Tag Archive: acrylic paintings

  1. Balancing Act by Barret Lee

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    Balancing Act     // October 22 – November 20, 2021 //A solo exhibition by Barret Lee exploring distinctions of chaos and harmony in the world around us to create balance amidst our reality. Shop this exhibition today! 

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    Balancing Act showcases an unreleased body of work from Minneapolis painter, Barret Lee, encompassing the characters he has been illustrating since childhood and subject matters he has expanded upon since graduating from MCAD in 2016. Drawing from his biggest inspirations: surrealism, graffiti and cartoons, Lee utilizes a combination of acrylics, spray paint and occasional collage, expressing a whimsical theme throughout his work, personifying fantastical worlds that encourage the viewer to escape from the chaos of reality. 

    Barret sees painting as a form of communicating unrestrained thoughts and softening the discord of everyday experience. His unique approach to surrealism stimulates the audience’s imagination and emotions. Naturally, this exhibition reveals that when we maximize our creative capacity, chaos and balance do not merely coexist but can actually live in harmony with one another.

    “Those three worlds I look to mold into one of modern escapism. I create fantastical characters and floating landscapes in search of a utopian outlook on life”, says Barret. Like many of his previous bodies of work, Balancing Act features constructs of paradisal wonderlands, however this solo exhibition focuses on satirizing the state of the world and how it affects our mental wellbeing and existence. His use of poppy, saturated colors will draw viewers in as they are given an opportunity to explore the macro- and microcosms that Lee has unleashed from his mind

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    MEMBERS ONLY PREVIEW NIGHT:
    Thursday, October 21, 2021 //  6-8pm
    Meet & greet with Barret Lee!
    • RSVP Required
    • Memberships required, become a member today!!

    PUBLIC OPENING NIGHT:
    Friday, October 22, 2021 // 6-9pm
    $7, FREE for members
    • Pre-sales available and recommended
    • Featuring Michaelton
    • Entry will be available at the door
    • Masks required indoors

    ARTIST TALK:
    Wednesday, November 3, 2021 // 7pm
    Moderated by Russ White of MPLSART
    $5 pre-sales, $7door, FREE for members
    • Pre-sales available and recommended
    • Entry will be available at the door if pre-sales do not sell out
    • Masks required indoors

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    ABOUT THE ARTIST

    Barret Lee is a Minnesota based fine artist and illustrator with a BA in drawing and painting from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) in 2016. Barret is a multidisciplinary artist who works in a range of mediums. He paints a wide variety of subjects, including wide-eyed characters, playful landscapes, and his take on pop culture.

    Since graduating, Barret Lee has participated in countless art fairs and exhibitions around the Midwest, with Gamut Gallery being a staple consistently showcasing his work since 2017. Barret has permanent collections on view at Rafter Lofts Minneapolis, Saluté Dental in Woodbury Minnesota, and Arete Lacrosse at the TCF performance center in Eagan. He currently works as a freelance fine artist and you may find him at his studio #385 in the historic Northrup King Building in Northeast Minneapolis.

  2. Balancing Act Art Talk

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    An intimate evening with solo artist Barret Lee and Moderator Russ White exploring distinctions of chaos and harmony in the world around us to create balance amidst our reality.

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    We invite you to join us for an evening of conversation with exhibiting solo artist, Barret lee, and moderator Russ White. Balancing Act turns Gamut Gallery into a bright world of imagination full of unreleased works that encompass the characters Barret has been illustrating since childhood and subject matters he has expanded upon since graduating from MCAD in 2016. His unique approach to surrealism through the use of squids, birds, bears and humans stimulates the audience’s imagination and emotions, communicating unrestrained thoughts and softening the discord of everyday experience. 

    His use of poppy, saturated colors will draw viewers in as you are given an opportunity to explore the macro- and microcosms that Lee has unleashed from his mind. Like many of his previous bodies of work, Balancing Act features constructs of paradisal wonderlands, however, this solo exhibition focuses on satirizing the state of the world and how it affects our mental wellbeing and existence. 

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    BALANCING ACT ARTIST TALK:
    Wednesday, November 3, 2021 // 7pm
    Moderated by Russ White of MPLSART, followed by open Q & A
    $5 pre-sales, $7door, FREE for members
    • This is 30 person limited capacity event
    • Pre-sales available and recommended
    • Entry will be available at the door if pre-sales do not sell out
    • Masks required indoors

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    ABOUT THE ARTIST
    Barret Lee is a Minnesota based fine artist and illustrator with a BA in drawing and painting from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) in 2016. Barret is a multidisciplinary artist who works in a range of mediums. He paints a wide variety of subjects, including wide-eyed characters, playful landscapes, and pop culture. 

    Since graduating from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD), Barret has participated in countless art fairs and exhibitions around the Midwest and has been displaying his artworks at Gamut Gallery beginning with our group exhibition Brightside in 2017. Barret has permanent collections on view at Rafter Lofts Minneapolis, Saluté Dental in Woodbury Minnesota, and Arete Lacrosse at the TCF performance center in Eagan. He currently works as a freelance fine artist and you may find him at his studio #385 in the historic Northrup King Building in Northeast Minneapolis.

