As part of the Museum’s ongoing support of local and emerging artists, we are happy to announce the return of Fargo-born (and now Minneapolis-based) Amy Jo Hendrickson Flattum. A designer and printmaker, Hendrickson Flattum blurs the lines between high art and commercial design. Humor and nostalgia runs throughout her well-designed and precisely executed prints. This retrospective body of work, entitled Jubileum! (a Norwegian word for anniversary or celebration) reflects her Scandinavian heritage and upbringing and marks the tenth anniversary of her printmaking career. A limited edition screen print entitled Greetings from Fargo will be created specifically for the show.

The Museum’s signature ArtView program features local and regional artists in our second floor atrium galleries. ArtView is supported in part by The FUNd at Plains Art Museum.

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Morea Steinhauer, 'Untitled'

Plains Art Museum, in partnership with Hospice of the Red River Valley, presents the exhibition Witness to Life: A Photo Journal of Hospice Care October 14 – February 5 in the Xcel Energy and Serkland Law Galleries. Witness to Life features the work of three photographers affiliated with the Minnesota State University Moorhead (MSUM) documentary photography department and was overseen by MSUM professors Wayne Gudmundson and Regene Radniecki. Photographers Chris Franz, Heidi Shaffer, and Morea Steinhauer worked with individuals enrolled in hospice care and documented their day-to-day lives. The result is a rare glimpse into an aspect of life often hidden, one filled with a range of complex emotions. You can read more about this project by visiting horizonlines.org.

The Fargo Moorhead Visual Artists (FMVA) will offer a tantalizing peek into artists’ studios throughout the FM area during the annual Studio Crawl, to be held October 1 and 2. The crawl is the ultimate way to survey the immense amount of artistic talent in the area and our preview serves as your quick reference guide, allowing you to see work by the 39 participating Crawl artists prior to the big event. For more information, visit fmva.us.

On Studio Crawl weekend stop by the Museum on Saturday, October 1 at 10 a.m. for coffee, pastries, and an informal chat with Megan Johnston, new PAM director of curatorial affairs and interpretation.

The Museum’s signature ArtView program enables local and regional artists to exhibit their work in the Museum’s perimeter galleries. ArtView is supported by a grant from The FUNd at Plains Art Museum.

Grady Carlson, Tribute to Jasper, 2010, oil, 11 x 14 in.

Tom Kemmer got his first skateboard, a Variflex Terror with an image of a wolf face on the bottom, in fifth grade for his birthday. From the first rolls down his driveway, skateboarding gave him a sense of adventure like nothing else he had ever experienced and, eventually, its challenges made him fall in love.

Kemmer has translated those challenges into the challenges of documenting skateboarding successfully. This new collection of photography and video footage, Local Spots, is the result. Through this series, shot mainly in and around the Fargo-Moorhead area, Kemmer captures its physical, mental, and social challenges, using skateboarding as a literal and metaphorical lens to chronicle the obsession with technique and the struggles with an activity often branded as deviant, along with the individuals it takes to face them.

Kemmer’s art goes hand in hand with the reason he skates: the adventure. “I like the act of creating, getting my hands dirty finding a new skate spot, or making an unskateable spot skateable by building a ramp or pouring some concrete,” Kemmer says, adding that working with other skaters is as integral to the process as his own vision. “I like to shoot photos of the guys I actually go skating with. There’s a great collaboration that can happen, bouncing ideas off each other about places to shoot or tricks to try.”

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Renner’s mixed-media works seek to illustrate the difficulty of meaningful discourse in a world filled with clashing belief systems and competing cultural narratives. Pseudo-diagrams and mock scientific graphs create a context of confusion and alienation. Faces and figures are juxtaposed with symbols from opposing belief systems, exposed brains, bits of binary code, and disconnected fragments of human language.

“Each piece contains a narrative whose foundation is questionable and problematic,” Renner says, “and the compositions represent an interconnected system of symbolic thought, but it is a system divided against itself. The messages are encoded, veiled in a seemingly meaningless arrangement of decontextualized signs and signifiers. The cryptic presentations are personal solutions to the questions underlying the work; to others, they merely expose the problem.”

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Rachel Breen’s Abundance is a new site-specific charcoal drawing appearing on the west wall of Café Muse. Her black paper stencils used to make the wall art work are displayed in the café windows.

