Ongoing group exhibition

v.1 statement
Tara Austin, brand new small paintings paired with recent paintings on paper by James Brinsfield – compare patterns and influences.  A grouping of two recent and one new striped, geometric paintings on aluminum by Matthew Kluber – follow the lines and bask in the warmth of their sunshine-colored palette.

Enter a separate space, with three quiet and contemplative works each, from David Bowen and Cary Esser.  See how Esser’s wall-mounted ceramic Parfleche pieces balance with Bowen’s carved polystyrene translations of sea and sky.  And view a separate video from Bowen on how he makes his carved pieces and the source of their shapes.

Our main space features a projection of a recent, dual-frame film by Allen Killian-Moore interpreting Tia Salmela Keobounpheng’s summer 2020 project in Duluth about her Finnish heritage. On an adjacent wall are three photographs by Tim White in a warm palette.  Both White and Killian-Moore share a common interest in analog methods and a non-pristine view of the world.

Invited Duluth artist Elizabeth (Liz) James is a well-known ceramic artist in the region.  We feature one of her beautiful wall installations that have not been exhibited previously in Duluth.  Her wall installations are inspired by landscape and composed of many individual pieces.

Kathy McTavish debuts a version of her new animated, sound, and word piece “blue atlas,” which is an accompaniment and interpretation, in part, of the poetry of Sheila Packa about northern Minnesota and the Iron Range.  We will display a looped version with sound of her multi-part work and make available access to it on its native web presence.

Exhibition Note: Version 2 of a Warm Reset occured by changing out some of the work, including installation of an interactive video installation by Joellyn Rock.

v.2 statement
Rachel Hayes contributes two ceiling-to-floor pieces, most recently exhibited as part of the Nevada Museum of Art's In the Flow exhibition earlier this year.  One piece is bathed in light and can be seen and seen-through by our front windows.  Her other piece splits our main gallery down the middle and moderates the other work around it.

Fishnet Stockings is a new-media work by Joellyn Rock installed in our Gallery B.  The participatory piece allows the audience to dive in and make virtual waves inside this alt version of a very old tale. A layered mix of digital video, text, silhouettes and cutout elements are motion activated with a combo of code, Processing and Kinect. It's digital projections include a mashup of historical references, folk patterns, and story fragments fished from the project's old twitter feed and its current google forms feed. The audience has multiple modes for participation. Move your body inside the projections and interact with hybrid sea creatures that float through the narrative. Or, cast your own words into the google form net and voice alternative endings to the bad bargains made by little mermaids.

v.2 also includes one new and one recent painting by Jonathan Thunder.  The Doctrine of Rediscovery addresses the cultural difference between native knowledge and traditions, and imposed assimilation tactics of the U.S. government,  including failures of recent officials..  The 2021 painting The Lighthouse has its historical precedent in the well-known 19th century painting Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Leutze.  In Jonathan's The Lighthouse, an all black-white-gray painting, the occupants of the boat are misled by a leader resembling the Hamburglar, Marvin the Martian, and other looney-esque characters trying to make their way; only a lone woman with child notices the lighthouse in the opposite direction from which they are going.

Ongoing statement (October 2021): New large scale paintings by James Brinsfield, new paintings by Marcus Cain and Warren Rosser, Maamawi film by Jonathan Thunder.