ARCHIVES: smallärt in Soldier's Field, Rochester, MN
Nicole Havekost
June 18-July 15, 2021
Balance
10 ¼” x 4 ½ “ x 14”
Wool, polyfil, hooks & eyes, thread
2021
Havekost explores the simultaneous
joy, sublime embarrassment and
disorderly beauty of the human body
through her anthropomorphic sculpture
Series: Chthonic. (prounounced-thaa-nuk)
Find her work online at www.nikimade.com Find her on instagram @nikimade
Niki also shows at Dreamsong Gallery. They are in Minneapolis as well.
Interested in more textile work?
Read this about women pushing the boundaries with contemporary textile sculptures
Miriam Schapiro was considered a leader in textiles as well a leader in the feminist art movement
Faith Ringgold, produced quilt paintings and is included in a list of the most influential African-American artists living today
Want to try your hand at some felt projects?
For the craftier ideas look at this
If you want to make a sculpture like niki's you need to first build an "armature" or the substructure beneath the fabric
Click here to learn Once the armature is done you can start to build padding with poly-fill, paper or whatever else you have around the house. Old pillows make a great place to get cheap poly-fil
After you build the armature you will need to decide what kind of materials to use. Purchase materials at Michael's or JoAnns locally. Otherwise online here. You can sew with dental floss, embroidery floss, yarn or anything a little heavier than thread. Upholstery needles can be helpful, but big straight needles do the trick as well. Don't be fussy about the sewing quality, just close the seams!
If you do a project post your picture and tag @smallartgallerymn
June 18-July 15, 2021
Balance
10 ¼” x 4 ½ “ x 14”
Wool, polyfil, hooks & eyes, thread
2021
Havekost explores the simultaneous
joy, sublime embarrassment and
disorderly beauty of the human body
through her anthropomorphic sculpture
Series: Chthonic. (prounounced-thaa-nuk)
Find her work online at www.nikimade.com Find her on instagram @nikimade
Niki also shows at Dreamsong Gallery. They are in Minneapolis as well.
Interested in more textile work?
Read this about women pushing the boundaries with contemporary textile sculptures
Miriam Schapiro was considered a leader in textiles as well a leader in the feminist art movement
Faith Ringgold, produced quilt paintings and is included in a list of the most influential African-American artists living today
Want to try your hand at some felt projects?
For the craftier ideas look at this
If you want to make a sculpture like niki's you need to first build an "armature" or the substructure beneath the fabric
Click here to learn Once the armature is done you can start to build padding with poly-fill, paper or whatever else you have around the house. Old pillows make a great place to get cheap poly-fil
After you build the armature you will need to decide what kind of materials to use. Purchase materials at Michael's or JoAnns locally. Otherwise online here. You can sew with dental floss, embroidery floss, yarn or anything a little heavier than thread. Upholstery needles can be helpful, but big straight needles do the trick as well. Don't be fussy about the sewing quality, just close the seams!
If you do a project post your picture and tag @smallartgallerymn
Pat Dunn-Walker
August 27-September 24, 2021
Where I Live
11" x14"
Acrylic, collage
2021
Find her work online at www.patriciadunnwalker.com and on instagram @patriciadunnwalker
“Where I Live" remembers a dollhouse my mother had which is now in my possession. A friend of my grandmother’s made this as a gift for my mom in 1936 and it was modeled after what was thought to be the ideal home at the time, equipped with a modern kitchen, a nursery and a living room with the finest furnishings.
This ideal 1936 home was the inspiration for “Where I Live”. I thought about what makes a home in 2021. People who share your home are as important as the structure of the home itself. Who are the people I would want to include in my home? Perhaps I would expand from my family of origin to include people of I haven’t met but still care about. My house is painted rainbow colors to symbolize people from a variety of backgrounds. The people included in the collage are from the past and present.
I collect lots of different print materials from many sources such as old record covers and discarded signage. These materials are included here. I enjoy using found paper because of its texture and also how it adds an element of surprise to my work. I love the texture of acrylic paint and its mediums and am experimenting with different color combinations. Currently my favorite artists are
Henri Matisse, Raymond Hains and Romare Bearden.
