"A Closer Look" by Cindy Koopman + Carl Oltvedt

CINDY KOOPMAN + CARL OLTVEDT A CLOSER LOOK

June 1 - July 13, 2024

CINDY KOOPMAN

Cindy Koopman grew up in southern Minnesota. She earned a BA in Art Education and an MFA in Printmaking and has continued her education through various workshops in the arts. After graduate school, Ms. Koopman worked as a printmaking instructor for the Lacoste School of the Arts in Lacoste, France and then as a faculty member at Normandale Community College in Bloomington, Minnesota until her retirement in 2021. She has exhibited both nationally and internationally and has work in various collections.

Ms. Koopman works primarily in printmaking and drawing, using both traditional and contemporary techniques. Her current work focuses on drawing, etching, and wood engraving. She is a member of the Los Angeles Printmaking Society, Mid America Print Council, and the Wood Engravers Network.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Printmaking, according to George Bodmer, “takes a perfectly simple process like drawing and makes it as complicated and error prone as possible.” I love how printmaking, while demanding careful planning, invites play and experimentation and defies my attempts to predict the outcome. The results are always surprising to me.

Currently, I am working with imagery derived from weekly visits to the Bell Museum’s herbarium collection. I use these drawing sessions to better understand the structure and organization of the plant specimens. From this, I make prints and other works which place the specimens into settings that reference the plant and its structure without trying to replicate the initial drawing or specimen precisely. Many of the images contain maps, text, or coordinates which indicate the harvest location of the original herbarium artifact. I use a laser engraver to cut the plant forms out of a thin plastic substrate that can be carved and inked as an intaglio or relief. The laser is also used to create relief stencils or to burn an image directly onto the print. I am interested in playing and experimenting with color, shape, and idea.

- Cindy Koopman, 2024

CARL OLTVEDT

Carl Oltvedt works full-time as an artist in a variety of painting and drawing media. He retired from Minnesota State University Moorhead in May of 2015, where he was a Professor in the School of Visual Arts. He has exhibited his work at Groveland Gallery in Minneapolis since 1978.

His paintings and drawings are included in numerous public, corporate, and private collections, including the Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Minnesota Museum of American Art. He has completed commissions for corporations and private collectors including Cargill Corporation, Securian Corporation and the Laske family.

He was a recipient of Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grants in 2014 and 1991, and a Lake Region Arts Council/McKnight Artist Fellowship in 2002.

ARTIST STATEMENT

I am delighted to have been working with Groveland Gallery for so many years, where I have found consistent support for my creative ideas and the work I produce. During the past several years, I have been focused on birds of various types as my subject matter, including a variety of herons and blackbirds, as well as geese, gulls, and Sandhill cranes. I observe and photograph the birds in their native habitat, returning as needed for additional references while I am developing paintings and drawings of them. The individual works are always a distillation of observed information balanced with adjustments for my expressive interpretation. In the end, I strive to instill a sense of presence and mystery in the works I create.

- Carl Oltvedt, 2024

Taking Flight 2022 | pastel & charcoal | $2,200. image: 22.75 x 30" | frame: 29 x 36"

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Alnus incana II

2023 | engraving, drypoint and chine collé | $800. image: 15 x 10" | frame: 22 x 17"

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Mertensia virginica II

2023 | engraving, drypoint and chine collé | $600. image: 12 x 7" | frame: 19 x 14"

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elliptica I 2023 | engraving, drypoint and chine collé | $750. image: 13.5 x 9" | frame: 20.5 x 16"

Pyrola

Announcing Her Presence 2023 | pastel & charcoal | $1,900. image: 25.5 x 19.5" | frame: 31.25 x 25.25"

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Yellow Headed Blackbird IX 2024 | pastel & charcoal | $1,900.

image: 19.5 x 25.5" | frame: 25.25 x 31"

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Watchful 2022 | pastel & charcoal | $1,900. image: 24.25 x 18.25" | frame: 31.25 x 24.25" INQUIRE

2023 | engraving, drypoint and chine collé | $600. image: 10 x 8" | frame: 17 x 15"

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Hydrophyllum virginianum II

Dodecatheon amethystinum I 2023 | engraving, drypoint and chine collé | $600. image: 10 x 8" | frame: 17 x 15"

2023 | engraving, drypoint and chine collé | $850. image: 12 x 16" | frame: 19 x 23"

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Quercus alba I

incana I 2023 | engraving, drypoint and chine collé | $800. image: 13.5 x 11" | frame: 20.5 x 18"

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Alnus

Hydrophyllum virginianum I 2023 | engraving, drypoint and chine collé | $700. image: 10 x 10" | frame: 17 x 17