    Russ White is an artist, writer, and editor living in Minneapolis. After growing up in the Carolinas and Mississippi, White received a BA in Studio Art from Davidson College and has maintained a studio in the Casket Arts Building in Northeast Minneapolis since 2014, where he works primarily in colored pencil and mixed media. He has exhibited his work regionally and nationally (including a 2016 solo show at Gamut), is the recipient of two Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative grants (2018 & 2020), and works as the editor of written content for MPLSART.COM.

  3. Soft Boundaries

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    Featured Artists: Blair Moore, Dom Laba, Lamia Abukhadra, Laurie Borggreve, Mikki Coleman, Nadia Honary, shhhhame, Zeam Porter

    In identity and expression, toughness and tenderness aren’t typically synonymous. To be soft and vulnerable is a sign of weakness, to be open is seen as an invitation to be manipulated. We place boundaries as a way to give us a sense of structure and security – emotionally, mentally, physically – but what happens when these boundaries get muddled? How does one embrace emotionality through identity? If vulnerability is the birthplace of joy, creativity, belonging and love, why is it so difficult for us to be tender and find calmness in the unknown?

    For Soft Boundaries, eight artists explore how the vulnerable narrative can be used as an act of resistance, liberation and healing. Through the mediums of illustration, photography, video and audio installation, mixed media, book art, and sculpture, the artists present the distortions which keep us from wholly seeing ourselves and others, and the limitations when identity is categorized into the binaries of hyper-visible and invisible. Examining intersecting identities through art, Soft Boundaries sets out to showcase the power of radical softness as a weapon and the strength and truth in allowing ourselves to be fully open.

    Juleana Enright is a femme, queer, indigenous writer and curator. They have over ten years of experience writing about art and culture in the Twin Cities writing for local publications mplsart.com, NEMAA, l’étoile magazine and City Pages. In their curatorial projects, they strive to provide visual and artistic content which highlights and represents femme, non-binary and queer POC artists in the community. Juleana is the co-curator of FEELS, a monthly, multi-sensory queer dance night at the intersection of art and feelings. Soft Boundaries marks their first solo curatorial exhibition.
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    EXHIBIT OPENING RECEPTION
    Saturday, April 28th, 7-11pm
    $5 or Free with Gallery Membership
    Featuring a curated playlist exploring softness by Bleak Roses

    PERFORMANCE NIGHT
    Thursday, May 3rd, 7-9pm
    $10 or Free with Membership
    An evening of responsive performances from Marcel-Michelle Obama, Katie Robinson and Sonja Elise Johanson & Cole Mealey of A M O D E L

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    About the Artists:

    Through intimate pamphlet books and prints, Palestinian American artist Lamia Abudkhadra aims to dismantle the harmful dominant narratives that cultivate and celebrate acts of colonialism, occupation, and genocide in Palestine and the Arab world. Emotional and political, her interdisciplinary practice explores deep into her cultural history and sheds light on territory and visibility and the damaging, generation-lasting effects when these are violated.

    Working with sculpture and mixed media, artist Laurie Borggreve challenges the societal definitions of “feminine,” presenting traditional imagery and visual cues associated with the feminine norm juxtaposed with foreboding materials of harsh tactility. Through tiny details and subtle messages, her work speaks to the contradicting nature of life and emotion.

    As a half-Iranian media producer and artist, Nadia Honary explores authentic storytelling and the intensity of diversity within identity through performance, movement and video. Debuting new work for Soft Boundaries, she pairs personal Polaroid photos with experimental video work to create a provocative and emotionally-arresting visual for the many grey areas between hard and soft.

    Existing within the non-linear, digital photographer Dom Laba focuses on documenting queer culture through intimate moments, highlighting the beautiful within social settings. From performance events and dance nights to the more personal – stark parking lots, tender living rooms – Dom’s portrait work captures the curatorial in the casual. Each image in their photography series embodies a separate, yet methodical and cohesive aesthetic. A candid essence of the queer experience, Dom’s work celebrates the endless possible editorial moments of any space and time.

    Similarly using photography to capture an existence, Blair Moore’s works consist of dreamy portraits and nostalgic themes. Inspired by vintage glamour and heartbreak, she strives to relate and inspire others through her art. Through photography series like her “Wild Child” project, Blair highlights themes of depression and the unlived experiences of black young adults.

    Exploring gender, dysphoria, and bodily autonomy, trans, non-binary artist Mikki Coleman works within the medium of collage to express their relationship to their body and the bodies of others through visually contained chaos instead of words. The process of cutting, arranging, and fixating the pieces is a physical representation of the presence and influence of their own body within their art. Each methodically placed piece exists as both a fracture and a semblance and is a reminder of one’s power to create beauty, and sometimes ugliness, with the touch of one’s hands.

    Through vivid use of color, shhhhame’s acrylic paintings draw the viewer into a story of perception, through the paintings which examine betrayal, anxiety, detachment and the progression of healing trauma through art. Choosing subjects she feels a connection with on an intimate, emotional level, her work highlights human interaction and the ways in which relationships – even ones in which we experience abuse and toxicity – shape art and life. Each subject and self-portrait reveals an experience of truth and vulnerability.