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.

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.

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

This project is overseen by Joan Vorderbruggen, assistant professor of architecture at NDSU.

Lori Larusso’s installation Pizza is a Vegetable is the newest in our ongoing Art = Food installation series comprised of site-specific works created for Cafe Muse. With her work, Larusso calls into question the various forces that contribute to a modern food culture that would allow pizza to be designated a vegetable, one that leans toward hypercapitalist interests and focuses less on our common health. Utilizing food imagery that calls to mindMichael Pollan’s concept of “pastoral fantasy,” Larusso points out the contradictions and complexities embedded in our food culture and illustrates how our expectation of fresh and healthy food is often exploited—primarily through advertising—to benefit the gargantuan food industry.

Lori Larusso currently holds the James Rosenquist Artist Residency at North Dakota State University. She was born in Massillon, Ohio, and graduated from the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning with a Bachelor’s in Fine Arts and a minor in Women’s Studies. She earned an Master’s degree in Fine Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art’s graduate interdisciplinary program, the Mount Royal School of Art. Lori has worked in the community as an advocate and has also maintained a solid studio practice, continuing to show her artworks regionally, nationally and internationally.

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.

Click on thumbnails for full image.