Tag Archive: #ArtTalkMpls

  1. 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.

  2. 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.