Tag Archive: Art Talk

  1. The Periphery of Power Artist Talk

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    C4W:2023 Artists Talk Features: CL Martin, Henry Tyson, Perci Chester, Jessica Eckerstorfer

    In alignment with the concepts of The Periphery of Power, guest curator, Esther Callahan will be sparking conversation with four featured artists in a moderated panel discussion. These conversations provide the artists a platform where they have the opportunity to speak on their artistic processes and current inspirations within contemporary contexts. Accompany us in welcoming CL Martin, Henry Tyson, Jessica Eckerstorfer, and Perci Chester as they share the role they and their art play in our collective history. 

    Making their return to Gamut are CL Martin and Perci Chester. CL’s use of traditional media like charcoal, graphite, and acrylic creates mysterious characters with their own unique identity and presence. Her portrait, The Snake, is enigmatic and rebellious, but more colorful than many of the past works she has shown at Gamut Gallery over the years. Perci Chester has made her return to the gallery after 7 years with her sculpture, Tore So Glow. Her use of non-traditional materials such as an aluminum glass door, wire, steel filings, rusted nails, paper cups, a plastic torso, and metal springs create her featured sculpture. Perci’s work may be cold to the touch, but her abstract style is warm with human emotion, rooted in human and animal forms, often expressing motion, tension, and balance.

    We are delighted to welcome newcomers Henry Tyson and Jessica Eckerstorfer. Henry’s hand-built and wheel-thrown ceramic sculptures investigate the functions, associations, and assumptions of the body, pottery, and the points at which they overlap. Tyson’s sculpture, Inreflection, posits queer intimacy as a counter to normative views of sex, gender, and tenderness. While Jessica Eckerstorfer book and paper project, The Matriarch is part of a larger collection, entitled Voices in a Room. The project, which includes 12 pieces, uses short story, letterpress, handmade paper, and sculpture to bring voices to male-made, female forms in the art world. Each piece is soft in nature with her use of cotton pulp, thread, and natural foliage inserts creating this handbound book in its deconstructed form as it spills from the walls onto the gallery floor. 

    C4W:2023 The Periphery of Power ARTIST TALK
    Thursday, August 3rd // 7pm
    • $5 pre-sale available
    • $10 day of the event
    • FREE for members

    Esther Callahan was inspired by the importance of creating a space that originates from a need to delve into all sorts of wide-ranging, hot-topic issues, through the works she chose in her curation of this open call for work, C4W:2023. This exhibition references The Periphery of Power through love, social mores, gender, intimacy, beauty, materiality, maternity, and more. The pieces Callahan chose convey her vision of art as a vehicle of agency and power. Join us as we learn about each artist’s processes, perspectives on their bodies of work, and the role of art in contemporary society as a whole.

    FREE GALLERY & GIFT SHOP OPEN HOURS
    Wednesday – Friday, 11am – 6pm and
    Saturday 11am – 4pm. We are available by appointment, please request an appointment 48 hours in advance.

    ABOUT THE CURATOR & MODERATOR
    Esther Callahan     is an African American curator, arts organizer, and feminist scholar. Over the past 20+ years in the Twin Cities, she has created and co-created various platforms for cultural production rooted in interrogating the impact of racial and gender equity. She is the former Co-Director of the Emerging Curator Institute (ECI), a Minnesota based nonprofit designed to build the individual practices of emerging curators from diverse backgrounds. In addition to ECI, Callahan was a Curatorial Fellow at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia), where she co-founded the Curatorial Advisory Committee as a model to help inform Diversity, Equity, Accessibility and Inclusion practice in curatorial work. She is also the Co-Artistic Director for Arts & Rec US, a design and development company in Mpls.

    ABOUT THE PANELIST
    Henry Tyson’s (they, them) work consists of hand-built and wheel-thrown ceramic sculptures that investigate the functions, associations, and assumptions of the body, pottery, and the points at which they overlap. Henry posit’s queer intimacy as a counter to traditional views of sex, gender, and tenderness. Is it not a basic function of the body to hold another? To love? By blending the human form with functional pottery, they ask: “if we are indeed vessels, may we choose what we were made to carry? What does my body hold and why?”

