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Best of Show painting by Todd Prince 2026 Indiana State Fair Professional Fine Arts Division Exhibition |
The First Regional Show of the Season.
A show of professional visual arts is among the many arts and crafts categories showcased in the Arts Building at the fairground's location on 38th Street in Indianapolis every August. The annual event has hosted a who's who of well-known Indiana, Indianapolis and Irvington artists since its inception more than one hundred years ago.
Overall, the artwork has been and continues to be predominately representational, with a heavy emphasis on landscape, nature and human figures, although in an exhibit containing so many works, and open to all entries, a wide range of styles, techniques and subject matter can be seen.
The Indiana State Fair art show also begins the season of historic statewide and regional art shows held every year in the Central Indiana region.
During the waning days of the fair, and immediately following, in mid-August, the 102nd Hoosier Art Salon Exhibition at the Indiana State Museum and the 82nd Wabash Valley Exhibition at the Swope Art Museum in Terre Haute. And in two months, the 128th Annual Exhibit of Indiana and Ohio Artists will be at the Richmond Art Museum beginning in November.
(Prior Hoosier Salon exhibits have been covered in prior blogs here; the 85th and 101st. Last year's Exhibit of Indiana and Ohio Artists was also observed in a prior blog here.)
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Honorable Mention painting by Sharon Jiskra Brooks, |
Bustling Sensations of Almost Overload.
Walking the pedestrian promenades packed with people and colorful food carts, leading to the Arts Building, your sense of smell is overwhelmed by the sizzling meat of pork chops and various farm-raised meats and deep-fried everything under the sun. Once inside the building, sight quickly becomes the sensation of the moment, and one's eyes are filled to the brim and overflowing, almost strained, by the handicrafts and artworks at every turn and angle, around every corner and up and down every stair.
In the main floor central hall, beautiful quilts hang in a long splendid row overhead. In a fleeting thought, it is interesting to ponder such beautiful variety in the restricted parameters of a quilt – a rectangle of sewn cloth, designed to keep warm and to decorate.
Descending a ramp down from the entry hall, you are surrounded on both sides by all the former queens of the fair. They are preserved smiling and aglow in rows of large photographs, dressed in regal white gowns, across all the decades.
One cannot help, without blinders on, to immediately pinpoint the young ladies from one's own style of youth. That ideal of beauty that is unique to the few years' span of everyone's coming of age.
At the bottom of the slight ramp, the professional visual arts division fills several large adjacent rooms. The central room of paintings is stacked three and four high, from below your waist to well above your head, truly a visual overload.
Who knew you'd need a submarine and a periscope for an adequate view of all the pictures? It is not surprising that many of the art works that have sold hang at about eye level.
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2nd Place painting by Donna Shortt |
The food and the art at the fair are presented as a buffet of countless offerings, with a selection as wide as Walmart but as gee-whiz fun as Buc-ees. It is impossible to sample the art in its entirety, and is best enjoyed on a eye-budget and ingested a nibble at a time.
Favorite Flavors at the Fair.
Each year the fair rolls out a new combinations of fried Oreos and Cheetos, many of which become the favorites of the season. But also, there are popular flavors from the past, back to the time of our grandparents' youth – treats that are more perennial, that persist – such as lemon shake ups and elephant ears.
Perhaps art is subject to whims and echoes of time as well – it is up to each viewer to decide.
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3rd Place watercolor by Kyle Ragsdale |
Big winners across multiple divisions of the arts competition this year were Donna Shortt and Kyle Ragsdale. They were not alone in their several entries across different categories as it seems many multifaceted artists are represented in the show.
The artworks are listed by artist only, no titles to the pieces are provided. It matters not one iota to the appreciation of an artwork. But it does make it difficult to discuss the specific works by artists, many of whom have multiple entries within and among the categories.
In the Painting division, Shortt wins two awards on one work, a 2nd Place and an Excellence in Painting for an impressionist streetscape. She also won a 1st Place and an Honorable Mention in the Pastel division and a 2nd Place in Watercolor for a late fall landscape with a stream.
Ragsdale, while currently on a summer painting trip to New York State, is omni-present here at home in this show. He wins a 1st Place in the Drawings division for a charcoal in his signature style of whimsical figuration, a 3rd Place in Prints for one of three similar prints that were hanging together, presented as a triptych, a 3rd in Watercolor for his loose fluid work showing a Colonial gentleman amid flamingos, and an Honorable Mention in Ceramics. He also had a number of paintings to view.
When viewing the show, one of a group of young ladies in the ceramics area could be heard to exclaim 'Kyle, we know Kyle!' upon seeing his winning work in the display case. Such is the notoriety of the vacationing artist – out-of-state is not out-of-mind for the Ragsdale fan.
