Meet Our New Executive Director

The KAC welcomes Alex Rydlinski to the team

The Kenai Art Center (KAC) is excited to announce the newly formed position of Executive Director has been filled by Alex Rydlinski. 

Originally from Fairbanks, Rydlinski moved to Kenai in 2019. He is an active oil painter and printmaker who has shown work at Bunnell Street Arts Center in Homer, the International Gallery of Contemporary Art in Anchorage, and has a solo show slated for this August at the Bear Gallery in Fairbanks. One of Rydlinski’s oil paintings was awarded “Juror’s Choice” at the KAC’s biennial juried show last year. Prior to his return to Alaska, Rydlinski traveled the country making music and artwork, exhibited work in galleries in Dallas and Fort Worth, and studied in Norway with the master painter Odd Nerdrum. 

The new Executive Director position is part of a bigger sweep of improvements happening at the PAG. As one of his first tasks, Rydlinski is helping to redesign the KAC website, making it easier for people to become guild members, to learn about workshops and events to buy and sell work in the Gift Gallery, to participate in exhibitions, and much more. The website will coincide with physical renovations currently being made to the Kenai Art Center building. 

“Alex came along at just the right time,” says Board President Marion Nelson. “He served as a KAC board member briefly, and we’re thrilled to welcome him as Executive Director, one of the many exciting changes going on at the gallery right now.”

Rydlinski’s duties as Executive Director have already begun as the KAC works towards hosting its first full exhibition since the pandemic, which will feature works by the Kenai Potter’s Guild and open in July.

Read more about Alex in the article in the Peninsula Clarion: