Comments Off on 7 Year Itch – Gamut’s Birthday Party
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It is crazy to believe we’ve been at his for seven years already! We opened in 2012 with the mission to bring people together to experience art and stimulate dialogue. Our mission is going strong in Elliot Park, where in 2016 we opened our gift shop and launched our Membership program. We have expanded the breadth of artists that we showcase to include more out-of-state talent, and also expanded beyond our brick-n-mortar space to become a fully fledged online gallery, serving collectors from around the world.
The principle that art fosters community and that art is for everyone drives our inclusive philosophy, an idea we work to spread throughout our community and beyond. We are so blessed to have exhibited 63 exhibitions these past seven years, showing the full spectrum of media, content and styles, with a focus on showcasing innovative artists. Along with those exhibitions we have hosted over 200 creative social events, and shown the work of more than 550 artists. [/bscolumns]
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7 Year Itch Birthday Party
Friday, June 7th // 7pm -11pm
$10 // Members FREE
Celebrate Gamut Gallery’s 7th Year Anniversary surrounded by the vibrant, abstract and geometric art that is #TINT.
Become a Gallery Member to get into this party and all of our openings for FREE. Check out the list of perks and show your support today: www.gamutgallerympls.com/membership_tickets/
Gamut Memberships will be increasing after the June 7th, get them while you can at the current prices![/bscolumns][bscolumns class=”clear”][/bscolumns]
BRUSH | REED is set amongst an exhibition in a field of color we call #TINT. Created by juxtaposition of forms that collide in a way that transcends reason and thought, encouraging the viewer to be present and experience the immediacy of the moment.
Linnea Marie Maas & Jennifer Bill join together to explore the parallels between painting and music via live stage performances. Jennifer transforms the printed notes of her musical score into lush soundscapes, while Linnea further interprets the music into visual color and form on her fresh canvas.The live art that blooms at every BRUSH | REED performance captivates and moves audiences. The paintings that emerge establish a visual memory of the sights, sounds, and emotions of each intimate affair, impressing upon the audience member a feeling of symbiosis between the two disciplines presented to them.
The artists join together to explore the parallels between painting and music via live stage performances. Jennifer transforms the printed notes of her musical score into lush soundscapes, Linnea further interprets the music into visual color and form on her fresh canvas.The live art that blooms at every BRUSH|REED performance captivates and moves audiences. The paintings that emerge establish a visual memory of the sights, sounds, and emotions of each intimate affair, impressing upon each audience member a feeling of symbiosis between the two disciplines presented to them.
Brush | Reed
Thursday May 23rd, Doors 7pm, $5
Featuring Linnea Maas & Dr. Jennifer Bill
This is the only performance booked door this dynamic duo in Minneapolis, don’t miss out!
BRUSH|REED was conceived in the Summer of 2008 on a warm, humid afternoon in Minneapolis, when the painter and musician — both originally from the area and friends since 1995—were brainstorming a way to fuse their respective arts. BRUSH|REED emerged as an experience designed to cross disciplines, unite their passions, and highlight the close relationship between music and visual arts for audiences around the world.
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ABOUT THE ARTIST
Linnea Mass was born in Minneapolis on the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1979 and was carried home during a snowstorm. She grew up in the small town of Mound and always drew. Her attraction to visual drama started early: when she was only 32 inches tall, she stood in the kitchen doorway and was shocked as Grandma removed all her teeth at once. This was the first vivid image that impressed itself on her memory and precluded a lifetime of visual thinking.
Later, leaning on the bark of a thin limb midway up her favorite maple tree, Linnea was touched by the tenderest breeze. It was filled with the sensation of perfection and she could feel it contained all the secrets of the alternate nature of the universe. The sensation of unutterable beauty has caused years of daydreaming and unremitting attempts at translating the elusive feelings into shapes communicating complexities bigger than words, a little picture guide to these unidentifiable but poignant emotions.
Linnea studied illustration at Washington University In St Louis and cultivated her current graphic style after taking a woodcut print class, where under the direction of a spontaneously combusting maniac she developed a penchant for triphop in the wee hours of the morning and putting thick outlines around objects in her drawings.
In 2004 the Robots invaded.
Currently, Linnea spends her time making art at a converted casket factory in Northeast Minneapolis. She just finished drawing her very first coloring book. Her projects include acrylic and oil paintings, murals, commissions, and collaborations; action painting with rock bands, classical saxophonists, and electronic music DJs; freelance illustration, designing furniture, making pictures for children’s books, and staring at the sky through moving branches.
