User:KathKCKS/draft Ben E. Mercer

Ben Everett Mercer is an artist and author who has been working in Kansas City, Missouri for over 20 years. Mercer, who works in all mediums except oils, does portrait drawings and photography.

Mercer served as director of Garrison Community Center where he became interested in the Vietnamese community of Kansas City. He produced a series of photographs that exhibited at the University of Missouri-Kansas City's African American History and Culture House August 12-September 23, 2005. Mercer exhibited with other local artists at “New Works: An Exhibition of Art from Kansas City African American Artists" at the Bruce R. Watkins Cultural Heritage Center & Museum March 14, 2015.  He is a member of Black Art in America (BAIA), an online portal and social network focused on African-American Art.

According to Pink Tie Promotions, a Kansas City based fine arts company that offers Mercer's drawings for sale, Mercer was selected as one of the top 200 portrait artists in America by The Artist's Magazine in 1993.

His self-published books include: Places of My Life,  Take a Second Look , The Best Modern Art Anywhere , Premier Images , As I Know It Wayne Miner Housing , Vietnamese Among Us , Growing Up in Kansas City Missouri , Woman, Battle of Lexington Missouri , The Eight Families , and Fine Arts.