I Want to Believe

June 9 – August 4, 2017
Christensen Center Art Gallery

In 2015, Brandon Kuehn received the Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant. He traveled around the state of Minnesota documenting and creating original artwork about the state’s paranormal stories, myths, legends, and more.

Artist Statement

What is the difference between what we know and what we believe?

The Hopi people of the Southwest United States believe they were seeded by Kachinas or ‘Star People’ in their ancient past, and their descendants look today at the sky and await their return. Similar stories influence numerous cultures, both past and present, and have given rise to thousands of “UFO Religions,” around the world. I Want to Believe is a look at the iconography of the UFO phenomenon and its impact on our collective subconscious.

Artist Bio

Brandon Kuehn is an artist and educator who received his BFA from the U of M, Twin Cities, and his MFA from Lesley University College of Art and Design. In 2014 and 2016, Brandon curated The Art of Darkness: Inspired by the Paranormal, at the Banfill-Locke Center for the Arts in Fridley. He has exhibited his own artwork nationally, and in 2015, he received a Minnesota State Arts Board Grant for his work: The Paranormal Art Project .

I WANT TO BELIEVE Images

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NOW

June 9 – August 4, 2017 Gage Family Art Gallery

Reception: Friday, June 9, 6 – 8 p.m.

Placing her cancer interior and exterior into a creative context, NOW, is a series of photographs, sculptures, and design work that presents the physical and emotional transitions Boecher encountered during her cancer treatments in 2015. It presents a nontraditional perspective of living with cancer that is not only cathartic and direct, but also provocative, playful, and at times irreverent.

Funding for this activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

Artist Statement

The shock, fear, and disbelief one feels after receiving a cancer diagnosis is difficult to articulate. Those who have cancer or overcome it understand the vulnerability, uncertainty and emotional rollercoaster that it creates. Once diagnosed, to remember life as assumed and normal is no longer an option.

In November 2015, I was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer, a value-laden cancer that is the most fatal of all cancers. It accounts for approximately 1 in 4 cancer deaths annually and was expected to cause 158,080 deaths in 2016.

At the time, the doctors were encouraged by the size and timing of discovering the node. They suggested a possible curative outcome and prescribed an aggressive six-month treatment plan that included chemotherapy and radiation to both lung and brain. Despite their optimism my response was quite the opposite: anger, sadness, fear, disbelief, shock, confusion and an overall lack of control. Although I thought that a variety of profound experiences had taught me resiliency and mindfulness, this diagnosis was, in some sense, the most difficult because it forced an immediate examination of my own mortality and death in a manner that felt real and more imminent. Because social issues and personal experience have always inspired my creative work, I knew I had little choice but to use my diagnosis to create a new body of work.

NOW��is an installation of color photographs and three-dimensional objects which presents the physical and emotional transitions I encountered during both private and public moments while in treatment and recovery. This work attempts to challenge conventional notions of cancer by presenting a perspective that is in turn personal, investigative and confrontational but also playful, positive and at times irreverent.

While a series of self-portraits simultaneously depicts horror and disbelief, other prints present the inescapable nightmares, dreams, and fantasies that have been equally pervasive. An installation of radiation masks as wall mounts, mounds of fallen hair and broken eggshells challenge the viewer to confront the harsh realities during and after treatment. Cancer fortune cookies, Wooly Willy and Magic Eight Balls, all childhood games of chance, lend a playful air and provide a less weighty perspective of cancer.

NOW��challenges traditional cancer perceptions and stigmas attached to cancer with a non-traditional creative approach. It presents evocative visuals with elements of play to underscore life’s uncertainty without being cathartic or overly sentimental.

A year and a half after diagnosis, I now live in three-month increments where CT scans determine my next step. As a result I have developed a profound appreciation and gratitude for time, strive to assume little and take even less for granted.

With cancer there is no looking forward or turning back, only��NOW.

Bio

Susan Boecher’s creative practice spans over 20 years and continues to emphasize social research and activism through community-driven photography. She established��OverExposure, a media arts nonprofit that partners photographers with nonprofit groups on theme-specific photography projects.

NOW – images

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Bowing

Artist Statement

My practice is a meditation on time and its role in the decay of objects and memories. Inspiration is drawn from historical objects, the architecture around me, or a personal relationship. My processes are repetitive and labor intensive; I draw, construct, and weave using materials to depict fleeting, fragile moments and to examine the temporary physicality of an object or idea. I create work to find the beauty and the unrest in this temporal state.