I love Matisse’s colors and his later collages and Bearden’s way of telling a story by changing things up with varying scale and juxtaposition. Raymond Hains abstract collages of found print are elegant and mysterious and I aspire to this feeling in my work.
August 27-September 24, 2021
Where I Live
11" x14"
Acrylic, collage
2021
Find her work online at www.patriciadunnwalker.com and on instagram @patriciadunnwalker
“Where I Live" remembers a dollhouse my mother had which is now in my possession. A friend of my grandmother’s made this as a gift for my mom in 1936 and it was modeled after what was thought to be the ideal home at the time, equipped with a modern kitchen, a nursery and a living room with the finest furnishings.
This ideal 1936 home was the inspiration for “Where I Live”. I thought about what makes a home in 2021. People who share your home are as important as the structure of the home itself. Who are the people I would want to include in my home? Perhaps I would expand from my family of origin to include people of I haven’t met but still care about. My house is painted rainbow colors to symbolize people from a variety of backgrounds. The people included in the collage are from the past and present.
I collect lots of different print materials from many sources such as old record covers and discarded signage. These materials are included here. I enjoy using found paper because of its texture and also how it adds an element of surprise to my work. I love the texture of acrylic paint and its mediums and am experimenting with different color combinations. Currently my favorite artists are
Henri Matisse, Raymond Hains and Romare Bearden.
I love Matisse’s colors and his later collages and Bearden’s way of telling a story by changing things up with varying scale and juxtaposition. Raymond Hains abstract collages of found print are elegant and mysterious and I aspire to this feeling in my work.
Jovan C. Speller
September 24-October 24, 2021
Artifacts
Assorted dimensions
Mixed Media
2021
Artifacts is an installation from the artist's recent series entitled Eulogy. This series, which includes photographs, resin encased images and objects, and mixed media works, references cinematic imagery and elements of visual story mapping to document a metamorphosis.
Eulogy questions the role of memory and the transient nature of consciousness, resulting in the documentation of Speller’s notions of reincarnation. The works represented in this series are materializations of distant recollections of a past life - accepting the unreliability of memory itself, and exploring the myths that remain instead. Artifacts represents the memories that remain and the reminance of a life lived.
Jovan C. Speller is a multidisciplinary Minnesota artist. Speller holds a B.F.A. in Fine Art Photography from Columbia College Chicago. Speller’s work has been exhibited at The Plains Art Museum, the Bockley Gallery, and Minneapolis College of Art and Design, with upcoming solo exhibitions at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Katherine Nash Gallery, the Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation and St. Augustine College. She is a recipient of the McKnight Visual Artist Fellowship, a Next Step Fund Grant, the Jerome Emerging Artist Fellowship, and a Minnesota State Arts Board grant. She completed a residency at Second Shift Studio Space in St. Paul and was awarded the Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation Minnesota Art Prize in 2021.
Speller explained that her work is more a reaction to, or investigation of, something that has caught her attention. She recommended looking at Andrea Chung whose work she admires
Find her work online www.jovanspeller.com and on instagram @jovancspeller
Lisa Truax
October 29-December 9, 2021
Vestiges
Varied dimensions
Ceramic & locally sourced materials
2021
Artist Statement
I am interested in the contrast between places such as parks and natural areas and modern ways of building and living. We have cultural ideas of beauty and the sense of the untouched associated with these places. Outdoor landscapes seem to be in their natural state, but are often actually created, planned, built, and maintained as part of our culture.
I question the idea of culturally valuable versus personally valuable natural space. The contrast between the natural and man-made, and the seen and the unseen are determining factors. The effect of these elements on our lives and psyche are important considerations. Natural places can have positive effects on our well being, many of which we may not yet understand, and the effects of created nature may have the same effects as the real. We often collect things such as stones and coral and bring them into our homes, reminding us of our fascination with natural objects. The relationship we have both culturally and individually to nature, the contrast between wildness and wilderness, human versus geologic time, permanence and impermanence, and the effect these areas have on our lives is the focus of my work.