    CL Martin (she, they) is a queer figurative artist who uses traditional media like charcoal, graphite and acrylic to experiment with enigmatic characters and their own unique identity and presence. She has studied art all her life and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. She is continually inspired by history, graphic & digital design and the performing arts. In 2007, she received an Artist Initiative Grant from the MN State Arts Board and the National Endowment for The Arts. She has exhibited internationally from London to Italy and her work resides in private collections in London, Italy, Paris, Ukraine, Berlin, Los Angeles and New York.

    Perci Chester (she, her) is an American visual artist working across disciplines including sculpture, painting, photography, and printmaking. Her work is abstract in style but rooted in human and animal forms, often expressing motion, tension, and balance in vivid color through imaginative invention. Created variously from metal, glass, wood, found objects, and industrial artifacts, Perci Chester’s work ranges in scale from intimate pedestal pieces to large public art installations, reflecting her sense of humor with the depth and complexities of memory and the human experience. She is best known for large-scale anthropomorphic installations that appear to defy gravity in suspended equilibrium and elicit an emotional connection as dialogue between spirit and matter.

    Perci Chester’s work has been featured in numerous exhibitions and is represented in private and public collections internationally. With an extensive background in art education, she has taught in Boston, New York, San Francisco and the Twin Cities and, for many years, served on the advisory board for College of Visual Arts in St. Paul. She holds an MFA as well as a Master of Arts in Teaching from Rhode Island School of Design and a BFA from Washington University’s Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts. Perci lives and practices in Minneapolis.

    Jessica Eckerstorfer (she, her) is a 2nd generation, Filipina-American who grew up all over the Midwest, but settled in Minneapolis in 2012. She is a strong feminist, who believes in the intersectionality of social justice and the necessity of empathetic creativity. In addition, she is the Co-Founder and Artistic Community Director of Paranoid Tree Press. Her background is solidly based in arts nonprofit programming. She has dual Bachelor’s degrees in English and philosophy with a focus of civic life and engagement from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities and a Master’s of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, Fiction from Columbia College Chicago. She is a two time recipient of the Albert P. Weisman Award, and her work can be found in The Ivory Tower, Pilcrow & Dagger, and Paper Darts Lit + Art Magazine.Her day is split between co-directing The Southeast Asian Diaspora Project (SEAD) and art directing Paranoid Tree Press.

  2. Conexión Artist Talk

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    Conexión Artist Talk //  Gamut Gallery and ACME Collective partner to host a conversation with three artists in our current exhibition, Conexión.

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    Gamut Gallery invites you to join us for a panel discussion moderated by Melissa Sisk with guest curator Gerardo Morado and three featured exhibiting artists on Saturday, May 7th.  As the founder of ACME Collective, Morado has become an active player in the Twin Cities events scene and promoted intersectional opportunities for musicians, performers, and artists featured in his shows.  With this intersectional spirit at heart, Morado has assembled the high-octane and visually arresting Conexión as his curatorial debut. 

    Morado cites contributing artists John Alspach, Evan Weselmann, and Nichole Showalter as profoundly influential in developing his appreciation of art. Characterized by their past participation with ACME Collective shows, he publicly admires their shared professionalism and quality of work.  “They give such a huge piece of themselves…” he says, “…the fact that what I’m doing translates to them speaks to the timelessness of that connection.” We are thrilled to host all three, inviting their work and experiences as artists in the Twin Cities to enliven our space through discussion and discourse.

    Friends of the gallery will remember moderator Melissa Sisk as a featured artist from our most recent art talk which highlighted the MPLSART Sketchbook Project.  We appreciate the opportunity to bring Sisk back to facilitate the upcoming discussion, allowing attendees an engaging glimpse into the cross-cultural and inter-generational conversation fostered through Conexión. [/bscolumns][bscolumns class=”one_half_last_clear”]

    Conexión Artists Talk:
    Saturday, May 7, 2022 // 10 AM
    Moderated by Melissa Sisk followed by an Open Q & A
    Featuring Gerardo Morado, Evan Weselmann, John Alpsach & Nichole Showalter.
    • $5 pre-sales available until May 6th
    • $7 at the door, FREE for members
    • This is 30 person limited capacity event
    • Entry will be available at the door if pre-sales do not sell out

