Exhibitions
HEART MELT CAFE
Fourth and Gill Park / 808 Eleanor St., Knoxville , TN September 7, 2018 - September 7, 2018
Katie Gentner
Over a shared ice cream sundae, two strangers can break the ice, and experience a genuine heart-melting moment. Interested participants take a number then are randomly paired and called up to the diner booth by a waitress, seated, and served a single ice cream sundae to share. The audience observes and cheers for the couple. Part cheesy diner, part game show set, the installation consists of a diner booth on a raised stage and flashing game-show signage behind. The experience is meant to bring strangers together to create new connections over a sweet and refreshing treat!
Katie Gentner is a current MFA Student at the University of Tennessee. Gentner was raised in various states across the Midwest, but lived her early adult life in Southeastern Wisconsin. Gentner received her Bachelor of Arts with a minor in psychology from University of Wisconsin Parkside in 2015. During her undergraduate career she was the first visual artist to receive the Teresa Peck Award for Women’s Gender & Sexuality Studies for Gender Perceptions, a series of portrait paintings exploring perception, gender, and the gaze. Upon graduating, Gentner received the Wisconsin Study Abroad Grant to study drawing and art history in Italy during the summer of 2015. Upon arriving back in the states, Gentner spent a year as the artist in residence at Living Resource Center, a collaborative space providing various services essential to spiritual, mental, and physical well-being. She recently transplanted to Tennessee from Wisconsin with her partner and her dog to pursue a MFA at University of Tennessee - Knoxville while serving a teaching appointment. Gentner’s work has been featured in local, regional and international exhibitions, including Au Natural: The Nude in the 21st Century, Astoria, OR; Beloit and Vicinity Exhibition, Beloit, WI, as well as in non-traditional art spaces, such as Mall Walker, Knoxville Center Mall, Knoxville, TN.
