Ten Minutes with Joe Nease on the New Gallery and Transition to Duluth

When Joe and Karen Nease moved to the Twin Ports from Kansas City they wasted no time throwing themselves into the dynamic art scene here. Unlike Alice in Wonderland, who was clueless as regards where she was going (see opening of Friday's post on Purpose), the Neases gave the impression they knew exactly what they were look for. Karen soon had work in the 60th Arrowhead Regional Biennial (2014) and her first solo show, Found Horizons, at the Duluth Art Institute in 2015. Meanwhile Joe was on task with his own project, to find a suitable space that could be renovated for a new top drawer Duluth art gallery.

This fall the doors officially opened for the Joseph Nease Gallery, the vision realized. Here's an introduction to Joseph Nease, a welcome addition to the Twin Ports arts scene.

Local media coverage, opening of Joseph Nease Gallery in October.

EN: What prompted you to start your first art gallery in Kansas City and when?

Frazada, Eric Sall

Joseph Nease: After Karen graduated from Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI) in 1995, we started going to KCAI "end of semester" student shows. From there we met more KCAI professors who had exhibits in odd places about town such as empty buildings; the same thing that happens in Duluth and Superior occasionally. By 1997, I learned of some really good artists that did not have gallery representation but that I felt deserved a good place with good lighting to show. We took a trip to New York City in 1997 -- in part to see as many galleries as we could -- so I could make a decision as to whether I thought I could run a gallery. I decided I could. We bought a building in what is called the "Crossroads" district of Kansas City and we opened in September 1998.

EN: Once you made the decision what were your first challenges and how did you address them?
JN: There were a lot of practical things. During renovation of our building - someone suggested we put plywood behind the drywall so we could hang anything - that turned out to be a great suggestion. How do we promote ourselves was another issue, and back then, build a mailing list. Mailing lists could be purchased, but expensive, so we developed ours organically over time. In Kansas City there is a significant contemporary art infrastructure with collectors and collecting institutions - that certainly helped. Biggest challenge turned out to be being open during the time when 9/11 occurred, September 11, 2001. In the 2 1/2 years we were open after that, collectors and institutions became understandably conservative and the number of visitors and the ability to sell work dropped off.

Joe Nease (left) at the October opening.

EN: What did you see as your mission initially? How has that evolved?
JN: The initial idea in KC was somewhat simple - provide a quality place to show the work of local, deserving artists, and get our exhibitions reviewed by art critics (which we did, but difficult now with the split media landscape). Besides sales which helps the gallery and the artists, one thing I try to do today that I did not specifically do in the first gallery was try to advance the careers of our artists; some of which are the same as I showed in KC, but whom are now much more experienced and for whom career advancement (national press, getting noticed outside of the lower midwest, being in a museum collection, etc.) is important now.

No Place Like Utopia, Matthew Kluber

EN: Your KC gallery was featured in some prestigious magazines. How did that come about?
JN: Four of our shows in the period 1999 to 2004 were covered in Art-in-America (A-in-A) magazine. Although primarily centered on the New York art market then, A-in-A had regional reviewers in larger cities around the country including Kansas City. The art critic of the local newspaper, the Kansas City Star, was one of those reviewers. If my gallery or another venue had an exhibit of interest to both our local critic and the magazine, then there was an opportunity to be reviewed in A-in-A. The opportunities to appear in a national magazine still exist today but are more difficult to accomplish with the loss of art critics from local newspapers.

EN: Moving your gallery from Kansas City to Duluth has been a fairly major undertaking. What were your primary motivations?

"ticket" by Kathy McTavish

JN: Moving to Duluth was not motivated by having a gallery here, but rather by the natural beauty, the respect for the land, the politics, ease of making some good friends, etc. that we found here. We started visiting northern Minnesota even before our Kansas City gallery was open, but it took a long time to actually make the move. After moving here in 2013, I have been involved in the visual arts here by attending exhibits, supporting some of the artists with purchases of work, and for a time being on the Board of the Duluth Art Institute. For a year or so before opening the gallery here this October, I started thinking about having a gallery again for some of the same reasons as before, and because I wanted to share my artistic vision of presenting a different type of gallery in Duluth that I did not think existed here.

Re-formed curve, Warren Rosser

EN: What was your selection process for the artists you have chosen for your inaugural show?
JN: Obviously, Duluth is smaller than Kansas City and I was not thinking of having a completely local roster as some of the other galleries here already provide that function. I had worked with and been acquainted with quite a few artists from outside the region from my previous gallery. There were certain of these artists that I wanted to work with again, whose work I thought would be of interest here, and who would appreciate being seen by a different audience. Some of these I learned, had family in Minnesota, or even traveled to Duluth each year and so this was not a remote location to them. I also had in mind some local artists that I thought were a good fit with my overall program. Our inaugural show which is still up through January 6, is really two shows. Three States, which features two artists I knew before, and one local artist -- Kathy McTavish whose work I have followed and appreciated. The other show is Other Works, which is a sampling of work by the other artists I am planning to work with including another local artist, photographer Tim White.

EN: What do you have planned for 2018?
JN: Thank you for asking. Our first show of 2018 will open February 10 entitled "Sweep" and will be a show of quality painting with major paintings by our gallery artists that are painters, and by several local and regional invited painters. There will be nearly 20 artists in this exhibit about painting. Remainder of the schedule is not set in stone yet, but we will do something that relates to Earth Day and Homegrown, and this summer have a show by James Brinsfield. Since we have the main gallery space, and some smaller gallery areas, we may exhibit more than one show at a time as we develop our schedule in this first year.

* * * *
If you've not yet been, the Joseph Nease Gallery is located near the corner of First Street and First Avenue East in Downtown Duluth. You can read my 2015 interview with Karen Nease here.

Learn more: visit www.josephneasegallery.com/

Meantime, art goes on all around you. Engage it.