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    ABOUT THE CURATOR

    Gerardo Morado is a Mexican American Artist and Curator based in Minneapolis. In 2006 experiencing the youthfulness of 17, Morado was introduced to Underground Rave culture in Northeastern Mexico. This quickly became an obsession and he began to focus all of his energy into organizing parties, collecting music and learning how to DJ. Gerardo uniquely applies/emulates an approach to an event curation and brand development which is rooted in 15 years of personal experience and regeneration, a phenomenon powerful enough to unveil and inspire ACME Collective. 

    His main focus is promoting art, culture, and music in an intersectional, and inclusive way with a non-conforming approach. Gerardo is currently producing bi-monthly showcases which feature renowned and emerging artists in underground dance music and visual arts. These showcases intersect full-fledged raves with concert-grade sound + visual systems, and pop-up installations featuring local exhibiting artists.

    ABOUT ACME COLLECTIVE
    ACME is a collective of interdisciplinary artists from the Twin Cities promoting art culture and music in an intersectional and inclusive way. Throughout the years, ACME’s experimental, avant-garde stylistic events have been uniting artists from various subcultures and generations with the aid of dance music and interactive installations.

    ABOUT THE ARTISTS
    John Alspach has been making art in Minneapolis for over 30 years, much of that time as the operator of the art studio Shiny Robot. He was a member of the artist collective Rosalux and curated shows in condo spaces through Broadcast Exhibitions. His works are inspired by the colors and energy of the city streets. 

    Evan Weselmann is a Minneapolis-based artist and designer working primarily in illustration, animation, and painting. He creates looping drawings that focus on carving a relationship between positive and negative space through subtle color variations. Evan has worked with clients ranging from local mutual aid funds to international advertising agencies. He is currently represented by Closer & Closer. 

    Nichole Showalter is a Minneapolis-based fiber artist. While she has been embroidering for over a decade, most recently, she has shifted her creative focus to crafting tufted wall hangings. Her subject matter is largely sex-positive and greatly inspired by Georgia O’Keefe. She creates work that celebrates and honors one’s sexual autonomy and choice.

    Melissa Sisk is a Minnesota-based visual artist and educator. As a multidisciplinary artist, she works in a range of mediums and illustrates a wide variety of subjects, aiming to highlight the beauty and wonder of our everyday world. Her background in biomedical visualization grounds her creations in well-researched details and accuracy. As a designer, she elevates her artwork by using bold lines and striking compositions.

  3. C4W:2021 Artist Talk

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    C4W:2021 Artist Talk Features: Alondra Marisol Garza, Benja Wuest, Katie Robinson, Tchana Pierre & curator Cándida González.

    Our guest curator, Cándida González, and Gamut Gallery’s director, Cassie Garner, sit down for a conversation with C4W artists; Alondra M. Garza, Benja Wuest, Katie Robinson & Tchana Pierre to share about their processes, ideations and perspectives on current events. For Cándida, these selected works embody a form of elemental energy that invites us to drop down from the chaos into the essential foundation of existence as life twists & changes around us. These artworks all create roots in the state of being that we return to in order to help us make sense of the confusion.

    About C4W:2021 – Elemental
    Our annual Call-4-Work exhibition is not a show that influences what art should be. Instead, the chosen guest curator brings their unique perspective and interpretation of the submitted works ranging the full “Gamut” of visual media. Through our guest curator’s lens and perspective, this body of work presented the theme Elemental. The gallery will play host to works that contain the roots of all existing matter – earth, air, water and fire – the essential principles of existence to life, death and human connection.

    C4W:2021 ELEMENTAL ARTIST TALK
    Wednesday, September 22nd ,7pm
    $5     pre-sales ended at 3pm on 9.22.21
    $7door day of event,  FREE for members
    • Pre-sales have closed
    • Entry will be available at the door
    • Masks required indoors

    Alondra Marisol Garza is a Tejana/Chicana artist. She was born on the Mexican side at the Rio Grande Valley borderlands of Mexico and South Texas. She later became a U.S. citizen, obtaining dual citizenship as a Mexican American, and moved to the U.S. She obtained a BFA at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and recently graduated from the MFA program at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Her work has been exhibited internationally across the U.S., Mexico, and Italy.