Her thoughts are still all pictures, and she fills pages of sketchbooks with secret nonsense and meandering doodles, out of which evolve series of characters brimming with internal dialogue. Linnea paints them into pictures to nudge you to believe in her imagined reality where colors are twice as bright, love is infinitely more vivid, and the world is condensed into simple, crystallized pleasures, so just a smile ignites a connection to make any distance small.
Jennifer Bill is a saxophonist and conductor, Dr. Jennifer Bill has performed in Asia, throughout Europe and the United States. She performs solo and chamber music with a variety of groups including BRUSH|REED, Pharos Quartet, and ēmergere. As a conductor she currently leads the Boston University Concert Band. As a saxophonist, Dr. Bill has performed contemporary chamber music with a diverse group of artists including vocalists, clarinetists, cellists, flutists, violinists, taped media, percussionists, wind quintet, and dancers. Currently she is working with visual artist Linnea Maas in the experimentation of the auralvisual in a collaboration named BRUSH|REED. BRUSH|REED has performed in Hong Kong, Scotland, and the USA. Dr. Bill has participated in numerous world premieres for saxophone including most recently Faustus: a SaxOpera by John Plant in 2016 as part of World-Wide Concurrent Premieres, Greenwich Village Portraits by David Amram in 2014 as part of World-Wide Concurrent Premieres, Canciones Andinas by Michael C. Kregler in 2014, A deep clear breath of life by John Plant in 2013, Fantasia on the Theme of Plum Blossom by Shih-Hui Chen in 2013 as part of World-Wide Concurrent Premieres, and Two Reflections on Poems by Anne Sexton by Michael C. Kregler in 2012. She has been a guest soloist with the Boston University Wind Ensemble in 2016 and 2005, the BUTI Wind Ensemble in August of 2015, the Hong Kong Wind Ensemble In May of 2014, and the Northeastern University Wind Ensemble in November of 2012. She has participated in national and world conferences including the World Saxophone Congress, the North American Saxophone Alliance national conference, and the North American Saxophone Alliance regional conference.
As a conductor Dr. Bill currently leads the Boston University Concert Band and is an active clinician throughout New England. She previously led the Providence College Symphonic Winds from 2009-2017. Dr. Bill led the BU Concert Band in a tour of Ireland in May of 2015 with performances in Dublin, Galway, Killarney and Macroom, was a guest conductor with the Hong Kong Wind Ensemble in May of 2014, and in May of 2011 led the PC Symphonic Winds in a tour of Italy with performances in Napoli, Maiori, and Monte Porzio Cantone (Roma).
Dr. Bill is currently faculty at Boston University, performance faculty at Boston College, applied faculty at Rhode Island College, and adjunct professor of music at Pine Manor College. She is the saxophone instructor, wind ensemble coordinator, and assistant director of the saxophone workshop for the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. She serves on the Board of Directors for World-Wide Concurrent Premiers and Commissioning Funds, Inc. Dr. Bill is also the sole organizer, director and officer of Music Performance & Education, Inc.
Featuring Bret Brown, Cary Reeder, Human Shaped Animal, Monty Montgomery, NERS Neonlumberjack, Neal Breton and Nick Wilkinson.
“I want to give something back to the artistic community. I saw what a great gallery Gamut was, and I wanted to share the value of exhibiting here with other artists from around the country.” – Neal Breton
Curator and Artist Neal Breton met Gamut Gallery through blindly submitting and being selected in Gamut’s open Call for Work in fall of 2016. He quickly established a long lasting partnership with the gallery by participating in Sq2 the following year. Breton found the gallery to be an ideal venue for putting together TINT, a group show with color being its unifying thread, a concept he’s been developing for years.
When Breton conceived the exhibit, he had something a bit different from the average show in mind. The world has become much smaller in recent years, and Neal’s goal was to bring a broad, worldly perspective in color together under one roof. To accomplish this, Neal and Gamut Gallery Director, Cassie Garner, selected artists approaching color from opposite poles. Half of the artists stick to geometric rules while the other half explores more organic forms. These approaches come together in a field of color to create a juxtaposition of forms that collide in a way that transcends reason and thought, encouraging the viewer to be present and experience the immediacy of the moment.
