Six-tenths of the Burnett Gallery's "Fresh"-est answer three questions

Angela Strassheim - Breaking Up

Opening Saturday, March 12, from 6-9 p.m., "Fresh" displays an assemblage of new works by an array of former solo exhibitors returning to the Burnet Gallery. On the eve of the show, which celebrates the venue's first five years, it seemed appropriate (judicious?) to try to communicate with all of the ten artists featured.

In an attempt to be minorly objective, I asked the same three questions of them all plus an optional fourth about how their work has evolved since their initial Burnet outing. The six who answered my homogenous queries are presented here, in no particular order, for your reading pleasure with a few photos of the work, as well. Glean what you can here and then stop by the gallery for the real deal.

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 The Questions:

1. When and why did you being to call yourself an artist?

2. How does Minnesota play a part in your work?

3. Who or what is influencing you right now?
*4. How do you see your work having changed or evolved since your original Burnet Gallery show?

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Andréa Stanislav - Purple Andy, 2010

1. When I was 24 and I had my first NYC solo show.

2. My subject matter is not related to Minnesota.

3. Eve Democracy...

Chris Larson

1. I still have a hard time telling people that I am an artist.

2. I tend to get more work done in the darkest months of the year. The sun can be a distraction.

3. I have been taking weekend road trips down south. I love the way people organize their lives on their front lawns. Everything is visible.

Megan Rye - Pig 37

1. I started taking art lessons when I was five — it is the only thing I have done my entire life. I have always felt like an artist.

2. I am from MN and my whole family is here. Minnesota has been incredibly supportive of my work. I have received institutional support from the Bush, McKnight and Jerome Foundations, as well as the MN State Arts Board. In MN, I rely on my artist friends, am grateful for the art collectors that make what I do possible, and am really excited to be able to exhibit in places like Chambers Hotel and the MIA. 

3. I just watched a documentary on Alice Neel, watching her move her brush across the canvas took my breath away. It was like watching Federer play tennis — a natural.

4. My solo exhibit in 2008 at the Burnet Gallery was an amazing experience. Since my work is a reflection on the Iraq War, it was truly gratifying to find a place for the project to exist while our country was involved in this ongoing conflict. So often an artist's work is never shown, or traditionally hasn't been shown during their lifetime. To have the work installed in the heart of Hennepin Ave, and speak to the city in real time, was incredibly meaningful to me.

Sonja Peterson

 1. I think in high school, I was making a commitment to considering myself an artist. Although I grew up surrounded by the art of my mother. As a child I think she would try to keep me out of her hair by requiring me to practice specific brush strokes over and over again. From that time there was always a need to express oneself through production.

2. Minnesota's landscape seeps into my work, at times consciously -- at other times unconsciously. I am walking every day and absorbing the changing seasons, but I am struck by the starkness of the winter lines. Minnesota quiet cold winters offer a time for introspective production. Lately I find a fire's flame a constant background as I make my work. The fire and the work almost become meditative.

3. How can one not be influenced by what is happening with the folks in the Middle East? It is truly amazing how these uprisings are happening. Information spread through Twitter and Facebook — these invisible networks yield so much power to the individual to organize and become a peerless force. Also I am enjoying some readings on the Age of Romanticism and going back further to some Jacobean plays. 

David Bartley

1. 1987. I discovered then, that was who I was.

2. I live here.

3. Gravity, the Stones, my stomach and Hari Sreenivasan.

Angela Strassheim - Self portrait

1. In 2000. It had to do with taxes and insurance and I had to call myself something and artist was most fitting as I had just left a forensic photography full-time position and I was freelance. I never called myself photographer because I have always seen myself as using whatever tools and or expressing art in my facets even though I am mostly known for photography. I think of myself as an artist that uses photography for expression.

2. I grew up in Minnesota. My family moved to Minnetonka when I was 16. After high school I went to a community college for several years and then spent four years at MCAD. Ten years later after my forensic career and graduate school I returned to teach at MCAD for three years. Minneapolis is where I call home even though my parents moved away when I was in undergrad. Minnesota is the place where my friends and colleagues are my family and I will always feel deeply connected to Minneapolis.