    Benja Wuest is a Minneapolis based artist working professionally in the field of sculpture and installation. He was trained as a painter and was introduced to three dimensional art forms by studying origami while living in a monastery in Japan. Returning to Minnesota Benja continued his studies at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design with a concentration in print, paper and book making so that he could continue to work with paper and utilize traditional printmaking techniques on his sculptures. While utilizing two dimensional printing techniques for three dimensional artwork, Benja naturally became interested in three dimensional printing. Building his own printer’s and being on the forefront of technology, the subject matter of his work developed around science, technology and the digital.

    Katie Robinson (all pronouns) is a student of love, trauma, and transformation. Their academic, poetic, artistic, and community work is curious about and present with individual and collective harm, such that our wounds may be understood outside of a modernist-colonial paradigm. As an abolitionist, they are a servant to transformation that occurs at the levels of the psyche, the nervous system, and the intimate relationship. Katie’s academic work, as a PhD student studying Depth Psychology, with a specialization in Community Psychology, Liberation Psychology, Eco-Psychology and Indigenous Psychologies, has afforded them rigorous exposure to the harms of Western conceptions of mental health, as well as, in turn, a decolonial view of the psyche. They explore these concepts and many more as a co-host of the cute, critical and metaphysical podcast We Are Power Crystals, with Leah Garza and Jaison Perez. Katie lives in Minneapolis with their partner, cat, and dog.

    Tchana Pierre Born Leslie Nembo, Cameroon, 1999. The artist uses the alias Tchana Pierre, after the Cameroonian musical legend to alienate Leslie the artist from Leslie the chemist. Tchana Pierre uses art as a medium for storytelling. The artist’s works are inspired by his Christian upbringing in Cameroon, relocation to Nigeria to flee political violence in Cameroon in 2016 and subsequent relocation to the United States in 2017.

  4. MPLSART Sketchbook Project Exhibition Artist Talk

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    Saturday, May 1st
    A round robin-style artist talk featuring Destiny Davison, Christopher Carr, allison anne, Derek Meier, Stacey Combs, Leeya Jackson, Reggie LeFlore from the 2020 MPLSART Sketchbook Exhibition.

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    This is not your typical artist talk. This talk will be a Q&A Chain — a method where the curator begins by selecting a piece that intrigues them and asks the artist a couple questions. From there, each chosen artist picks the next one, opening up the dialogue and inviting the artists to respond to each other. There will be seven artists, each having the opportunity to speak about their piece for approximately 5-10 minutes, and will conclude with closing remarks from the curator, Blaine Garrett and Gamut’s director, Cassie Garner.

    ABOUT the EXHIBITION
    MPLSART and Gamut Gallery present the MPLSART Sketchbook Project Exhibition. The exhibition has no defined theme, only a set of guidelines – works had to be new originals and available for under $500. Many artists drew inspiration from their sketchbook pages. In addition to featuring 35 original works, the exhibition will also be an opportunity to see the five original sketchbooks first-hand before going to auction at St. Paul based Revere Auctions.[/bscolumns]

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    MPLSART SKETCHBOOK PROJECT EXHIBITION ARTIST Q & A Chain
    Saturday, May 1st, 2021 • 11am-12:30pm
    Moderated by curator Blaine Garrett
    •  Pre-sales Required
    • $10 General Admission
    • $5 for Gamut Members
    • 15 tickets available
    • Masks Required
    • We also livestream the talk on our Instagram: @gamutgallerympls

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    ABOUT the ARTISTS

    allison anne is a collagist, mail artist + graphic designer living in Minneapolis. Their work is the result of years of self-directed experimentation with many mediums, but explorations with paper collage have become their focus. Working with rescued, found or recycled materials as often as possible, allison uses collage, zine-making and correspondence art as ways to explore intersections and interactions between media, medium and function in their art practice. allison is a member of theTwin Cities Collage Collective that strives to provide an inclusive, safe space for individuals at all levels of creative ability to learn about collage.

