Alison Aune's Art Space Inspires Both Eye and Soul

Friday evening during the Downtown Duluth Arts Walk I loitered briefly in the studio of Alison Aune, an arts professor at UMD whose studio space is located above Pineapple Arts with about a half dozen others. It's a great space, if you ever get a chance to visit. I personally love seeing studios and artist spaces. To think that it was once a bare room with white walls!

The image of a pond filling with algae comes to mind... except instead of the studio filling with photosynthetic-green cotton candy, the walls and surfaces accumulate a different kind of life form: art. In Aune's studio, it's Swedish designs.

Much of what lay on the counter had been completed for an upcoming event in Estonia. Aune explained to me how the designs were not arbitrary and merely decorative as many people suppose. Each has symbolic properties. It might be an aerial view of a well or a farmer's field. In short, like many things there's more than meets the eye.

Both she and her sister Kirsten, whose studio I visited last month, work in bright, vibrant colors. Kirsten, who works in fabric, draws inspiration from more contemporary Scandinavian forms. Alison is drawing from the deep well of history, somewhat akin to a genealogist, except she's researching the DNA of form and design, not great-great-grandparents.

* * * *
The Art Walk nights in Duluth are taking place the last Friday of each month, rain or shine, wind, snow or hail, unto perpetuity and beyond, initiated by the nonprofit Downtown Arts Collective which includes 25 organizations. Co-chairs of the DAC are Joellyn Rock of the new Rockingchair Studio and Amanda Hunter from the Joesph Nease Gallery.

Related Links
Ornamental Joy, story about Alison Aune at MN Artists .
Alison Aune Wikipedia page
Colors from the North. Article for The American Swedish Institute about Alison and sister Kirsten's upcoming show https://www.asimn.org/exhibitions-collections/exhibitions/alison-aune-kirsten-aune-colors-north
Selective Focus interview with the artist at Perfect Duluth Day . 

Another Perfect Evening for an Art Stroll Through Downtown Duluth

Mosaic at the top of the stairs above Pineapple Arts
just outside Tight Squeek Press

Last night the weather was again perfect for art lovers to do a Downtown Duluth Walkabout. Not too hot, not too cool, not windy, and blue skies. What's not to like? And a lot of great things to see. In addition to artists showing their work there were quite a number of artists making the rounds. Most of the galleries and art studios were open from 5 till 8, though PROVE had a later shift (7-10) and some of the drinking establishments featuring artists on their walls -- Lee Zimmerman's work at the Rathskellar, for example -- had much longer hours. Dubh Linn's Irish Pub is new this month and the Nordic Center held art walkers captive with music by Rachael Kilgour, who also showed up at Peace Church today for the Woman-Made Arts & Crafts Fair.

I didn't try to get everywhere, but did see quite a bit, beginning over by in the middle of the block by Pineapple Arts, taking in Alison Aune's studio space (which is a museum in and of itself) as well as Jon Hinkel's Tight Squeek Press and Joellyn Rock's space (Rockingchair Studio), where I learned the backstory regarding how some of these UMD art profs had studios downtown.

Kite-like folding forms by Warren Rosser

The Joseph Nease Gallery was having an opening reception for a show called Transitions featuring work by Warren Rosser, though the major retrospective for James Brinsfield continues to fill much of the gallery still.

Carla Hamilton's solo show -- Minnesota Nice -- at the PROVE is quite exceptional, a bit edgy and thought provoking. The show's aim is to create a bit of discomfort as we look at some of the issues that create and perpetuate human rifts as well as the difficulties involved in forging connections across and between boundaries created by stereotypes, biases, racism and sexism. MN Nice will be on display through September 12. (The gallery is open from 4-7 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

Carla Hamilton's wall of faces as part of Minnesota Nice.

I took far too many pictures and will share more tomorrow. There was more to see than there was time, so next month I will begin either at AICHO or Washington Studios Gallery. We'll have to wait and see where the Force leads.

Love, love, love Joellyn Rock's designs.

A John Hinkel print... I see a story here.

John Hinkel's workspace above Pineapple Arts.

