Lawrence artists turn parenthood playful, messy in Breeders exhibit

Breeders turns family life into a shared local portrait

Cider Gallery’s new exhibition, *Breeders*, does not treat parenthood as something polished or sentimental. It treats it as lived-in, unpredictable and often funny, with 17 Lawrence artists building a show that feels closer to daily family life than to a neat gallery theme.

The result is a rare kind of community artwork: one that mirrors the way parenting actually works in Douglas County, where no one gets it perfectly right, support matters, and chaos is part of the package. Instead of a single artist’s point of view, the exhibit grew through collaboration, overlap and revision, giving the show the feel of a conversation the whole local arts scene can recognize.

A collaboration built like parenting itself

Artist and teacher John Sebelius said the project had been more than a year in the making, and that he worked with 16 other artists for a total of 17 participants. He described the method as an “exquisite monster,” a phrase that fits both the process and the subject matter: a creative system that is messy, demanding and stronger because it is shared.

That collaborative structure is not just a backstory. It is the point of the exhibit. Sebelius said the model lets artists elevate and challenge each other, and it is a format he also uses when teaching art in groups for veterans and people recovering from addiction. That makes *Breeders* feel less like a one-off gallery project and more like part of a larger approach to making art as a collective act.

The work itself reflects that spirit. Artists started with starter pieces, altered them and pushed the pieces in directions they might not have reached alone. That back-and-forth gives the show a sense of improvisation that matches the way families often operate, with plans changing, roles shifting and no one person carrying the whole thing perfectly.

A show full of humor, bluntness and recognizable local names

The imagery in *Breeders* ranges widely. Some pieces are playful, some are sharp, and some land with a bluntness that parents will recognize immediately. Frogs watching over tadpoles appear alongside pink ceramic hearts and pointed text about feral children, creating a mix that is affectionate but not idealized.

That range matters because it keeps the exhibition from turning parenthood into a single mood. It leaves room for tenderness, irritation, comedy and exhaustion, which is part of why the show feels so grounded in everyday life rather than in a polished abstraction of family.

The lineup also gives the exhibition strong local resonance. Among the participating artists are Mona Cliff, Stan Herd, Angie Pickman and Kevin Willmott, names that many Lawrence residents will already know from the city’s creative and cultural landscape. Their presence helps make the show feel like a mirror held up to the community rather than an imported concept dropped into a gallery.

One of the largest pieces in the exhibition came from Sebelius and Mona Cliff. The two passed a blue abstract canvas back and forth six times, a process that captures the give-and-take of collaboration in a way that a solo work could not. Cliff said she has been a stay-at-home mom for 16 years and has three teenage children, and she described what parenting has taught her in direct terms: bend to chaos rather than expect a perfect plan.

That idea sits near the center of the show. *Breeders* does not suggest that family life is tidy or easily resolved. It suggests that the mess is part of the meaning.

Offspring extends the conversation across generations

The project does not stop with the parents. A companion show called *Offspring* opens the same evening at SeedCo Studios, featuring work by the children of the artists in *Breeders*. That makes the overall project more than a theme show about raising kids. It becomes intergenerational, with parents and children both contributing to the broader artistic conversation.

This pairing deepens the exhibit’s reach. It lets families see not only what parenthood looks like from the adult side, but also what happens when the next generation gets space to respond. In a city where creative networks often overlap across neighborhoods, schools and studios, that structure gives the project extra weight.

SeedCo Studios itself is part of the story. Located at 840 Delaware St., Suite 7, in Lawrence’s Warehouse Arts District, the space was established in 2012 and now includes 18 artist studios, music studios, archival framing and gallery space. That mix makes it an ideal place for a show that is about making, revising and sharing work across generations.

Where to go and what to expect

*Breeders* opened Friday, April 25, 2026, from 5 to 9 p.m. at Cider Gallery, 810 Pennsylvania St. in East Lawrence. *Offspring* opened the same evening from 6 to 8 p.m. at SeedCo Studios, 840 Delaware St., Suite 7. Together, the two openings offer an easy same-night route for anyone who wants to see how the parent and child versions of the project speak to each other.

Cider Gallery adds another layer of local character. The gallery is housed in a renovated historical building that was once a cider distillery, which gives the exhibition a setting rooted in East Lawrence’s layered past. The space is also open to the public Friday from 1 to 5 p.m., unless it is booked for a private event, or by appointment, which makes the work accessible beyond the opening-night crowd.

For Lawrence, the larger significance of *Breeders* is not only that it is an art exhibit. It is that a group of local artists has turned the realities of parenthood into a public conversation, one that is funny, imperfect and easy to recognize. In a city that values its creative identity, that kind of shared honesty is its own civic contribution.