Garner shared Breton’s goal and proved an ideal accomplice. “We workshopped a list of artists that we both wanted in the exhibit. That was the most fun part—it was like picking our favorite players to be on the team.” The vibrant out-of-state dream team roster includes artist Neal Breton, Monty Montgomery, Bret Brown, Cary Reeder, Human Shaped Animal, NERS Neonlumberjack, and Nick Wilkinson. Together they produce an exhibit full of textures, salvaged materials, paintings and sculptures that invite the viewer to appreciate the work through their eyes rather than their thoughts.[/bscolumns]
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EXHIBIT OPENING Saturday, May 4th 7-10pm, $5 Featuring all OUT-OF-STATE ARTIST: Bret Brown, Cary Reeder, Human Shaped Animal, Monty Montgomery, Neal Breton, NERS Neonlumberjack, and Nick Wilkinson
Elliot Park Art Walk Thursday May 9th, 5-8pm, FREE Take a tour through the Elliot Park Neighborhood and local shops
Brush | Reed Thursday May 23rd, Doors 6pm, $5 An aural visual experience collaboration between artist Linnea Maas and musician Dr. Jennifer Bill. Explore the parallels of painting and sound through live performance.
7 Year Itch Birthday Party Friday, June 7th 7pm-11pm, $10 Celebrate Gamut Gallery’s 7th year Anniversary With live music and entertainment
Neal Breton combines acrylic paint, gouache, and spray painting to create flat, simple fields of color. Starting with a sketch from the book he carries everywhere, Neal creates works that communicate as little as possible through detailed lines; he prefers to let the variance of colors create depth, shadow, and intention. Inspired by the color, flora, and fauna of California, where this native East Coaster landed at a young age, Neal also includes graffiti, early pop art, graphic design, architecture, and California’s strange and beautiful people among his palette of influences. Rather than chasing commercial success, this self-taught artist works with what speaks to him, crafting a series of notions that reflect the joy his creative process.
Monty Montgomery uses his intuition about color and the physical relationships between objects to create an emotional language that connects the viewer with his work, art that reflects his Blue Ridge Mountain roots. Visceral and emotional reactions to daily experiences inform Monty’s work. Since his teen years, he’s expressed his perception of the external world by blending conflicting elements into seamless harmony through color theory, mathematics, and abstraction to create unique geometric style.
California-based painter/illustrator Bret Brown uses acrylic, oil, collage, photo-transfer, found object, graphite, ink, spray paint, and a variety of other media to create his symbolic, abstract, and at times playful art. Heavily influenced by Southern Californian pop, surf, punk, and skate cultures, Bret crafts personal, emotional, psychological paintings that are also influenced by the Buddhist concepts of scale invariance, samsara, impermanence, and interconnectedness. Shifting away from recognizable form, Bret utilizes a deconstructive process to inspire viewers to find multifaceted meaning in his work.
After moving to Houston in 1996, Miami, Florida native Cary Reeder spent more than a decade as a graphic artist and typesetter. Her work has been featured in local, regional, and national juried exhibitions, and in solos shows at Mystic Lyon, Galveston Arts Center, Optical Project, and Lawndale Art Center. In 2013 she was awarded an Individual Artist Grant from the Houston Arts Alliance and in 2014 was a Hunting Prize Finalist. Cary has been featured twice in New American Paintings. She teaches at Art League Houston.
After receiving a B.A. in Painting and Digital Design from Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania, Human Shaped Animal aka Rachel Barnes packed up her soul and embarked on a journey cross country. After experiencing the West Coast, she became enamored of the region’s ever-changing landscapes and the energy they emanated. She relocated to Santa Cruz, where she dove into life as a mural artist creating large-scale work based on geometric shapes and the natural world, seeking the balance between the two. Rachel’s work integrates live, organic material with bold color schemes.
NERS Neonlumberjack bikes suburban neighborhoods and city streets collecting detritus he uses to create his art. “When was the last time that you picked up something dead? A deceased butterfly, a bone found deep in the woods?” he asks. “Our curiosity is most certainly inviting us to the tactile sensation, the up-close study of the things we are supposed to fear.” His work indulges his own curiosity and love for specimens, and invites viewers to explore that curiosity for themselves. He adds pattern to salvaged materials—wood, bone, stone, feathers, canvas—to create an access point that invites viewers to look, to touch, to hold that bone. Though his work deals with death and the trashing of the planet, he also wants the viewer to experience the joy of the life that was part of the whole experience.