Lee Zimmerman has been painting on silk. Sone of his drawings are and paintings
can be found in the Rathskellar, deep beneath the former City Hall.

Ryan Tischer is still featuring his Ten Days in Iceland photography. Lizzards is featuring Shawna Gilmore and Terry Millikan right now, though all the usual suspects have their work here as well. 

Meantime, art goes on all around you. Get into it. 

4North at the DAI Reminds Us That We All Come From Somewhere

"In America, we all come from somewhere else, and we carry along some dream myth of home: a notion that something - our point of origin, our roots, the home country - is out there."
~Bobby Ann Mason

Art does not appear in a vacuum. An artist's passions and proclivities dictate much of the subject matter. This past Thursday the eagerly awaited 4North show opened in the Morrison Gallery in conjunction with the 61st Biennial at the Duluth Art Institute on the fourth floor of the Depot.

Here's the show's summary, as published on the DAI website:
“4North: New Work by Alison Aune, Kirsten Aune, Ann Klefstad, and Arna Rennan” explores a sense of place through four distinct voices. The artists share a Scandinavian heritage, as well as live and work in northern Minnesota. While the four create in disparate media—painting, sculpture, and textile arts—the threads connecting their work reveal a deep reverence for the natural world and the translation and transmutation of patterns and symbols.

Lofotbadlands, Arna Rennan

As anyone who has been part of our community knows well, there are plenty of reminders that our heritage remains part of the fabric of life here in Northern Minnesota. It's more than just the Sons of Norway Building downtown, or Leif Erickson Park, or all the Johnsons and Nelsons, Swedes, Finns and Norwegians.

Some of the appeal of our region to these early immigrants was the similarity of the landscape and climate to their homeland. Even the animals are similar. (Check out Ann Klefstad's assortment of critters.) Many of the immigrant communities that formed in Minnesota began small, but letters home attracted family and friends who brought the shared language and values.

Grandfathers, by Arna Rennan

The artwork included sculpture, textiles and paintings. The gallery atmosphere included vibrant warmth and enthusiastic appreciation for a show well received.

All four women share a Scandinavian heritage. The four artists also live and work in Northern Minnesota. Though the work be diverse, there were numerous common characteristics

The hallways gallery featured animalia by Ann Klefstad. If you ascend to the gallery by means of the elevator, you will begin here with the rabbit, the turtle, the badger and other residents of our region's natural habitat, painted on wooden panels. Inside the gallery itself, be sure to stroke the burnt wolf. Usually you are asked not to touch the work, but in this case you have permission to pet its forehead. Be prepared for a surprise, though.

For more about this show, visit this blogpost featuring Alison Aune's work.

The pictures here are an inadequate summery of what you will find, though you will readily notice the vibrant palette, and intricate detail in much of the work.  I hope you will go out of your way to see this exhibition.

Kirsten Aune designs were also being worn by several young women during the event.

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

Where Art and Scandinavia Meet: Alison Aune

It takes a special kind of fortitude to pursue an inner vision that is out of step with the prevailing winds. This is precisely where Alison Aune was at while acquiring degrees in art, including a doctorate from Ohio University (this blogger's alma mater.) While post-pop, modern and post-modern were in vogue, Aune derived inspiration from ancient cultures and her own Scandinavian roots, a vein she continues to mine to this day.

Aune is one of four women whose work will be on display in November as part of a Duluth Art Institute (DAI) exhibition titled 4North: New Work by Alison Aune, Kirsten Aune, Ann Klefstad, and Arna Rennan.

Earlier this week Ann Klefstad shared a little about her work in preparation for this show. Neither Klefstad nor Aune are strangers to group shows.

In 2007-2008 Alison Aune had a show featuring her Swedish paintings in the John Steffl Gallery at the DAI. She has a gallery above Pineapple Arts downtown and is a professor of art education at UMD. She traces her ancestors to both Norwegian and Swedish immigrants who no doubt found the beauty and climate here similar to their homeland... and "there's no place like home." (Especially if it's not Kansas.)