3. Judaism and Yeshiva studies.

4. My work took a huge turn in 2008 when I began photographing original origins of domestic homicide. I researched on-line, at libraries, and with neighbors at the end of 2008 when the rise in these crimes due to the economic stress escalated and I traveled all over the U.S. engaging with new residents of the homes and apartments that these crimes had taken place. I let go of photographing people for awhile and starting working in b&w. A solo exhibition of this work opens on March 17th at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

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Don't miss the equally "fresh" work of Matthew Bakkom, Allen Brewer, Janet Lobberecht and S. Catrin Magnusson, who are also a part of this art extravaganza.

"Fresh" @ the Burnet Gallery - 901 Hennepin Ave. S., Minneapolis
Opening: Saturday, March 12, 2011, 6-9 p.m.
Gallery Hours: Daily, 11 a.m.-9 p.m.
Closing: May 1, 2011
Free and open to the public

Interview: Betsy Byers talks bodies in space and memories of night swimming up north

 

Betsy Byers's work is oil on canvas.

Betsy Byers' show entitled, "Elsewhere" is now open at the Burnet Gallery in Le Meridian Chambers Hotel and the reception for the artist is this Friday, Jan. 21. The pieces are mostly large, with two sets of smaller groupings and many blue tones that suggest depth and the experience of water, sky and earth. She speaks of "bodies in space" and seeing the works in person helped me to understand that inspiration -- the paintings definitely evoke a sense of being between landings or firm footings. When she told me that she has memories of night swimming up north, I could see and feel what she was talking about.

In addition to meeting me for a little preview, Byers kindly answered a few of my burning questions. While all of this makes for a good peek and read, it should simply be a teaser before your visit to the gallery. For my money (and it's free), this show best fits the Burnet space of all the ones I've seen. And don't forget to do a drive/walk by to see the two pieces facing Hennepin Avenue, as well.

Here are her answers and the show's details -- and she'll be at the opening on Friday if you want to meet her and quiz her yourself.

As you walk in, this is what stares back at you.

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Skyway of Love: There's very much the feeling of objects in space in your pieces -- almost as if there are pathways that drop off. Is there a sense of transitory nests there?

Betsy Byers: I am intrigued that you described the work as "transitory nests"... I think that is a wonderful way to describe spaces I am interested in painting. My work is concerned with how the body remembers and explores place. I purposely played with both transparency and opacity because I wanted the viewer to experience expansive voids/pathways, as well as visual structures that anchored them in space. Thinking of these anchors as "nests," is a lovely comparison, as I want the opaque forms to feel safe and reassuring.

SOL: Many of your works have blue as a major component. Is it representative of water and sky and other natural spaces?

BB: The blue in my work is representative of both water and sky. The value and saturation of the blue helps to describe time and light in my paintings. 

SOL: Were you born and raised in Minnesota? How do you feel your art is inspired by Minnesota -- is it the natural environment, the people, the light...?

BB: I was born and raised in Minnesota, just south of the Twin Cities. However, growing up, I spent most of my summers at our family cabin and my grandma's farm up north. The experiences of my youth influenced my aesthetic and also serve as a point of inspiration for the majority of the places I dwell in while I am painting.

In particular, the work in "Elsewhere" draws imagery and color choices from my experiences night swimming at my cabin in Northern Minnesota as a child. My mom would wake us up in the middle of the night and we would tiptoe down to the lake, out onto the worn wood of the dock and quietly slide into the cool blackness of the water. The memories of moving through the expansive darkness and gazing up at the innumerable stars continue to remain with me. While swimming, I could not distinguish where my skin ended and the water began. The world changed for me in those moments. Those memories have drawn me deeper into trying to understand the relationship between space and place, and how they in turn affect our own formation of self.

SOL: How do you come up with the titles of your pieces? Do you know the name when you start or does it come to you during or after the paintings are finished?

