Local Art Seen: Heidi Pollard at the JNG

Detail from larger piece. 

The small backroom space at Joseph Nease Gallery features Heidi Pollard's Heaven and Other Realms.

The press release describes her work in this manner:
Heidi Pollard's work approaches the dichotomies of daily life – the contradictory beliefs, feelings, and experiences we all hold in tension – with a sense of wonder and beauty. Employing her impressions and memories, she makes the unfathomable tangible in her drawings, paintings, and sculpture. Full of symbol and metaphor, her work reaches beyond her own experiences and thoughts to become something new and nameless, a mirror for the viewer.

Here is a link to the full press announcement and a link to her persona website.

Every picture has a story behind it. Here are some images you will find.

OF NOTE

Friday is will be your last chance to see Matthew Kluber's exhibition in the primary gallery space. The Kluber show, which has been up since spring, features a number of mesmerizing optical projections that remind me of some of Kathy McTavish's work. (cf. Chance)

Friday I'm In Love. This is an eight-foot wide projection.

NOW FOR SOMETHING REALLY INTERESTING

Kluber's projection pieces make a great setting to take some original selfies. 

This photo is a work of fiction.

IF YOU GO

Take some Selfies.

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NEXT MONDAY
@ the Zeitgeist Atrium:

Matthew Kluber @ Joesph Nease Gallery: SFX

Our June Downtown Duluth Art Crawl was once again rewarding, as noted here yesterday. Here are snapshots of the Matthew Kluber exhibition at Joseph Nease Gallery. Titled Friday, I'm In Love, Kluber's work is a continuation of his optical explorations and work with projectors.

It's interesting that the elevation of art as something significant is nothing new. Here are some comments from ancient philosophers, followed by a handful of more recent statements and observations about the arts.

It is not strength, but art, obtains the prize,
And to be swift is less than to be wise.
'Tis more by art, than force of numerous strokes.
--Homer

Ars longa, vita brevis est.
--Hippocrates

Painters and poets have equal license in regard to everything.
--Horace

More recent philosophers recognize the importance of art as well.

"I dream my painting, and then I paint my dream."
--Vincent Van Gogh

"A genuine work of art must mean many things; the truer its art, the more things it will mean."
--George MacDonald 

"Art is the supreme task and the truly metaphysical activity in this life… "
--Friedrich Nietzsche,

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Any harm in inserting a selfie here?

Artists getting into it.... L to R: Kathryn Lenz, Kathy McTavish, Bruce Peckham,
Matthew Kluber and Dawn Kluber.

* * * *

Gallery manager Amanda Hunter shows Dale Lucas (Studio 101) some of the
work from previous shows.

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At the end of the day, art doesn't need to be explained. It needs to be experienced.

--L. E. Newman

Three States Reveals Aims of the New Joseph Nease Gallery

Whirl Signal iPad, James Woodfill

Thursday we shared a few moments from the ribbon-cutting at the Joseph Nease Gallery. James Woodfill's Wayfinding exhibit had failed to completely find its way here at the time, but there was enough in place for early visitors to grasp the caliber of Duluth's newest gallery space. Saturday afternoon Joe and Karen Nease officially opened their doors for the public opening reception.

This first show was titled Three States, a reference to the three geographical regions the featured artists hailed from. The artists getting top billing were Matthew Kluber of Iowa, Kathy McTavish or Minnesota and James Woodfill of Missouri. A dozen other artists, however, were also represented throughout the gallery.

James Woodfill has been a painting professor at the Kansas City Art Institute from 15-20 years. A 1980 grad he entered into a commercial art career before getting into studio art. His works demonstrate an interdisciplinary approach that in this particular show features movement and light kinetics. Interestingly, all three featured artists incorporate the same central concept but with totally different outcomes. Woodfill's gallery installations have received national recognition in numerous publications including Art In America, the New Art Examiner and Sculpture Magazine, among others.

James Woodfill

The artist whose work you encounter upon entering the gallery is Matthew Kluber. The first eye-catching piece, titled No Place Like Utopia, is the one featured in Thursday's blog post with it's sequence of photos depicting Kluber and Mayor Larson engaged in conversation. Another large piece title Parsing the Lingo is comprised of alkyd on aluminum. Then there are a series of small gouache paintings on Arches watercolor paper. When you visit his website it's apparent that the Iowa artist is fascinated with color and light.

A captured moment in time from ticket by Kathy McTavish

Kathy McTavish, the third featured artist in this show, has assembled her composition, titled ticket, in an isolated room in which code-generated animations are being projected on the walls along with random numbers and sounds, a visual-sensual experience generated via wireless network, chrome browsers, projectors and the cloud. While different from Chance, the current Tweed show, it has many similarities and seems to raise some of the same issues, while toying with the same fascinations. 

