sculpture of Dana Ingham is an attempt to fuse impressions and memories of things that have struck him and fix them into a tangible form. At one time or another, everyone is struck by something they see - an arrangement, a reflection, a shadow, a detail, a texture - that stops us, if only for a minute, just to look.
Dana lives and works in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Cathy Engberg is a figurative painter based in Illinois.
Her paintings are playful compositions of figures at rest or play. With an interesting balance of realism and abstraction, she enjoys painting people pursuing activities that they enjoy.
Cathy likes to blend both rendering and then flattening in her paintings. Working in oils and sometimes mixing in cold wax, Cathy’s process is a push and pull of the oil paint for varied texture and interest.
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Clay Artist, Guy Veryzer is based in New York and an archeologist of the imagination. Through his work, he uncovers objects in the hidden sites and tombs buried in his unconscious. When one look's at the painted decoration and sculpted figures adorning the objects from this imaginary civilization, they seem to unlock the mystery of a narrative tale. The animals are joyful and innocent. Smiles on the faces of the beings are pure, but perhaps, a little too knowing.
Jil Johnson is a Traverse City based Artist who works with a variety of materials which can include wood carving, metals, found objects and paintings. She works in 2-D as well as creates sculpture. Her work embodies a myriad of expressions including humor (both dark and lighthearted), absurdity, whimsy and warmth. Jil's artwork is distinct, highly detailed with many small components making the whole of it.
Laurie Shaman is a Chicago based clay artist. Laurie makes tabletop and wall pieces in porcelain or stoneware using slab-built techniques, with an eye on developing shapes and contours which provide the surface for her hand drawn imagery. These forms thus become a canvas for depicting scenes that combine my interests in travel, art history and the natural world.
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Stan Peterson is a narrative sculptor working in wood. All of his wood working is accomplished by using a variety of hand tools. Stan is always on the lookout for “moments of significance” which tell a story. Stan is based in Oregon.