Artist Bio

Kate Roberts is native of Greenville, South Carolina. She received both her MFA and BFA at Alfred University in 2015 and 2010 respectively. She has completed residencies at Archie Bray Foundation for Ceramic Arts in Helena, MT, Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Colorado, La Meridiana in Italy, and Le Cite International des Arts in Paris. Her work has been exhibited at the Tampa Art Museum in Tampa, FL and Everson Museum in Syracuse, NY; major exhibitions include the 69^th Scripps Ceramic Annual, the 2011 and 2015 NCECA Biennial, and Ceramic Top 40. She is currently a Lecturer of Ceramics at University of Washingto

BOWING – Q/A with artist

Has clay/porcelain always been your preferred media?

Yes! I have been working with clay since I was in high school. I fell in love with its ability to be manipulated into anything. It’s just dirt.��It can be hard, soft, rough, wet, vitreous, and all of these qualities can come together to make a beautiful piece. I have been working with porcelain specifically since my senior year of undergrad.

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How do you feel your style is evolving?

It is becoming looser and more abstract in its imagery. I am allowing the nature of the material to��dictate what will happen.

When do you know when you are finished with a piece?

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DOWAGERS

March 3 – 31, 2017

Friday, March 3, 6 – 8 p.m.

Using elements of hand-driven animation, printmaking, and puppetry,��Dowagers��will explore ideas about vanity, shame, and disappointment through a set of reclusive sisterly characters with a grudge to bare.

Artist Statement��

My work behaves as playful coping rituals for anxieties about aging, vanity, shame, and disappointment. I use elements of animation, printmaking, and puppetry to concoct an elixir of discomfort and delight. This coupling of unfamiliarity and recognizability is seductive in the belly. My recent performative puppet/figure work, Dowagers, explores ideas about control and play through a pair of reclusive sisterly spinsters who manage to encounter glee despite their strange condition.��

Artist Bio

Johanna Winters hails from Minneapolis, MN, and is currently a candidate in the MFA printmaking program at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. She has worked as the Education Manager at Highpoint Center for Printmaking in Minneapolis, taught printmaking as an Associate Lecturer at UW-Green Bay, and recently completed a puppetry residency at the Open Eye Figure Theatre in Minneapolis. Her work has been included in national juried exhibitions, print biennials, and portfolios.

DOWAGERS Images

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Home Bodies

January 16 – March 23, 2017
Christensen Center Art Gallery

In Home Bodies, Christina Renfer Vogel depicts houseplants and lively patterns, seeking a balance between the mundane and the theatrical, while offering up pure visual pleasure.

Christina Renfer Vogel earned a MFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and a BFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University. She has exhibited nationally and has been an artist-in-residence at the Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts, the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts. She is a recipient of awards including a UTC Research and Creative Activity Grant and a grant from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation. Christina serves as an assistant professor of painting and drawing at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

Houseplants, 2013, oil on canvas, 35 1/4″ x 30 1/8″

HOME BODIES Images

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For the Frill of It

November 11 – December 20, 2016

Reception: November 11, 6 – 8 p.m. – ��

Cohen’s ceramic installation references clay roof tiles, using something practical as a springboard to make something impractical — ruffled tiles.�� In For the Frill of It, Cohen questions the definition of value, what is useful and important, and ideas of luxury and excess.

Artist Statement

As a ceramic artist, I am committed to exploring clay as an expressive material. Its tactile quality, rich history, and utilitarian, sculptural, and decorative applications continually inspire me.��For the Frill��of It��references clay roof tiles, a practical springboard to make something impractical — ruffled tiles.

This project began as a daydream over a year ago. I imagined myself very small and standing under a giant ballerina’s tutu. Surrounded and enveloped by her tutu, I was swept by the beauty of her skirt. It wasn’t until I revisited this daydream that I began to recognize the strength, power, and grace of the ballerina.

In the studio, ideas of luxury and excess and how they translate through fashion and dress initially inspired my research. Through a reductive process in which I removed more and more information, a ruffled tile remained. As I began constructing the ruffles and testing fit and installation methods, the similarity to clay roof tiles was evident. The connection to a roof, its purpose to provide protection, added layers to the ruffles, not only in physical assembly but in meaning. This association deepened my exploration of what is viewed as feminine and masculine and how they support and/or oppose one another.

The production of the tiles was systematic. The repetitive tasks and months of studio time allowed for an internal dialogue about investment of time and effort, practicality, and triviality. As the work increased in size and scope, it began to take on a life of its own and I no longer questioned my commitment to it or its value.

For the Frill of It��has been a transformative journey. Through the enormity of the project and commitment required, I continually examined and reflected on my evolving relationship to the work. My hope with this work is to impart warmth, softness, and strength.

