Banner artwork: Container (Ship Comes In) by Todd Severson (composite sample top; detail at bottom). Container is an ongoing work started in 2005 that, when finished, will consist of over 800 small format paintings which are loosely based on existing portraiture of selected prominent, noteworthy, infamous, important, and popular personalities from global cultural history. All paintings are acrylic enamel on found and altered metals. This image is a composite sample and shows the projected work approximately 60' wide X 12' high.
About the artist: Todd Severson is a painter and ceramic-sculptor originally from Minneapolis. He says:
"I lived and worked eight of the last fifteen years in Hamburg, Germany, three years in Houston, Texas (it's not as bad as you may have heard), and one strange year in London, after finishing graduate school in Baton Rouge, LA. In 2003, I returned from Germany back to Minneapolis. The primary focus of my work can be best described as portrait installations consisting of large numbers of small paintings loosely based on existing historical portrait images. My largest work to date, the TAUSEND DEUTSCHE PORTRAITS, (1994-2002), developed over time into over a thousand paintings and is completely based on actual German historical figures. This work has been shown in several German cities including Berlin, Frankfurt, Hannover, Hamburg, Bielefeld, and Cologne." His work was recently selected for inclusion in the Minnesota Museum of American Art Minnesota Biennial 3D II. You can see Severson's work for yourself this fall--he has an exhibition scheduled for September at Flanders Contemporary Art Gallery. Inquiries about specific pieces may be directed to the artist.
