A reception will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, open to the public. Many of the artists will attend the reception so guests can mingle and ask questions about their artwork and inspiration.

Most of the pieces are not only on display, but for sale as well.

“We had a great turnout,” said Art in the Loft Executive Director Justin Christensen-Cooper. “We had to pare it down from about 115 submissions.”

The show will be on display through Nov. 9.

News Photo by Darby Hinkley Above is a photo by Kathleen Bower titled “Metal: A Still Life.”

Christensen-Cooper is excited about the level of artistic talent and creativity of submissions in the show.

“METALS is sort of like a color show, but also sort of a harder theme to wrap your mind around, especially for some of those artists that aren’t three-dimensional artists, so we did see a big increase in sculptural work, 3D work, which is great,” Christensen-Cooper said. “But then, I was really curious about how would our painters interpret this? How would photographers interpret this? So, we’ve got a great division of all those different mediums.”

He noted that, for example, a painter had one of their pieces replicated onto metal. A lot of artists put so much work and creativity into their pieces for this show.

Many of the artists are from Northern Michigan, but there are some from all over the country, too.

“The really cool thing about the show, too, is that it actually gives our region exposure to other artists that are outside of the area,” Christensen-Cooper said. “Since it’s an online submission process, we can get submissions from all over the country. So, we have two pieces from California. We have three pieces from Rochester, New York. We’ve got two pieces from Florida. So, really, this is a national show that happens to be majority local artists.”

At right is a metal sculpture of flowers by Christine Jonson titled “Unity.” News Photo by Darby Hinkley Here is a copper piece by Jessica Adams titled “Patination.”

Appetizers and refreshments will be offered at the reception.

Artists exhibiting in “METALS” include: Jessica Adams of Harrisville, Tracey Atkinson of Alpena, Sarah Bedford of Presque Isle, Susan Bowen of Alpena, Kathleen Bower of Alpena, Alison Campbell of Posen, Joseph Donna of Alpena, Janice Dumas of East Tawas, Kevin Englund of Alpena, Samantha Freske of Posen, Rachel Goodstein of Rogers City, Holland Houdek of Iowa City, Karen Jonker of East Tawas, Christine Jonson of Lachine, Marilyn Keen of Atlanta, Genevieve LaFLeur of Alpena, Cheryl Lemke of Alpena, Mary Lightner of Alpena, Carol Lund of Alpena, Kamara Marsh of Alpena, Charlie Murphy of Ann Arbor, Lane Blair Olsen of Alpena, Steve Petrides of Grand Rapids, Laura Pollak of Greensboro, North Carolina, Juliane Richards of Alpena, Charles Schroeder of Livonia, Shasta Sitton of Hillman, Melissa Smith of Ossineke, Leanna Springer of Lincoln, Neela Sripathi of Ann Arbor, Jill Tatroe of Bay City, Sharon Wade of Johannesburg, Janet Wallace of Alpena, Ed Whitmore of La Jolla, California, Laura Williams of Dearborn, and Beverly Wolf of Presque Isle.

Art in the Loft is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday on the third floor of the Center Building at 109 S. 2nd Ave. in downtown Alpena.