She did her doctoral these on the artist Cora Sandel. The ongoing theme through her work is women’s traditional crafts as inspiration for painting. What follows is from an artist statement:

Contact with pattern from Nordic women’s handwork down through the ages is important to her work. The cultural inheritance from the Nordic countries lies for her in what women sewed, knitted, embroidered or wove, in the home and often in collaboration with other women. It was folk art that came with the immigrant women to the Midwest. Aune’s paintings are multicultural and deal with women’s history, while at the same time the main motif is contemporary. With understanding and deliberateness she creates a clear departure from contemporary art. She has collected patterns from pillows, bedspreads, old mittens and wall hangings. Aune incorporates this into her paintings so that it creates a connection with collective patterns in earlier women’s handcrafts.

A 2015 artist statement amplifies some of these ideas still further:

Artists Between Two Cultures from Oslo: Dag og Tid, Dec.13th, 2013 by Oyvind Gulliksen (Trans. by Arna Rennan)

In these paintings, Alison Aune celebrates her ancestral Swedish heritage and culture by exploring traditional folk art textile patterns, designs, and symbols. In the Knäckebröd Mandala painting series she uses Siljan’s rye crisp bread wrappers as the circle mandala to symbolize harmony and balance. The floral patterns surrounding it and within it are from Swedish material culture: textile patterns such as dukagång, Dalarna kattun, IKEA napkins, and various wrapping papers. These paintings have been exhibited in Minnesota, Washington state, and Sweden.

Høstfest 2015

This is the statement from her 2008 show:

Nordic Pattern Paintings by Alison Aune

For the past several years, I have been integrating historic decorative-symbolic motifs found in Swedish and Norwegian textiles and domestic artifacts into my paintings. The first painting series was called Dekorglädje, literally translated from Swedish as “decoration happiness” and then my work expanded to a Floral Icon and Nordic Mandala series. My current project, Nordic Pattern Paintings includes both traditional Swedish and Norwegian symbolic patterns and designs with floral forms and portraiture. This project is a culmination of my Dekorglädje series and is rooted in the framework of a feminist aesthetic that honors women’s historic contributions to textiles and folk art. Through the process of inquiry, critical reflection, and the direct referencing of these decorative patterns into my paintings, I am discovering the original symbolic meanings and the cultural significance of these designs. In this way, I am not only exploring my heritage but I am keeping the imagery alive by re-contextualizing these ancient forms into a new and contemporary artistic form.

As you can see from the images here her work, like the hearts of the people of Scandinavia, is vividly colorful and stimulating. The attention to detail is rich, like the connections she makes with her culture, a culture woven into the fabric of our own. Especially here in the Northland.

The reception for 4North is November 10. If you are on Facebook, be sure to add it to your calendar.

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

Opening Reception for UMD Art & Design Faculty Biennial: What We Do

October 18, 2014 - 6 to 8pm

Quick Note: The Tweed Museum of Art is hosting the 2014 Faculty Biennial exhibition, featuring artwork created by the Art & Design faculty, School of Fine Arts, at the University of Minnesota Duluth.

WHAT WE DO is an exhibition of new artworks by UMD art teaching faculty. The exhibition highlights their creative achievements, from traditional to new media. What We Do emphasizes the significance of artistic achievement derived from research, practice and intelligent imagination. For more information, visit our website at www.d.umn.edu/tma

Why I do what I do
"Most design professionals are in a highly complex working environment, both technological and methodological. In many situations the communication challenges are multilayered. Design challenges must be explored from multiple viewpoints; client, user, designer, societal needs, purpose. Yet in the end design communication is often one on one."
- Janice Kmetz, Art & Design Faculty

This exhibit will be on display through March 22, 2015, but if you come to the opening you can meet the artists/faculty in person. Highly recommended.

Opening reception: Saturday, October 18, 2014 from 6 to 8pm - Tweed Museum of Art.

According to their announcement there will be a limited edition of screen printed posters created by John O'Neill on sale at the reception. This event is free and open to the public.

FINE PRINT
The Tweed Museum is a fiscal year 2015 recipient of an operating support grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is funded, in part, by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund as appropriated by the Minnesota State Legislature with money from the Legacy Amendment vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008. The Tweed Museum is one of seven units in the School of Fine Arts, UMD. The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer.