BB: It depends on the work, but I usually title the pieces after they are finished. My paintings tend to change slightly (sometimes radically) from my initial intention while I am working on them. I like to honor the possibilities that the paint offers while in process. In rare instances I title the work beforehand. In the current show, "Descend II" is one work I knew the title of from the beginning. For this piece, I was working to describe the sensation of moving down the series of steps to the lake. 

SOL: I know you are working in oils. Can you tell us a little bit about the medium and why you are using it for these works?

BB: With oil, I am able to work both directly and indirectly. I prefer utilizing a combination of both methods. Direct painting offers me an immediacy of mark. Working indirectly, by adding other media to the paint, I can slowly build transparent layers. In other words, oil is versatile and malleable since it stays wet for so long. It takes my work at least 4 weeks to dry. If the oil paint is substantially thick in can take a few months to dry. 

SOL: And is there anything you want us to know?

BB: I hope you come and experience the work in "Elsewhere." I find that in spending time with visual art, learning always takes place. Art has the ability to communicate in different ways than words, and to me, that is a very powerful thing. 

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The Details:

"Elsewhere" at the Burnet Gallery

Le Meridian Chambers Minneapolis
901 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis

Opening: Friday, Jan. 21, 6-9 p.m. (free to the public)
Show: Jan. 14, 2010 - Mar. 6, 2011,

Hours: Daily, 11 a.m. - 9 p.m.

In the right window

Interview: Leslie Holt discusses Hello Kitty and the responses she inspires

 Hello Rothko 2009 oil on canvas 8x10 inches

Leslie Holt is bringing her deceptively complex show "Hello Masterpiece" to the Burnet Gallery, where it opens tomorrow, Nov. 12. The party goes from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. and should boast an audience of both seasoned patrons and eager neophytes as these paintings feature popular commercial character Hello Kitty dwelling within some of the most famous artworks of all time. Kitty takes on the mood of each piece, dressing appropriately to its style, whether inspired by Caravaggio, Matisse, Picasso or Klimt (just to name a few of the artists she has paid homage to). Most of Holt's creations are postcard sized to reflect how most of this internationally known art is consumed -- as items for sale in a museum shop. Holt wants us to see that these celebrated images are bought and sold in much the same way that our friend and tour guide, Hello Kitty is.

Leslie took a moment to chat with me about her work and inspiration before coming to Minnesota. Hope you enjoy the conversation -- I found her to be amusing and personable, and she admits that old Kitty has lightened her art up quite a bit (though it is no less compelling).

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Hello Magritte (eye) 2010 oil on canvas 4x6 inches

Skyway of Love: "Hello Masterpiece" is a sly and smart show, but also shows your skills as an artist.  What led you to use Hello Kitty as your way in?

Leslie Holt: People always ask me that. It came to me not in the shower exactly, but Hello Kitty has always been a force in my life. She came up in the seventies when I was a kid, but then I wasn't that into her. Too Girly. It seemed like she resurfaced about eight years ago, showing up all over the place. I just started thinking about her sort of sub-consciously as a pop icon, but it wasn't even that deep. Basically I started teaching art appreciation and I had been working with Hello Kitty in another art series that I was doing. I had two hundred figurines of her and one day I actually put one of the figurines on a painting. That's how it began. And when I first did these I used to stage her on photographs of the works -- a still life set up. It's funny -- people sort of just started to responding to her and the work. And I have to say it's been so much fun as a painter. I've learned a lot as an artist from doing these paintings -- working in all those different styles. 

SOL: It seems your mixture of commercial elements with a fine art style has been in play for awhile. The "Hello Pills" and "Pills and Spills" series from years past show that. Was that your first foray into that theme?

LH: I think the pills were the beginning of that and it has extended into "Hello Masterpiece." It‘s always been about juxtaposition for me, which, I know, is an overused word. But in those older collections I wanted to show the tension between what is handmade and what is mass produced.

SOL: I know that you’ve been very candid about having a family member with mental illness. Did that inform those earlier works?

LH: Absolutely. Both pill series and the "Unholy Ghost" works were about dealing with my mom who is pretty seriously ill. Those works are all about how that can very much skew your vision of the world. The Hello Kitty paintings are definitely lighter in theme.