Breen’s artwork inaugurates a new site-specific series for Café Muse called Art = Food. Plains Art Museum will commission regional artists to create a unique wall-based art work for the west wall of the cafe. While Museum visitors make food selections at the serving line, they can take in works of art made just for this space. Good food sustains our physical bodies. Good art feeds our minds, spirits, and imaginations. Enjoy both together in Art = Food.

The artist’s images are made by using paper stencils. A cloth bag filled with charcoal dust is pressed against the stencil, pushing the charcoal through the stencil holes to make a pattern on the wall. Breen creates the stencils by running paper through an unthreaded sewing machine. Her beautiful and delicate drawings integrate abstract patterns with subtle images of railroad tracks, wheat, cornucopias, the Red River, and landscape forms.

Breen comments that she thinks it is important for us to remember that we live in a place of abundance that helps to sustain us, even in this time of economic recession. She thought this idea would be especially fitting to remember as we enjoy meals in the café.

Rachel Breen lives in Minneapolis and teaches at Anoka Ramsey Community College in Anoka, Minnesota.

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Su Legatt’s Significant Boxes is a series of 12 small sculptural installations comprised of mixed-media and photography depicting a specific place. The photographs are matched with a narrative of someone whose life has been impacted by that location and are seen by the viewer through a lens to enhance the intimacy of the narrative.

“Our memories and emotions will always be tied to certain locations,” Legatt says,
“When we first peer through the lens and trigger the internal light or walk inside the curtain, we see a seemingly insignificant warped landscape. After reading the text on the exterior, the viewer learns that it is actually a sanctuary from the stressful days of life. These associations, although specific, lead each of us to our own relations and memories.”

Legatt received a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Art from MSUM and a Masters in Fine Art from Utah State University. She has taught classes at MSUM and USU as well as community workshops around the country. Currently, she teaches photography at Lake Superior College in Duluth, Minn., and leads workshops for all ages in the tri-state area. Her website is www.sulegatt.com.

Su Legatt, Knutsons, 10 x 10 x 12 in., mixed media with wood, silver gelatin prints, glass lenses and electrical systems

The 6th Annual Fargo-Moorhead Visual Artists (FMVA) Studio Crawl, October 2 and 3, presents some of the finest talent in visual arts in and around the Fargo-Moorhead area. Established in 2004 as a way to develop awareness and appreciation for visual arts in our region, the Studio Crawl invites the public into artists’ studios to share their expertise and give a glimpse into the artistic process. Studios are scattered throughout Fargo-Moorhead, so make it a point to find a map at the Museum or online at www.fmva.us in order to plan your route.

Get a taste of the Studio Crawl at the Museum beforehand with the Studio Crawl Preview, a showcase of participating Crawl artists in one place sure to whet your appetite for the main event.

See the inspiring artistry of In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre in Café Muse this summer. Several of the Minneapolis-based theatre’s large-scale “Connector” puppets will be on view as a preview of the theatre’s residency in Fargo-Moorhead in August. Made from simple materials—papier maché, paint, cardboard—the puppets are beautiful figures that represent  animal spirits who help humans stay connected to the natural world.

For more information about the Trollwood Arts residency with In the Heart of the Beast, click here.

Gin Templeton, Moorhead Power Plant, 2010, oil on canvas, 9 x 9", loaned by the artist

This Art View exhibition presents the work of seven artists from the region who responded to a call for submissions for views of the Moorhead Power Plant. Work in oil, pastel, watercolor, mixed media, and photography range from bird’s eye views of the building’s setting on the Red River to close-up details of the structure. Their work makes us look more closely at a building that we may overlook because of its familiarity or because of its industrial purpose. On display as the Moorhead community plans for the future of the building and site after the plant is decommissioned, the exhibition will encourage reflection on the beauty, formal qualities, and value of this local landmark. The public is encouraged to leave comments with their ideas for the building’s possible re-use.

Landmark artists are Janet Flom, Juliet Hanratty, Ann Arbor Miller, George Pfeifer, Richard Skauge, Gin Templeton, and Britta Trygstad.

The Museum thanks Mark Chekola, Chair of the Moorhead Power Plant Study Group, for serving as a juror for this exhibition.