Images of familiar, even mundane environs can carry great intimacy, revealing something true about an individual and affirming life as a deep and complex experience.

In the first of a yearlong series of Library exhibits curated by students at the Kansas City Art Institute – evolving from a class taught by KCAI’s Michael Schonhoff – Casey Lee Holden and Nelson Pereira turn their cameras on their own surroundings. Holden, who came to KCAI from rural Oklahoma, captures the life of her family and its not-so-glamorous reality. Similarly, Pereira photographs the life of his neighborhood in El Salvador as a way to memorialize the everyday exchanges between people and their environments.

The exhibit is curated by Amy Hixson, who is pursuing a degree in painting and art history at KCAI. It is underwritten by Pam and Gary Gradinger and the Richard J. Stern Foundation for the Arts.