PUBLIC LECTURE: Thursday, May 10, 7:30 – 8:30 p.m.

With her new Green Line Series, Stevie Famulari set out to make a bold statement. What if our clothing grew, changed, and even flowered? Utilizing a variety of techniques and materials, Famulari, an assistant professor in NDSU’s landscape architecture department, has created five elegant garments (an opera gown, an asymmetrical gown, a lawn coat, a wedding gown, and a laced gown) that are seeded with living plants and will grow, change, and reseed themselves over the course of their lifetimes. The garments are lined with waterproof material and are completely wearable.

Famulari hopes to challenge ideas about the materials used in clothing and encourage a fresh and unique approach to green opportunities. One garment in the series, a wedding gown, will be on display by itself for the first three weeks, and the others will be put on display in time for our 16th Annual Spring Gala on May 5.

Famulari is also participating artist in Project Flood Diversion.

The landscapes of North Dakota are, to borrow a term, legendary. They stretch far and wide, embracing brilliant sunsets over miles of rolling hills, and have been ingrained in the state’s consciousness to the point of being captured on the State Seal. Artists have long treated the North Dakota landscape with reverence and zeal. Fargo glassblower Jon Offutt works its soft lines and deep hues into a new series of work entitled Dakota Horizons.

A special installation of these works are presented in observance of the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Studio Glass Movement. This exhibition is made possible by a grant through the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass.

Most of us know about Sodbuster, the sculpture by Luis Jimenez that once stood at the corner of Broadway and Main in downtown Fargo, the same piece of public art whose future was a focal point of a discussion held at the Museum last October.

But here’s a little known fact about Sodbuster: the work was Jimenez’s first public art commission—interesting, given the distinguished career that came after that initial approval, a career that spanned nearly 40 years before his untimely death in 2006. In celebration of that connection, and in an effort to bring attention to its restoration needs, we’ll be displaying Sodbuster in its current, unrepaired state as well as other Jimenez works in our collection, documentation of the commission and installation of the sculpture, and other conservation and collection information.

This exhibition, curated by Museum Director of Curatorial Affairs and Interpretation Megan Johnston, will deepen the community discussion about exactly what should be done with Sodbuster and where it might be re-located. To facilitate this discussion, the exhibition will also include a number of visitor feedback options. We hope the show will further discussion on the restoration and repair that the work needs, and highlight the resources and options available for it to return to public view. We’ll also take a broader look at the role museums play in the preservation and conservation of works of art.

Symphony of Color marks Schlossman’s first solo exhibition in seven years and, by far, her most comprehensive. The 68 works here represent a cross section of her career, spanning nearly 20 years of work, and include paintings as well as several of the Roberts Street Chaplets she helped create in 2006. The exhibition was curated by Christina Schmid, faculty at the College of Visual Arts in St. Paul. She showcases Schlossman’s work as a series of large-scale visual vignettes and to facilitate an overall meditation on color. In addition to the two galleries at the Museum, Symphony of Color will spill over into Schlossman’s Roberts Street Chapel, her Fargo studio, and into parks throughout the city.

Schlossman studied art under the influential painter Richard Bowman and adopted several aspects of his philosophy, especially the role of an artist as a creator of objects that propel human experiences beyond the ordinary. As Art Jones, professor and the chair of the department of art and design at the University of North Dakota, explains: “Schlossman, like earlier Abstract Expressionists, attempts to free her mind of conscious thought and relies on intuition as she ‘impulsively’ makes initial marks on the empty canvas. Through this process, biomorphic shapes and other compositional elements begin to emerge as her painting comes to fruition. Her process of discovery during the act of painting may be likened to that of Jackson Pollock.”

A scholarly catalogue will accompany the exhibition with an introduction by PAM Director Colleen Sheehy, and essays by  Schmid and Jones. This exhibition is the second in our Mothers of Invention exhibition series recognizing artists who opened up the art world to the work of women in the 1960s and 1970s.

Exhibition and catalogue supported in part by US Bankcorp, Fargo-Moorhead Area Foundation, with additional gifts from Russell Cowles and Josine Peters, and Juan and Annele Mondragon.

Click on thumbnails for full image.

PROJECT Flood Diversion brings together a number of artists who will use their work to address the issue of flooding. These works pose questions, present ideas, and offer solutions, building stronger relationships between and among artists and audiences along the way.

Keep an eye out for these activities happening near you, and watch our blog and Facebook page for updates.

April 13 and 14
Andrea Stanislav, Reflect

Photo by Milestones Photography

Stanislav’s Reflect is a site specific interactive performance walk/sculpture. Two performers, a man and a woman, will walk from the Reflect site at the Museum, through downtown Fargo and surrounding locations, each wearing a garment entirely covered with thousands of mirrored circular buttons. As the performers walk, they will give away individual buttons to people they meet in exchange for their memories and observations about flooding in Fargo-Moorhead. The walks will be performed 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. in downtown Fargo, the Museum, and a few high-traffic locations, so keep an eye out.

(View a video recap of Reflect here.)

April 11 – May 15
Jeff Knight, Wishbones

Photo by Josh LeClair.

Knight created 150 small, carved wooden wishbones that will be packaged in graphically designed boxes. They will function as artifacts meant to be broken as part of a wish for the future. They will be handed out to city workers and others who have fought flooding over recent years.

