Petronella Ytsma & Friends

PETRONELLA YTSMA

& FRIENDS

February 11 -

March 18, 2023

PETRONELLA YTSMA

Photo by James Hammink

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS - Partial Listing

2009 St Catherine University, St. Paul, Minnesota, Legacy Portraits

2009 Anderson Center, Red Wing, Minnesota

2007 Dubuque Museum of Fine Art, Dubuque, Iowa. Treuren

2004 Augsburg College, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Treuren

2002 Texas Women’s University, Denton, Texas

2002 University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse, Wisconsin

2000 City of Minneapolis - Committee on the Urban Environment, Minneapolis Institute of Art; Photo-documentation of Touchstone Plaza/Phillips Gateway Project.

2000 WARM 21st Annual Juried Exhibition College of St. Catherine; St. Paul, Minnesota

1998 WARM Mentor/Protégé Exhibition. Katherine Nash Gallery; University of Minnesota

1994 Internationale Kinderfotografie at Freizeit und Erholungszenstrum (FEZ) in de Wuhlheide; Berlin, Germany

1994 WARM Mentor/Protégé Exhibition Katherine Nash Gallery; University of Minnesota

1993 Women and Land, College of St. Catherine; St. Paul, Minnesota

1989 University of Wisconsin; River Falls, Wisconsin

HONORS AND AWARDS

2003 Percent for Arts, Minnesota State Arts Board

2000 CUE Award, City of Minneapolis

1994 FEZ, Berlin, Germany Travel and residency Grant

1991 Coune, Ltd. Travel Grant to Indonesia

1981 Demarais Studio Press, Purchase Award

ARTIST RESIDENCIES - Partial Listing

Phillips Gateway Project/Touchstone Plaza; Minneapolis, Minnesota

1995 University of Wisconsin; La Crosse, Wisconsin

1993 FEZ Galerie; Berlin, Germany

1989 University of Wisconsin; River Falls, Wisconsin

1987 Arizona State University; Tempe, Arizona

1983 Iowa State University; Ames, Iowa

WORK EXPERIENCE

2007 Gustavus Adolphus College, J-term photography instructor in Thailand

2004 University of Wisconsin, River Falls. Photography Instructor

1998-2007 Adjunct Photo Instructor, Gustavus Adolphus College; St. Peter, Minnesota

1997-98 Mentor; WARM Mentor/Protege Program

1987-2022 Staff photographer, Park Square Theatre, St. Paul, Minnesota

1987-2022 Self-employed Photographer, specializing in documentation of the arts

1979-87 Staff Photographer, Minneapolis Institute of Arts; Minneapolis, Minnesota

EDUCATION

1975 M.A. Michigan State University, Lansing, Michigan

1972 M.A. University of Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden

1971 B.A. Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan

CURATOR'S NOTES

My work is concerned with social justice and ecological issues from an artistic perspective. Primarily through the lens of my Hasselblad, which allows the ‘unhurried visit’, I explore remnants and legacy, memory and mirror, and reflect on the civil contracts inherent between image maker, giver and viewer.

- Petronella J. Ytsma

Petronella Ytsma devoted her life to recognizing how social injustices affected those in the world who were without means of control or influence. Her documentary photographs for community art projects and organizations such as the Neighborhood Development Corporation and Park Square Theater exemplified her values as the essential core of her artistic practice. Petronella’s primary business documenting other artists work reflected her spectacular ability to ‘see’ the artist’s personal aesthetic and translate that into photos that clarified those ideas to others. She deeply believed the essential nature of the arts are efforts to define and explore ways of knowing and expressing the world’s inequities through elements of beauty and sometimes transcendence.

Petronella Ytsma & Friends focuses on a long ongoing series titled Murnan, black and white photos of flowers / botanicals to speak to processes of growth, beauty and decay or youth, life and death. The series was her way to address and respond to the AIDS crisis of the 1980s. It swept quickly through the arts, creating a great loss of many artists, musicians and creatives that never lived to bring their youthful potentials to full careers. She shared her images with those suffering, offering quiet beauty and perhaps a bit of hope. The series also delineates how Petronella’s work has always been reflective of her experiences, making a quiet, pointed commentary.