Lisa S. Truax is originally from Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. She attended Carthage College, gaining BA degrees in Studio Art and Graphic Design with a Business minor. After working in design for 5 years, she attended Michigan State University and earned her MFA in ceramics. She is currently an Associate Professor of Art and Design at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota in Winona. She maintains a studio in Pickwick, Minnesota.
See more of her work www.redreduction.com, Follow her on instagram @redreduction
Artists Truax finds inspirational Tara Donovan, Maya Lin, Tony Marsh and his Crucible Series, David Maisel and Bobby Silverman
Truax primarily hand builds her work. If you are interested in learning more about hand building with clay watch this.
If you are in the southeast of Minnesota try a class at 125Live. Community Ed in Rochester also offers some adult and children's classes.
October 29-December 9, 2021
Vestiges
Varied dimensions
Ceramic & locally sourced materials
2021
Artist Statement
I am interested in the contrast between places such as parks and natural areas and modern ways of building and living. We have cultural ideas of beauty and the sense of the untouched associated with these places. Outdoor landscapes seem to be in their natural state, but are often actually created, planned, built, and maintained as part of our culture.
I question the idea of culturally valuable versus personally valuable natural space. The contrast between the natural and man-made, and the seen and the unseen are determining factors. The effect of these elements on our lives and psyche are important considerations. Natural places can have positive effects on our well being, many of which we may not yet understand, and the effects of created nature may have the same effects as the real. We often collect things such as stones and coral and bring them into our homes, reminding us of our fascination with natural objects. The relationship we have both culturally and individually to nature, the contrast between wildness and wilderness, human versus geologic time, permanence and impermanence, and the effect these areas have on our lives is the focus of my work.
Lisa S. Truax is originally from Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. She attended Carthage College, gaining BA degrees in Studio Art and Graphic Design with a Business minor. After working in design for 5 years, she attended Michigan State University and earned her MFA in ceramics. She is currently an Associate Professor of Art and Design at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota in Winona. She maintains a studio in Pickwick, Minnesota.
See more of her work www.redreduction.com, Follow her on instagram @redreduction
Artists Truax finds inspirational Tara Donovan, Maya Lin, Tony Marsh and his Crucible Series, David Maisel and Bobby Silverman
Truax primarily hand builds her work. If you are interested in learning more about hand building with clay watch this.
If you are in the southeast of Minnesota try a class at 125Live. Community Ed in Rochester also offers some adult and children's classes.
Laura Wennstrom
December 11, 2021-January 13, 2022
nuance
thread, yarn, wire, shoelaces, beads, fabric, trim, piping, and other found textile materials
2021
Artist Statement
I am a multimedia artist, most recently making large scale sculptural installations, small textile assemblages, and functional textile objects. Drawing from painting, collage, and quilt making traditions, I create heavily saturated color compositions. I am interested in gathering found materials and objects: the cast off, the forgotten, the incidental. Through an intuitive process combining color and pattern, I find new ways to tell stories.
I primarily use found or secondhand fabric and textiles in my work. This has ecological and economic advantages, but most importantly, I am drawn to the connection that discarded materials have with their previous owner. These objects carry stories and mystery, they have access to the banal secrets and intimate everydayness of strangers.
nuance was made and titled after the messy experience of living 2 blocks from where George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police in 2020. I have witnessed over the past 18 months the outpouring of community support, rage, hope, alongside the complicated racial, political, power, and interpersonal dynamics we have within this community. The issues and tensions that have bubbled to the surface are much more complicated, rich, and nuanced than the media can portray.
See more of her work www.laurawennstrom.com, Follow her on instagram @laurawennstrom
December 11, 2021-January 13, 2022
nuance
thread, yarn, wire, shoelaces, beads, fabric, trim, piping, and other found textile materials
2021
Artist Statement
I am a multimedia artist, most recently making large scale sculptural installations, small textile assemblages, and functional textile objects. Drawing from painting, collage, and quilt making traditions, I create heavily saturated color compositions. I am interested in gathering found materials and objects: the cast off, the forgotten, the incidental. Through an intuitive process combining color and pattern, I find new ways to tell stories.