ARTISTS FEATURED IN THE EXHIBITION: WHAT WE DO
Art & Design Faculty Biennial 2014, University of Minnesota - Duluth

Alison Aune ● Fatih Benzer ● Steve Bardolph ● David Bowen ● Gloria DeFilipps Brush ● Jen Dietrich ● Darren Houser ● Betsy Hunt ● Elizabeth James ● Jeffrey Kalstrom ● James Klueg ● Janice Kmetz ● Victoria Lehman ● Robin Murphy ● Ryuta Nakajima ● Matthew Olin ● John O'Neill ● Kristin Pless ● Robert Repinski ● Joellyn Rock ● David Short ● Eun-Kyung Suh ● Rob Wittig

Join us!

Alison Aune and 4 from the North

You’d have to live under a broken sewer main to not notice that our North Country is rich with ethnic variety. Post-Civil War there was an abundance of open land being offered here to anyone willing to work it into shape. This news traveled across the seas to the furthest corners of Europe attracting waves of Norwegian, Swede and Finnish families who were accustomed to our special brand of harsh winters. Estonians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Icelanders, Germans, Danes and Russians came as well as Scots and Irish who desired our freedoms and their fair portion of the American dream.

Many of the heirs of these emigrants have remained connected to their homelands, cherishing their heritage and the places they hailed from. Unlike east coast settlers whose kin arrived ten generations ago, these Northland roots were planted within a lifetime or two from the original pioneering settlers. As a result, it is not uncommon for Scandinavians here to find and visit their relatives “back home.”

I mention all this only because of this week's 4 from the North art show in Norway Hall and the Nordic Gala upstairs in Norway Hall at Downtown Duluth's Sons of Norway Building. The aim of Saturday evening's Nordic Gala was the opposite of what you might think. Rather that simply being an opportunity for Norwegians to celebrate together, this Gala had as its aim the connecting of all our cultures in an attempt to transcend ethnic barriers.

We're all familiar with the image of America as a melting pot. When I think melting pot I think stew. The flavor may be tasty but all the ingredients lose their identity in the crock pot. A better metaphor, not original with me, might be the tossed salad where every ingredient retains its character while contributing to the whole.

The 4 from the North art exhibit was located just up the sidewalk from the new Prøve Gallery  likewise housed in the Sons of Norway Building. 4 from the North featured four women artists whose names also happened to begin with the letter A: Ann Klefstad, Arna Rennan, Alison Aune and Ann Jenkins. Their paintings and sculpture work draw from their love of nature as well as their mutual appreciation for their heritage.

I spoke with Alison Aune Friday evening to learn more about her paintings as well as gain insights about the other artists represented there. Aune noted that in researching the patterns that we associate with Scandinavian sweaters and designs, she discovered that the symbols have meanings beyond simply being decorative. Furthermore, she said, "Repetition imbues symbols with strength and power. Patterns had power."

She noted the eight-pointed stars and other motifs that she's incorporated into her work. Some even had divine power. Her research took her back to Sweden where she took great pains to decode the designs that many of us take for granted. The most common sweater pattern that we're familiar with is a symbol of resistance, she said.

Another painter in this group was Arna Rennan who, since 1990, has always preferred to paint on location. Her Norweigian fjord paintings were not derived from the photos of friends and family. She's determined to take it all in first hand, and transmit from there.

Ann Jenkins's work is familiar to anyone who has been a regular visitor to Lizzard's Gallery down on Superior Street. Her evocative paintings reveal her responsive impressions of light and color.

Ann Klefstad's Forest Deer contributed to the space nicely and might help make other forest visitors feel at home in this interior environment. Klefstad's participation comes on the heels of a major show in the Twin Cities that featured a wide range of her skills and imagination, and took up a lot of her time this summer.

Alison Aune's paintings have been displayed in Sweden, re-interpreting traditional patterns and symbols in a contemporary setting. Her work as also featured in 2007 at the Duluth Art Institute.

I'm confident that if you were unable to see 4 from the North, you'll have plenty more opportunities to see the work of these four women in future venues.