In the Treuren exhibition (2004, Augsburg College), Petronella presented over a hundred images of hands reaching out from the gallery walls, each photo projecting 2-6 inches from the wall, with burnt edges on every print. Here, the series is represented by four images, two of hands, two of glistening water droplets. The hands with burnt edges filled the entire front large gallery, while the pristine, elegant water droplets occupied a small second gallery separated by a wall. Lingering and thinking about the vast humanity of the many hands, the water droplets, interpreted by some as tears, were subtly jarring. An astute observer of the dynamics between the political and the natural worlds, Treuren was Petronella’s prescient warning that corporate control of clean drinking water sources would lead to a lack of access for the many. Now, clean water, a most basic human need, is a major social concern in much of the world.

Legacy of an Ecocide, Ytsma’s most important body of work, is rooted in the Viet Nam War, a defining experience of her lifetime - a jumpstart to social conscience for many in our shared generation. She demonstrated against the war, saw veterans return as broken human beings, witnessed the immigration of Southeast Asian populations who aided the US, and the array of veteran’s cancers and medical conditions consciously denied health benefits by the US government. Legacy was Petronella’s quest for truth and to bear personal witness to the extreme costs of the war, most especially those paid by the innocent exposed to the lingering effects of open dumps of Agent Orange and dioxin, US pollution of the Vietnamese landscape. These photographs of individuals born 2 to 4 generations after the war, many confined in hospitals and orphanages with all manner of heart-breaking birth defects, are hard to look at. While confronting atrocity, they assert respect for the person and often, the love of a parent/family caring for their children. Born of Petronella’s social justice concerns, they are evidence of her compassion, empathy, and unique ability to convey the beauty of the humanity of others through her photographs.

David Wells, Co-Curator, Artist and Friend February 2023

Petronella Ytsma

Tulipa Parrot, 2002

16 x 20" | gelatin silver print

unframed prints available INQUIRE

Petronella Ytsma

Amaryllis, 2000

20 x 16"| gelatin silver print

unframed prints available INQUIRE

Petronella Ytsma

Palmblad (Amaryllis Leaf), 2000

20 x 16" | gelatin silver print

Petronella Ytsma

Bird of Paradise: Strelizia Reginalis I , 2002

17.75 x 14" | gelatin silver print

unframed prints available INQUIRE

Petronella Ytsma

Bird of Paradise: Strelizia Reginalis II , 2002

14 x 17.75" | gelatin silver print

unframed prints available INQUIRE

Petronella Ytsma

Calla, 2001

20 x 16" | gelatin silver print

unframed prints available INQUIRE

Petronella Ytsma

Calla II , 2001

20 x 16" | gelatin silver print

unframed prints available INQUIRE

Petronella Ytsma

Great Solomon Seal, 2000

16 x 20" | gelatin silver print

Petronella Ytsma

Arizona Palm II

20 x 16" | gelatin silver print

unframed prints available INQUIRE

Petronella Ytsma

Hollyhock Althea Rosa II, 1999

20 x 16" | gelatin silver print

unframed prints available INQUIRE

Petronella Ytsma

Hollyhock, 1999

20 x 16" | gelatin silver print

Petronella Ytsma

Magnolia I, 1999

11 x 14" | gelatin silver print

unframed prints available INQUIRE

Petronella Ytsma

Zulu Cactus III, 1997-98

14 x 11" | gelatin silver print

Petronella Ytsma

Starfruit, 2003

8.5 x 10.5" | gelatin silver print

Petronella Ytsma

Wild Clematis, 2006 20 x 15" | piezography print, watercolor paper

Petronella Ytsma

Hoi An, 5am, Viet Nam

20 x 30" | gelatin silver print

Petronella Ytsma

Water Droplet, 2004

24 x 20" | piezography print on watercolor paper

Petronella Ytsma

Water Droplets, 2004

24 x 20" | piezography print on watercolor paper

Left:

