Summer in Bemidji: (Re)Collect on view at Watermark Art Center through August 21, 2024

From one beautiful venue to the next, (Re)Collect now hangs in the Kaul Gallery at Watermark Art Center throughout the summer.

Inventory on view at Watermark Art Center

I am so grateful to the staff for their support through the installation process and at the opening celebration on June 7. The community came out for an engaging discussion about why we collect and what it says about our connections to land and to each other.

Mingling after the artist talk

This particular exhibit takes multiple days to install and I am also thankful for a Projects Grant that helped to support my time away from home. This activity is made possible in part by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council, thanks to appropriations from Minnesota State Legislature’s General Fund.

(Re)Collect on view at Pablo Center at the Confluence through May 19, 2024

The high ceilings, bright natural light and clean white walls of the James W Hansen Gallery are a great setting for my solo exhibition, (Re)Collect which is now on view through mid-May. Thank you to the staff at Pablo Center for helping me with the weeklong install of the exhibit - I spent a lot of time up and down the ladder to hang the almost 1000 tags that make up Inventory.

(Re)Collect brings together some older works that have been refreshed and expanded as well as new works that invite audience participation. I Collect asks viewers to fill out and hang small tags with answers to the questions “What do you collect?” and “Why do you collect it? I look forward to seeing how the pegboards fill up over the next months.

In the artwork for (Re)Collect, I aim to reflect on the many layers of meaning and history inherent in the process of natural history collecting. The details reveal unexpected relationships between human and nonhuman specimens, blurring the line between the observer and observed. There will be an artist talk on April 26, from 5-7pm.

The exhibit will be moving on to the Watermark Art Center in Bemidji, MN next. The making of many of the pieces this past fall and winter were thanks in part to a grant from the state arts board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature.

Venture and Voice at Chippewa Valley Museum

I am grateful to Empty Walls Art for inviting me to participate in their 3D exhibit at Chippewa Valley Museum in Eau Claire, WI. It is a great lead-in to my upcoming exhibit at Pablo Center for the Arts, March 15 - May 15, 2024.

The exhibit showcases 8 regional 3D artists along with 3 guests, including myself. Artwork can be viewed from January 23 - March 23, 2024 during museum hours. Included are eight of my diorama-like pods from Great Lakes Almanac.

Summer has come and gone

It is not hard to enjoy summers in Duluth. Instead of time in the studio, I spent time in the garden. I did make it to a few summer camps at Great Lakes Aquarium in conjunction with my Great Lakes Almanac show. In addition, the Duluth Fiber Guild’s 50th anniversary celebration continued at MacRostie Art Center this summer. My piece, Disperse, was on view and for the first time (because of the pandemic) was more interactive - folks could pick up and sort through the seeds if they desired. This option will continue in 2024 at my solo shows at Pablo Center for the Arts and Watermark Art Center. More on these shows soon…

Great Lakes Almanac exhibition now on view at Great Lakes Aquarium

Opening celebration: June 15, 6-8pm.
On view June 1 - September 5, 2023.

Visit www.greatlakesalmanac.com for more details and photos of the project.

In May 2022, Great Lakes Almanac began as a community-based art project at the Great Lakes Aquarium. Twice each month, I was on site to engage with visitors and discover the different ways they experience wonder at the museum. While the younger folks participated in a craft, their older relatives helped fill out my monthly survey of nature-based questions. Their responses, in turn, inspired the artwork: 12 paper sculptures whose diorama-like quality invite the viewer in for a closer look at the details. While the main pieces hint at the stories shared by the visitors, a collection of companion pieces offer a textual representation of the visitor answers.

Exhibition view

The Great Lakes Aquarium was the perfect choice for my first community-based art project. My artwork is inspired by natural history, and is a platform for me to explore human’s relationship with the natural world as an observer and collector. So the chance to work with and exhibit in a science-based museum in my hometown was ideal. There is a strong focus on engagement and education at the Aquarium and everyone on staff embraced my project and helped me to make the most of my visits. It has been a spectacular year. In so many ways, the art is embedded in the experience of the last year even more so that the artwork itself. I have been enriched by the conversations with visitors and staff, the stories of how the community connects to their natural surroundings and the joys and challenges of turning their words into artwork. My hope is that viewers of the Great Lakes Almanac exhibit will be drawn into details, notice aspects of the museum in the content, and recognize the vast and varied input from their community in the making of this show. Much like how the Aquarium encourages visitors to “Discover Wonder,” my installations aim to inspire a sense of curiosity.

On View

I’m honored to have my paper weaving, Almanac, on view at the Tweed Museum of Art from now through May 24. The exhibition is part of the Duluth Fiber Guild’s 50th Anniversary celebration.

Created in 2020, this particular artwork is significant to me because it jumpstarted much of what I've been working on since. Woven into the front side of the piece are multiple anecdotes from my encounters with the natural world during the pandemic. After its completion, I realized I wanted to hear about what other folks experience in the outdoors and this lead to community-inspired projects, such as Great Lakes Almanac.

Jurying the Confluence of Art Annual

This summer and fall, I was given the opportunity to jury the Confluence of Art Annual at Pablo Center at the Confluence. It was an honor to be able to review the amazing artwork made by regional and national artists for Pablo’s 5th running of this exhibit.

The process involved an online edit of over 200 works down to a little over 50. I was impressed by the variety of mediums as well as the creative ideas presented in both two and three dimensional submissions. On November 4, I spent an afternoon at the gallery, choosing the top talent for the awards ceremony that night. It was truly a pleasure to get to see the art in person and then go on to meet some of the artists that evening. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed going through and choosing the awards, as well as how difficult it was! Congratulations to all of the artists who submitted, were accepted and those who won awards. It takes a lot of bravery to put our work out there.