This project was made possible by the support of friends and family for which I am truly grateful. I wish to thank Jenny Wheatley for her trust, support, and encouragement and Peter Hannah for his expertise, guidance, and assistance. In addition, I would like to thank Katie Smith, Linda Dobosenki, Anne Wendland, Seth Eberle, Brian Antonich, Sarah Ostrum Reis, Stacie Schlomer Totzke, Kimberlee Joy Roth, Trygve Nordberg, Alyssa Baguss, and others who graciously donated their time and effort to make this project happen.

-Eileen Cohen

Q&A with Eileen Cohen

Where did you find the inspiration for this project?

A few ideas played into the conception of this piece. I knew I wanted to use the wall and create work with a strong visual impact. I was thinking about fabric moving on or off the wall, about molding and how it is used to hide or conceal seams and dress up a space, and about ruffles and tutus. Further, the connection to ceramics as a material and its history was an important factor and consideration. The work references roof tiles and makes a connection back to clay as a humble material, one with function and purpose. I questioned the purpose of making ruffled tiles to make a pretty wall and the value of doing it,��For the Frill of It, so to speak. The journey has been invaluable and full of unexpected lessons.

What are some of the challenges you faced while creating?

I spent several months testing what size and shape to make tiles and how to install them on a wall. The scale of the project grew beyond my original conception leading to storage issues, time constraints, cost, etc. I have a small workspace and quickly max out space, impacting production.

How have the quantity of tiles and repetition that goes into creating each individual tile contributed to your experience and the meaning of this piece as a whole?

I enjoyed the repetition. The repetitive action is a practice or discipline. It helped set goals for how I used my time in the studio and kept me focused and goal-oriented. The quantity of tiles made me question the practicality of this project and ask questions about how I spend my time, effort and money.�� I struggled with acceptance of my idea and the value of doing it but at a certain point I fully committed. In the end, it was completely worthwhile and a valuable pursuit.

How have people responded to this project so far?

Overwhelmingly supportive. Curious. Interested.

What message would you like the viewer to take away from this installation?

I wanted to create a warm, soft, feminine space. I hope the viewer stands in awe of it for a moment.

What advice would you give to aspiring artists?

Trust yourself. Commit to your ideas. Ask for help. Plan ahead. Ask questions.

Questions by Gallery Assistant Katie Smith

FOR THE FRILL OF IT Images

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Unquiet Territories

November 7 – December 20, 2016

Reception: November 11, 6 – 8 p.m. –

Working with watercolor on paper, Kroul creates dense organic formations from small shapes and patterns. Inspired by memories, neural pathways and natural elements, these map-like rhythmic structures are landscapes of the mind.

UNQUIET TERRITORIES – Q/a with artist

When did you begin working with watercolor?

I began working with watercolor as a primary medium 15 years ago. I was pregnant with my first child, and I wanted to keep working consistently without the use of toxic materials and fumes. Before this I had painted with oil paints on canvas.

How do geometric shapes relate to your personal memories? What shape and color does a positive memory tend to form in your mind? What shape and color do you use to depict negative memories?

In this body of work, I am using the geometric shape less for its meaning and more as a tool. To me it works as a unit of imagery, like a line or a brushstroke. It is a unit of visual language and also a unit of time, a building block building a larger image from tiny shapes. The color, however, is more specific and meaningful. I love color. I find that color is strongly connected to moments and impressions. For example, blues are the sea of my childhood in Israel and greens are the lush vegetation of Costa Rica, where I lived as a teen.

Are you willing to share with us a specific memory that is included in this exhibition?

The 12-panel piece that is purple with green and yellow depicts the following memory:��The small black vertical lines that seem to be tangled and flowing downwards represent my great aunt’s braids. She was my grandmother’s twin sister. Her name was Judith, and she died of typhus at age 23 in a concentration camp in Jurin, Ukraine, in 1945. Throughout her life, my grandmother kept those braids wrapped in silk in a drawer by her bed and was eventually buried with them. To me this image represents loss, of course, but also continuity, hope, and memory as an active living companion.

What is the most difficult part of the process for you?

The beginning and the end of each piece are the most difficult, in the sense that I am doubting myself. In the very beginning: how to begin, what colors to use, and what overall shape? In the end: when to end, how much is enough, and what will tip the image over the edge and ruin the thing?

What is your favorite part of the process?

Every part of the process is both challenging and fun.

Who are some of your major artistic influences?

I am inspired by a range of artists and art practices: from Rothko and Frankenthaler��(for the monumentality of their work and their belief in the emotional universality of color); to Guston and Amy Sillman (painters working at the cross of abstraction and figuration); to traditional world crafts like textiles and tiles (for their use of specific geometry and intense saturated color.)

