Out of Form is a collection of self-portraits, feelings, and thoughts. It is a direct reflection of Jones’s reality as a multi-racial, bi-sexual, bi-polar, schizophrenic woman.

Slideshow of Artwork

Give your about the show, support an emerging artist.

Artist Statement

I’ve always used art to process my experiences and navigate my mental health. I thought my old sketchbooks would give me a definition of self, but I no longer knew the girl who made them. Out Of Form was created as an intentional act of self awareness. I focused on discovering my foundations from childhood through the use of primary colors and basic shapes and lines. I juxtaposed this exploration with figures that change in color, size and shape just as we shift to adapt to our experiences. As I continue moving through the various stages of life, I wonder how much choice we are truly afforded in who we become.

Bio

Justice Jones is an artist, educator and activist completing her final year at Augsburg University as a studio art major. Her passion for learning invites her to explore many different media. Justice practices community space-making, organizing, and activation as a Tactical Urbanism instructor’s assistant at Juxtaposition Arts. She uses foundational elements of fine art to explore and process her experiences and the idea of nature versus nurture as opposed to choice in who we become. Her work on Juxtaposition Arts’ mural team, her business, and Out Of Form, are all informed by these values and beliefs.

Virtual Mock-up

Due to COVID-19 the show in the physical gallery space has been delayed. Here is a virtual representation of what it will look like in the Gallery720 space.

The post Justice Jones | Senior Show appeared first on Art Galleries.

Greater Than Face-Value | Emily Duesing

Greater Than Face-Value is a series of portraits that peel back the layers of each subject’s world with bright colors and graphic elements. The show offers a challenge to encounter those within our influence, including ourselves, with greater vulnerability and empathy.

Slideshow of Artwork

Give your about the show, support an emerging artist.

Artist Statement

My work focuses on human landscapes. The portrayal of the subjects is realistic in form and stylized in color. This examination of the face and head becomes an investigation of human experience and connects to ideas about identity and adversity that exist outside the boundaries of the canvas.

For me, art is an intimate consideration of concepts that I cannot grasp any other way except to visually explore. The act of making becomes a prism to reveal layers of complexity in the subjects. I recognize the only thing I can change in my life is me. When I make art, I fearlessly confront some incongruence within myself. Therefore, my work is autobiographical, and portrait focused.

Emotion, as I experience it, is continually shifting and changing; it is impossible to grasp its totality all at once. I use my art to pull apart the facade that we present to the world and explore the fullness of humanity.  With the color pallet obscuring and revealing emotions, I illustrate what this changing emotional landscape could mean for myself and the viewer.

Bio

Emily is a two-dimensional portrait artist who investigates empathy through painting the figure. She has always had a fascination with the human face and what it can reveal to a viewer. Emily currently lives in Minneapolis and has her Bachelor’s in Fine Art from Augsburg University. Emily is focused on becoming a licensed counselor where she hopes to use art to facilitate healing.  Themes in her work include vulnerability, humanity, and redemption. Emily primarily makes work and her studio apartment or in the Augsburg painting studio. Emily has received several honors and recognitions for her work including the Normandale Purchase Award and Augsburg’s Fine Arts Scholarship, numerous juried shows, as well as a solo exhibition and artist talk at Gallery 720 in Minneapolis.

Virtual Mock-up

Due to COVID-19 the show in the physical gallery space has been delayed. Here is a virtual representation of what it will look like in the Gallery720 space.

The post Emily Duesing | Senior Show appeared first on Art Galleries.

This Exhibition is currently Postponed due to Covid-19. It will open when possible.

“as she turned tumors into treasures, she couldn’t help but wonder – do goldfish feel this naked?”– Danielle Krysa

Christensen Gallery: 720 22nd Ave S, Mpls, MN

THIS TALK HAS BEEN RESCHEDULE TILL FALL 2020

“How to Stop Being Creative: Excuses, Doubt, and Other Junk”
Talk with Danielle Krysa

Weisman Art Museum: April 8, 7 p.m.

Reception and book signing following the talk. Books on sale in the WAM Shop. Talk is FREE but reservations required.

Fiona & Leona, Farrah, Fawna & Launa – all of them are feminine, beautiful, and a hot mess.

