Local Art Scene: Elizabeth Kuth Artist Talk and a Homegrown Call for Art

A couple weeks back I had the opportunity to catch Elizabeth Kuth give an artist talk in the Morrison Gallery at the DAI. Catherine Meier opened by introducing the artist  and her exhibition, Rooted Expression. I'd heard her speak about her work in January at Studio 3 West and anticipated an interesting digression and was not disappointed.

Ms. Kuth began by noting that this was her first exhibition in 10 years. Having German roots, she noted that German Expressionism has been one of her influences, that it resonated with her. She works on canvas, working and re-working her large abstract forms so as to produce complex scratchings, collage-juxtapositions that depict and develop "the essence of human motion." Over time she took all this complex interactions of form and line and began to simplify it, to distill it to its essence.

Her talk had parallels to her work in that she produced word pictures at times that were nebulous and conceptual rather than concrete. "The idea of line on line began to speak to me," she said. She pointed at another piece and commented on how it depicted vessels, a womb, something about caves.

In many pieces there is a sense of play in her work, with something figurative happening. Because she lives alone in the woods, her children grown, her creative explorations conveyed her process of finding, as in a quest.

What's interesting when working in abstract forms is that things emerge which you didn't plan. Kuth, for example said at one point bones began to appear in her work. The interesting thing is that her father was a bone surgeon. She also saw rocks in her work, which made her ask how she was connected to primal times.

She went through a long period of questions with no answers and she searched for connections.

Carl Jung's writings speak of the myths and symbols of early peoples. While painting Kuth said liines and elements would begin to line up. The unconscious does the biggest part.

Hans Hoffman, she said, was another influence. He talked about "the search for the real."

Kuth noted that while painting she thinks in terms of relationships and movement, not objects. She builds layers, she said, "until something speaks to me. My process is to create with immediacy, a whimsical play of forms."

During a Q&A period afterwards she was asked, "How hard is it to work large?" To this she replied, "I'm having a hard time going back to small."

She was then asked to discuss her drawing. In response she discussed her daily ritual of doing 10 automatic drawings every morning to start the day. "I feel closer to my sketches.... very intimate." She shared that drawing was also therapeutic. "Let yourself be reckless. Drawing is immediate."

In response to a third question she stated that "abstraction produces a more interior feel" as we are detached from the world of objects. Drawing provides sanity by placing her in the present.

Her show, Rooted Expression, will remain on display at the Duluth Art Institute in the Depot till next weekend.


PRØVE Gallery Sends Out Call

Do you remember their first opening in 2011?

PRØVE Gallery is calling for painters, graphic designers, illustrators, writers and all types of artists to create or recreate their ideal Homegrown Music Festival concert poster or show setlist. The imagery can be from your favorite Homegrown Music Festival moment, venue, band(s), Twin Cities Invasion, Iron Range Invasion, Superior Night or a complete fictional show that you always wished was part of Homegrown Music Festival.

Tell your friends, your mom and any other person who likes to design their dream-team poster.

Attached to this email are all the details concerning:

Deadline, how to submit, day of the show and more details concerning the concept of the show.

For any other questions, feel free to inquire to: info@provegallery.com

Check out this PRØVE Flashback, The gallery has made good on its promise to bring something new and different to the Twin Ports arts scene.

Meantime, life goes on all around you. Open your eyes.

Another Visit with Artiist/Painter Karen Owsley Nease

Karen Owsley Nease caught her first vision of Lake Superior during a visit to Duluth in 1994. She knew instinctively that one day she would return. Moving here within the last three years she has become a welcome addition to the Northland arts scene.

Beginning April 30 her show Found Horizons will be on display at the Duluth Art Institute in the Morrison Gallery. The opening reception is slated for May 14, but on the 30th (just over two weeks) she will be giving an Artist's Talk at 5:30. I encourage anyone interested in modern painting to attend.

EN: Your upcoming show is titled Found Horizons featuring our Great Lake Superior. What are some things you learned while preparing for this show, either about yourself or our Northland?

Break in the Clouds (Nease)

KN: The abstract painter Jonathon Lasker was visiting Kansas City several years ago and memorably told a group of art students that to become successful as an artist “you need to become a more extreme version of yourself.” I feel like painting the lake’s horizon is allowing me to do that. We moved here to be near the big lake and every day since I find myself awestruck by it. I wondered how long that awe would last - and a year and a half hasn’t lessened it. As a painter working with color fields, the ever changing lake probably gives me 10 new ideas for paintings a day.

Duluth and the Northland are a very comfortable fit. Everyone has been kind and welcoming.

EN: You’ve cited 19th-century Transcendentalist landscape painting and Abstract Expressionism as major influences in your work. Who in particular of the landscape painters really interests you and why?

KN: My childhood influences were Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Moran; I saw their work a lot at a local art museum. They both painted the grandeur the Eastern U.S. and the American west of Yellowstone, Yosemite and the Grand Canyon. Later influences were George Inness, Fitz Hugh Lane and other Hudson River School artists. These painters were interested in the sublime, something I am working towards in my paintings of the horizon.