What advice would you give to emerging artists?

a) Have a source of income that is not your studio work. b) Show up to your studio practice as often as you can.

What is next for you?

Artistically, I am moving on from the geometric imagery into more representational/specific imagery and looking into the possibility of moving away from the wall. What would that look like? Professionally, I am exploring more exhibition venues and teaching opportunities.

Questions by Gallery Assistant Katie Smith

UNQUIET TERRITORIES –��images

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THE WONDER PROJECT – Art 226: Artist Workshop with Anne Baumgartner

The Wonder Project is a multi-layered art endeavor. Part social outreach and part visual celebration, the project hopes to create curiosity, conversation and new connections between the Augsburg campus and surrounding neighbors. Students in Art 226: Artist Workshop class are walking Seward and Cedar Riverside sidewalks to meet people and gather images and thoughts around the phrase, “I wonder_____.”���� The same questions are being explored in campus spaces and groups. Visiting artist Anne Baumgartner arrives on October 12 to direct art workshops and construction for the Fence installation on 21st Ave. This will be a re-purposed outdoor art collage that responds to what we’ve heard and seen.

A Wonder-Celebration event will happen on Thursday, October 20th from noon to 1:30 p.m. All are invited to attend and participate.

Bio

Anne Baumgartner is a mixed media artist living and working in Los Angeles. Born in Seattle, WA, she received a BA in Art Ed from the University of Washington and an MFA from LUCAD/Art Institute of Boston in 2010. She has worked all over the country as her family moved from Seattle to New Jersey to Minneapolis and to LA. She raised three children with her husband Dan and taught art in public schools and at Seattle Pacific University as an adjunct professor. Throughout her teaching career, she has maintained an art practice with sales and commissions in design, painting, and mixed media. Anne now lives in LA (since 2010), combining rigorous studio practice with contract and volunteer art teaching. In the last six years, she has exhibited in independent galleries, Concordia University, Barnsdall Park/ LA Municipal Gallery, Fuller Seminary, Biola University and a rogue fence installation.

Baumgartner’s art practice investigates the dynamics of social politics at work in the urban landscape. Her work uses common shapes/ symbols and repurposed elements to activate unnoticed, spaces and grids. Layering cardboard and found supplies to make quirky and accessible collages, she creates visual interventions, even installing artwork outdoors on neighborhood fences or walls. The familiar materials invite viewers in and raise questions.

THE WONDER PROJECT –��images

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TErra Firma

August 29 – October 27, 2016

Reception: September 16, 6-8 p.m.

In this exhibition of new drawings and sculpture, Vossler reflects on the narrative of Dante’s Inferno, specifically exploring how the metaphor of water functions as both a connective element and a source of danger.

Bio

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WHAT WE HAVE TO LOSE

August 29 – October 27, 2016

Reception: September 16, 6-8 p.m.

Artist Statement

A marriage of embellishment and utilitarian object is the inspiration behind my oeuvre: that is to create utilitarian non-traditionally shaped ceramic serving platters that maintain a curvilinear edge throughout the form and which reference historical decorative motifs. Today’s contemporary ceramics include figurative forms and abstract sculpture, utilitarian ware and architectural and decorative tile. My work is wall sculpture that is still functional; it can be used to also contain and serve food. I see it as a bridge between decorative tile and utilitarian ware and as a vehicle for beginning a communication between these two disparate uses of the same material.

Bio

Kimberlee Joy Roth graduated from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities with an MFA in Ceramics and an Art History minor in 2007. Her fall 2012 solo exhibition at St. Catherine University’s Catherine G. Murphy Gallery in St. Paul, MN raised $1,143 for The Algalita Marine Research Institute in Long Beach, California.

She is a 2013 McKnight Artist Fellow in Ceramics and a Fiscal Year 2016 and 2011 recipient of an Artist Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. Her ceramic work is in the permanent collection of the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis, MN, Mayo Clinic Rochester, Rochester, Minnesota, 71 France Apartments, Edina, Minnesota and the Lincoln Arts and Culture Foundation in Lincoln, California. Her work has been shown nationally in juried ceramic exhibitions.

She maintains a studio in the Northeast Arts District of Minneapolis and is the Technician for the Art and Art History Department and The Catherine G. Murphy Gallery at St. Catherine University.

