June 18 | 7 PM | FREE
Artist Talk “Campfire Stories” | Tour with curator Ksenya and artist Hugo, followed by s'mores on the patio.

High Strangeness: Encounters with the Unexplained in Kansas and Beyond

MAY 28-AUGUST 31, 2025 

The exhibition High Strangeness: Encounters with the Unexplained in Kansas and Beyond at the Salina Art Center features the audio-visual installation Witnessing (2000) by the pioneering artist Susan Hiller (1940-2019), one of the fist contemporary artists to engage seriously with the topic of the paranormal. Alongside her work, the show presents photographs and multi-media sculptures by Kansas artist Hugo Zelada-Romero. While Hiller's audio recordings document encounters with the unexplained from all over the world, Zelada-Romero's photographs track UFO sightings and unexplained incidents in Kansas, a hot spot for such phenomena. Zelada-Romero's work also explores a history of uncommon metaphysical practices in the state and the role that pop cultural representations play in "high strangeness" lore. Both artists investigate in their immersive works what happens when we take first-person accounts of “high strangeness” incidents seriously, ultimately inviting visitors to interrogate our own ideas and approaches to trust, belief, and living with uncertainty.