October 2019 Press Releases

Plains Art Museum Exhibits Brad Kahlhamer: A Nation of One

Press Release
For Immediate Release (October 2019)

Fargo, N.D. Plains Art Museum is thrilled to announce the opening of a major new exhibition, A Nation of One, featuring the work of Brad Kahlhamer. Brad Kahlhamer’s (b. 1956 Tucson, AZ) art lives at the crossroads of real and imaginary worlds. His work draws from a broad array of artistic sources, from NativeAmerican aesthetics and Abstract Expressionism, to graffiti and popular culture. The exhibition, A Nation of One, is on display in the Fred Donath, Jr. Memorial Gallery located on the Museum’s second floor until January 25, 2020.

Born to Native parents and adopted by a German-American family, Brad Kahlhamer was raised in Arizona and Wisconsin and spent his early adulthood as a musician living on the road before settling in New York City. Shaped by this nomadic history, Kahlhamer’s work explores the particularities of the American landscape: the desert ecology of the Southwest, the parks and waterways of the upper Midwest, and the gritty streets of the urban Northeast—often fusing references to multiple regions within a single work of art. Even his references to Native culture cut across tribal traditions, as Kahlhamer views himself and his art as “tribally ambiguous,” with art that explores notions of cultural hybridity and the experience of navigating multiple communities, as well as the representation and appropriation of Native culture.

Kahlhamer lives and works in New York City and Mesa, Arizona. His work has been included in national and international group exhibitions, at institutions including the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, the Aspen Art Museum, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City), and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York). His work has recently been shown in solo exhibitions at the Joslyn Museum, Omaha; Zidoun-Bossuyt Gallery, Luxembourg; Jack Shainman Gallery, New York; Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut; and Andréhn-Schiptjenko Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden. Brad Kahlhamer: A Nation of One is organized by Minnesota Museum of American Art.

Plains Art Museum is the largest art museum in the Dakotas and Western Minnesota and is general admission free 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, is located at 704 First Avenue North in downtown Fargo. For more information about visiting or supporting your art museum, visit plainsart.org.

Contact: Andrew J. Maus, Director & CEO, 701.551.6123, amaus@plainsart.org

Plains Art Museum Creative Artist Talk: Marcie Rendon

Press Release
For Immediate Release (October 2019)

Fargo, N.D. Plains Art Museum is excited to announce that it will host author, poet, and playwright Marcie Rendon as she speaks about her new novel, Girl Gone Missing. This free public program will be on Thursday October 24, 2019 from 6-7 pm in the Gate City Bank Presentation Center, located on the Museum’s first floor. Girl Gone Missing is the second installation in Rendon’s Cash Blackbear Mystery series, and takes place in Fargo and the surrounding region.

Marcie Rendon is an enrolled member of the White Earth Nation, and has published four nonfiction children’s books and four published plays. Rendon is a recipient of the Loft’s Spoken Word Immersion Fellowship in 2016-2017, and is a community arts activist who supports other Native artists/writers/creators to pursue their art.

Plains Art Museum is the largest art museum in the Dakotas and Western Minnesota and is general admission free 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, is located at 704 First Avenue North in downtown Fargo. For more information about visiting or supporting your art museum, visit plainsart.org.

Contact: Andrew J. Maus, Director & CEO, 701.551.6123, amaus@plainsart.org