Eight out of ten women will have to share their bodies with uterine cysts and or fibroids at some point in their lives. I am one of those women. I have spent years battling these ugly lumps that continue to grow inside of me. What to do? Exactly what I did with jealousy when I decided to start my art site, The Jealous Curator – instead of allowing these masses to cause anxiety and upset, I flipped the narrative and have embraced them instead. While I await yet another major surgery, I am choosing to envision them – through portraiture – as beautiful, crystal-covered, pink treasures that I’m currently housing. These abstract portraits are not only made up of paint and found images, but also crystals, random objects from the bottom of jewelry boxes, and piles of vintage costume jewelry. Yes, this will be the most sparkly silver lining possible!

Several of the pieces will be hung in the gallery, with spaces for three more to come. I will be using the gallery as a studio, turning tumors into treasures as people stroll past (or stop to watch) on the other side of the glass. This is the most vulnerable work I’ve done to date, so being in a totally vulnerable situation also seems right. Terrifying, but right.

Bio

Danielle Krysa is a Canadian artist with a BFA in Visual Arts and a post-grad degree in design. Her combination of found imagery and carefully manipulated strokes of paint create an entirely new story. Coupled with the sly jokes that are their titles, Danielle’s works attempt to transform the everyday into something a little more ridiculous. Danielle is also the writer behind the contemporary art site, The Jealous Curator, and the author of “Creative Block”, “Collage”, “Your Inner Critic Is A Big Jerk”, “A Big Important Art Book – Now With Women”, and “A Big Important Artist – A Womanual”.  Her work is held in private collections in Canada, The United States, Europe and Asia.

The post Danielle Krysa appeared first on Art Galleries.

Nightfall

March 2–15, 2020

Reception: March 5, 6–8 p.m.

The artwork that makes up the series Nightfall explores the forest at night in order to better understand the life of the forest, especially in the (relative) absence of human interference. These quiet observations of the interconnected activities and processes of the nighttime forest aim to invite the viewer into a sense of entanglement and belonging with these natural spaces.

Artist Statement

My abstracted landscapes are inspired by Rice Creek and the surrounding forest and suburbs near my home in Fridley, Minnesota. The subjects of my paintings – including downed trees, stagnant pools, and tangles of brush – demonstrate growth, decay, and various states in-between. I use overlapping imagery, expressive color, repeating pattern, and abstracted form as a metaphor for a subjective and ever-changing perception of reality. Viewpoints are chosen to create an experience of “being there” for the viewer. Shadow, light, and pattern obstruct or complicate a descriptive understanding of these places. Instead, the paintings offer a psychological interpretation of each chosen site, illustrating an appreciation for the impermanent and interdependent nature of things.

Bio

Shannon Estlund is an artist and educator living in Fridley, MN with her husband and two daughters. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Visual Studies from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and received her B.F.A. from the University of Florida. Shannon has received several grants for her work including several Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative grants and two Community Foundation Art Ventures grants in her native Florida. She has exhibited her work nationally and internationally at museums and galleries including the Crisp Ellert Art Museum (FL), the Elmhurst Art Museum (IL), Soo Visual Art Center (MN), the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens (FL), and at the National Galleries of Scotland. Her work has been featured in New American Paintings and Studio Visit magazines. Shannon is a current member of the collective Rosalux Art Gallery in Minneapolis.

The post Nightfall – Shannon Estlund appeared first on Art Galleries.

between lost and found

October 24-December 18, 2019

Reception: October 24, 6-8p.m., Gage Gallery

Wendland’s brightly colored, mixed media paintings set up conflicts between contradictory shapes, encouraging an encounter and awareness to these relationships in our landscape.

Artist Statement

Collecting from the natural world and influence of architecture, my work explores the abstract gestures beneath the organic and structural. My relationship to our ever-shifting landscape fuels my current practice. I observe my presence to these spaces through sketching from observation. Elements of these sketches lead to my larger works, a layered process of painting utilizing acrylic and gouache on paper and duralar. Pinned layers of floating strokes create multiple layers for interaction.

Grounded in an interplay of color and shape, a visual language between two-dimensional and three-dimensional segments is formed.  My work sets up conflicts between contradictory shapes, encouraging an encounter and awareness to these relationships in our landscape.

By recalling my encounters, the work assembles momentary glimpses and memories of landscape in space.  Through these explorations, the work confronts viewers’ assumptions about space and place, while casting familiar landscapes into new contexts.