    Christopher Carr is a mixed media artist originating from Atlanta, GA. He has shown work in various Atlanta area galleries including AmericasMart, Elevation Gallery and Lambert Gallery of Art. Christopher moved to Minneapolis in 2008. Most recently Christopher has shown in group exhibitions at Shrine NYC and The Minneapolis Institute of Art. His work often explores themes of escapism through imagination, and typically reflects his perspective of the world around him at the time the piece is created. He is also a thoughtful and enthusiastic collector of folk art.

    Derek Meier‘s work focuses on material exchange, immediacy, visual play and aesthetic dialogue. Deletion is a critical step in his creative process. He typically utilize paint and mixed media collage elements and work very fast and instinctively on many different pieces at once so that the body of work grows together. From there Derek identifies and isolates the moments he found to be successful and delete what he considers to be irrelevant. The deletion is often achieved by building small and large bodies of unmodulated color fields. Resting these next to other fields allows him to create honest, sculptural lines and forms by pinching paint together. The way landscapes are constructed is something that informs many of his paintings: the different ways their visual space is carved up and shared between natural and man-made elements and their varying agendas.

    Destiny Davison is a writer, illustrator, and multi-media artist exploring the real, the unreal, and the in-between from the Midwest.

    Leeya Rose Jackson is a painter, designer, and Art Director born and raised in Detroit, Mi. Her paintings and linocuts largely explore Black femme identity.

    Reggie LeFlore is a visual artist who creates to praise individual and collective stories through human portraiture.  His inspirations are drawn from the concepts and philosophies of Street Art culture and Illustration – using aerosol, acrylic paint and various graphic design techniques to construct pieces in varying styles, scales and surfaces. Reggie uses visual arts to amplify both his surrounding environments and the narratives contained within them.

    Stacey Combs aka stace of spades, is a freelance artist + illustrator living in South Minneapolis. She is self-taught, but have had a little help here and there. Stacey enjoys good food, music, travel, grungy ink line work, and walks (of any length) on the beach. 75% of the time she works while listening to classical renditions of video game soundtracks. Much of the work that she does is portraiture. While she does make a fair amount of fan art, Stacey often works with themes of environmental and social justice, drawing attention to unfairness and outdated social norms. Looking at her work, it might seem that she draws inspiration from the darkness in life. While that may be true, it all comes from a place of compassion and appreciation. she tries to shine light on, and even make light of, that darkness when she can… which is really the best that any of us can do.

  5. Behind the Poster

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    FEATURING: Alexis Politz, Anne Ulku, Evan Weselmann, Destiny Davison, Gina McMillen, Fiona Avocado, Ted Kusio, Nicholas Straight, Maximilian Mauracher, Melissa Sisk, and Sara Paul Kahn[bscolumns class=”one_half”]

    The time has come to bid “From Us : Together, Forever, Sometimes” a proper farewell on Wednesday, May 27th 2020. We will be partnering up with the fine folx mplsart to host “Behind the Poster”.  This finale is a long time coming and it feels great to shine a bit more light on this exhibition that was cut short in out brick & mortar last March. We are very proud of all the designers that put their hearts into their works, finding inspiration from the poetry written by Molly-Margaret Johnson and Kareem Rahma. Behind the Poster, a virtual art talk, will showcase several of those designers through candid videos that were self recorded last week.

    Learn more about the designers in a series of 3 minute clips as they discuss their selection process in choosing their poem while not knowing if it had been written by Molly-Margaret Johnson and/or Kareem Rahma, their experience interpreting poetry to visual design and what is was like as an artist in this exhibition.[/bscolumns][bscolumns class=”one_half_last_clear”]

    BEHIND THE POSTER
    Wednesday, May 27th, 2020, 7pm
    Hosted by mplsart & Gamut Director Cassie Garner
    Click link: www.mplsart.com

     

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    FROM US: Together Forever Sometimes:
    We began with thirty untitled and unauthored poems by Molly-Margaret Johnson & Kareem Rahma. By eliminating titles and byline for each poem, the audience is given an opportunity to connect more viscerally with the work by having to read between the lines without preconceptions of race, gender or sexual orientation. The outcome is an ouroboros of words written by two uniquely different individuals coming together.

