Plains Art Museum Shows the Simple can be Complex in This is Not Black and White
Press Release
For Immediate Release (June 2023)
Fargo, North Dakota – Plains Art Museum demonstrates how everything is more complex than it appears in its permanent collection exhibition, This is Not Black and White, open from June 24, 2023 through June 24, 2024 in the Museum’s Jane L. Stern Gallery.
The exhibition works reflect a diversity of place, ethnicity, culture, gender, and medium, but are aesthetically linked by artistic use of strong blacks and whites. Building on this diversity, This is Not Black and White employs equally complex interpretive approaches that are expansive rather than constrained by the didactic. While we often think of black and white concepts as minimal, the viewer is invited to move beyond the surface of artworks and see the nuanced layers of complexity, philosophical insight, critical inquiry, and truth-seeking. Building upon the Museum’s partnership with Art Bridges, guests are welcome to enter the gallery and employ their own experiences and relations to the works on the walls.
Generous support for this project provided by Art Bridges.
Plains Art Museum is the largest art museum in the Dakotas and Western Minnesota. It is general admission free and educationally-focused thanks to strong and growing support from over 800 households and businesses. The Museum manages a permanent collection of over 4,000 objects, organizes and presents dozens of annual exhibitions, facilitates public art projects, and leads over 200 educational programs and experiences for all ages each year. The Museum and its Katherine Kilbourne Burgum Center for Creativity are located at 704 First Avenue North in downtown Fargo. For more information about visiting or supporting your art museum, visit plainsart.org.
Plains Art Museum to Open Zoetic Spaces Exhibition
Press Release
For Immediate Release (June 2023)
Plains Art Museum will combines works from its permanent collection, Hannaher’s Inc. Print Studio education collection, and other works from around the region in its newest exhibition, Zoetic Spaces, opening June 3, 2023 in the Ruth and Seymour Landfield Atrium.
“Zoetic spaces is meant to be about recognition and rebellion. In the past, the Museum’s actions toward events like pride have been lacking. We recognized that we can do better, and we have a platform to both help educate about identity and gender, while also uplifting some awesome artists in our collection and community that work to break the mold of expectations. This is long overdue, and we are excited to finally have something like this on our walls,” said Emma Tomb, Associate Curator of Exhibitions and Collections, Plains Art Museum.
The exhibition celebrates our shared existence by demonstrating the ways artists experience life through a variety of perspectives. The works, and the conversations inspired by them, remind us that a museum creates space for all in our community to be whom they truly are.
By bringing this artwork together, we are reminded that humans are beautiful and complex as they choose to live their lives in nuanced and outstanding ways.
Plains Art Museum is the largest art museum in the Dakotas and Western Minnesota. It is general admission free and educationally-focused thanks to strong and growing support from over 800 households and businesses. The Museum manages a permanent collection of over 4,000 objects, organizes and presents dozens of annual exhibitions, facilitates public art projects, and leads over 200 educational programs and experiences for all ages each year. The Museum and its Katherine Kilbourne Burgum Center for Creativity are located at 704 First Avenue North in downtown Fargo. For more information about visiting or supporting your art museum, visit plainsart.org.