Exhibition: August 2025
Main Gallery : WORLD ON FIRE –featuring Geoffrey Smith
Geoffrey has been characterized as a representational artist, although stylistically he may be viewed as a naturalist. Geoffrey’s very large works and his signature artistic style can be deemed “loose, wherein the subjects of his work are represented by basic elements such as fingerprints suggesting feathers or fur. He mixes fine wax and oil paint, then uses a palette knife to sculpt the painting and giving his work a distinctive deeply dimensional feeling displaying large strokes and layers of texture. Geoffrey is a conservationist and lover of nature. Much of his time, talent, and treasure goes toward supporting charities that foster his ideals. More info about Geoffrey Smith: https://www.geoffreycsmith.com/
Our First Friday Opening Reception for WORLD ON FIRE will be in our main gallery from 5–7 pm on August 1st. Live music by Garrett Ennis. Refreshments. This free event is open to the public! WORLD ON FIRE will run through Friday August 29th.
Back Gallery: MURAL SALE
MURAL SALE! In our back gallery in August, murals from our past mural shows will be stretched and for sale. Buyers will be able to take their murals home immediately after purchase. This sale will open on Friday August 1st at 5 pm and will close on Friday august 29th. First Friday Opening Reception August 1st, 5–7 pm. Refreshments and live music. Open to the public. Free event!
About Musician Garrett Ennis
Garrett Ennis is a local singer songwriter/guitarist who grew up in Kenai raised by a single father who also played guitar and sang. His influences from a young age were what his father played around the house such as Cat Stevens, Paul Simon, Tracy Chapman, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Kenny Loggins, among many others. At the age of 14, Garrett got his first electric guitar and started “noodling around” on it.One of the first songs his dad taught him to play was Stairway to Heaven .
At this point he was starting to get into heavier music such as Metallica and Megadeth and then eventually got pulled into the grunge music scene of the 90’s and started to learn songs by Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, etc. The first band he played guitar in was with three other local friends which consisted of two singers and another guitarist.
This was an acoustic band that mostly played the grunge music of the 90’s with some classic rock and others from the 70’s and 80’s such as Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Neil Young.
After about two years of playing music with this group around the Kenai area, Garrett went to study music at UAA in Anchorage for 5 years, with one year of study under the tutelage of Mike Christiansen at Utah State University. Mike was the director of Guitar Studies and an accomplished author of many books under Mel Bay Publishing. This helped sharpen his finger-style skills which he had been focusing on during his classical studies at UAA under Dr. Roseanne Wilson-Marsh. During his time at UAA he also played in various bands that focused on reggae, rock, funk and other genres.
After graduating in 2005, he decided to continue living and pursuing solo gigs and collaborations with other musicians in Anchorage for 10 years until he decided to live abroad and teach English in South Korea and Vietnam. After the adventures of traveling abroad he found himself back in his hometown of Kenai primarily, while also working seasonally as a tour bus driver in Anchorage during the summers.
He now tries to focus his time on recording and producing his own music and playing local venues around town. He’s currently working on his first album of originals that he has written over the past two decades.
Exhibit info:
- Opening Reception: Friday August 1st, 5-7pm. Open to the public. Refreshments.
- Music: Guitar by Garrett Ennis
- Location: Kenai Art Center, 816 Cook Avenue, Kenai
- Exhibition dates: August 1st through August 29th, 2025
- Gallery hours: 12-5pm, Tuesday — Saturday (for June, July, August)