mnartists.org, along with Midway Contemporary Art and Franklin Art Works are pleased to present the joint opening reception for the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 McKnight Artist Fellows for Photography, this June 11. The opening will take place at both galleries from 7 - 10 pm and exhibitions runs through July 24, 2011. A free shuttle bus will be available for travel between venues until 10 pm.
Franklin Art Works will be exhibiting recent work from 2009-2010 Fellows Monica Haller, Paul Shambroom, Lex Thompson and Carrie Thompson.
Monica Haller works in long-term collaborations with individuals and small groups, exploring the way that people grapple, both psychologically and practically, with difficult transitions or traumatic situations. Her aesthetic practice aims to reactivate and amplify the materials and technologies her collaborators have turned to along the way.
Paul Shambroom's work explores American culture and manifestations of power, including serial projects which stealthily document military personnel, public monuments, community civic meetings and highly controlled places of weapon development and testing.
Lex Thompson will be showing new work which frames a portrait of the islands of Hawaii through observing socio-historical cultural collisions with modern day tourism and through images which purport the artist's expectations of the islands as recalled from American pop-culture, including television.
Carrie Thompson's work has explored her relationship with her family, roots, rootlessness, and restlessness. Her most recent photos document a trip to Japan that preceded the birth of her first child, Goma, and what began as a search for a subject became instead a series of ongoing interrogations.
Midway Contemporary Art will be exhibiting recent work from 2010-2011 fellows Chuck Avery, Amy Eckert, Gina Dabrowski and Karl Raschke.
Chuck Avery's new work, from his series ‘Roadside Anthropology', documents multiple travels to uncanny roadside outposts and American historical museums. Avery scrutinizes American power, technology and histories through careful examination of the language and symbolism within the context of lesser-traveled museum exhibits.
Amy Eckert repurposes and manipulates old photographic material from her personal archive into an entirely new body of collage work. The new series juxtaposes abstracted forms with familiar textures, topographies and photographic conventions, resulting in moments of connection and dislocation for the viewer.
Gina Dabrowski's work explores public sanitation sites, specifically the lifecycle of burial and re-emergence of objects within the landscape. Gina's project is informed by objects rescued from the trash by her father and her family's history with scavenging scrap metal for additional income. The resulting work explores the difficultly of removing the human record from the landscape.
Karl Raschke presents an archive of photographs alongside an interactive sound piece and video. These multiple components combine his interest in the capturing and collecting casual, subtle and mundane moments, alongside a larger narrative of his father's life as a professional wrestler. The work creates an open-ended narrative which mixes the biographic and autobiographic and fact with mythology.
Related Programming
McKnight Photography Fellows in Conversation at Walker Art Center
Free
Walker Cinema
Thursday, June 30
7 pm
Lex Thompson, Paul Shambroom, Gina Dabrowski, and Chuck Avery
Thursday, July 7
7 pm
Carrie Thompson, Monica Haller, Karl Raschke, and Amy Eckert
ABOUT THE MCKNIGHT ARTIST FELLOWSHIPS
The McKnight Artist Fellowships were created in 1981 to help artists set aside time for study, reflection, experimentation, and exploration; take advantage of opportunities; and work on new projects. McKnight contributes nearly $1 million per year to individual artists through the 12 fellowship programs. The Foundation delegates management of the fellowships to arts organizations that tailor programs to the unique challenges of different creative disciplines. Interested artists should contact the appropriate administering organization for further information about potential funding:
ABOUT THE MCKNIGHT FOUNDATION
The McKnight Foundation seeks to improve the quality of life for present and future generations through grant making, coalition-building and encouragement of strategic policy reform. Founded in 1953 and endowed by William and Maude McKnight, the Minnesota-based Foundation has assets of approximately $1.6 billion and granted about $93 million in 2007.
ABOUT MNARTISTS.ORG
Developed in 2001 as a partnership between the McKnight Foundation and the Walker Art Center, mnartists.org is an online database of Minnesota artists and organizations working in all disciplines. In addition to serving as a marketplace and a community hub, the site provides news and editorial features about the local arts scene.
ABOUT FRANKLIN ART WORKS
Franklin Art Works is a visual and performing arts center devoted to presenting cutting edge contemporary work by local and national artists. Through a mix of exhibitions, performing arts, film and arts education, Franklin Art Works celebrates the art of our time in all its complexity and diversity.
ABOUT MIDWAY CONTEMPORARY ART
Midway Contemporary Art is a not-for-profit gallery committed to encouraging innovation and diversity in the visual arts. A public platform, Midway supports emerging and underrepresented artists, contributes toward significant new developments in the field, and stimulates the ongoing public discourse of art and culture.