EN: As for the Abstract Expressionists, same question.

Blood Moon (Nease)

KN: More than any individual, it is the philosophy of the early Abstract Expressionists that is interesting to me - the notion of the paint itself as content. Later abstract painters such as Agnes Martin, Robert Ryman, and Richard Diebenkorn showed me that an idea I was struggling with could actually work. Respective examples are: strong horizontality of the composition; sculpturally applied paint and the optical aspects of colors at their edges.

EN: You mention being accepted into an upcoming plein air competition this summer, which dovetails nicely with your landscape interests. How does plein air differ from other kinds of painting?

KN: Unlike the controlled studio environment, plein air painting can feel like a very athletic event. It is an intellectual and physical race against the light. Plein air is painted outdoors The painter has to find the ideal location, schlep all of his/her materials to the spot and work in whatever weather presents itself. One has to capture the color and form of the important elements of the composition before the clouds come in or the sun moves too far and it all changes. That can be very challenging. Painting quickly from observation, especially outdoors forces one to learn how to edit to capture the essence of the scene. It is also develops the skill of quickly mixing colors. Plein air is a really good way to get into “good painting shape.”

EN: You and your husband Joe are considering the opening of a gallery here in the Twin Ports. What kind of gallery are the two of you envisioning at this point?

KN: We are discussing a lot of ideas right now and starting to think about the layout and required building improvements of our building in the Lincoln Park area of the west end of Duluth. Our gallery would provide contemporary art exhibitions in a “white box” style of space. It would be a place where one could explore in depth the work of one or a few artists in curated exhibits. We would work with professional regional and national artists. As a painter, I am particularly interested in having some exhibitions of paintings, especially where the term painting is broadly defined.

The west end of Duluth is undergoing revitalization and we want our gallery to be a part of that. Duluth is unique in its juxtaposition of industry and culture pushed up against the wilderness. It also has a history of craft, artisan and “maker” cultures and our gallery could reinforce those ideas with some exhibitions. We also would like to see some type of residency programs established that would bring in artists from elsewhere to work and exhibit in Duluth. There is much to consider.

EN: I enjoyed the digital pattern collage work you were doing. Now you will be returning to that style in the fall in some collaborative explorations with Alison Aune. How did that project come about? Have you done collaborative work in the past and if so, what’s the draw in collaboration?

Mr. and Mrs. Paisley (Nease)

KN: I think Alison is one of the strongest painters working in Duluth. Her work is original in its authenticity and sincerity. I see her as the Nordic-American equivalent of Christopher Ofili or Kerry James Marshall. She takes the patterns of her ancestry and pulls them forward into the present with contemporary frontal portraits and symbols. I vividly remember seeing her show at the DAI around 2007 and was so impressed. That was when we were on vacation before we moved to Duluth. I told Joe then that someday I hoped to work with her. Last year, I had her visit my studio and I brought up the idea of doing something together with our respective patterns, and she said yes. A few weeks later we ran into each other and got to talking more about the collaboration. The idea isn’t fully formed yet, but we are talking about riffing on one another’s patterns in a series of paintings and digital collages.

This will be my first collaboration. I am not interested in collaborating unless I feel that the results will provide a greater insight into what both artists are doing. There are similarities and differences in how patterns function in our artwork. I’m interested to see how/if the response to one another’s patterns will affect our work.

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Thank you for sharing.

A Visit With Artist Brent Kustermann

Kustermann in front of a portion of his piece "Surgery"

Brent Kusterman's paintings and prints have been making their appearance around town this summer. In May you could find some of his work at St. Luke’s Hospital in the new area set aside for artists. In June he was showing at the Red Mug Coffeehouse in Superior. In July you’ll find his work in the Atrium at the Zeitgeist Building in Downtown Duluth. This past Friday, July 11, more of his art went on display at the Washington Gallery which I wrote about in yesterday's blog.

Kusterman considers it to be the duty of an artist to bring a unique perspective to the world, a process "never fully mastered." He uses a variety of mediums to create his pieces, sometimes even found objects that others might discard to the trash bin. I found his art worth engaging. My guess is that he will continue to find venues for showing his art, and if you show up you may find it a worthwhile experience.

EN: Where did you grow up and how did you end up in Duluth?

Brent Kustermann: I have grown up in the Twin Ports area from Superior to all sides of Duluth. My family moved here when I was young from St. Paul. My parents were offered work here and they felt that the Twin Ports would be a good place to raise a family.

EN: How did you come to take interest in art?

Detail from "Surgery" 

BK: It's hard to pin point the moment when I took an interest in art. I feel that I have always been intrigued by the limitlessness of producing pictures. A portion of that appeal comes from a desire to communicate emotions and ideas with people while also remaining introverted, with respect to deeper questions about the world around us. A bigger appeal is the purity and honesty that comes from laying down colors and designs on a blank canvas or page. I am always interested in what people take away from my work. The freedom of interpretation is amazing. I love it when I have notions about what a piece might mean to me and what other people take away, it is usually completely different. That is the beauty of art; the direct and personal relationship with the viewer and the work. Without that symbiosis the whole thing is pointless.