SOL: You're from back east, correct and now you live in St.Louis?

LH: Yes, I'm from Delaware originally and honestly I didn’t really know where Missouri was until I moved here to go to college at Washington University. But now, I’ve lived here for 20 years.

SOL: What’s the art scene like in St. Louis?

LH: It's great and growing. We have a nice mix of established galleries and museums as well as new non-profit spaces popping up each year. It's a burgeoning and youthful art scene with a lot of experimental stuff happening. With all of the university students in town, it is fresh and vibrant -- plus it's affordable to live here. You can be starving artist in St. Louis, or even a chubby artist. People here have the opportunity to do their own thing because, it's cheap enough that they can find time to make art. They don't have to work at paid jobs all the time.

SOL: Has the "Hello Masterpiece" show extended? I see that you have two other sets of works on your website -- "More Hello Masterpiece" and "Hello Modern Art."

LH: They are all part of the same concept. In St. Louis I did do a "Hello Modern Art" show, which is on the website. Those extras happened because the challenge has been to create enough work for each new show. The pieces sell so well, that for every show I often have to make several new paintings to fill in the spaces. The Burnet show includes a range of some pieces I've done in the past but, about half the work was made specifically for the Minnesota show. I definitely favor some artists -- like Matisse. I think there are a million Matisse's that I've made. And, for Burnet, I tried to get to 50 paintings, but I think I only have 47 or 48. Because they are so tiny, I have to make many of them to fill a gallery. 

SOL: Are the works all postcard size?

LH: Some of the modern stuff is 8" x 10" or 6" x 12". Previous to last year I only made the actual museum postcard size, to help make clear the conceptual connection to museum postcards. But I’ve loosened up on that as I felt that some pieces would be better in a larger size. For example, I feel that Jackson Pollock deserves at least an 8" x 10" size for his work. And, some of my newest work is Matisse cutouts. At the end of his life, Matisse was quite sick and could not paint so he did colored paper cutouts. I believe my cutouts will be placed in the windows of the Burnet Gallery

SOL: Did the idea for "Hello Masterpiece" come from your teaching? (I think it’s great that you teach both art technique and art history).

LH: Honestly, I never really think of the art work and my teaching as being connected. I teach art appreciation, which gets a bad wrap as a class in general. I guess in a way I was making fun of it of with "Hello Masterpiece", although I don't really think it is a bad class to take.

SOL: What have been some of the more interesting responses to your "Hello" shows?

LH: People are very responsive to them. It’s interesting to meet people while showing at an art gallery and find that several folks are not art lovers. For a lot of people the entry point is Hello Kitty. It's interesting to see what compels someone to look at the art. But whatever brings them through the door is fine with me.

Hello Venus of Willendorf 2009 oil on canvas 4x6 inches

At the David Lusk gallery in Memphis, an upper middle class woman responded to Hello Venus of Willendorf, inspired by the 60,000 year old fetish piece. It has a huge belly and breasts. The woman told me that she just loved it because it reminded her so much of herself. I asked her, “Do you know who that is?” and she had no idea. So she missed the point, but came away with something anyhow.

Another set of women at a show -- it’s happened to me a few times and I find it sort of troubling – said, “This series is just beautiful but can I give you some advice? The paintings are lovely but we highly suggest that you take the little cat thing out of it.” Also I've received a lot of advice about what paintings to do next and how to do them. Someone wanted Kitty in the Dali piece to be dripping, just like the clocks.

SOL: What else are you up to?

LH: I’ve got a new job as the Executive Director of VSA Missouri, which promotes access to the arts for people with disabilities. I’m all about bringing art to larger audiences, so in a loose way it is connected to the "Hello Masterpiece" work I've been doing. This series is about accessibility - even if you don’t get what I was going for, you can enjoy the show in your own way.

SOL: Have you ever been to Minnesota before? Anything on your must-see list?

