Tag Archive: Multi-Media

  1. Common Oasis

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    Minneapolis – Saturday, January 24, 2015, 7:00 – 11:00 p.m. – opening for the collaborative, multi-media exhibit Common Oasis. Installation artist Rachel Andrzejewski and painter Krista Braam create space to soothe the winter-weary soul with vibrant color and immersive wonderment. Together they transform Gamut Gallery into hallowed ground, offering those of varying devotional backgrounds a common area for reverence and joyful refuge. Andrzejewski’s large-scale response to Braam’s vivid works becomes a shrine to being deeply present in the moment. Their carefully assembled environment employs sacred symbols from diverse origins to spur interaction, as gallery visitors choose an image to add to a fiber and wood tree installation. The meticulously selected branches are adorned with brightly colored yarn woven throughout the exhibit, leading the viewer into face-to-face moments with found object assemblages and Braam’s concentrated pieces.

    Braam paints with gouache, similar to watercolor but with opacity. She works quickly, combining her technical training with an unrestrained process that adds a vibrating energy to her paintings. Her small-scale works evidence a life being fully lived and enjoyed. She encapsulates moments of serenity that might otherwise slip away, creating permanence for joy despite life’s struggles and inevitable end. In response to Andrzejewski’s concepts, some symbolic imagery has found its way into Braam’s new series. She also takes her detailed work to a larger scale and ventures into the third dimension.

    Andrzejewski’s installation is designed as an antidote for lonely hearts or anyone struggling to find connectivity amid daily challenges. She hand-carves stamps to print the varied spiritual symbols, which are selected based on “human spirituality, not necessarily religious, but based on things that draw people together.” Every salvaged branch and potent object is repurposed with intent to give new life to things that resonate as precious to her. While each artist approaches the exhibit from their own unique point of view, their collaboration invokes a strong synergy, allowing for personal reflection. The overall effect is an oasis of warmth and hope at this stark time of year, when it is needed most.

    Rachel Andrzejewski is a sculptor/ installation artist; she often incorporates bookmaking, printmaking, drawing, writing, lighting and interactive elements into her designs. In 2014, she exhibited with her collaborative installation art studio “1/3 Space.” In 2013, she created a blog/ installation/ community presentation project: Entangled/Untangled, with fellow 1/3 Space founder Victoria Carpenter, at the invitation of MN NISE. Prior to this, the pair had lead a collaborative of thirteen artists, the “Friemily,” curating two exhibitions. In 2010, Andrzejewski graduated from Bethel University with a studio art degree, and exhibited in several group shows. She has exhibited nationally and has had various internships and residencies, including a semester long immersion in New York city at the New York Center for Art and Media Studies.

    Krista Braam is a painter/ visual artist. Her work is a display of everything she finds fantastic about the world around us, while tying in elements of fiction to create imaginative scenarios. From a young age she was taught the trade of fiber arts from her mother, Lorie, which has found expression in her recent explorations into installation art. She has a 2012 degree in illustration from the College of Visual Arts, where she took part in a variety of group exhibitions and interned with In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre in South Minneapolis.

  2. Speed Dating Canvases

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    Have you ever fallen for a canvas, just to follow your heart back to the drawing board?

    Gallery’s “Speed Dating Canvases,” is an art party where you can have a brief encounter with a variety of art forms. Connect with each genre as live music sets the mood, but when the beat stops… we rotate to the next creation station!

    Don’t worry about picking up the masterpieces left behind. As each genre is visited by a series of eligible experimenters, a roomful of collaborative artwork takes shape.

    Set upstairs in the gallery with the backdrop of Common Oasis, you are sure to feel the creative spirit!

    Witness the hilarious, the clever and the surprisingly evocative works that are created by a community looking for a canvas to love.

    Singles, couples, artists, beginners; it all adds up to a wild affair.
    $10 admission includes materials, refreshments, music and fun!

  3. If These Walls Could Talk: Finale

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    MINNEAPOLIS – May 31, 2014, 7:00 – 11:00 p.m. – Multi-media installation and spoken word performances complete the finale for current exhibit “If These Walls Could Talk.” This debut of photographer, Cameren Torgerud’s latest series chronicles his Urban Exploring adventures. He has just begun to explore the United States in pursuit of some of the rarest sights, documenting abandoned buildings that defy entrance by the average citizen – some since demolished. Gamut Gallery immediately realized the relevance of his work and devised a plan to sponsor his way to a frontline city on the dispute over urban decay. As Torgerud’s photographs of early and mid-century American ruins hang on the gallery walls, Gamut sends him to document Detroit’s tarnished gems before the wrecking ball strikes.

    From the earliest discussions of this exhibit, Gamut Gallery Director, Jade Patrick felt one city was missing. After enthusiastic responses to the idea of a travel sponsorship for this emerging artist, and after learning more details about Detroit’s current urban challenges, it became clear that Torgerud must go there. A group of architects that visited the gallery pointed out the time sensitivity of the project in the face of mass demolition. Further research into these shocking details were enough to convince the entire Gamut board that now is the time. With the final approval from Torgerud, plans were laid for an expedition within just a few weeks time.

    Every day in Detroit more “blighted” structures are torn down in a covertly controversial money grab for $100 million in Federal funds. According to Capitol Reporter Jonathan Oosting, the funds were diverted into blight demolition from a foreclosure relief TARP offshoot called the Hardest Hit Fund. Not even a fifth of the 500 million awarded to Detroit has actually gone to programs for struggling homeowners. Residents do welcome demolition of fire-prone, structurally unsafe, rat or criminal-filled properties that make children afraid to walk to school. However, there are a significant amount of buildings that neighbors are fighting to keep. Some of these structures exemplify the finest in early American architecture, yet lay vulnerable to vandalization as their historical landmark applications are held up in bureaucratic delay. Many controversial tear-downs are slated for demolition in months or weeks.