Bio

Lyz Wendland is a visual artist living and working in Stillwater, Minnesota. She received her MFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and her BFA in drawing, painting and art history from Minnesota State University, Mankato. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums regionally and nationally. Lyz has been the recipient of a Jerome Foundation Project Grant and a Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant. She has received numerous faculty development grants and awards for her research on improving participation, critical thinking and motivation relating to art critiques in studio courses. Currently, Lyz is Assistant Professor of Art at Augsburg University in Minneapolis, Minnesota teaching drawing, painting and design.

The post between lost and found – Lyz Wendland appeared first on Art Galleries.

ADRIFT

November 1 – December 14, 2018 – Gage Family Art Gallery

Reception: Thursday November 1, 6-8 p.m.

Artist Statement

The artwork that comprises the series Adrift (2017-2018) deals with human migration and, in particular, the global refugee and migrant crisis.  More than 65 million people around the world are now officially displaced from their homes by conflict, violence and persecution – the highest figure recorded by the United Nations since the Second World War.

I felt morally obligated to make work that might add to the compassionate and sympathetic viewpoint supporting refugees seeking asylum and safety.   Media sources have provided a steady stream of now-familiar imagery showing groups of people kept behind chain link fencing, incarcerated children in detention centers, or figures in life jackets crowded into flimsy, inflatable rafts crossing the Mediterranean Sea.  As Susan Sontag points out, “the western memory museum is now mostly a visual one,” and the volume of images depicting far flung, upsetting stories has reached a fever pitch. The paintings in Adrift  present a cobbled-together synthesis of familiar media images representing this humanitarian crisis.

As reference, I have either used media photographs as inspiration or repurposed them by fixing them directly to the panel or canvas. This practice allows me to work within the conversation that already exists. The “seams” between the borrowed photographs and the painted surfaces are meant to be evident. Using photographs as an element in the work allows me to honor their existence, power, and gravity. The painted surfaces re-orient the original photos towards a more dream-like space where a reset or pause button can be hit that allows for reflection where shock and horror once reigned.

The large paintings of the sea are meant to disrupt the picturesque ideal of ocean panoramas. I want to place the viewer in the water as if swimming (or drowning).  News photos of ocean crossings often place viewers at a safe distance (such as on the shore), where we are allowed to witness migrants’ passages at a safe remove. The paintings are meant to be somber reminders of real-life struggles and individual human lives. The water is depicted as black, tumultuous, or in extreme close-up as if to engulf and surround the viewer. My intention is to put the viewer in the same position that refugees and migrants are forced into. The works in Adrift represent a loose and unspecified narrative that the viewer can piece together. The images are taken from media sources of the last few years, but they are also meant to represent the long and grim history of perilous ocean crossings, slavery, and human suffering.

Bio

Canadian painter Chris Willcox was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario. She earned degrees from the Ontario College of Art and Design and the University of Guelph. She earned her MFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, in New Jersey. She moved to the Twin Cities in 2000 to accept a position at Macalester College in St. Paul, where she is a tenured professor in the Art and Art History department. Her work has been shown at galleries in the U.S. and Canada, with her most recent being at the MAEP galleries at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and the Phipps Center for the Arts. She is the recipient of numerous grants, including Canada Council and Ontario Arts Council Grants, and most recently in 2013-14, a George and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation Fellowship in Painting and a Minnesota State Arts Board Grant.

The post ADRIFT BY CHRIS WILLCOX appeared first on Art Galleries.

APRIl 9 – 19, 2018

Christensen Center Student Art Gallery

Artist Talk: Thursday, April 19, 5:30 – 7 p.m. Christensen Center Student Art Gallery

The Illusion of life mixes acrylic paint with digital art, analyzing how storytelling can be the means to better understanding the human condition.

Statement

Famed director, illustrator, animator Hayao Miyazaki suggests ( in the article The idea-the origin of everything) that a story doesn’t truly start with a story being made, it begins with the experiences we have stored up in our lives. “ The stories and original work- even initial project planning-are only triggers.Inspired by that trigger, what rushes forth from inside you is the world you have already drawn inside yourself, the many landscapes you have stored up, the thoughts and feelings that seek expression.”