I primarily use found or secondhand fabric and textiles in my work. This has ecological and economic advantages, but most importantly, I am drawn to the connection that discarded materials have with their previous owner. These objects carry stories and mystery, they have access to the banal secrets and intimate everydayness of strangers.
nuance was made and titled after the messy experience of living 2 blocks from where George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police in 2020. I have witnessed over the past 18 months the outpouring of community support, rage, hope, alongside the complicated racial, political, power, and interpersonal dynamics we have within this community. The issues and tensions that have bubbled to the surface are much more complicated, rich, and nuanced than the media can portray.
See more of her work www.laurawennstrom.com, Follow her on instagram @laurawennstrom
Erica Duryea
January 13- February 17, 2022
GLOW OF LIFE
acrylic
14 x 11
2021
Artist Statement
I view my work as an intuitive process of tapping into layers of experience with elements both physical and metaphysical, and conveying that experience through bold color, texture, and dynamic strokes, creating an alluring world which invites the viewer to step inside. This painting is titled GLOW OF LIFE and is part of a body of work that I created to embody the experience that is available to us when we surrender to our senses and perceptions of the natural world around us and the inner world of our own being, while allowing the exploration of the unseen and intangible. This is what I am most drawn to explore in my work- the concept that there are complex and layered dimensions to our experience of life and the natural world, and that if we practice openness, stillness and tuning in, we can gain access to entirely new worlds of perception and intuition that exist in and alongside our daily surroundings. I experience this work as a moving meditation of receiving and expressing simultaneously, inhabiting the space where the natural and supernatural intermingle.
Artist Bio
Erica Duryea is a professional artist from Montauk, New York. She earned her Bachelor's Degree in Studio Art and Art History from Wake Forest University, North Carolina. Her studio training was focused in abstract oil painting, with a secondary focus in sculpture and printmaking. She fell in love with painting as a mechanism to create new worlds that give the viewer an experience of depth and entry to these worlds. She was drawn specifically to abstract painting for its limitless potential for nuanced and untethered expression of elements beyond the tangible. She has always been magnetically drawn to nature environments such as forests and the sea, and having lived in coastal settings in both Montauk and the west coast of Ireland, she finds strong inspiration for her work in exploring the relationship between natural elements such as seawater, plantlife, wind and rain and the metaphysical forces of energy and spirituality that she perceives through and around them. She utilizes her experience in sculpture and printmaking to suffuse her paintings with an abundance of texture and dynamic marks made by various tools, applying paint and other mixed media in a multitude of overlapping layers. Her works on canvas range from small to quite large- the immediacy of her process lends itself best to larger surfaces, but she relishes the contrast of working at a smaller scale.
She lives in Brooklyn, NYC with her husband from Ireland and their two young children.
She is inspired by
Melanie Daniel
Erika b Hess
Michelle Blade
Alicia Reyes McNamara
Erin Eastabrooks
Aimee Parrott
Shara Hughes
Emma Larsson
See more of Erica's work on Instagram @erica_duryea_artworks
January 13- February 17, 2022
GLOW OF LIFE
acrylic
14 x 11
2021
Artist Statement
I view my work as an intuitive process of tapping into layers of experience with elements both physical and metaphysical, and conveying that experience through bold color, texture, and dynamic strokes, creating an alluring world which invites the viewer to step inside. This painting is titled GLOW OF LIFE and is part of a body of work that I created to embody the experience that is available to us when we surrender to our senses and perceptions of the natural world around us and the inner world of our own being, while allowing the exploration of the unseen and intangible. This is what I am most drawn to explore in my work- the concept that there are complex and layered dimensions to our experience of life and the natural world, and that if we practice openness, stillness and tuning in, we can gain access to entirely new worlds of perception and intuition that exist in and alongside our daily surroundings. I experience this work as a moving meditation of receiving and expressing simultaneously, inhabiting the space where the natural and supernatural intermingle.
