Please join the Black Hills State University Fine Arts Department on Thursday, October 5th from 5:00-7:00PM for a reception celebrating the work of the Sanford Underground Research Facility Artist-in-Residence Nicholas Kahn and Richard Selesnick.

The Sanford Underground Research Facility Artist-in-Residence (SURF AiR) program invites artists to create work inspired by SURF’s unique science, location and history. SURF is the deepest underground laboratory in the United States, reaching nearly a mile below the surface. It houses experiments in physics, biology, geology and engineering. The 2023 SURF Artist-in-Residence Nicholas Kahn and Richard Selesnick are a collaborative artist team who have been working together since they met while attending art school at Washington University in St. Louis in the early 1980s. Both were born in 1964, in New York City and London respectively. They work primarily in the fields of photography and installation art, specializing in fictitious histories set in the past or future. These may include: documentary-style panoramic and square photographs that combine absurdist fantasy and bogus anthropology; elaborately crafted artifact, costumes and sculpture, often constructed of unlikely materials such as bread or fur, painting and drawings ranging from large scale works on plaster to pages of conceptual doodling

The Ruddell Gallery is located in the David B. Miller Yellow Jacket Student Union on the campus of Black Hills State University. The gallery is open during regular Student Union hours. The exhibitions are free and open to the public. Persons with disabilities requesting accommodations for this event or for more information call contact the Student Union Information Center at (605) 642-6062 or the gallery director Michael Baum at (605) 642-6706.