April 9 – May 12
Student artist prints

Rachel Brixius, "Walaker's Moses"

Students from Concordia college, Minnesota State University Moorhead, and North Dakota State University will display prints on the third floor of PAM inspired by “diversion” and “water.”

April 28
Rebecca Krinke, Flood Stories

Krinke, second from left, is working with West Fargo High School students under the direction of Eric Syvertson, left.

Flood Stories is a temporary work of public storytelling about floods in Fargo-Moorhead, with stories told by those who experienced them in the places where those stories happened. The aim is to celebrate these stories and use the opportunity of a spring without flooding to reflect on the bravery, neighborliness, and caring that comes out in traumatic times. Krinke (above) is working with students under the guidance of art instructor Eric Syvertson to compile the flood stories, which will be shared in a walk along the river on April 28. The river walk will begin at 1 p.m. at Dike West and walk to the Museum, where more flood stories will be shared.

Late April – May 15
Engage U, R.I.S.E.: River Inspired Service Engine

Engage U, a social practice group based out of the NDSU Visual Arts Department, will use guerilla marketing tactics to inspire residents to recognize the amount of effort that went into defending the city over the past three years of flooding and celebrate the fact that no such effort is required this year.

The art auction for our 16th Annual Spring Gala will feature outstanding work across a wide variety of media by 95 artists. All works will be on display in Fred J. Donath Gallery during our Gala Auction Preview exhibition April 21 – May 5.

Click any of the thumbnails below to view the full image and learn details about the artist.

Art on the Plains is the Plains Art Museum’s signature juried exhibition for contemporary art in the region. Now in its eleventh year, AOP has become an important career builder for emerging artists and a point of pride among more established professional artists. The exhibition is known for presenting the latest trends in art of the region, providing a snapshot of the artists and art that make up our regional art scene. This year’s accepted entries represent 48 artists from four states.

AOP was juried by Hesse McGraw, curator for the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art in Omaha, Neb. He is the former assistant director of Max Protetch gallery in New York City and former senior editor of Review, a Kansas City-based visual culture magazine. He was the founding director and curator of Paragraph, a contemporary art gallery operating under the non-profit Urban Culture Project in downtown Kansas City, Mo. He has curated exhibitions for FLEX Self Storage (Topeka, Kan.), The New Genres Festival (Tulsa), The Stray Show (Chicago), Guild and Greyshkul (NYC), -scopeMiami, RARE (NYC), Rocket gallery (London) and White Flag Projects (St. Louis).

Exhibition sponsored in part by Bremer Bank.

Click on thumbnails for full image.

Right now, in the recesses of your cupboard, resides a cup. This cup has been long forgotten and left to sit idle for too long. Why is it still in your cupboard?

With the Misfit Cup Liberation Project, artist Michael J. Strand has asked participant to bring their favorite rejected cups to the Museum, which he will then trade for a shiny, new hand-thrown cup to replace it. Their cups will then reside alongside 99 other rejected cups as a collection of the best of the worst, a collectively curated orphanage of castoff cups.

What sort of cups? You know the ones. That cup you made in the “paint your own pottery” class, the one with a lovingly hand-painted image of Kirby Puckett commemorating the 1991 World Series. The plastic collapsible camping cup that leaks everywhere. How about that plastic cactus-shaped cup? Who actually thought that was a good idea for a margarita? No matter what, Strand will retire them in style and expose the rich narratives that go along with them.

See an overview of new art works that have become part of Plains Art Museum’s permanent collection over the past four years in this new exhibition. Since 2007, hundreds of works of art have been donated to the Museum, and several new pieces have been acquired through Museum purchases or commissions. Become acquainted with a selection of about fifty works, many of them on view for the first time.

Birch Bark, Clay, Pixels, Paint showcases a variety of art in different media, including the first digital art in the Museum’s collection, MSUM Professor Henry Gwiazda’s video piece, Claudia & Paul, a doll’s house, consciousness. Viewers will marvel at the exquisite and innovative birch bark collage made by the father and son team, Pat and Gage Kruse of the Minnesota Mille Lacs Reservation, showing an abstract starburst design. Discover vivid still life paintings by Lorraine E. Berger, a former art teacher from this area who recently retired as Regents Professor of Art at the University of North Texas. See the inspiring ceramics of Brad Bachmeier, Ross Hilgers, and Richard Bresnahan, all noted artists and teachers from our region.

More treasures by artists from the region and nation make this exhibition a revealing showcase of the range and growth of the Museum’s collection, which now numbers over 3,500 works of art. Learn about the donors who have made possible many of these new acquistions.

Pat and Gage Kruse, My Brother’s Blanket #3, 2010, 38 x 36 in., birch-bark, red willow, deer sinew, Museum Purchase

Ladies and gentlemen! Children of all ages! Come one, come all to this extraordinary exhibition inspired by the drama and showmanship of the American circus. Contemporary mixed-media artist Judy Onofrio’s life-sized sculptures of performers, animals, and circus acts will be exhibited alongside historic examples of circus banners, posters, and carvings from Circus World Museum that provide context for her work. This spectacular installation will feature four of Onofrio’s major floor sculptures from the last decade and ten of her recent wall sculptures and two smaller floor sculptures. Colorful and dynamic, Onofrio’s work is known to engage and inspire viewers of all ages.

judyonofrio.com

The exhibition was curated by Catherine Wilkins, a Minneapolis-based independent curator. Supported by US Bancorp and Fargo-Moorhead Area Foundation.

Click on thumbnails for full image.