Artist Bio
Erica Duryea is a professional artist from Montauk, New York. She earned her Bachelor's Degree in Studio Art and Art History from Wake Forest University, North Carolina. Her studio training was focused in abstract oil painting, with a secondary focus in sculpture and printmaking. She fell in love with painting as a mechanism to create new worlds that give the viewer an experience of depth and entry to these worlds. She was drawn specifically to abstract painting for its limitless potential for nuanced and untethered expression of elements beyond the tangible. She has always been magnetically drawn to nature environments such as forests and the sea, and having lived in coastal settings in both Montauk and the west coast of Ireland, she finds strong inspiration for her work in exploring the relationship between natural elements such as seawater, plantlife, wind and rain and the metaphysical forces of energy and spirituality that she perceives through and around them. She utilizes her experience in sculpture and printmaking to suffuse her paintings with an abundance of texture and dynamic marks made by various tools, applying paint and other mixed media in a multitude of overlapping layers. Her works on canvas range from small to quite large- the immediacy of her process lends itself best to larger surfaces, but she relishes the contrast of working at a smaller scale.
She lives in Brooklyn, NYC with her husband from Ireland and their two young children.
She is inspired by
Melanie Daniel
Erika b Hess
Michelle Blade
Alicia Reyes McNamara
Erin Eastabrooks
Aimee Parrott
Shara Hughes
Emma Larsson
See more of Erica's work on Instagram @erica_duryea_artworks
Nina Martine Robinson
February 17-March 24, 2022
the incurable silencers
varied dimensions
cotton yarn, beads, polyester stuffing
2022
Robinson is a textile artist that works in a variety of fiber mediums. Robinson has been exploring the societal inequities among neurodivergent folks through her textile installations. Because the umbrella of neurodiversity covers many types of brain differences, she wanted to highlight this uniqueness by crocheting a series of whimsical figures. Robinson uses bright colors and assorted shapes as a playful way to celebrate the wide variety of personalities that exist under the umbrella.
Nina Martine Robinson lives with her adult autistic son in a multi-generational household. Her artistic practice focuses on neurodiversity, specifically autism spectrum disorder and age related dementia.
Find her on Instagram @collaborativeseamstress
February 17-March 24, 2022
the incurable silencers
varied dimensions
cotton yarn, beads, polyester stuffing
2022
Robinson is a textile artist that works in a variety of fiber mediums. Robinson has been exploring the societal inequities among neurodivergent folks through her textile installations. Because the umbrella of neurodiversity covers many types of brain differences, she wanted to highlight this uniqueness by crocheting a series of whimsical figures. Robinson uses bright colors and assorted shapes as a playful way to celebrate the wide variety of personalities that exist under the umbrella.
Nina Martine Robinson lives with her adult autistic son in a multi-generational household. Her artistic practice focuses on neurodiversity, specifically autism spectrum disorder and age related dementia.
Find her on Instagram @collaborativeseamstress
Millicent Fambrough
March 25-April 21, 2022
Hot Mess
4" x 6"
Acrylic
Fambrough is a contemporary artist and writer from San Antonio Texas USA. Currently focusing on mail artwork, photography, and writing poetry for publication. Find her on instagram @millicent210
March 25-April 21, 2022
Hot Mess
4" x 6"
Acrylic
Fambrough is a contemporary artist and writer from San Antonio Texas USA. Currently focusing on mail artwork, photography, and writing poetry for publication. Find her on instagram @millicent210
Angela Cooper
April 22-May 20, 2022
Phoebe
8" x 8" x 1.5"
Acrylic, Metal Leaf
2022
Cooper was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014. With multiple surgeries and long recovery times, she paused and took stock of her life. After many years in the design field Cooper had drifted away from her love of making art. She reestablished her art practice by painting her pets. She began posting the images and received a tremendous amount of positive feedback and requests. Cooper stated, “I love painting these pet portraits, to hear their stories and I know that the people who seek me out love their pets as much as I love mine.”
Cooper has a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design and lives in Philadelphia with her partner Michael and their two dogs, Phoebe and Abbie.
Instagram @paintofheartpets
Website www.paintofheartpets.com