Kohba merges digital illustration and design to express the emotions that defined the estrangement from my father. The story follows Kohba, A young wolf cub, who in the midst of being deserted by his father, must decide if he will fall into anger or accept the reality of what has come to be. Dealing with themes of abandonment, anger and regret, this body of work uses, color, landscape and character to explore the flaws of the human condition while also showing storytellings significance as a form of expression and communication in society.

The post THE ILLUSION OF LIFE by KOLE STILLWELL appeared first on Art Galleries.

FEBRUARY 19 – MARCH 1, 2018

Christensen Center Student Art Gallery

Artist Talk: Thursday, March 1, 5:30 – 7 p.m. Christensen Center Student Art Gallery

The Battle Within is a series of painted and stained wood pallets that portray the artist’s experience with depression. By utilizing sequencing and both the floor and the wall for installation, the work evokes a tonal journey spanning congested darkness to something simpler and calm.

Bio

Maxwell Preus is a current senior at Augsburg University and is twenty-two years old. His senior exhibit delves into themes regarding mental illness and overcoming obstacles. He is interested in portraying the complexities of the human mind and spirit.

Statement

I enjoy sculpting large pieces in clay, typically beginning with a basic idea and then letting the pieces take on a life of their own. I allow the clay to have its freedom because sometimes things shift on you overnight or even break in the kiln. I expect these issues to happen so I don’t let the frustration build but rather try to create something special out of possible imperfections. Kind of like life. Things happen.

This past year I decided to explore another media. Much like the clay, I found an analogy to life in my wood pieces, specifically as to how they developed through my experience with depression. As I began creating projects using wood and paint, I found myself drawn to working with weightier pieces and the emerging images were rather dark. This seemed to coincide with how I was feeling. Upon returning from a semester in Spain, I felt a disturbing sense of hopelessness. Everything in my life was overwhelming. I even considered quitting school as each day was a struggle. Working with heavy materials proved to be centering for me and, figuratively speaking, I could escape what felt like the weight of the world on my shoulders. It was through the creative process that I could peek through the blinders. Gradually the depression lifted and I felt like myself again.

I feel that I went through this difficult time so that I can empathize with those who suffer. I am lucky. I experienced a brief, yet intense, glimpse into the depths of despair that can haunt people for months, years, a lifetime, and I worked to portray this through my art.

images from exhibit

The post THE BATTLE WITHIN by MAXWELL PREUS appeared first on Art Galleries.

february 5 – 15, 2018

Christensen Center Student Art Gallery

Artist Talk: Thursday, Feb. 15, 5:30 – 7 p.m. Christensen Center Student Art Gallery

Connections is a visual journey into a complex family of eight individuals. By using line work and mixed-media watercolor techniques, Tomczak invites the viewer to connect to the loving family dynamic through an adventure of self-analysis.

Bio

Ty Tomczak is a watercolor painter living in Minneapolis, Minnesota working to receive his BA in Studio Art at Augsburg University. He specializes in portraiture, sceneries, and linework to convey individuality through watercolor paintings.

Statement

My work utilizes the materials of watercolor and food coloring to demonstrate the importance of family bonds. This demonstrates that family is important and would like others to see its importance. I am representing my own family as paintings and cut silhouettes that encircle a mirror. The central mirror reaches out to the viewer by including them in my family and reminds them that who they are isn’t limited by their reflection. Silhouettes respond to humanity’s judgment on appearances and demonstrate that what’s on the outside isn’t what makes a person. I am appealing to what’s on the inside, underneath the surface, because I believe that everyone’s different.

My work aims to represent the whole of a family by breaking down its complexities into parts. This can be seen by my choice to have two sections in my exhibition: a simplified, individual side, and a grouped, less defined side. Its simplified side shows the beauty of how well family knows one another. Its complex side shows how the family works through life as a group. I would like others to understand that family is important to me through both sides of the spectrum and that it is positive to be a part of something.

For me, family has been an encouraging force driving me towards loving who I have become. Through this encouragement, I am drawn to study human identity. This study on human identity relates to my contemporaries by my close analysis to the differences in humans.

Images from exhibit

The post CONNECTIONS by TY TOMCZAK appeared first on Art Galleries.

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

The post Home Bodies by Christina Renfer Vogel appeared first on Art Galleries.