Nick Wilkinsonlives and works on California’s Central Coast. Beyond having a full time painting practice, and owning a specialty plant nursery, Nick has been Director of LEFT FIELD Gallery since early 2015. He has also shown his own work in galleries across the country. Notable exhibitions include Body High, a 3-person show at Tiger Versus Asteroid along side Rema Ghuloum and John Mills as well as many other group shows such as: Does It Make a Sound at Ochi Gallery in Ketchum Id, Zing Zam Blunder, Harbinger Projects, Reykjavik, Iceland, Curated By Brian Scott Campbell (2017); From Here, Flourescent Gallery, Knoxville, TN., Curated By Zach Searcy (2016); Out of the Great Wide Open, Museum of Contemporary Art, Santa Barbara, CA. (2015); Ducks, curated by Ryan Travis Christian, Greenpoint Terminal Gallery, Brooklyn, NY (2014); Thresholds, SLO Museum of Art, SLO, CA. (2013)
Through abstract and iconic sculptures, the work in this exhibition will bring forth the often overlooked, but common immaterial objects we are surrounded by in our daily lives. Co-curated by Sculptors Andrea Marquis and Amanda Salov
Every March, Ceramophiles of all kinds—makers, educators, scientist, collectors, and other interested parties—convene for a five-day meeting of the minds (and hands) to partake in the largest art-related conference in the United States. The vast National Conference of the Education of Ceramics Arts (NCECA) programming varies from lectures to demonstrations and exhibitions. From March 26 to March 30 2019, ceramicists from all over the country will gather in Minneapolis to examine and discuss the state of clay.
Sculptors Andrea Marquis and Amanda Salov teamed up with Gamut Gallery in conjunction with NCECA to present Other Objects, an exhibition of five established Ceramic Artist exploring the creation of immaterial objects with the visceral material of clay. Not to be confused with ephemeral things, Other Objects are non-material things that include holes, voids, tunnels, cavities, knots, and shadows. These parasitical objects depend on material but are themselves immaterial. Through their work, these five artists explore these other objects and how their dependence on their clay hosts.
EXHIBIT OPENING Friday, March 29th 7-10pm // $5 FREE for Members & NCECA Wristband holders
EXTENDED NCECA OPEN HOURS March 26th – Tuesday 9:30am – 5pm March 27th – Wednesday 8:30am – 5pm March 28th – Thursday 9:30am – 7pm March 29th – Friday 9:30am – 10pm March 30th – Saturday 9:30am – 7pm
EXHIBIT FINALE Thursday, April 18th Doors at 7pm, show at 8pm. // $10 FREE for Members Daniel Volovets a classical, flamenco, Brazilian, and jazz guitarist.
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ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Del Harrow uses processes ranging from direct hand-building with coils and slabs of clay to computer aided design, parametric modelling, and computer-controlled machines for fabrication. Del lives in Fort Collins, Colorado, where he teaches sculpture, digital fabrication, and ceramics at Colorado State University. His work has been exhibited at The Milwaukee Art Museum, The Denver Art Museum, The Arizona State University Art Museum, The Museum of Fine Art in Boston, and is featured in the permanent collection of the Arizona State University Art Museum. He recently completed a permanent installation for US State Department in a new Embassy in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico.
Jeff Campana has explored the potential within the act of deconstructing and reconstructing familiar and iconic pottery language and form. In his latest works, he utilizes computer tools to generate a vast modular library of formal fragments from which he assembles and casts unified composite vessels and sculptures. Jeff is an Assistant Professor of Art at Kennesaw State University near Atlanta, Georgia. He exhibits nationally and has been a long-term Artist in Residence at the renowned Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts in Helena, Montana.
Ling Chun is a Hong Kong-born ceramics artist who likes to play with hair. A beauty school dropout, she received her MFA in ceramics at Rhode Island School of Design in 2016 and has introduced hair into her ceramics instead of styling it. Chun has been in several international renowned artist residency programs, including a long-term residency at Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana (2016-18). She has also received a Matsutani Fellowship, Lilian Fellowship and a RISD travel grant for oversea residencies including c.r.e.t.a. Rome and Aquatopia in Puebla, Mexico. Recently, her achievement in the field of ceramics granted her extended stay in the United States on an O-1B Visa recognizing her extraordinary ability in the arts. She is now a long-term resident of Pottery Northwest in Seattle, Washington (2018-20), where she continuous her studio practice. She is the founder of HIDDENFOODPROJECT, a public art project that runs across the country.
Amanda Salov examines the idea of a moment in physical form: temporal, fragile, and fleeting. Her most recent series “Peaks and Valleys” is a physical manifestation of many things: watching the monitors of a loved one in an ICU room, an enchainment of the successes and failures of research, living in an isolated valley, the work of hanging lace, and a panoramic view of many mountains and valleys. Raised in rural Wisconsin, Amanda has shown throughout the country and abroad. Amanda will participate in the Mid-Atlantic Keramik Exchange in Reykjavík this June and is a participant in the Gyeonggi International Ceramic Biennale in Korea this year. She lives in Seattle.