And a bonus: I will be having a solo exhibit at Pablo Center at the Confluence in 2024!

Summer

Summers are beautiful in Duluth. Everything is lush, the weather is unpredictable, mosquitos are prevalent but so are the other creatures, like chipmunks, bunnies, deer and there are signs of some of the more elusive residents, like moose, bear and wolves (at least up north).

Meanwhile, kids home from school and a desire to be active outside mean it’s a little harder to find time to make in the studio. Annie Dillard’s quote is about wonder in the natural world, but I find myself also making sure I am there for those kids since their time at home is limited.

I continue to go to Great Lakes Aquarium twice monthly for my Great Lakes Almanac project while also sewing up details for upcoming opportunities (more to come soon). And I am honored to be reviewing the amazing art of regional artists for Pablo Center’s Annual Confluence of Art call.

Project website is live

The Great Lakes Almanac project is underway. I am excited for my first visit to Great Lakes Aquarium on May 9 where I will engage with visitors, ask them to fill out a survey and begin collecting their stories. The project website - www.greatlakesalmanac.com - will be updated several times a month throughout the year.

Projects Grant: Great Lakes Almanac

Camouflage

Here’s a peek at another version of these “pods,” as I call them.

This style is reminiscent of the drawer interiors from Coffer.

Update: new work taking shape

This past fall, I started developing new work that is an evolution of recent weavings. Though I am still fine-tuning them and testing different materials, I am happy with these new “pods” and their exhibition prospects. I will have a show at the Great Lakes Aquarium in Duluth in the summer of 2023 and will center the exhibit around these new paper sculptures and the contents they contain.

With a desire to explore more collaborative work, I will be collecting information and stories from the aquarium’s visitors and incorporating these into the paper pods, through writing, drawing, weaving and more.

Samples of the new paper pods

Views from Watermark Art Center, "Earth Matters" exhibit

Release was recently on view at the Watermark Art Center in Bemidji, MN as part of the Surface Design Association’s juried exhibit, “Earth Matters.”

The Watermark is a beautiful space and I was lucky enough to sneak over for a visit during the exhibit’s run.

Next Up: Confluence of Art Annual at Pablo Center for the Arts

The paper and wire weaving, Almanac, is part of the Pablo Center’s juried annual exhibit. The piece incorporates anecdotal text from various interactions with the natural world during 2020 (both my own and other individuals’). Each snippet is interlaced into the existing paper weaving, and offers insight into a particular species, its Latin name and reflections on the interaction.

The piece and other works by included artists can be seen online now and for the 2 hours prior and during any live performances at the venue. There will be an opening reception and awards ceremony, in person, on October 1st at the Pablo Center for the Arts.

Fall Exhibitions: First stop - Watermark Art Center

Starting on September 3, Watermark Art Center in Bemidji, MN, is hosting “Earth Matters,” an international exhibit in conjunction with Surface Design Association. I am thrilled to have my installation piece, Release included in the show and hanging in such a beautiful venue.

From the SDA website: “While the term matter bears different scientific and geologic connotations, EARTH MATTERS, as an exhibition theme, presents an expanded and nuanced perspective on issues relating to current ecological conditions that have been shaped by human habits. Threading the needle through divergent creative views, practices, and materials that are sensitive to nature and planetary preservation, the exhibition will explore how ecological considerations are factored into the making of art.”

The exhibit can be viewed online here and in person at Watermark Art Center through October 30, 2021.

Detail of an element in Release:: wire, sausage casings and roving wool

Video montage by Duluth Art Institute

A fun and creative montage of stills and video showcasing the Integument exhibit. It can also be seen on their Instagram account as well as their YouTube channel.

Where's Art? with Annie Dugan

Annie Dugan, a local art historian, curator, teacher, juror, enthusiast and more, does a weekly audio column on KUMD, the public radio station connected to University of Minnesota Duluth. On October 26, she talked about the different goings on at Duluth Art Institute, including some words on Integument. She is incredibly insightful and offers a cool perspective on the shows currently on view. I appreciate what she has to say about my work and this show in particular. Thank you Annie Dugan. You are a gift to our community and the art world in general.

Have a listen: Where’s Art? with Annie Dugan

Virtual Artist Talk

On November 18, I had a virtual artist talk with Duluth Art Institute’s Exhibitions Director, Amy Varsek. We talked about inspiration, materials and process. The good news about the talk being virtual is that it is archived and can be viewed still by clicking here.

It was a lively conversation!

Livestreams and Artist Talk

Tomorrow, I will be halfway through the Disperse livestreams for my show Integument. These events are archived and can be watched after the fact on Duluth Art Institute’s YouTube channel. Follow this link and click on the individual Disperse videos to see them.

During the October 20 stream, I give a tour of the exhibit, explaining the pieces a bit as I go.

In the November 3 video, I follow through the steps of making the individual seeds for the growing piece, “Disperse,” including the sewing of the pieces to shape the capsules.

For tomorrow’s stream, I will continue to add to the “seed bank” for Disperse and finish up several seeds and add them to the pile.

Exhibit view of “Disperse” (seeds), pieces from “Moult” and the weaving, “Almanac.”

On Wednesday, November 18 at 6pm (CST), I will be in conversation with the DAI’s gallery director, Amy Varsek. We will discuss the exhibit and individual pieces in more detail.

More Press from Ennyman's Territory

Ed Newman visited Integument and posted a few photos on his blog here.