    Gamut member and videographer Caleb Timmerman will accompany Torgerud, collecting documentation and audio samples on site. The sounds of each unique location will be mixed into a musical composition by staff and students of Slam Academy: an electronic music school that shares space with Gamut Gallery. The resulting ambient soundscape will accompany projections of the photographs captured in Detroit. The installation will be shown for one night only in the Gamut Studio below the Gallery, during the exhibit finale. A limited number of prints of the projected works will be available for pre-order. Framed art may be taken at the end of the night or delivered.

    Spoken word artists have been invited to respond to the theme surrounding the current situation in Detroit and perform other original works. Featured artists include: Neil Hilborn, Crxo Apollo, Christopher Shillock, Nikolas Martell, Paul Canada & Oliver Renee Schminkey.

    This event and Cameren Torgerud’s travel to Detroit have been made possible by a generous sponsorship from the following companies: Green Rock Apartments  / Altus Architecture  / Isenberg + Associates  / Pabst Blue Ribbon

  4. Flag Show

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    MINNEAPOLIS – July 27, 7:00 – 10:00 p.m. – opening reception for FLAG SHOW; the exhibit runs through August 24. Lauren Thorson has selected twenty six artists from across the nation and the world. Their backgrounds are just as varied, such as Maison Nue – a collaborative design, textile and music studio run by four young Perisian women; and Peter Haakon Thompson – a Minneapolis based recipient of Jerome and McKnight Fellowships well known for his community interaction work. Each artist has been given free reign to create a flag that will represent them in the exhibit. The idea is simple. As Thorson says: “everyone knows what a flag how is,” yet even she awaits opening day to experience the significance of the exhibit. It begins with the idea of coming together to communicate, using the age-old method of emblems. In line with Gamut Gallery’s tradition of the “Art Happening,” the concept of this event is only complete when the flags are gathered from the corners of the world and fly together. Then artists and art lovers alike will witness the conceptual event all at once. A complete list of artists, process updates and submission video can be found at flagshow.org.

    Thorson is no stranger to visualizations of unpredictable notations. She has long found inspiration – and fine art applications in raw, even dry data. This exhibit is a milestone for Thorson; she has allowed this data stream to flow into the realm of something more personal and conversational. It began as an artistic obsession with weather and meteorological data. In this project, she pays homage to a favorite avant-guard series of brief weather reports filmed and delivered by David Lynch. Each artist filmed themselves relaying several basic facts about the weather on the current day in their area, as part of the FLAG SHOW selection process. They were instructed to “create a flag representing their identity, associations and loyalties. The artist should use the flag as a means to communicate ideals and/or needed information that will stand strong in a contemporary environment”. Past this nudge, their only limitations are the size of the flag mount and a selling price of $300.00 or less. In fact, artists are encouraged to break new ground in creating these hanging works.

    Lauren Thorson has exhibited and lectured nationally; worked as a designer and has been published internationally. She was recently named one of The Walker Art Center’s “Ten Artists to Watch in 2013,” and was an AIGA Minnesota Design Show award winner for her typeface: Galvan in 2011. She is currently a visiting assistant professor at the University of Iowa, her alma mater for her BA in communication/ advertising and BFA in Graphic Design. She has also been adjunct faculty at MCAD, where she received her MFA; a research assistant and teaching assistant at the U of M, where she plans to continue her Phd studies in Graphic Design upon returning to Minnesota.

    FEATURED ARTISTS
    Maria Fernanda Albornoz, Minneapolis, MN
    Gustavo Inafuku, São Paulo, Brazil
    Andrew Allison, Pittsburgh, PA
    Katie Hargrave, Minneapolis, MN
    Nicole Killian, Internet
    Vadim Gershman, Minneapolis, MN
    Madeline Sorenson, Minneapolis, MN
    Steve Listwon, Boston, MA
    Adam Setala, Minneapolis, MN
    Anton Pearson, Brooklyn, NY
    Christopher Gasser, Minneapolis, MN
    Camille Morehead, Iowa
    Erik Brandt, Minneapolis, MN
    Michael David Franklin, Minneapolis, MN
    Peter Haakon Thompson, Minneapolis, MN
    Julia Parris, Brooklyn, NY
    Sara Kabri & Luis Lopez Smith, London, United Kingdom
    Studio Set, Minneapolis, MN
    Maison Nue, Paris, France
    Dante Carlos, Minneapolis, MN
    Lea Sorrentino, Philadelphia PA
    Eman Alshawaf, Kuwait City, Kuwait
    Michael Menchaca, San Antonio, TX
    Brian Walbergh, United States of America
    Protey Temen, Moscow, Russia
    Elsa Westreicher, Leipzig, Germany

     

     

  5. Colors

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    No one system can reproduce all colors in the spectrum, and no one artist can create an entire aesthetic in one art piece. This show will feature art that crosses the continuum of possibilities; the collective will illustrate the Gamut. True to the spirit of the Gamut, this show displays dynamic content and style from a diverse group of local artists, creatively tied together through the use of color.

    FEATURED ARTISTS:
    Nathan Petterson
    Felix Culpa
    Samuel Bjorgum
    Shanna Allyn
    Tierney Houdek
    Kris Bradley
    Sara Syverhus
    Erica Boyles
    Scotty Gunderson
    Jack Mader
    Benji Mohr
    Forest Bash
    Dim Media
    Rachel Adams-Bliss
    John Vasiliou
    Roger Williamson
    Kris Heding
    Jacob Charles Eidem
    Ethan Heidlebaugh
    Kate Renee