Right:

Petronella Ytsma

Treuren - Entwined, 2004

20 x 15.5" | gelatin silver print

RIght:

Petronella Ytsma

Treuren I - United, 2004

20 x 15.5" | gelatin silver print

Right:

Petronella Ytsma

Nguyen Ngoc Tho, b. 1993, 2008

Legacy of an Ecocide Series

image: 8 x 8" | gelatin silver print

PETRONELLA YTSMA & FRIENDS

Groveland Gallery is honored to present an exhibition of photographs by Petronella Ytsma. This posthumous exhibition pays tribute to Nell, her forty-year career as an artist, and her lifetime of supporting art and artists.

After Nell's death in September 2022, those of us at Groveland Gallery wanted to find a way to honor and thank Nell. We hope this exhibition of her photographs will bring her work into the spotlight it deserves.

Nell was a mentor, collaborator, teacher, and colleague of many in the regional art community. In keeping with Nell's generous spirit we have also included work by some of the many artists she photographed, befriended, and collected.

Fellow artists invited to this exhibition are:

Priscilla Briggs, Dan Bruggeman, Carol Lee Chase, Anne DeCoster, Greg Graham, Terry Gydesen, Tim Harding, Joy Liberman, Eleanor McGough, Rod Massey, Lisa Nebenzahl, Erica Spitzer Rasmussen, Dani Roach, Megan Rye, Justin Terlecki, David Wells, Jody Williams

Sally Johnson Director, Groveland Gallery and Co-Curator

Tim Harding, with photographic image by Petronella Ytsma

Thicket

2022 | fiber/photo: dye sub printed, manipulated textile, photo montage | $8,500. size: 51 .5 x 74" | unframed

Priscilla Briggs

Forest #3

2019 | archival ink print| $850. image: 18 x 27" | frame: 18 x 27"

"The Heavens (clee-ip, clee-ip, clee-ip)"

2022 | watercolor & gouache on paper | $2,800. image: 30 x 22" | frame: 35 x 26"

Dan Bruggeman

Birdbath

2021 | digital edition of original monotype | $900. image: 16 x 24" | frame: 24 x 32"

David Wells

Tassel: Daylight 2016 | oil on canvas | $2,400. image: 40 x 33" | unframed

Carol Lee Chase

Leaning Toward Light

2022 |

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Eleanor McGough

acrylic on panel

$250. image: 6 x 8"

2016 | archival digital print| $600. image: 8 x 12" | frame: 15.5 x 20"

Terry Gydesen Spirit Goddess Tree

Lisa Nebenzahl

Meshes 2020 | polymer photogravure | $1,200.

image: 10 x 10" | frame: 18.75 x 25"

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|

Dani Roach

Held Series - Teal

2017

oil on panel | $900.

image: 12 x 12"

frame: 13.5 x 13.5"

Greg Graham

The Shade of Love, 2022

gouache on watercolor paper | $800. image: 9 x 12" | frame: 12 x 15"

Megan Rye

Megan and Ellie

2022 | oil on canvas | NFS image: 35 x 40"

Courtesy of Forum Gallery, New York, NY

Jody Williams

Relative Remains

2010 | artist's book | $300.

size: 2.5 x 2.25 x 1.25"

Rod Massey

Still Life with 3 Gourds

2017 | oil on panel | $900. image: 7 x 21" | frame: 8.5 x 22.5"

Tempus Fugit

2012 | oil on panel |

size: 12 x 7 x 3"

Joy Liberman

$900.

Anne DeCoster Rocks at Grand Marais

2016 | oil & acrylic on canvas | $1,500. image: 16 x 20" | unframed

Justin Terlecki

Window, Mothers House, 2022

pen & ink with watercolor and gouache | $1,700. image 15.25" x 22.5" | frame: 19.75 x 27"

The Fabric of Society 2020 | mixed media with handmade and commercial papers | $2,800. size: 36 x 28"

Erica Spitzer Rasmussen