A Parallel Exhibition: Teaching, Practice, and the Next Generation of Artists
In collaboration of Sweetwater Center for the Arts - April 3, 2026 6-8pm
At the same time Ambiguous Boundaries opens this April, a second exhibition will quietly take shape in the same space.
Presented by Mark Rengers Gallery in collaboration with Sweetwater Center for the Arts, A Showcase of Sweetwater’s 2026 Master Class Artists offers a different, but equally important perspective on artistic practice.
If Ambiguous Boundaries asks how we learn to see, this exhibition asks how that way of seeing is passed on.
At the center of the show are two artists whose work is grounded not only in their own practice, but in their role as teachers: Ron Donoughe and Kelsie McNair, this year’s Master Class instructors at Sweetwater.
Ron Donoughe — Painting a Region in Real Time
For nearly 35 years, Ron Donoughe has been painting the landscapes of Western Pennsylvania with a kind of sustained attention that feels increasingly rare.
Born in Loretto, Pennsylvania and now based in Pittsburgh’s Lawrenceville neighborhood, Donoughe has developed a practice rooted in direct observation. Much of his work is painted en plein air, standing in front of the subject itself, responding in real time to light, atmosphere, and structure.
But what emerges is more than documentation.
His paintings move between immediacy and reflection, capturing not only what a place looks like, but how it feels to be there. Farmlands, riverbanks, industrial sites, and city streets all become part of a larger visual record, one that quietly traces the evolution of a region in constant change.
In many ways, Donoughe’s work is an act of preservation.
Not nostalgic, but attentive. Not fixed, but aware that what is being seen now will not look the same tomorrow.
As Sweetwater’s Summer Master Class instructor, Donoughe brings this same approach into the classroom, guiding students through the process of translating the world into painting through observation, composition, and technique. It is a practice grounded in looking carefully, and returning to the same question again and again: what is actually in front of us?
Kelsie McNair — Reimagining a Traditional Medium
Where Donoughe’s work is grounded in landscape and observation, Kelsie McNair approaches material from a different direction.
Based in Brooklyn and founder of Soft Shapes Studio, McNair works primarily in stained and fused glass, combining traditional techniques with a distinctly contemporary sensibility. Her work often carries a sense of play, color, and abstraction, pushing against expectations of what stained glass can be.
There is a balance in her practice between precision and openness.
Glass, as a material, demands control. It requires cutting, grinding, foiling, soldering. But within that structure, McNair introduces a language that feels flexible and alive, allowing form and color to move in unexpected ways.
As an educator, she brings this balance into her teaching.
Participants in her Master Class are introduced to foundational techniques, but the goal extends beyond technical skill. It is about understanding how a material behaves, how it can be shaped, and how it can carry a personal voice.
While McNair’s work will not be on view during the opening reception, her presence within the program reflects the expanding range of what contemporary craft can be.
The Master Class Series — Learning Through Practice
The Sweetwater Center for the Arts Master Class Series is built around a simple but powerful idea.
Artists learn not only by studying finished work, but by engaging directly with the people who make it.
Each year, Sweetwater invites accomplished artists to lead intensive workshops, offering students the opportunity to step into a working process, to understand decisions as they are made, and to develop their own approach through guided experience.
It is a model rooted in transmission.
Knowledge passed from artist to student. Observation turned into practice. Practice turned into understanding.
This exhibition, then, is not just a presentation of work.
It is a reflection of that exchange.
An opening reception for both exhibitions will be held on Friday, April 3 from 6 to 8 pm in the First National Bank Exhibition Hall.
Ambiguous Boundaries and A Showcase of Sweetwater’s 2026 Master Class Artists will be on view from April 3 through May 30, 2026 at the First National Bank Exhibition Hall, hosted by Mark Rengers Gallery in collaboration with Sweetwater Center for the Arts and graciously sponsored by First National Bank. A portion of sales from the exhibition will support the Youth Arts Possibilities Program (YAPP), an initiative run by Sweetwater Center for the Arts and sponsored by First National Bank.
Together, these exhibitions offer two perspectives on artistic practice, one focused on perception, the other on process, both rooted in the act of learning to see.
For more information, please contact Mark Rengers Gallery at 412-741-5858.