LH: I have an old friend in St. Paul who I'm going to see, but basically no. Once I drove across country and I did see St. Paul, but only for a little while, and in the dark. I'm coming in Thursday and leaving Sunday night and my friend is going to take me around. I've requested visits to the Walker Art Center and the Soap Factory, which looks really cool.

SOL: Good choices!
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The Details:
"Hello Masterpiece" at the Burnet Gallery
Le Meridian Chambers Minneapolis
901 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis
Opening: Friday, Nov. 12 6-9 p.m. (free to the public)
Show: Nov. 12, 2010 - Jan. 9, 2011

Interview: James Chronister on "Ceremony" at the Burnet Gallery

"Ceremony"/James Chronister
Burnet Gallery/Le Meridian Chambers Hotel
Opening: Friday, September 24, 2010, 6 p.m. - 9 p.m.
Gallery run: September 24 - November 7, 2010, FREE

James Chronister's six paintings at the Burnet Gallery reveal his process as well as an astonishing finished product. Opening Friday, the show combines seemingly unrelated subject matter with a very specific technique giving the entire presentation literal and figurative depth. The native Montanan's four treescapes and two rocker portraits, of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, reflect shards of his youth but also speak to the construction of the art. This set of works were made by covering the canvas entirely with black and then adding a lighter color like white or tan to create the ground. From there, a grid is applied to the ground, and Chronister fills in the image square by square. The effect makes for small disconnects in the full painting, that become apparent at close range. In that way, there are layers of oil paint on the canvas that hint at the process, in addition to creating a whole image.

Usually, I stick to the visuals on this site, but I got the chance to interview James, who now lives in San Francisco. His responses are smart and accessible and truly shed light on the show. One caveat though -- this is by no means a substitute for seeing James's art in person.

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Skyway of Love: Where did the title “Ceremony” come from?

James Chronister: Wikipedia says: "Ceremony" is a song by Joy Division, released as New Order's debut single in 1981. The song, as well as the B-side, "In a Lonely Place", were created by the band prior to the death of Ian Curtis. Both tracks were carried over to the band's re-incarnation as New Order, after Curtis' death.

So, the show is named after the New Order song “Ceremony.” I wanted the title to tie back into music in some way because music is a partial theme of the show. My show at Eleanor Harwood Gallery in 2009 was titled “All We Ever Wanted Was Anything” which was a riff on the Bauhaus song “All We Ever Wanted Was Everything.” I wanted to keep that tradition going. “Ceremony” by New Order, is not only a classic song from a fantastic band, but it embodies a kind of longing that I find interesting. If I ever need to get my brain into a certain place, I can always listen to early New Order.

On a literal level, a ceremony can relate to the act of making art, presenting it and celebrating it at an opening. Plus I like the way the letters look together. Kind of like when the founders of Kodak came up with that name. They just liked how the K’s and D look together.

SOL: What led to your interest in revealing the process in the presentation of the art?

JC: In about 2004 my friend Ryan Thayer and I were talking about my new paintings and he mentioned that he enjoyed the notion that the process was evident in their making. He was referring to the fact that I use a grid in my process and the delineation between squares was apparent. This was something I hadn’t thought about before and I enjoyed the idea that the ‘wizard behind the curtain’ could be revealed, at least to a certain extent. Having said that, I’ve worked pretty hard to conceal that wizard in the last few years. Ideally there would be a tension between what the paintings look like and how they are actually constructed. I try to divulge clues but not the entire story. To me both complete opacity and absolute openness are less interesting than a tango of both.

SOL: You've said that the paintings reflect times in your youth walking in the woods listening to rock and roll (in the most obvious connection). What are you listening to now?

JC: Yes, that is a very tidy explanation that I offered for the inclusion of both rock imagery and landscapes. Perhaps it is a little too literal. Behind the surface of the paintings and what they overtly depict, I try to imbue a sense of the past. I’m not interested in a particular rock star or patch of forest, but rather what they might connote. I try to combine source imagery with my process of painting in order to point to the past. A memory that I always conjure is looking out of my little bedroom window towards the forests and mountains and listening to my father’s vinyl copy of ‘Hot Rocks’ by the Rolling Stones. On the other hand, I would not paint the guys from Rush because I never listened to Rush growing up.

