Archive for the ‘Around Town’ Category
Mural Art at Roberts Street Studio
This image was taken at Roberts Street Studio earlier this week. The mural was painted a few weeks ago by JAWSH and AWON, two aerosol artists who were part of the Hip Hop Don’t Stop mural projects the last two summers. Roberts Street Studio is an artist collective based in downtown Fargo – stop by and see the mural in person if you get the chance. It’s near the corner of 7th Avenue North on Roberts Street, just a couple buildings south of The Empire.
This Weekend: The FMVA Studio Crawl
The FMVA Studio Crawl gets started this Saturday throughout Fargo-Moorhead (see some previous posts about the Crawl, and the preview exhibition currently showing at the Museum, here and here). Glassblower, Studio Crawl organizer, and all-around good guy Jon Offut took some time recently to answer a few quick questions about the Crawl. In addition to the brochures Jon mentions, you can also find Studio Crawl maps at www.fmva.us. Get out and enjoy it!
1. This is the seventh year of the Studio Crawl. How has it grown or changed over that time?
The first Studio Crawl had 27 studios to visit. This year there are 39, with over 50 artists participating. Each year some artists go on sabbatical, some return, and new artists are accepted. So there are always new studios to visit and at all of the studios artists are presenting their newest work. Every year we are adding more and more evening events. This year, as well as the Studio Crawl preview at the Plains, there is a group show at the Spirit Room with a reception Saturday, October 2, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. The FMVA also presented the Big Show at the Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County (the Hjemkomst).
2. Are there any new artists this year who you are excited about? Is there any new work by established artists that excites you?
This week I visited the studio of landscape artist Robert Crowe and saw some very interesting work utilizing nontraditional applications of pastel. Eric Syvertson is new to crawl this year, he creates realistic contemporary drawings using experimental mixtures of techniques and mediums. His first solo show is this fall at the Rourke Gallery in Moorhead.
3. What advice would you give to a first-time Studio Crawler?
Don’t try to see it all! Visit the Plains Art Museum and pick up a brochure, then visit the preview exhibit on display and select the artists that interest you to visit.
4. In addition to showcasing art and artists, how has the Studio Crawl progressed as a social event and get-together?
It has really helped the local arts community come together and start to operate as a group. I also hear stories every year of how our visitors are utilizing the event. Last year a woman introduced herself to me and said she was from Minot and had driven down to meet her sister, who had flown in from Indiana, for a “girls’ weekend.”
5. What value do you see the Studio Crawl bringing to the arts community in Fargo-Moorhead?
As a free “in your neighborhood” event we draw a lot of visitors that don’t normally participate in visual arts events and give them an introduction to the art scene. Much of our publicity is focused on underserved audiences.
The brochure and the preview exhibit at the Plains Art Museum both serve to illustrate the quantity and quality of visual art in the Fargo Morehead region. 25,000 of the brochures are printed, 10,000 of them are direct mailed to the region and many more are sent to former North Dakotans who still maintain ties to the area.
The Studio Crawl Preview
The Fargo-Moorhead Visual Artists’ (FMVA) Studio Crawl will take place on October 2 and 3. This annual event, now in its sixth year, offers its audience a peek behind the curtain of the creative process by asking artists to open up their studio spaces for displays, demonstrations, and sales. Additionally, the Studio Crawl has become a social affair with a number of related events surrounding it and creating a celebratory atmosphere geared around visual arts. It’s a good time with a bunch of artists, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
In anticipation of the Studio Crawl, we’re featuring a number of the Studio Crawl artists in our Studio Crawl Preview exhibition showing now through October 10 in the Xcel Energy and Serkland Law Firm Galleries on the second floor. Overall, a wide array of media relate the fact that there are plenty of talented artists at work in the community drawing influence from everywhere.
Here are a few of the pieces being shown in the Studio Crawl Preview. We’ll post a few more next week. In the meantime, stop by and see them in person.
Moorhead Power Plant Meeting Set for Wednesday Evening
Gin Templeton, "Moorhead Power Plant"
Calling all Moorhead residents, artists, master gardeners, and anyone interested in art, landscape design, and the future of the Moorhead Power Plant site: we want your input! Meet the two artists who will be designing a garden for the Power Plant site and help shape your community!
- When: Wednesday, July 21, 6:30 p.m.
- Where: City Council Chambers, Moorhead City Hall in the Moorhead Center Mall building at 500 Center Ave. (6:30 – 7:15 p.m.) and the site of the Moorhead Power Plant (7:30 – 8:30 p.m.).
