What's Happening

January 8, 2024, Adrian, Michigan – Beginning in early February, visitors to INAI: A Space Apart will have the opportunity to view artwork that ranges from intense commentary on current events or ordinary daily life to colorful depictions of life in Ecuador or in a land of fantasy.

Works by Carlos Tobar will open on Friday, February 2, 2024, and close on Sunday, April 21, 2024, at INAI, an art gallery adjacent to Weber Retreat and Conference Center. An opportunity to meet the artist is offered from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Saturday, February 3, 2024. The Artist’s Reception is from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 10, 2024.

A native of Ecuador, Carlos and his wife Rachel have been residents of Adrian since 1985. A retired graphic artist and commercial offset printer, Carlos has lived out his passion throughout his life: depicting world events, ordinary events, and the joy of life through painting and other media, including stone, wood, block printing, and mosaics.

“I always say I paint the truth,” Carlos said. “I want people to see what is going on in the world.” For Carlos, truth includes commentary on the difficult situations of life and current events. “One painting shows what a mother is feeling in Israel, the pain at the moment,” he said. Moved by the war in Iraq, he painted When Men Become Animals. “The feelings of my heart I put into that painting,” he said, adding that he used exaggeration in the faces, hands, and arms to depict his feelings toward the war.

But Carlos also sees the truth in people’s everyday lives – and his hometown in Ecuador. In one painting, Moments of Happiness, he used bright colors to depict people dancing for joy. He also painted scenes from Ecuador, such as the jungle surrounding the town where he was raised, an open-air fruit market, and the chickens raised on his family farm. “For me, it’s to have a good time remembering,” he said. He often uses his paintings from Ecuador to share his memories with his four children and eight grandchildren. At the same time, he also likes to introduce an element of fantasy into his colorful paintings. “In my paintings, everything is possible,” he said.

Despite his desire to depict the truth, Carlos never tells his viewers how to interpret his paintings. “I like it when the viewers interpret it themselves,” he said. “The paintings speak for themselves.”

Along with the paintings, Carlos will exhibit some of the many drawings that are often the basis for his paintings. “My mind is working, working, working,” he explained. “During the pandemic, I was very busy, using the time, and I produced many drawings. Some I will turn into a work on canvas, and some I will call a drawing.”

Visitors are welcome to come to INAI anytime to view exhibits or find a quiet place for reflection. INAI is open daily from 9:00 a.m. through 6:00 p.m. For other hours, call 517-266-4090 to make an appointment.

Weber Center is on the campus of the Adrian Dominican Sisters Motherhouse, Adrian, Michigan. Traveling east on Siena Heights Drive, pass the Adrian Rea Literacy Center and turn left just before the solar panel-covered parking lot. Follow the signs to Weber Center. For information, call the Weber Center at 517-266-4000.

September 18, 2023, Adrian, Michigan – Art lovers can be inspired and instructed as they explore an exhibit of artwork in various media by local artists and members of the Adrian Center for the Arts (ACA) at INAI, an art gallery adjacent to Weber Retreat and Conference Center. 

This exhibit, "ACA at INAI," is open from Friday, October 6, 2023, through Sunday, January 28, 2024, with an artists’ reception from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Sunday, October 22, 2023. INAI is open daily from 9:00 a.m. through 4:00 p.m. or call 517-266-4090 for an appointment.

Pi Benio, Director of Programming for the ACA, said the exhibit includes paintings, drawings, clay work, metals, glass, printmaking, and fiber art. “It’s a pretty good range of everything we have as a studio,” she said. The ACA offers classes on those media and will soon expand its offerings to include sculpture and hot glass. About 100 members benefit from the organization; residents have established studios in the ACA complex.  

“I’m really excited to collaborate with INAI” on the exhibit, Pi said. “We’ve partnered in a variety of ways in terms of supporting each other’s programming. INAI will have an opening, and we’ll have an opening at the same time” to attract people to both sites. Pi often helps Sister Suzanne Schreiber, OP, the INAI Coordinator, with the installation of art exhibits.

An art professor at Adrian College for 36 years, Pi brought art therapy to the Adrian Girls Training School, a state-run institution for girls who were recommended to it by the juvenile court. “I thought it would be a really great art center,” Pi said. When Michigan closed the school, and after she retired, Pi was part of the group establishing the ACA at the school’s site. The parent organization is the Lenawee Council for the Visual Arts.

“Art is about every feeling a human can have,” Pi said. “Art lets you express what you feel.” She noted that art is an essential outlet and safe way to express anger or other emotions. In addition, art benefits people who view it. “People who go to art shows might be connecting with a feeling, experience, or a place,” she said. “There are a variety of ways that art can reach people.”

Weber Center is on the campus of the Adrian Dominican Sisters Motherhouse, Adrian, Michigan. Traveling east on Siena Heights Drive, pass the Adrian Rea Literacy Center and turn left just before the solar panel-covered parking lot. Follow the signs to Weber Center. For information, call the Weber Center at 517-266-4000.