Andrea Marquis has recently created a series of sculptures exploring the connection between garden and paradise. Starting with large slabs of coils, she creates sculptures that explore light interacting with negative spaces, which she describes as “the capturing and materializing of non-material entities.” Andrea’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. She is currently an Artist in Residence at the Clay Studio in Philadelphia and teaches ceramics and 3-D design at the Community College of Philadelphia.
SAVE THE DATES: NCECA Conference March 27-30, 2019
Claytopia, NCECA’s 53rd annual conference will take place in Minneapolis, Minnesota March 27-30, 2019. Since the 1960s, the Twin Cities region has played a pivotal role in shaping a renaissance in studio pottery and craft as cultural forces. Adaptation of Mingei-inspired ideals within the American heartland drove a vision of artfulness in daily life. Claytopia will engage regional, national and international artists, thinkers, curators, educators, and students to produce an array of exhibitions and experiences that build on, respond to, celebrate, and push against ceramic art’s diverse legacies. Together, we will expand critical discourse on teaching, learning, aesthetics, social impacts, design thinking, and artistic production.
Featured Artists: Adam Underwood, Alli Shelly, Andre Servin, Andrew Knettel, Andy Hefner, Anthony Elliott, Ariel Cafarelli,Bleach, Brandon Holt, Charlie Forbes, Chase Tucker, Claudia “Billy“ Baca, Collin Rigsby, Craig Moore, Chris Norden,Daniel Vasquez, Emilie Robinson, Erin Armstrong, Helen Sevig, Jason Walstrom, Jesse Heike, Jessi Lawson, Jesse Skaggs, Jessica Canvas, Jessie McNally, Joseph Christensen, Kelly Rehbein, Kali Koltz, Lindsee “Bee” Boyer, Mark Tyler, Max V.K., Megan Hoogland, Mitch Marlow,Nic Scrade,Nighttrain Max, Niki Hughes, Nora Peterson, Rachael Bringgold, Reid Gosmire, Ryan “Opie” Mueller, Sarah Epperson, Sarah Louise Meyer, Scott Elke, Scotty Munster, Shannon Michael, Shahn Anderson, Steven Skorjanec, Tony Powers, Troy Timple, Zack Kinsey.
Some of the most dynamic art created today adorns one of the most delicate mediums—human skin. Gamut Gallery is creating space for these talented tattoo artists to feature their abilities using watercolor, acrylic & oil paints. Spit Shade 2: Babes, Beasts & Botanicals is our second official opening party for the Villain Arts Minneapolis Tattoo Convention. This ONE weekend only exhibition will include 50 local & national artists showcasing this vibrant artform.
Minneapolis tattoo artists, Lindsee “Bee” Boyer and Jessi Lawson, act as this years curators. In the relatively brief time she’s been tattooing, Lindsee Boyer’s work has garnered worldwide attention from fans of the art form. Owner and founder of Bee Ink Tattoo, Boyer travels across the country to work on clients in some of the world’s most prestigious shops. Long time artist, Jessi Lawson, has shown her paintings in international galleries for the past two decades. In 2006, Lawson shifted her canvas of choice to skin and began tattooing professionally. Both curators find inspiration from nature and travel; it is visible in their complimentary styles and throughout the theme in this exhibition. [/bscolumns]
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EXHIBIT OPENING // ONE WEEKEND ONLY Thursday, January 10th 7-11pm
$10 // Free for Gamut Members Official opening party for the Villain Arts Minneapolis Tattoo Arts Convention
Featuring BAARDMUSIC
FREE OPEN HOURS:
Friday & Saturday January 11th – 12th // 1-7PM
FEATURED ARTISTS: Aeris Nadia, Alice Ferox, Alice de Lux, Angel Hawari, Annie Hejny, Anton Horishnyk, Ashley Nichole, Asher, Barret Lee, Ben Wuest, Brian Hart, Black Daze, Cory Favre, Derek Meier, Erin Nistler,Heather Renaux, Hilary Greenstein, Impeach, Jacob Eidem, Jade Huynh, Jake Spike, James Zucco, Jamie Owens, Jesse Golfis, James Kloiber, Jeremiah Soup, Kathryn Flora, Kevin Olson, Kim Heidkamp, Lauren Chadare, Lindsey Richardson, Linnea Maas, Matt Hintz, Meg Brown, Meghan Murphy, Michelle Nasvik, Miles Taylor, Meranda Turbak, Morgan Pease, Moustache Jim, Phaedra Odelle, Prettyhard, Rachel Andrzejewski, Renee Chartier, Rob Watt, Russ White, Scott Seekins, stace of spades, Steph Sperlak, Tamiko French, Tessa Warnke, Tierney Houdek, Wundr.