Kimberlee Joy Roth is a fiscal year 2016 recipient of an Artist Initiative grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

Robert Silberman is Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Minnesota, where he teaches courses on the history of cinema and other subjects. He received his Ph.D. in English Literature from Columbia University. He was senior advisor for the 1999 PBS series American Photography: A Century of Images and, with Vicki Goldberg, co-author of the companion volume. A regular contributor to the Burlington Magazine, he has curated exhibitions on art, photography, and ceramics, including six exhibitions at Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis, most recently Out of the Labyrinth: Contemporary Mexican Ceramics. The many ceramic artists he has written about include Warren MacKenzie, Gail Kendall, Ken Price, Amy Sabrina, and Randy Johnston.

WHAT WE HAVE TO LOSE – q/a with artist

Could you briefly explain your process for us?

The end goal is to have work with curvilinear edges and interiors having singular, or multiple, distinct concave sections. The outside edge of the work is drawn onto paper and then transferred to either Styrofoam or clay. The interior and sides are then carved. If the piece is clay, it is fired to cone 022. I then make a plaster multipart mold and use that to make the final slip cast porcelain forms.

How do the ideas and creation process start and how do you know when you’re done?

I look at a lot of artwork, keep up with current events and try to learn from what I think are successful art forms as to how their political and environmental issues are represented, distilled and communicated successfully. As an artist I’m never done; each previous installation supports the next and sparks more ideas.

What originally inspired you to bridge the gap between utilitarian ware and wall sculpture?

It evolved over a number of years. I initially wanted to move away from round forms made on the potter’s wheel and started slip casting. Slip casting naturally led to making a large number of the same form, and then it again came naturally to place the work into repetitive patterns. The negative spaces created between the pieces are quite lovely, so I experimented and played with making forms whose negative and positive spaces looked balanced and made an interesting composition.

��Who are some of your major artistic influences?

Eva Zeisel and Richard Notkin

I noticed that you include some glaze recipes on your website. What tips might you have for people looking to experiment with creating their own original glaze recipes but aren’t quite sure where to start?

Go to the library and look at glaze books or look on-line for a glaze you like, and then make a 500 gram batch. Glaze a small cup and bowl with it. Test it in both oxidation and reduction. Then, take out the oxide colorant and see what the base glaze is like. If the base glaze seems promising, that is you like the way it feels or looks, then test the base with a variety of different oxides and percentages of oxides. An example would be to make a 200 gram batch and add 1% of an oxide, dip in a test tile, label it, then add another 1% for a 2% test, then another 2% for a 4% test, and then another 4% for an 8% test and see what the glaze looks like on these 4 test tiles. I’ve made hundreds of glaze tests, but the best glazes I have are from trying new oxide blends in tried and true base glazes.

��What is your favorite part of the ceramic process?

Designing the forms and laying out the finished work into a pattern.

Could you tell us a bit about your educational experiences? What led you to originally pursue a science degree and then later pursue an art degree?

Everyone has choices to make throughout their life; each choice leads to a different path. I made a choice during high school to pursue a Math and Physics degree because it came easy to me and it was safe. I knew I would be able to get a teaching job after college and be secure and self-reliant as a single woman in the 1990s. But teaching high school became redundant and I needed to challenge myself. At first I was planning to get my PhD in Physics, but a few key choices and a hard look at what made me content and happy led me back to school for art. I always had the peace of mind that if things did not work out I had my Physics and Math degree to fall back on. I know I made the right choice because of how happy and challenged I am when I am in my studio.

How does your math and science background come into play with your artwork?

My science and math training taught me perseverance to solve problems. I am used to getting things wrong the first few times and working through ideas to find a reasonable solution. I think to myself – we humans have created a variety of complex and amazing inventions, I can figure out how to solve this or that problem within my ceramics – it’s not as if I’m making a rocket to go to the moon or an integrated circuit from square one. Along with this tenacious attitude, my science background has taught me confidence and experimental skills, both of which I use while pushing the boundaries of the ceramics medium to its physical limitations and in glaze calculation. I consider my ceramics studio a chemistry and engineering lab.

What else can you tell us about your exhibition��What We Have To Lose��that we might not get from your artist statement or simply by viewing the work?

It’s harder to make small turtles and snails then it is to make the larger tiles and top pieces.

What tips do you have for artists trying to minimize their environmental impact while still being able to effectively create work and get a message across?

Try not to use plastic, synthetic fabric or other materials refined from crude oil. Then use whatever is the best material to get your ideas across.

��What is next for you?

I am developing new forms and glaze colors, and working simultaneously with another slip body. I also have ideas for other tile forms with incised imagery. I work best if I follow ideas down varying and multiple paths, keep experimenting and allow every kiln to be a sort of test.

Questions by Gallery Assistant Katie Smith

WHAT WE HAVE TO LOSE –��images

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