In addition to the three featured artists, the JNG also showed 1-4 works by a dozen artists in a variety of media that included oil, acrylic, gouache, photography, crayon & ball point pen, and solid-case earthenware with slip. The 25 pieces were evenly distributed throughout the gallery in such a manner as to almost be deceptive. That is, a visitor to the gallery might easily assume there aren't that many pieces here, but then the spaciousness surprises you. This hall here, that room there, with nothing competing and all pieces getting their deserved attention. 

Here are the other artists with work currently on display: photographers Raissa Venables and Tim White, Warren Rosser, Peter Granados, James Brinsfield, Marcus Cain, Heidi Pollard, Eric Sall, Don Kottmann, Warren Rosser, Carey Esser and Eric Sall. 

And here are some additional views:

Blue Hall, by Raissa Venables, Archival Pigment Print, 2009

Several Woodfill sculptures

Before moving to Duluth with his wife Karen, Joseph Nease, a civil engineer by profession, ran a gallery in Kansas City devoted to cutting edge art. They call this gallery Joseph Nease Gallery Version 2.0, integrating the many lessons they learned from their first gallery experience. One feature of the new space is that some of the walls are on wheels so that gallery configuration does not have to remain locked in a single patten.

The gallery brought on board a curator, Amanda Hunter, to assist in managing all the behind-the-scenes matters that others might take for granted. This particular show, Three States, will remain installed until early January 2018.

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To Visit the Artist's Websites:
James Woodfill -- https://woodfill-archive.herokuapp.com/
Matthew Kluber -- http://www.matthewkluber.com/
Kathy McTavish -- http://www.mctavish.io/

Better yet, visit the gallery in person: 23 West First Street, Duluth MN

Ribbon Cutting Ceremony at the New Joseph Nease Gallery Generates More Enthusiasm for the Expanding Arts District

The official announcement went out in mid-September. The Joseph Nease Gallery would become the newest addition to Duluth's Historic Arts & Theater District (HART).

For everyone who felt that Don Ness was the epitome of Mayoral Cool, I'd suggest that Mayor Emily Larson has proven herself to be a great sequel. Yesterday she made an appearance at the Ribbon Cutting ceremony for Joseph Nease Gallery in the emerging Duluth Arts District. Familiar faces included artists Matthew Kluber* (seen here in this scintillating sequence with the Mayor), Kathy McTavish, Tim White, and others. Former Duluth Poet Laureate Sheila Packa, journalist Claire Kirch, representatives from the Greater Downtown Council and Duluth Chamber of Commerce, Karen Anderson (Playlist) and assorted local media were all on hand for the occasion.

Mayor Larson, pausing to review notes...

...then lighting up the room.

Mayor Larson shared that she was excited for the Nease gallery opening and said thank you for choosing Duluth as their new home. She reminded those present and the public (by way of the media) of the significant economic impact the arts has been having on our region, affirming that "art is more important than ever... a beautiful mosaic that tells our stories." 

Joe Nease, who had the honors of doing the ribbon cutting, said he was happy to be downtown and was "glad we found this space." He shared that it was an opportunity to give Duluth exposure to other artists. The Nease Gallery in Kansas City had shows that on several occasions obtained national recognition. I personally have been looking forward to the contributions the Joseph Nease Gallery (JNG) will be bringing to the Twin Ports arts scene.

It's been a busy couple years for the Joe and Karen Nease who first had to find a suitable space, then purchase and renovate it. It's been a lot of work, and there's still more to do before Saturday's Opening Reception (2:00-5:00 p.m.) A few of the walls in the space are on wheels so they can be moved about for various kinds of exhibits, a conceptually intriguing idea in and of itself.

This first show, Three States, features Matthew Kluber, Kathy McTavish and James Woodfill. Woodfill was one of the Kansas artists with whom Joe Nease had been associated there. McTavish, one of our local artist explorers in the digital age of art, has been busy simultaneously preparing for tonight's major opening at the Tweed. You can catch a sneak preview here. 

Yesterday's ribbon cutting was just one more reason to be excited about what's happening here in the Northland arts scene. 

REMINDERS

"CHANCE" Tonight at the Tweed

GOIN' POSTAL FALL ART SHOW. 17 Artists. Friday, 6-9 p.m.

OPENING RECEPTION SATURDAY for THREE STATES here at the Joseph Nease Gallery. Do drop in.

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*For Cleveland Indians fans: The answer is "Yes." Kluber is genealogically related to the young Indians ace. I also learned that Mr. Kluber's wife is a shirttail relative to Hall of Fame hurler Bob Feller, who one of my first teddy bears was named after.