Gamut Gallery’s annual holiday event “Raging Art On” (RAO) returns this December with half of the 50 artists new to the show, and will run for three full weekends through December 22nd. Like years past, RAO is a cash-n-carry holiday sale in a gallery setting where there is literally art from ceiling to floor. It is “uncurated” in the sense that, aside from selecting who participates, the rest is left entirely up to the artists: what artwork to bring, how much to bring, and where it is hung. What results is a gallery packed to the brim with paintings, photos, prints, collectibles, handmade apparel, jewelry, housewares, and more.
RAO will kick-off with a proper party featuring DJ Baard on Wednesday, December 5th from 7-10pm. Admission to this “first dibs” opener will be $20 or FREE with gallery membership. Capacity is limited, so reserve your ticket today: https://ragingarton2018.bpt.me
THREE DAYS ONLY: Thursday, June 30th – July 2nd // 7-11pm all three nights
The definitive Prince Tribute show at Gamut Gallery! We know there have been countless tribute shows to honor the Purple One, but this will top them all. With over 60 artists participating, the walls will be packed to the hilt with Prince inspired art of every kind. A three night event, because one just isn’t enough to show our love. Curated by Erin Sayer. Header image by Amanda Downs Champlin.
The back yard will also be activated with a mural by @Slayivka (the painting team of Liseli Polivka and Erin Sayer), Prince ‘corn hole’, and DJ sets on all three nights!
Thursday evening 6/30 will kick off with DJ Michael Holtz, a Paisley Park regular, providing sound. $10 cover to benefit Vega Productions. “Vega Productions’ mission and work focus on supporting quality music and art education in schools. Over the past decade, Vega has provided more than 30,000 students with the opportunity to participate in music and art education programs across Minnesota. We believe that students benefit tremendously from quality music and art education and that music and art are integral parts of a whole curriculum.” https://vegaisinstrumental.wordpress.com/
Friday night 7/1 will be music by The Headspace Collective with Medicinall, Ms Elaine Eos and TeKnO fOx with special guest DJ Nola with a $5 cover.
7-11pm on all three nights. Costumes strongly encouraged!
ARTISTS
Aleister White
Amanda Downs Champlin
Anderson Illustrations
Angel Hawari
Angela Maki North
Anton Horishnyk
Bobby Kahn
Bonnie Eenigenburg
Brian Matthew Hart
Caitlin Karolczak
Cameren Torgerud
Charlie Forbes
CL Martin
Corey McNally
Daniel Holden
Danny Sigelman
Dayna Hudson
Eli Ejadi
Erik Ritter
Erin Sayer
Janet Morris
Jeanne Francis
Jeff Merrill
Jeffery Gauss
Jennifer Davis
Jesse Golfis
Jesse Quam
Jessica Gordon
Jessica Turtle
Jessie McNally
Jodi Bee
Josh Eiberg
Justine Di Fiore
Kat Richards
Kimberley Tornoe
Kristi Abbott Artist
Kyle Anderson
Liseli Polivka
Louisa Greenstock
Lynn Leppo
Mark Balma
Mark Hayden
Michael Alan
Mo Phili
Nicole Pfeifer
Peyton Scott Russell
Ramses Alarcon Sanchez
Raven Seybolt
Reed Wilkerson
Rob McBroom
Ronald Rudnik
Rudy Fig
Sara Syverhus
Sheila Kargel
Sherri A. Dahl
Sherri Faye
Tanya Boesen Marcella
Tara Costello
Terry Crouch
Tim Carroll
Toni Walsh
Tony Rydell
Val Decheine
Minneapolis – Thursday, June 11, 2015, 6:00 – 10:00 p.m. – opening for the group exhibition Middle Class Aspirations. A collection of all-new work by Wundr, Biafra Inc., and Urban Camper, this collaborative street art show explores the experiences and people of Middle Class America and those struggling to achieve middle class status. Through prints, photography and paintings, the three artists merge their media and political activism for an exhibition that shines a prudent spotlight on class division, exposes inequality and celebrates those who are attempting to rise above the hardships and better themselves.
