The Galleries at The Phipps: June 23 - July 30

June 23 – July 30, 2017

Opening Reception: Friday, June 23, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.

Gallery One: Alyssa Baguss (Anoka, MN) – “With the advent of the internet, video games and social media, we can experience natural wonders never having left our seats… This new medium of virtual navigation is exchanging an actual experience for an abstraction of experience, forming new habits of thought and behavior about the natural world… It is this ‘intangible’ experience of the landscape that interests me as an artist.”

Gallery Two: Angela Heida (Andover, MN) – “My aim is to share stories through ceramic figures and sculptural forms. These narratives include a series of tributes highlighting people who are selflessly serving others, a few works spotlighting those who are imprisoned for their faith, and a new grouping of works on the anxieties of daily life… I try to engage the viewer to put the pieces of the story together as they investigate the sculpture.”

Gallery Two: Joseph Haid (Hudson, WI) – “Visual artists are like storytellers. Everyone really has a story to tell, demonstrate or live by. People are seen and understood by their story. It’s a way to get at the source of a person’s life, direction and intention. Sometimes a person can be summed up in a single word or phrase. For me, the word is ‘playful.’ That is the source and undercurrent spring from which I am blessed to be able to drink.”

Gallery Three: Clinton Rost (Minneapolis, MN) – “We trail our private lives into the public sphere on a daily basis… We dread being alone, yet technology makes our solitude acceptable if we are experiencing it amongst others. I strive to capture the mood, the air stirring around the seemingly lonesome souls in the very public place of the cafe.”

Riverview Gallery: Adam Reef (Saint Paul, MN) – “I’m interested in telling stories, or at least in suggesting stories. I love artwork that you can interpret… My favorite illustrations are full of characters and symbols, action and decoration all working together. I don’t need to know for sure what’s going on. The best pictures are the ones that you can puzzle over and imagine the story, or maybe imagine several stories all at once.”

Riverview Gallery: Lisa Marshall (New Richmond, WI) – “I work in a traditional way of making cloth, but the colors I choose are vibrant, bringing new life to the world of weaving. I choose to use bold colors as a symbol of an appreciation for life. The weaving process slows down the creation of cloth making where much of it today is industrialized. I want my viewers to connect themselves back to the earth where the materials of my work originate in deep, ancient practice.”

Overlook Gallery: Stephen Klassen (Minneapolis, MN) – “I am drawn to work with wood because it is a material that was once alive. I find the tree’s story memorized in the knots, wormholes, and other particularities of its structure. These become points of entry for me into the work. Going back and forth between continuing and interrupting the history already present in the material, I repeat forms such as concentric shapes and lines and allow them to gradually mutate as I build the work.”