Rounding out the awards, in painting, 3rd Place went to Steve Warner for his light but sure touch and handling of a house in a sunlit landscape (image below).
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1st Place watercolor by Emily Wingate (detail) |
In the Watercolor category, 1st Place went to the pink and pretty monumental floral by Emily Wingate.
The Excellence in Watercolor award went to J. Anna Roberts for her unusually cropped equestrian piece whose jarring perspective creates a dynamic and abstracting effect.
In Pastels, Vivian Gladden took 1st Place for a winter snow scene study in blue and Melinda Spear-Huff took 3rd Place.
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1st Place print by Jody Bruns (detail) |
In Prints, Jody Bruns won both the 1st Place and 2nd Place awards. The first place work in simple shades of black, brown, pink and cream is an overhead look at an a seated orchestra, its members radiating outward in a semi-circle from the conductor at their center.
In Drawings, Melinda Spear-Huff took 2nd Place for graphite image of tree, and 3rd Place was awarded to Cara Jean Wahlers.
Mixed Media 1st Place was awarded to Randall Harden, 2nd to Melinda Spear-Huff and 3rd to Indre Pralataviciute-Mineikiene.
Ceramics awarded 1st Place to Christine Davis, 2nd Place to Enola Delaney and 3rd to Chris Deprez.
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Honorable Mention painting by Victoria Williams Steen |
Numerous Honorable Mentions were awarded across the many categories, including multiple awards by a few artists, such as two by Justine Vining in Painting, two by Carrie Wild in Prints, two by J. Anna Roberts in Watercolor, two by Nancy Keating in Mixed Media and two by Jacob Abshire in Drawing. Cory Wright was awarded Honorable Mention in both Drawing and Painting.
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Honorable Mention painting by Justin Vining |
Just a few of the many honorable mentions in Painting by artists include a symbolic figural composition of barely hinted colors by Victoria Williams Steen, a hyper-realist memento mori (and possible reflected self portrait) by David Cunningham.
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Honorable Mention painting by Tasha Beckwith (detail of circular artwork) |
Also a circular portrait with a colorful and geometric design by Tasha Beckwith, a bright and simplified landscape with houses and a tow truck by William Lawson, and a fauvist chicken painted in almost neon shades of pink and blue by Sharon Jiskra Brooks (image above).
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Honorable Mention painting by David Cunningham |
The entries across the many categories are too numerous to take in all at once and mention in the limited space here.
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Noel Calero painting |
A few more that caught notice due to their relatively unusual subject, viewpoint or style include Noel Calero's simplified and symbolic mother and child in gold and orange, a Mark Millis winter pastel that is jolting in its composition and the contrast of black and white shadows in the snow, and Robert Hunt's unique shady backyard scene with overgrown lawn and rusting metal chairs.
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Robert Hunt painting |
And in the Mixed Media division, the painted collage of a child peering through a monocular looking glass demands a peek back.
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3rd Place painting by Steve Warner |
The Nostalgia of Now
The Best of Show and 1st Place in Painting both went to Todd Prince for his multi-figure picture, amazingly executed and realized. It portrays the essence of the Indiana State Fair itself – family and too much fun (see image top of page).
The painting is of an exhausted family, nearly passed out on a bench, after a day at the fair. Not much is left to the imagination in this masterpiece of thorough narrative illustration in the Normal Rockwell style of sentimentality. Prince's winning piece could be an advertisement for the fair, so on-the-nose is its storytelling.
Four members of a family – father, mother, son and daughter – slumped together, arms loosely embracing, or heads resting on each other. They are composed in a marvelous pyramidal composition that invokes religious paintings of Renaissance times. They are worn-out to the point of deep sleep. Behind and around them are posters and tote bags that declare the fun of the Indiana State Fair.
The drowsy boy dreams of a John Deere tractor at his fingertips. Mom, the ultimate balancer of things, even while asleep and conked-out, holds a large lemon shake-up tumbler firmly, upright and un-spilling, on her thigh.
The quintessential dad, in ball cap, open Hawaiian shirt and white T-shirt, old-fashioned with his retro film camera around his neck, is leaned on by everyone else in the family, all except the newest addition – the plush toy cow his daughter holds, even in sleep, as a prize.
Whether a staged American dream or a figment of imagination, Prince's tableau presents a rosy ideal.
It is only the furry toy animal, with eyes wide open that exudes a bit of menace in the otherwise heart-warming scene. It glares back at the viewer, a bit wild-eyed, as if in a challenge to the fuzzy nostalgia and the promise of good times.
All the while, the camera lens peers forward, awaiting an awakened click of the finger, to collect the next passing moment of the whole fun filled fair happening around them as they sleep.
Mark Diekhoff, August 2026
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