EN: Where were your trained? Who have been your biggest influences?

BK: I have never really been formally trained. Yes, of course, I've taken classes in college and high school but my academic pursuits always formally fell short. I believe that after twenty plus years of producing paintings I have developed a relationship with the work I do that supersedes the rigid constraints of 'mastering' (per se) Art under the direction of the university. I have however had encouraging and artistic friends and people in my life that have really helped keep me focused when those tacit moments of insecurity and uncertainty have crept in. Nowadays I usually keep my long-winded diatribes about art on reserve for a really close friend who resides in Chicago. Influentially, I have always loved the allure of the German Expressionists. There is something that defies linguistics that is nostalgic and appreciable. Most certainly, the New York School of Abstract Expressionist are at the backbone of my love for painting. It would probably take a lifetime to get through all of them to fully understand the individuality and depth of each contributing member. And, my interest changes often; one day the intellect of Newman next, the seriousness and loneliness of Rothko.

EN: How do you balance career and creative pursuits?

BK: Making paintings is consumptive emotionally, physically, and spatially. I feel as though, if there were a balance that it happens naturally. I say this because I really don't force myself to make pieces. The work I do is a direct manifestation of the energy I feel I must exert artistically much in the same way a runner would feel unbalanced without the endorphin release of a run. At the end of it you feel great. You feel spent. My day job is a completely unrelated matter. I have to eat and I cannot imagine making a living off of art, as nice as that would be, it has never been that way. I am befuddled by the co-mingling of money and art. They are inherently unrelated matters. I don't even know how to price a piece of work. One dollar may as well be a million.

EN: What do you call your style? And can you explain your process of making pictures?

BK: My style? Well, I suppose would be Non-objective sometimes and Abstract the other times. The process for me is to spend time with the canvas (or whatever material) in the studio. Music has a great way of helping me focus and allow myself to sort of shake off outside noise. By noise I mean, all of those small annoying things that we think about through the day; schedules, bills, appointments, relationships, etc. and how we relate to them. Usually, I start without a plan... just an attraction to one color or another and I begin to lay out colors and see how they relate to one another and how they draw an emotional charge from me. This can take hours or months, sometimes completely annihilating a composition altogether or scavenging aspects of the work that should be saved. There is a great deal of time allowed for drying which affords me the ability to work on several paintings at once when things are going right. There are no limitations as far as materials used. House-paint, professional grade supplies, industrial supplies, dirt, found objects, linen; anything that I find intriguing will suffice.

Sometimes these things, compositional-wise, play out in my favor, other times they end in massive frustration. This is the ongoing process of all things, I suppose.

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Portions of this interview originally appeared in The Reader. 

Local Art Seen: AJ Atwater at the Zeitgeist

It's rather astonishing how quickly an idea-seed can germinate and become a full flowered phenomenon. When I met painter AJ Atwater at her Urban Landscapes show at the Washington Gallery seven weeks back, PROJECT 30/30 did not yet exist, even as an idea. But when it flashed, Penny Perry of Perry Framing was there to help bring it to fruition. Whether impulsiveness or simply a lifetime of good instincts, the net result was a fabulous body of work which is now on display at the Zeitgeist Arts Cafe.

The concept in brief: PROJECT 30/30 was thirty days of live painting in a public space, the showroom window of Perry Framing on the 200 block of East Superior Street here in Duluth. Each painting itself was 30" x 30". People passing by on the street were invited, by signage on the window, to enter and to interact with Atwater. And ultimately, the individual pieces were given titles by random people who participated in this interaction.

Basket of Color (left) and #4.

Whereas all the titles were fun -- Stradishes, Meadow and Tulips, Yellow Leaf, Friends Forever -- the title on Day 29 made me laugh out loud: #4.

Stradishes, of course.

The work itself showed vigor and remarkable variety. Clearly the artist made the most of her vividly colorful pallet, which showed a marked contrast to the darker shades in her urban nightscapes. The very pleasing outcome has to reflect something of her perceptions of our Northland landscape-on-the-lake. Having been following along on Facebook, each day was like new present under the Christmas tree, emotionally exciting and visually stimulating.

Atwater (left) interacts with friends, guests and fans.

I'd like to say much more than this but it would sound like I'm gushing. The June show at Washington Gallery made me a fast fan of Atwater's work and PROJECT 30/30 only re-affirmed my initial impressions.

Recommendation: On Monday August 5 artist Martin DeWitt's August show will be opening in the Zeitgeist Atrium. I strongly encourage you to use that opportunity to see two really exceptional talents with strong Duluth connections here in the same building. Can't make it to the opening? The Zeitgeist food is exceptional, so take a lunch hour to savor both the visual and the culinary delights.

Thank you AJ for following your whim on this one, and to Penny Perry for curating such a fabulous offering.