I listen to a wide variety of music now. I enjoy new music like Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti and Holy Shit as well as older bands such as The Moody Blues and Neil Young. I’m also in a band named NeoLance based here in San Francisco.

SOL: Is music influencing you the same way as it used to?

JC: It is influential in a different way. When I was 12 and listening to my father’s old records and walking around in the forest, I was not making art. Back then I was more interested in Dungeons and Dragons and playing guitar. Now that I am older (32), I try to channel those memories into the studio. The music and art that I am interested in creates a unique mental space. The best musicians and artists are able to surmount the materials they employ and create a place that is entirely new. I am interested in worlds, not just notes and colors of paint.

SOL: Any particular visual artists that have influenced you?

JC: Like many painters in my generation I enjoy museum favorites Luc Tuymans, Gerhard Richter and Victor Man. These guys really take painting seriously and make work that accomplishes a lot. It is interesting what they can say with a tube of paint. Of course there are also a lot of bad asses who are more my generation. Allison Schulnik and her boyfriend Eric Yahnker are some pretty great LA artists. Kathy Grayson’s gallery The Hole in NYC is full of artists with new visions like Evan Gruzis, for example. Eleanor Harwood Gallery in San Francisco has a lot of energy right now, too. On a musical level, look for Ariel Pink’s song “Jagged Carnival Tours" on YouTube. It’s an unofficial music video for the song filmed by Jon Leone. The marriage of the audio track and the visual film is flawless.

SOL: Any other random things that inspire you? You know, architecture, TV shows, pets...

JC: While this is not inspiration per se, at the end of the day, I am a person who likes to spend eight hours a day in a shitty room, by myself, making dot after dot on a canvas for months on end. I have no idea why I can do this. My father, who is a law clerk in Montana, has made amazing, intricate reproductions of Native American bead works for most of his life. He has even had pieces in movies; Dances with Wolves, for example. I must of gotten the knack for detail from him. Support from those around me never hurts either. And, our cat Izzy Wu has always been a BIG influence.

SOL: Have you ever been to Minnesota before? We respect Montanans because we know they understand what winter is.

JC: I have never been to Minnesota before, although my wife’s side of the family hails from the Twin Cities. Regarding the weather, I’m really glad the show is in September and not February!

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Word on the street is that curator Jennifer Phelps is dazzled by these paintings. Can't make the opening? You'll miss the artist, but will still be able to see the show which runs through November 7.

Paper cuts, spiderwebs and commentary - Sonja Peterson at the Burnet Gallery

The Artist Conversation series at the Burnet Gallery featured Minnesota native Sonja Peterson presenting her first major solo show, Second Nature on June 23. Her collection of layered paper cuts, laser etched glass and spiderweb wall installations looked fantastic, and having her there to give context made the experience even better.

Sonja Peterson's show runs through July 11, 2010 at the gallery inside the Chambers Hotel. The intricacy of her pieces deserves a personal visit, so that the underlying tension of the work is visible. Her monochromatic style belies the violence of of the forms and images that appear to the viewer upon closer inspection. Inspired by the book The Age of Wonder, Peterson is intrigued by the definition of what is wild and uncontrolled both in that time and now.

These pictures represent the tip of the iceberg as far as this exhibit is concerned. Plan a visit to the Burnet Gallery, which is free and open to the public, and allow extra time to see all the contemporary art displayed in the Chambers Hotel itself.

Keep an eye on Sonja Peterson's career, as this is just the beginning for the MCAD and University of Minnesota grad. There's a great 3 Minute Egg piece on this show and I wrote a small Examiners story announcing the Artists Conversation that has more details. Both 3 Minute Egg and the Artists Conversation series at the Burnet Gallery are great ways to stay involved with champagne art on a beer budget in Minneapolis.
(The pictured works - Money Never Sleeps - full and partial, The Day That Cracked - partial only, The World Is Too Much With Us, Reinvention)