Tag Archive: Human Shaped Animal

  1. Astroturf

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    ​​FEATURED ARTISTS: Genie Castro, Human Shaped Animal, Neal Breton, Nicole Mueller, in partnership with Blu Dot. Envisioned by Siobhan Mulloy and curated by Cass Garner.

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    Installed in place of grass from as early as the 1950s, AstroTurf™ forgoes naturally growing grass for the carefree ease of owning an evergreen front lawn. In mid-century America, the synthetic material was marketed to homeowners as a means of signaling status to their neighbors through perfectly manicured landscaping year-round. Mirroring our current consumer culture of filtered images and branded content, Gamut Gallery’s first show of 2023, AstroTurf, plays with the idea of appearances vs. authenticity through the iconic influence of SoCal architecture, pop art, and post-painterly abstraction. Astroturf peers over the neighbor’s hedge to sneak a peek at how the Joneses really live. 

    Gamut’s multimedia exhibit, in collaboration with Blu Dot , features local MN artists, Genie Castro and Nicole Mueller, along with returning SoCal artists, Human Shaped Animal and Neal Breton. Embracing bold and vivid colors, hard-edge lines, and geometry, this selection of work celebrates the resurgence and influence of the mid-century movement and pop-culture Southern California suburbia. 

    Genie Castro’s renditions offer a nod to the midcentury design through her vibrant mono-prints and nine accompanying pieces from her 2022 collection, Lily. While Human Shape Animal incorporates tropical foliage with post-painterly abstraction to produce sculptural, yet functional, wall fixtures that incorporate living plants. Nicole Mueller’s potent images from her annual pilgrimages to Palm Springs highlight mid-century modernist architecture, with the quiet stillness of manicured lawns and majestic palms. Also lending a nod to the leisurely lifestyle, Neal Breton’s works from his Strange Paradise Collection reveal inviting pool scenes we all long for during these cold winter months. Blu Dot’s selection of locally designed furniture elevates the modern aesthetic, immersing the viewer in the movement’s all-encompassing influence on art, design and culture. [/bscolumns]

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    MEMBER PREVIEW NIGHT
    Thursday, February 16th// 5-8pm
    Don’t miss the first dibs on your favorite pieces!
    Not a Gamut Gallery member? Become one today.
    • Must be a Gamut Gallery Member to attend

    PUBLIC OPENING:
    Friday, February 17th // 6-9pm
    $10 day of the event / $7 pre-sale / FREE for Members
    Featuring Genie Castro, Human Shaped Animal, Neal Breton, Nicole Mueller & showroom pieces from Blu Dot.

    GALLERY & GIFT SHOP OPEN HOURS
    Please note: Gamut Gallery is closed on exhibit opening days
    FREE open hours: Wednesday – Friday, 11am – 6pm; Saturday 11am – 4pm[/bscolumns][bscolumns class=”clear”][/bscolumns]

    ABOUT THE ARTISTS

    Genie Castro is a community leader in the arts. She creates unity with projects she is involved in by connecting with people. She encourages students and clients to get into the creation process and learn through that exploration. Castro is director and owner of a printmaking studio in the Casket Arts Building in Northeast Minneapolis called SuperCharged Printmakers. It is there she and other printmakers create an inviting space for artists to create freely in the medium of printmaking and have showing opportunities. Her artworks hung alongside artists Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst, Frank Stella, Robert Longo and Donald Sultan. Castro’s art is featured in the homes of many private collectors and in public and corporate collections.

    Human Shaped Animal a.k.a Rachel Barnes currently resides in Santa Cruz, California. After receiving a B.A. in Painting and Digital Design from Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania, she relocated to Upstate New York for some soul searching. Completely enamored by the ever-changing landscapes and energy that came from West Coast, she soon relocated to Santa Cruz, California in 2016. Expanding in multiple directions from her experience as a painter and muralist, Human Shaped Animal creates a striking bouquet of multimedium pieces. By cross-pollinating her original designs with digital fabrication and live plants she has reaped a mind-bending garden of complex form and moving stillness.    

    Neal Breton, orginally from New Hampshire, has been a professional artist for over twenty five years. He studied painting at Pasadena City College in the 90s, and has curated and shown his own work all over the United States. After living in the suburbs of Los Angeles, he now resides on the Central Coast in the quirky beach community of Los Osos.