    Johnson & Rahma’s poetry was then shared with local and national typographers, illustrators and designers who were challenged to conceive a personal rendition of the selected poem of their choice. Through screen print, letterpress, woodblock, hand lettering, and various illustrative elements, they will produce posters that push the viewer’s interpretation, adding yet a third layer of complexity to the written prose.

    The culmination of this process extends to those who will visit the gallery to experience From Us. Featuring bold, fluid, high contrast, and vibrant visual representations, the gallery walls will be filled with content that will connect with viewers. We anticipate engaging, perception-bending conversations filled with an appreciation and respect for differences as the outcome.

  6. C4W:2019 Art Talk

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    Guest Curator Teqen Zéa-Aida and Director Cassie Garner sit down for a conversation with C4W artists, including, Dawid Mludzik, Meg Lionel Murphy, Koldkral and Shhhhame. Learn about their individual processes, their ideation and their feelings on current events.

    Gamut Gallery’s annual Call 4 Work exhibition never has a pre-fixed theme. The chosen guest curator brings their unique perspective and interpretation of the submitted works ranging the full “Gamut” of visual media. When Teqen Zéa-Aida accepted the challenge of curating this year’s C4W: 2019, he allowed his mind to lead quietly, without prejudice, while sorting through the 722 submissions from 177 artists.

    Through the artists’ works, Zéa-Aida began to feel a very real sense of urgency emerge, an immediacy borne of the political, cultural, and environmental turmoil of our times. As a result, he has selected works from 36 artists, creating a collection of more than 40 artistic statements about place and space, sensory reactions to drastically changing—and degrading—surroundings. This year’s show features works that are centered around community, emotions, and people; a push back against loss of self.

    FEATURED ARTISTS
    Alex Petersen, Ashlyn Boehme, Christopher E. Harrison, Christopher Palbicki, Claire Hickman, Carissa Fern, Danielle Peters, Darren Terpstra, Dawid Mludzik, Derek Meier, Emily Dzieweczynski, Emily Quandahl, Evan Weselmann, Hilary Greenstein, Jacob Docksey, Jacob Yeates, Jeffrey Hansen, Jeremy Jones, Karine Rupp-Stanko, Koldkral, Loretta Bebeau, Maggie Dimmick, Marcia Haffmans, Matthew Bindert, Meg Lionel Murphy, Mike Ewaldt, MollieRae Miller, Murad Sayf, Natalia Berglund, Ron Brown, Russ White, Scott Roper, Shhhhame, Stephanie Friest, Taylor Robers, and Yuta Uchida.
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    ART TALK
    Saturday, September 28th // 11am – 1pm
    $5 pre-sale, $7 door, Free for Members
    Get your pre-sale today!
    * This is a limited capacity event we recommend purchasing in advance.

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    ABOUT THE ARTIST

    Dawid Mludzik  is a Polish-American multidisciplinary artists currently living and working in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Mludzik is a veteran engineer of the United States Air Force. He studied at the University of North Dakota as well as the Florence School of Fine Arts in Florence, Italy. Mludzik recieved a BA in Art, from the University of North Dakota in 2018. His works have been displayed in private galleries, museums, as well as international exhibitions.

    Meg Lionel Murphy compulsively paints heartbroken womxn that magically grow larger, stronger, and scarier than the world around them. As the paintings grow in number, she grows just a little larger, stronger, and scarier too. When not painting, she divides her time between working as the Art + Story Director of Pollen and volunteering as Editor-in-Chief of Paper Darts.

    Shhhhame is a non binary artist living in Saint Paul working in various mediums. Although their current primary focus is painting they also engage in mixed media, design, illustration, film, photography, woodwork, & textile. Growing up in a art based family structure influenced many early creative endeavors. Shame learned how to sew before they could read at age seven & fell deeply in love with the satisfaction & control of manifesting dreams. Currently they are exploring relationship with self through portraits & textiles of humans who inspire self love.

