Ennyman's Territory: Local Art Seen: Sirpa at the JNG and a Flask Exhibition

Last night there were several openings of note in Downtown Duluth. The Sirpa Särkijärvi opening at Joseph Nease Gallery is all the evidence we need to affirm the value of this addition to the arts community. The Finnish painter, herself present, was greatly appreciated by the crowd of art enthusiasts who gathered for the freshly hung exhibition.

Down the street you could also attend two other shows: The Flask Exhibition at the Nordic Center and WTF (What The Feminist) at the PROVE.

The Flask exhibition was subtitled A Focus on Form and Function. The show featured flasks a flagons of all shapes an sizes. Flasks have been used in Nordic and other cultures throughout history for carrying liquids from place to place. We saw them in the form of canteens on TV Westerns as kids. The flasks in this show, curated by Karen Keenan and Bob Dearmond, were produced from clay, wood, metal, glass and fiber by area artists, an intriguing theme with some remarkably inventive "products."

It was fun to see the variety of names we have given to our containers. Jugs, flasks and decanters were most common. There were also glasses, a funnel, and a growler, all for sale at reasonable prices, considering these pieces were also art.

Artists who contributed included Bob Dearmond, Erin Eitsch, Richard Cruchalla & Carrin Rosetti, Bob & Cheryl Husby, Elzabeth James and Jim Klug, Clayton Johnson, Karen Keenan, Karin Kraemer, Loiselle D Lehigh, Michael Maguire, May Anne Malm, Yarrow Mead, Kathryn Mongan-Rallis, Rita Morris & Barry Sands, Robin Murphy, Dan Neff, Anne Wolfe Nichols, Denise Perry, Mike Simieja, Sheila Staubus and Julie Zenner.

Gallery hours for the Flask Exhibition are from 1-4 p.m. on March 23, 24 and April 6, 7 as well as on March 29 from 5-8 p.m. during the Downtown Duluth Art Walk.

The space was crammed, but not impossibly so. Friends and fans made their way through, many of them sifting down into the WTF space where it may have been easier to make an exit.