Local artists show work in tiny, street-side galleries

By Courtney Collen, for Pigeon605

Sioux Falls public sidewalks are getting a little more colorful thanks to area artists.

Lisa Brunick introduced her Free Little Art Gallery outside her southeast-side home with generosity and skill from friends, family and neighbors.

As a retired Hawthorne Elementary art teacher, after nearly three decades, art was something she couldn’t let go.

“I’ve always encouraged my students to make art for the world because the more art, the better,” Brunick said.

You can find the Free Little Art Gallery at the corner of South Matthew and East Marson drives.

Inside, she features some of her original watercolor mandalas, painted rocks, origami boxes and more. The gallery encourages visitors to leave their own art or take a new piece home to enjoy.

“This was a fun way to make and share art with the community,” Brunick said.

She said she was inspired to build a small art gallery by an artist in the Pacific Northwest, only to find out a Sioux Falls artist did the same during the pandemic.

For Jana Anderson, it was an unforeseen circumstance that turned into a creative opportunity.

When  Anderson lost her job on the East Coast in 2020, she decided to move back home to South Dakota, and her passion for art came with her.

“I was in a place where I didn’t know what to do and didn’t know how to show my work,” Anderson said.

She wanted to provide a gallery, free for the public to enjoy, and built one outside her home,  describing it as a passive, quiet installation inspired by the Little Free Libraries seen around town.

Inside, her art is scaled down to smaller sizes that are easily interchangeable for her Art Post Gallery.

“I’ve always made tiny artwork in addition to my larger studio practice,” she said, explaining that this type of gallery style gives onlookers a chance to use their imagination.

“When you’re peering into its tininess, you can imagine yourself in that space,” Anderson explained. “You might be imagining what it might look like if it was scaled to real size. That’s one thing I like about playing with scale and artwork in general.”

Anderson describes her work as geometric abstraction with use of texture and processes such as photo transfer, resin and mixed-media.

One challenge she has identified with being an artist in South Dakota is the perception by the non-art community that all local art is traditional, only centered around wildlife and the agriculture landscape.

“What it means to be a South Dakota artist is to be an artist in South Dakota,” she said.

Anderson said that doesn’t tie an artist to any specific subject matter.

“I went away from here to become the artist I am, and that is focused on abstraction while using a lot of data, science and medical imagery in my work.”

In addition to creating art inside her home studio, Anderson teaches adjunct courses at South Dakota State University and Dakota State University and works part time at Piper Arts.

“Being an artist is the heart of who I am,” she explained. “I’ve lived all over, but in the last two years, I’ve found myself more committed to this region than ever before.”

Find Anderson’s gallery in uptown Sioux Falls at 1032 N. Dakota Ave. Visit her website, and find more information about her gallery on Instagram: @ArtPostGallery605.