    KOLDKRAL is a Turkish artist based in Minneapolis. Coming from a background in music, more recently he explores art through a visual variety. From Painting, to photography, and miscellaneous design – KOLDKRAL uses art as a coping mechanism to escape the confines of formality and structure in everyday life. Much of the themes present in their art are provoked by the desire to stray away from surface level realities. “Music is something far more than what my ears can hear. At first I started to see colours in music..Now it’s become scenes, landscapes, beings, and worlds. Music and visual arts hold the same weight for me. It’s a warhead for me to push a button on that will obliterate toxic worlds that we are living through. The days where a person could only focus on one medium are long gone. I’ve got the mind and will to create worlds from anything – how could I not do what I want?”

     

  7. Art Talk: Drawing Upon Humanity

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    In an intimate conversation, Gamut Gallery’s Juleana Enright and Russ White chat about the craft of drawing and the inspiration behind the pieces in his solo exhibit Macro Machines. Through personal stories, White describes how childhood memories root and influence his work, while reflecting upon his specific obsessions within the art world.

    Q&A session will conclude the conversation, followed by more time to view the exhibit and engage in informal small group discussions. Macro Machines opens Saturday, April 2nd 7-11pm.

    Join our Facebook event page.

  8. Revolution Now – International Women’s Day Panel Discussion

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    Minneapolis – Sunday, March 8th, 2015, 3:00 – 5:00 p.m. – As part of the exhibition, “Revolution Now: Portraits of Contemporary Female Revolutionaries,” curators Ash Marlene Hane & Angela Sprunger lead a discussion with Robyne Robinson, Drew Peterson, and Joan Vorderbruggen on International Women’s Day.

    How are women changing the world today and what role does art play in it? What does modern feminism really mean, here in America and globally, and how do we define its revolutionaries? The three panelists are set to explore these questions and expand on how we can cultivate radical energy within the art world. Each guest brings to the table personal experience and creative innovation, their vision at the intersection of art and change-making.

    For this event, Gamut Gallery welcomes an intimate and political discussion on how we can (in the words of Maya Angelo) “raise our connective voices, wield our power, influence and combat insecurity in every corner of the world.”

     Robyne Robinson started her career as one of the first African-Americans to anchor a prime-time newscast and quickly became an icon of Twin Cities broadcasting. Her 20 years on air have been filled with numerous honors including the Upper Midwest Emmy for Best Anchor. Robyne has engaged in an active civic life, becoming a Hubert H. Humphrey Public Policy Fellow at the University of Minnesota, as well as sitting on numerous boards and non-profit agencies including A Better Chance Foundation of Eden Prairie and the Lupus Foundation of Minnesota. All the while she has been a steadfast supporter of the arts, playing integral roles in numerous arts organizations and serving on the board of the Walker Arts Center. Her curatorial skills, personal art collection, and her own artwork have been widely celebrated and exhibited. She is also the creator and designer of Rox Minneapolis Jewelry, featured on the Tyra Banks Show and in local and national fashion and lifestyle publications such as Nylon and Mpls-St.Paul Magazine. Now Arts and Culture Director of the Airport Foundation, Robyne is in charge of creating an interactive, cultural experience for travelers and Minnesotans through art and technology at the nation’s 16th busiest airport.

    Drew Peterson is a Twin Cities based multi-disciplinary artist whose studio practice incorporates a wide variety printmaking techniques. Upon completing his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2013, Drew has returned to Minneapolis to pursue his career as both artist and teacher. His work has been shown in a recent solo exhibition at The Burnet Gallery in Minneapolis and in a group exhibition at Fernwey Gallery in Chicago. Peterson is an adjunct faculty member in the University of Minnesota’s printmaking department, the lead instructor at Juxtaposition Arts VALT program, and a 2014-15 Jerome resident at Highpoint Center for Printmaking.

