Gallery
Exhibitions
The Ankeny Art Center is dedicated to promoting and supporting professional and emerging Iowa artists. Our gallery gives artists an avenue to exhibit their work, and the community an opportunity to experience art. Receptions and exhibits are always free and open to the public! Join us for free food and drinks! Throughout the reception, you'll even have an opportunity to chat with the artists!
Main Galleries
2026 Exhibitions
Main Galleries
May 28th - July 21st: Rachel Goebel & Christian D'Cruz
Rachel Goebel, Inspect and Adapt on the Journey of Being
Rachel Goebel, Your New Landscape Begins
Rachel Goebel's "Flourish" Exhibition is a celebration of movement, transformation, and vitality—an expression of what it means to expand fully into one’s creative and emotional space. Her abstract paintings are filled with bold color, sweeping motion, and vibrant energy, each one a
testament to growth, renewal, and possibility. Created through an intuitive process, this collection captures the essence of momentum and emergence. Layers of paint interact unpredictably, colors bloom and shift, and textures build upon one another- just as we do when we step into new phases of life. Each piece is an invitation to embrace change, to revel in the beauty of spontaneity, and to recognize the power of transformation through expression. Though deeply personal in origin, these paintings are meant to be experienced in ways that resonate uniquely with each viewer. Art, to me, is not just about the image- it’s about what it evokes, the dialogue it sparks, and the space it creates for reflection and connection. As my practice expands beyond painting into experiential and immersive forms, this collection stands as a bridge between past and future- a reflection of creative evolution in motion.
Christian D'Cruz, Rubble to Rebirth
Christian D'Cruz, Blossom Boom
Christian D’Cruz is a Des Moines-based Iowa artist. Obsessed with drawing since boyhood, he has been cultivating his visual language from a young age. As a first-generation American of mixed heritage, growing up in Iowa deeply shaped who he is today. Through his work, he seeks to make sense of this ever changing landscape of culture, place, and the untouchable surreal. His visual style is influenced by early 3Dgraphics, 90’s cartoons, and surrealist artists of past and present. His work is heavily grounded in a playful depiction of form creating abstracted objects with loose flowing gestures. His works seek to captivate and engage in mystic untouchable beauty. Through this methodology he engages the viewer with provocative mixed media paintings. PROTEAN /ˈprō-tē-ˌan/; An adjective describing something or someone that is highly mutable, transformative or shape-shifting. It originates from the Greek sea god Proteus who is known for his ability to morph and transform into any and all forms. This concept speaks to the cycle of evolution in life as matter always creates life, loses that life and becomes dust only to feed new life and bloom once more.
January 29th - April 2nd: Janice Bell
Janice Bell’s paintings are inspired by her love of all God’s creations and all the richness of colors and textures found there. Hiking through Iowa's woodlands, gardening, and everyday objects found in homes have provided her with wonderful subject matter. She finds the mixing and blending of pigments on and off paper to be exciting and she delights in the challenge of creating a successful work of art. Janice loves to work with rich saturated color and enjoys trying to capture the play of light and shadow. Over the years she has developed her own style of capturing the beauty found around us every day. She invites viewers to pause and take a closer look at their surroundings. Janice considers her paintings a respite from the everyday hustle and bustle of life and hopes that viewers will feel the same. Her message is slow down, take a deep breath and see the beauty that is all around you.
Kirkendall Library
Janice Bell, Good Neighbors
Janice Bell, Tiger in My Garden
April 2nd - June 4th: Justin Young
The goal of Justin Young's art is to be able to connect with others through his work in a unique way. He feels that he was given talent with a paintbrush so he would be able to share his view of the world with others which has brought a tremendous amount of joy and satisfaction. When Justin sees his work connect with someone else, there’s nothing like it!
Justin Young, Rainy Day
Downtown
Justin Young, Old Main- Drake University
Porch Light Coffee House
Sara Carlson, Drinking No Driving
Holly Majerus, Colorful Bloom
January 29th - April 2nd: Sara Carlson
Sara Carlson is often drawn to things that other people view as ugly or useless or of little value. Her photography seeks to show others her perspective of finding beauty in the discarded, and her goal in this exhibition is to showcase the places and items where she has found such beauty.
April 2nd - June 4th: Holly Majerus
Holly's work celebrates the beauty of nature and still-life through colorful pastel drawings, detailed pencil drawings, and vibrant canvas paintings. They range in size, color, subject matter, and medium. The pieces begin as a blank page and transform into something meaningful full of life and color.
APPLY
to the
GALLERY
Applying to the Ankeny Art Center Gallery and the Ankeny Kirkendall Library Gallery
Exhibition space is available to any artist residing in Iowa or with strong ties to the state. Collaborative show ideas may be submitted with the selection based on the strength of the entire group.
The Ankeny Art Center’s gallery exhibition dates are June-July, August-September, and October-November. The Kirkendall Library exhibition dates are February - March, and April - May, and December-January. Each exhibition lasts about 8 weeks. Please refer to the application and gallery brochure for additional information or email nicole@ankenyartcenter.com
Applications for the upcoming 2026 calendar year are closed. Artists who submitted an application will be notified by early January if their application was selected. The application for the 2027 calendar year will be open for submission in January of 2026.