Acknowledging both the pride and despair of being at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder, Wundr’s paintings depict scenes with his distinctive characters from middle and lower class living. Some of the characters are striving to make their lives better, while some have simply accepted their status at the bottom. One of the most prolific and recognizable local street artists, Wundr has developed a way to bring his art into a gallery atmosphere without losing the street elements and city-feel. In 2013, Wundr debuted a widely received solo show, Almost Yesterday, at Gamut Gallery that highlighted his signature style of artistic reclaiming.
Biafra Inc.’s pieces examine home décor of the middle and lower classes. Subverting kitschy catch phrases ubiquitously found in cheap home decoration stores, he creates new dystopian home décor. An aesthetic critique of capitalism, his new works inspire dialogue that addresses the “American Dream.” Biafra Inc. is known for the use of stickers, stencils, spray paint and posters to proliferate imagery here in the Twin Cities and beyond.
Urban Camper’s photographs vividly and intimately document the acts of local graffiti writers. His work exposes scenes from what is generally considered a lowbrow culture and invites a visual excavation of the alleyways and underground environments that transform outdoor cityscapes into canvas. His work migrates towards shooting stationary objects and streets scenes. His long-held passion and appreciation for graffiti is the catalyst for his photography.
Wundr, Biafra Inc., and Urban Camper consider themselves blue collar artists, creating a name and a history in a subculture with no promise of financial gain or reward. Immersed in this culture for the past decade, these three artists are not simply contemporary commentators on the plight of the middle class, but are operating within its system and attempting to break free from its perimeters.
Comments Off on Erin Sayer: The Tom Robbins Series Exhibit Finale
Minneapolis –Thursday, May 7th 2015, 7:00 p.m. – exhibit finale for the solo exhibition Erin Sayer: The Tom Robbins Series. For the finale of The Tom Robbins Series, Gamut Gallery wanted to create an atmosphere that embodied the energy of Sayer’s paintings and Robbins’ pop-modern novels. So, we take you into the gallery’s basement studio – an underground space with a cult-following of its own – for an intimate, but lively screening of the Tom Robbins-inspired Gus Van Sant film, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues.
A collaboration with cult aficionado and founder of the local alt-film group Trash Film Debauchery (TFD), Theresa Kay, this screening animates the fantastical adventures conceived by Robbins and cultivated by his eccentric characters. Sant’s film, much like Sayer’s visual work, Robbins’ literature and TFD’s cult-philosophy, invites the audience to embrace the bizarre idiosyncrasies of life and celebrate your inner weirdo.
Tom Robbins’ books are set in a Terence McKenna drenched, feminist, post-70s Americana. New-wave social ideals, spirituality, immortality, creativity, and fantastical adventures populate his mystical, psychedelic tales. A central theme is energy, associating existence with the internal divine, alive in us all. Sayer seeks to capture the Tom Robbins essence. Large oil paintings with saturated colors that depict auras, animals, symbology, occurrences and characterizations encompass the 25 original works on display.
Theresa Kay has been satisfying your trash film needs for over 11 years after forming Trash Film Debauchery on the U of MN campus in 2003. TFD is currently hosting regular B-movie and cult film screenings at the Trylon microcinema, Turf Club and Uptown Theater. When she’s not knee-deep in schlocky cinema, Theresa spends her time doing theatrical blood and guts effects, mind freaking, and urban beekeeping.
Since its inception in 2003, Trash Film Debauchery has been regularly screening horror flicks, B-movies, cult faves and other cinematic oddities at Minneapolis’ esoteric theater the Trylon Microcinema, the Uptown Theatre and the Turf Club.
Erin Sayer is an all-around creative. From running galleries to traveling the country painting murals, she is constantly engaged in artistic endeavors. Her latest projects include operating Cult Status Gallery, completing several local and national mural projects, painting theatre backdrops, and working on the Tom Robbins Series. Later this year, she is beginning a series of oil paintings based on the book ‘American Gods’ by author Neil Gaiman. She is a freelance curator, having curated over 100 art shows and events over the years. Sayer has owned three galleries since 1998, painted over 50 murals locally and around the US, and her paintings inhabit dozens of private and corporate collections. She is available on commission and is always up for a new travel adventure.
The 4th annual exhibit of Target Team Member art work, Curative, is happening this year at Gamut Gallery, and we couldn’t be more excited about the union! Curative is an art exhibition of work by Target Team Members that celebrates the creative talents for those in both creative and non-creative departments. This event is all about the work and love that people take the time to create outside of Target’s walls.
This year’s exhibit is juried by the lovely folks at Juxtaposition Arts, the community-based education, entrepreneurship, and professional development organization designed for young artists. A “real time”- inspired exhibition, the event will display art as it’s created via live screen printing by JXTA based off of the branding they have created for Curative.