    Joan Vorderbruggen is the Cultural District Arts Coordinator for Hennepin Theatre Trust. An artist and organizer, Joan envisions possibilities for the most dejected spaces, transforming vacant storefronts into showcases of MN based creativity. In 2012, she developed and implemented the multiple award winning project, “Artists in Storefronts”, pairing more than 150 artists from 5 to 80 years old to create exhibits of original work in vacant and under-utilized commercial storefronts. In addition to creating a temporary, pop-up urban walking gallery, her project commissioned six permanent murals, hosted dozens of community events, tours, festivals, and over 50 live performances in alternative spaces. In just eight months of participation, eight properties with a combined vacancy of more than 20 years acquired short-and long-term lease agreements. She currently serves as the Cultural District Arts Coordinator for Hennepin Theatre Trust activating the downtown Minneapolis Cultural District with the project Made Here. Joan continues to be a visionary source of creative urban revitalization that connects and celebrates diverse cultural landscape.

    EVENT DETAILS
    International Women’s Day Panel Discussion
    feat. Joan Vorderbruggen, Drew Peterson, and Robyne Robinson
    facilitated by Ash Marlene Hane and Angela Sprunger
    Sunday, March 8th, 2015
    3PM     / FREE

  9. Art Talk

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    Join us for a conversation lead by Public Functionary’s Tricia Khutoretsky with Call4Work juror/curator Kristoffer Knutson and Gamut Gallery Director Jade Patrick.

    Three innovators versed in the local arts community share their thoughts on the connective tissues that bind them creatively, weigh in on the evolution and current state of the local art scene, and discuss the sustainability of the arts through establishing art purveyors and supporting artists.

    The exchange will touch upon the importance of experimentation and adaptivity. All three panelists have figured out how to turn their domains – past and present – into interactive playgrounds, appealing to the uniqueness of their audiences. Gamut showcases this concept with each featured exhibit through an emphasis on supporting collaborative and multimedia work, and an “anything goes” approach to media submission, which was a core element in the C4W exhibition. Even from its early Kickstarter beginnings, Khutoretsky pushed for Public Functionary to be seen as a gallery existing outside of typical forms. With each exhibit and artist, Public Functionary’s space evolves, redefining what a gallery could and should be. Her focus on artistic process helps bring the patron’s experience out of two dimensions and into a more engaging, sensory level. In a similar vein, Knutson created ROBOTlove to function as both a design store featuring artist collectibles and as a space brimming with artistic discovery that united collectors with the artists they appreciate.

    Knutson will also expand on the artwork selected for this year’s C4W exhibition and discuss what it was like to sift through the breadth of submissions with the emphasis on form, content and aesthetics. Patrick will highlight the ideas behind Gamut and where the gallery sees itself in the local “artscape,” and Khutoretsky will examine what it takes to be a successful, yet experimental gallery in Minneapolis.

    From a position as the proverbial “new-kid-on-the-block,” Gamut excitedly awaits a chance to facilitate dialogue which will “pick the brains” of two of the scene’s most established art supporters and is sure to be of interest to both arts programmers and patrons alike.

    About the Panelists:

    TRICIA KHUTORETSKY is the Curator and Director of Public Functionary, an innovative contemporary art space in NE Minneapolis. Growing up overseas (Egypt/Thailand/Saudi Arabia) and coming from a culturally-mixed background, her personal agenda as an art curator is to share art that connects people. She’s been an advocate for the cultivation of a vibrant creative community in Twin Cities since 2001, initiating and supporting projects that celebrate innovation in local art, fashion and music. She has B.A. from Macalester College and an M.A. in Arts and Cultural Management from St. Mary’s University of Minnesota, where she is currently an Adjunct Instructor for the same program.

    KRISTOFFER KNUTSON has a long history of producing creative content for advertisers, film studios and television programs – all while staying rooted here in Minneapolis. As partner in mplsart.com and owner of the now defunct design store, ROBOTlove, Knutson has contributed greatly to illuminating local and national street art, while helping to pollinate the broader Minneapolis visual arts scene.

    JADE PATRICK is the Director of Gamut Gallery, and holds a B.A. in economics from Hamline University. Patrick’s ability to develop community makes people feel included and capable to make a difference in their own lives and the lives of others. Not adhering to the classic business models of the past, Patrick breaks them to create something new and of far more meaning. “Art of the happening” is an embedded part of the Patrick mission for this exact reason: create experiences; make something that the machine cannot.