Minnesota Funk Kicks-Off Regis Center's 10th Anniversary Year ...

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Exhibition Description Regis Center for Art celebrates its 10 th anniversary 2003-2013 with a year of exhibitions and public programs. Minnesota Funk, a group exhibition that playfully explores the diverse, groovy, funky side of Minnesota culture, kicks-off the 10 th anniversary year. The exhibition includes artworks in a variety of media, from painting to sculpture, from drawing to home furnishings -- and a motor scooter. The exhibition also includes an installation of video and sculptures by Chris Larson, newly appointed to the University of Minnesota Department of Art faculty. Chris Larson Newly Appointed to Department of Art Faculty Minnesota Funk features a gallery installation by Chris Larson that includes the 2011 video Heavy Rotation and a series of surprising conceptual sculptures. The Department of Art is pleased to announce that Chris Larson has joined the University of Minnesota faculty as Assistant Professor of Sculpture. “Chris brings a fabulous record of teaching and advising and an exemplary studio practice that has received national and international recognition. We are delighted to welcome him to the Department of Art as a valued member of the faculty,” said Alexis Kuhr, Chair of the Department of Art. Chris Larson received an M.F.A. degree from Yale University School of Art and a B.F.A. degree from Bethel College, St. Paul, Minnesota. His many honors and awards include the Bush Foundation (2006, 1998), McKnight Foundation Fellowship (2012, 2002), Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Assistant Fellowship, Jerome Media Fellowship, Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Fellowship, and Forecast Public Arts Commission. His work has been exhibited extensively in North America and Europe and is included in the permanent collections of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Walker Art Center, the Neue Nationalgalerie of Berlin, among others. He is represented by Magnus Muller Temporary gallery of Berlin. Artist Statements Kent Aldrich I am a letterpress printer and my jobbing shop, The Nomadic Press, pleasantly fills my time. It provides me with the equipment and space to revel in the printing of my own wood engravings and linoleum cuts and in the creation of dimensional pieces. Letterpress printing equipment is heavy. Although my presses move in beautiful ways, they don't travel. My scooter, styled after the British Mods of the 60s', takes me out into the world to smell, see and hear. Seeing my mirrored bike, a little boy once exclaimed, wide eyed, to his mother "And it flys too!" If only. Kate Casanova I am fascinated by our relationship to the non-human world. I work with living organisms to create poetic moments in which sensation trumps language. These intersections create opportunities to better understand oneself through our perception of the other. Perci Chester Implied motion has become the signature trademark in my recent work. There’s always Minnesota Funk 2
the edge of balance/fragility. The moment, though ever fleeting, re-emerges as a memory that replays as a movie. Seeing it expand and contract, navigating through space, my work speaks metaphorically as poetry. I conceive the vision of that moment becoming a “still,” collapsing time into a particular instant, frozen as a sculptural image, an icon to memory. Kelly Connole I understand my surroundings and engage with the world through imagery. My preoccupation with memories and elements of the natural world, combined with clay’s tactile temperament, fuels my desire to create narrative work. I investigate relationships within environments: natural and constructed, human and animal, tangible and fleeting. Rabbits, crows, and other animals are metaphors for humans, exposing vulnerabilities and tendencies through the gesture of hands, wings, and bodies. Jim Dryden The Object of His Desire is a gentle, humorous critique of gay male dating/connecting coming from the perspective of a gay male artist, Jim Dryden. The triptych shines a light on some of the expectations we (gay males) have for ourselves and for others when seeking partners and companionship. Each of the three panels features Michelangelo's David - an icon of male physical perfection, enlarged from the refrigerator magnet version popular throughout the 1980's. These three figures are surrounded by screenprinted body parts taken from Gray's Anatomy - a perfect arm, a perfect leg, a perfect torso, each enshrined in its own gilded frame. To the left of the central David is an homage to Belgian artist René Magritte's painting The Treachery of Images, in which Magritte painted an illustration of a tobacco pipe along with the caption "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" or "this is not a pipe." The point being that it is not a pipe but rather an image of a pipe. Here Dryden has placed a small framed mirror with the caption "this is not you." To the right of the central David is a photo of the artist taken after having achieved a significant weight loss. It is captioned "this is not me." The background of the triptych is filled in with words and phrases taken from actual personal ads describing the attributes and characteristics being sought after, such as slim, young, smooth, athletic, attractive, well-hung, straight looking/acting, but of course – no fats and no fems. Other qualities that never appear in the ads, such as smart, funny, generous, loyal, and true are painted in script and then crossed out. Both the right and left panels feature collaged images of Narcissus gazing down at his own reflection in the surface of a pond. The triptych is purposely painted/printed in bright, engaging candy colors in reference to the phrase "eye-candy" which describes someone who is physically attractive. Mary Esch Whether it's a painting or a line drawing, most of my pictures depict a portion of or an entire circuitous journey on foot. Assemblies of characters slog through landscapes, while each character is in some stage of personal unmasking. To create my serial narratives I do a reading of a biblical fable or fairytale and then rely on a surrealist technique called automatic drawing -- drawing with out a premeditated idea -- to generate strangely honest drawings. I’m compelled by the inner search of fable characters and how they often set out on foot to find answers. At times my pictures reveal the sensual and creative Minnesota Funk 3
Page 1: September 1, 2012 for immediate rel
Page 5 and 6: Lamar Peterson My art involves the
Page 7 and 8: Minneapolis College of Art and Desi
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Page 11: Screenprint 10 x 15 in. 14-Wilson B

Minnesota Funk Kicks-Off Regis Center's 10th Anniversary Year ...

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