On top of its partnership with JXTA, the event will feature delicious food, DJ-spun tunes, and libations, all for your art viewing pleasure. The exhibit will last only three days – opening reception on Wednesday, October 15th from 5-8 pm with additional open gallery hours on Thursday, October 16th from 12-4 pm and Friday, October 17th from noon-4 pm.
Come be a part of a different kind of social experience. Display art as it’s created. Share photos as they’re taken. Live and share in the moment.
MINNEAPOLIS–January 26 through March 9, 2013, Gamut Gallery will show photography, sculpture, taxidermy, painting, digital arts and costumery by Bethany Birnie. This prolific collection spans her personal post-Iraq experience, in vignettes of reveries made real. Birnie creates daydreams from the blueprints of her imagination, in her upcoming exhibit: Make.Believe. Opening Night commences Saturday, January 26, at 7:00 p.m. with special live-modeling of Birnie’s sculptural costumes, each a blend of the demure and outrageous. The continuing exhibit will be crowned by a unicorn skull of bone and mixed materials, installed along side projected therianthropic portraiture. Another installation piece features lovingly memorialized animals that Birnie taxidermizes by hand. The diverse collection also includes smaller prints for the beginning art collector.
Make.Believe. depicts intense longings of a soldier, facing extreme conditions in Iraq. Birnie’s aquatic series was forged in a sweltering humvee in Iraq; beneath full-body armor, she dreamt endlessly of swimming freely in water. Her harsh eighteen-month deployment spent as a combat machine gunner, was the catalyst to her whimsical dreamscapes. Her experience as a soldier revealed how precious lives can be marginalized as expendable. These deep realizations found redress in procuring animal roadway victims and conducting the intimate, autopsy-like taxidermic procedure. The magic Birnie deals in gained a life of its own as she began to find tiny bullets in one squirrel and then another. The bullet installation weaves reality and mystery together so effectively that the intention extends even beyond the artist’s reach.
“The notion that I have the power to change the world around me, into whatever I wish, is my main inspiration. I’m driven by the fantastical moments, when my daydream has been seamlessly recreated and lives before me… While on convoys to Baghdad, the utopia I would drift to was so vibrant and beautiful that when I returned home I began a mission to recreate it. Filled with friendly animals, brilliant colors and peaceful women, my daydreams embody the things I lacked in life, specifically on my journey as a female soldier.”
Bethany Birnie joined the Army National Guard in 2002. As she began her Fine Arts major at the University of Minnesota, she was deployed to Iraq. Upon returning, Birnie sought out a more structured degree. She graduated in 2009 from the University of Minnesota, with a double major in Fine Arts and Strategic Communication. She went on to complete a portfolio program at Miami Ad School in 2010. Later that year she was granted an Art Director internship in Amsterdam at the firm: One Big Agency. Since then she has worked freelance and as a full-time Art Director at two advertising agencies. She is working currently as an Art Director at Space 150. The Make.Believe. exhibit will be the debut of her personal works in a gallery setting.
MINNEAPOLIS, November 11, 2012 –Renee and Early represent a burgeoning esthetic that is transitioning from books, media, and pop iconography into galleries. These artists remain true to the wonderment and jovial perspective drawn from childhood. They share bold use of color and line, trading texture and detail for contemporary design and eye-grabbing imagery.
KATE RENEE /// Kate Renee has exhibited across the US and in Japan. She has received press, numerous awards and has been published locally. Renee earned a BA in Fine Arts, Art History, and a minor in design from the University of Minnesota in 2010. Renee has interned at various galleries, culminating in a position at Altered Esthetics. The characters Renee paints are familiar and friendly, yet bold and sassy. Their signature ‘Kate Renee’ eyes look back at the viewer, engaging conversation with a touch of humor. http://katerenee.com
BRETT EARLY /// Brett Early has been commissioned for store fronts in Minneapolis, such as Heavenly Soles and Buffalo Exchange. He remains a regular exhibitor at local art crawls and cafes. Early received a BFA in Illustration from the College of Visual Arts in 2005. Much of his training in illustration was rigorously aimed toward commercial applications. Early came away from this experience with a highly-attuned understanding of color, line, purpose and concept, but also with a distinct urge to reclaim the joy of painting for the elusive reasons of the folk artist, outsider-artist, or child. Early’s commitment: “If you are not having fun when looking at my work, then I’m not doing my job”
Watch the promotional video and then extended interview with
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