    Nicole Mueller is a Minneapolis photographer, printmaker, and real estate agent with a penchant for modernist design and architecture.  Her most recent body of work was inspired on holiday in Palm Springs, California.  Nicole’s photographs are color-saturated, timeless portraits of the homes that line the streets of Palm Springs’ iconic neighborhoods. Shot at eye level from the road, they seem almost like a view from a window of a neighboring home.

  2. C4W:2021 – Elemental

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    C4W:2021 Features: Aidan Dillon, Alexandra Beaumont, Alondra M. Garza, Atzín Rayas, Ayana Figueroa, Ben DiNino, Ben Hering, Benjamin Wuest, Bo Young An, Buddah Jankey, Caryn Ann Bendrick, Christopher Harrison, Christopher Palbicki, CL Martin, Corinne Teed, Daniel Allyn Lee, Derek Meier, Emily Forbes, Helene Woods, Human Shaped Animal, Ilya Natarius, Ivonne Yáñez, Jacob Docksey, Jessica Kitzman, Jes Lee, Jordan Wiebe, Jorie Kosel, Kat Moon, Katie Robinson, Kristine Fretheim, Laurie Borggreve, Liza Ferrari, Lucy Comer, Lynda Mullan, Madison Rubenstein, Maria Quinn, Margaret Vergara, Nate Woodard, Sarah M. Sosa, Tchana Pierre, & Tiffany Lange

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    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. When Cándida González accepted the invite to curate this year’s C4W:2021, they went in as a blank canvas and let the artwork choose them, empowering the 197 artists to lead the way through all 836 submissions.Through our guest curator’s lens and perspective, this body of work presented the theme Elemental.

    This year’s group exhibit will feature 43 artworks that Cándida has chosen to represent one of the foundational blocks of life, from the classical elements and human connections to life and death. The roots of all existing matter – earth, air, water and fire – are essential principles of life, each possessing an energy that when summoned has the power to ground us and heal during times of turmoil. 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 inorder to help us make sense of the confusion.

    “We are living in a portal moment in time, transporting between two worlds, strapped into a rollercoaster ride that we didn’t even know we were in line for. As everything twists and changes arounds us, we reach for the things that stay constant, the things that we know, the building blocks of life.” – Cándida González

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    PUBLIC OPENING NIGHT: Friday, September 10th
    6-9pm • $7, FREE for members
    Featuring 42 Artists, Icy Icy Baby Shaved Ice Truck & Pfunkus
    • Pre-sales available and recommended
    • Entry will be available at the door
    • Masks required indoors

    Returning this year, there will be two “Best in Show ” awards. One will be selected by the guest curator and the other by opening night attendees. Both winners will be awarded $100 cash and Platinum Memberships to Gamut Gallery ($400 value). You will not want to miss the opportunity to help one of these artists take the best in show.

    C4W:2021 ELEMENTAL ARTIST TALK: Wednesday, September 22nd
    7pm • $5 pre-sales, $7door, FREE for members
    Featured Artists: Alondra M. Garza, Benja Wuest, Katie Robinson & Tchana Pierre
    • Pre-sales available and recommended
    • Entry will be available at the door
    • Masks required indoors

    C4W guest curator, Cándida González, and Gamut Gallery’s director, Cassie Garner, sit down for a conversation with selected C4W artists to share about their processes, ideations and perspectives on current events.

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    ABOUT THE CURATOR
    Cándida González is a queer, non-binary Puerto Rican native of South Minneapolis, they studied Latin American Art and History at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA, and went on to get their M.Ed. at The University of Minnesota in 2003. In their 15 years of arts education work in Minneapolis they worked on building art programs that focused on equitable arts opportunities, inclusivity of underserved populations, and deeper, culturally relevant arts experiences for youth and communities of color. Through their work they have also focused on providing opportunities and development for emerging artists of color. They approach their work by centering at the intersection of art, activism, healing and personal/community empowerment. They are deeply invested in the concept of using art and community design as tools to wage love and healing. Currently Gonzalez facilitates nationwide the Making it Public workshop series for Forecast Public Art, participates in select local arts and healing initiatives and creates mixed-media jewelry under the name Las Ranas Jewelry.

  3. TINT

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    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 

    SHOP THE TINT COLLECTION TODAY!

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

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    ABOUT THE ARTIST

    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 Wilkinson lives 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)