- Who: Meet the artists, Rob Fischer and Kevin Johnson, and representatives of Plains Art Museum and the City of Moorhead, who are partnering on this art project.
- What: Hear about the plans and provide input and feedback, ask questions, brainstorm ideas.
If you can’t make it to the meeting, please leave your ideas in the comments and we will take them with us.
The concept of a “defiant garden” grew out of a two-day public symposium held by Plains Art Museum in September 2009 titled, “Defiant Gardens for Fargo-Moorhead.” The idea is based on a book by landscape historian Kenneth Helphand (University of Oregon), called Defiant Gardens. In this context, “defiant” means resilient, able to overcome obstacles, provide sustenance and well-being against the odds. The symposium brought together a dozen artists from the local region and the national level to discuss how the idea of a defiant garden could be adapted to help us improve our cities.
Rob Fischer and Kevin Johnson are sculptors who were invited to present at the symposium. They work with the landscape and also with industrial buildings and building materials, often using cast-off remnants of old buildings. They think the Moorhead Power Plant is a beautiful edifice in a beautiful location with good proximity to parks, parkways, and neighborhoods.
At this point, they are thinking that they would develop a garden that uses native plants, perhaps some kind of rain garden that is low maintenance. They would like the garden to be a social space where people could gather for activities or just to enjoy the setting and the Power Plant building. A more fully developed idea will emerge from this planning trip.
Rob Fischer and Kevin Johnson are working as a team on the Defiant Garden for the Moorhead Power Plant. Originally from Minnesota, the two artists now live in Brooklyn, New York, and work nationwide on art exhibitions and public art. Fischer has a Bachelor’s of Fine Art (BFA) degree in sculpture and environmental design from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Kevin Johnson has a BFA from the University of Minnesota and a Master’s of Fine Arts degree from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Fisher’s sculptures have been in solo and group exhibitions at The Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., the Whitney Museum in New York City, and the Walker Art Center. Kevin Johnson has been awarded public art commissions for gardens and plazas in Washington state and the Twin Cities.
This Defiant Garden project is supported by Plains Art Museum and the City of Moorhead and by a generous grant from the Lake Regions Art Council, with contributions from the Minnesota arts and cultural heritage fund as appropriated by the Minnesota State Legislature with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008. Earlier support for “Defiant Gardens for Fargo-Moorhead” was provided by the Graham Foundation for the Advanced Study of the Visual Arts and Community Projects Grant from North Dakota State University.
Image: Gin Templeton, Moorhead Power Plant, 2010, oil on canvas, 9 x 9″, loaned by the artist.
Kyja Kristjansson-Nelson Presents ‘A Western Icelander’ at the Spirit Room
Kyja Kristjansson-Nelson, Chair of MSUM Film Studies, will present A Western Icelander: Geneographies of Memory and Place, an exhibition in the main gallery of the Spirit Room from June 18 – July 15. The exhibit will include monotype prints, photographs, and her most recent non-fiction film, Sveit, shot in the Skagafjordur region of Iceland. The exhibit will also include photographs by Christopher Nelson (Walking from Hofsos, Gallery II), and a documentary honoring Bill Holm (Windows of Brimnes, Gallery III) with maps of Iceland.
At 5:00 Friday, June 25th, a free public reception will be held, with a brief talk by Kristjansson and a toast of Icelandic Brennivin. Following the reception, the Hotel Donaldson will have Icelandic appetizers and desserts by chef Anders Ericsson at 6:00pm (ticket required, $15). The public reception and Hodo event commence the annual Scandinavian Hjemkomst Festival, which features Iceland this year.
Kristjansson’s 30-minute non-fiction film, Sveit, premiered at the Walker Art Center, and also screened at the Athens International Film Festival and the Wisconsin Film Festival. Sveit was funded in part by the Bush Foundation, the Corporation of Yaddo, the Fulbright Association, and Skaftfell Menningarmidstod. Sveit was shot in the rural village of Hofsos on the north coast of Iceland. The filmmaker traces her family’s history and emigration from Iceland to the United States, while unpacking memories and stories of her grandfather’s experience as a New American in North Dakota. Meanwhile Kristjansson negotiates the relationship between landscape, language, mythology and ritual with the help of the local 1st – 4th grade Icelandic children.
The Spirit Room is located at 111 Broadway in downtown Fargo 701.237.0230.
This exhibition is funded in part by a grant from the Lake Region Arts Council through a Minnesota State Legislative appropriation.
