A u t um n
North
A rt
Dakota
A u c t io n
Museum
of
Art
The North Dakota Museum of Art is grateful to the following entities who have given generously to guarantee that the arts may flourish.
KXJB TV KVLY TV Merrill Lynch Prairie Public
North Dakota Museum of Art
AUTUMN
Art
Auction
S at u r d a y, O C T O B E R 1 4 , 2 0 0 6 Wine and hors d’oeuvres 6:30 pm Auction begins at 8 pm
Autumn Art Auction is Underwritten by
KXJB TV
Auction Preview
KVLY TV
September 24 until auction time in the Museum galleries
Merrill Lynch Prairie Public
Monday - Friday, 9 to 5 pm, Saturday - Sunday, 11 to 5 pm
Preview Party Tuesday, September 26, 7 pm, Museum Director Laurel Reuter will lead an informal discussion about the work in the Auction.
patrons Capone’s
Blue Moose Bar & Grill
Chester Fritz Auditorium
Bremer Bank
Clear Channel Communications
Bronze Boot
East Grand Floral
Community Bank of the Red River Valley
Grand Forks Herald
Kevin Register & Paula Anderson
High Plains Reader
Farmers Insurance Group, George Wogaman
Holiday Inn Leighton Broadcasting Office of Academic Affairs, UND
Gate City Bank Gustafson Gluek, PLLC HB Sound and Light Lakeview Inn & Suites
Sponsors CC Plus Interiors, Incorporated Minnesota Public Radio Waterfront Gallery, Northern Plumbing
Lumber Mart Ellen McKinnon Museum Café North Dakota Ballet Company North Dakota Quarterly
Supporters Altru Health System Avant
Reeves Studio Roadking Inn Columbia Mall
Buy local. Read the sponsor pages to learn about those who invest in the Museum. Please return their investment.
Supporters Cancer Research, UND, Don and Mary Sens Special Olympics Suite 49
—John Foster, Chairman, Museum Board of Trustees
Summit Brewing Company Dr. Curtis Tanabe, D.D.S. Valley Bone and Joint
Contributors Acme Electric Alerus Financial Axis Clinic, PC Brown Corporations Camrud, Maddock, Olson & Larson, Ltd. Capital Resource Management CEO Praxis, Inc. Columbia Liquors Fine Print of Grand Forks, Inc. Frokjer - Petersen, Oral & Facial Surgeons Gregory J. Norman Funeral Chapel Happy Harry’s Bottle Shops Letnes, Marshall, Swanson, & Warcup, Ltd. James S. McDonald, D.D.S. North Dakota Eye Clinic Rite Spot Liquor Store River City Jewelers, Inc.
Advertisers Brady, Martz & Associates Browning Arts Burger King Restaurants of Grand Forks Chad Caya Painting Classic Jewelers David C. Thompson Law Office Dr. Paul Stadem, D.D.S. Drees, Riskey & Vallager, Ltd. Edward Jones, Mark Larsen Forks Chem-Dry Greater Grand Forks Symphony Orchestra Greenberg Realty, Mary Adams Greenberg Realty, Kelly Thompson
Salon Seva
Hovet Roofing Inc.
Super One
Meland Architecture
The Lighting Gallery UBS Financial Services Xcel Energy Zimney Foster P.C.
Monarch Travel & Tours Moosbrugger, Carter & McDonagh, PLLP Northern Valley Obstetrics & Gynecology Plaza Jewelers Earl Pomeroy Reichert Armstrong Law Office Robert Vogel Law Office P.C. Shaft, Reis & Shaft, Ltd. Super Target
The Autumn Art Auction exhibition is funded in part by a general operating grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board.
Tanglez, Holly Undlin Valley Dairy Stores Vilandre’s Wall’s Medicine Center, Inc.
Burton Onofrio, Auctioneer
Chris and Penny Wolf, Chairs
Burton Onofrio recently retired as Attending Neurosurgeon at the
Autumn Art Auction Committee
Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, where he also served as Professor of Neurosurgery in the Mayo Medical School. His first
Chris and Penny Wolf, Chairs
job after retirement was as Senior Consultant for Pain Disorders,
Alan Mulhern
Neurosurgical Service, Massachusetts General Hospital in
Heather and David Schall
Boston. His training includes an M.D. degree from the Medical
Jill and Mark Sczepanski
College of Cornell University (1957); a surgical residency at the
Bonnie Sobolik
New York Hospital Medical Center (1958); and a fellowship at
Holly Undlin
the Mayo Clinic in neurosurgery (1964), all of which resulted in
Ken Vein
a life-time career at the Mayo Clinic.
Devera Warcup
As busy as his professional career has been, he has also lived a wonderful life within the arts. It began when he married Judy Onofrio, a self-taught potter who has emerged as a sculptor of national stature. Judy was deeply involved in the Rochester Art Center, and Burton soon joined the Board of Directors. Most recently—another retirement job—he co-chaired the Capital Campaign Building Committee of the Rochester Art Center. The new building opened in the spring of 2004 with the central gallery named in honor of Judy and Burton Onofrio—gifted by a former patient.
Penny and Chris Wolf reside in Grand Forks with their two children. Keaton is in second grade at Kelly Elementary, and Georgia is 1 year old. Penny is originally from Cavalier, ND. She has been a cosmetologist for 16 years. The last 3 years, she has been a salon coordinator. She is currently the salon coordinator for Salon Seva, which recently opened in September. Chris grew up in Grand Forks. He is a certified public accountant. He is currently the Chief Financial Officer for Brown Corporations. He
In another corner of his life, Onofrio runs art auctions. For
is on the board of the Community Foundation of Grand Forks,
twenty-six years he was the auctioneer of the Rochester Art
EGF, and region.
Center annual auction, most often organizing it as well. Both the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis and the University of Minnesota Art Department have called upon him to serve as auctioneer. For twelve years he has been the announcer of the Rochester Art Center Art Festival. Onofrio’s days, however, are spent in Judyland, the garden he created with his wife. And finally, this is a man who loves animals, in particular his menagerie of cats who have full run of the garden.
Photograph by Christy Doyea Photography
Museum Mission Statement
As inhabitants of the Northern Great Plains, we struggle to ensure
Rules of Auction
Each registered guest will receive a bidding card as part of
that the arts are nourished, and that they flourish, because we
the price of a ticket. Upon receiving the bidding card, each
know that a vital cultural life is deeply essential to isolated
guest will be asked to sign a statement vowing to abide by
people. We have concluded that to study the arts is to educate
the Rules of the Auction listed in this catalog.
our minds, for through the arts we learn to make difficult
Absentee bidders will either leave their bids on an Absentee
decisions based upon abstract and ambiguous information. This
Bid Form with Museum personnel in person or by phone, or
is the ultimate goal of education. Furthermore, we have come to
bid by phone the night of the auction. Absentee bidders, by
value the arts because they make our hearts wise—the highest of
filling out the form, agree to abide by the Rules of the
human goals. Therefore, in the most difficult of times, and in an
Auction.
environment that might be perceived as alien to the visual arts, we propose to build a world-class museum for the people of the
Each bidder will use his or her own bidding number during the auction.
Northern Plains. The North Dakota Museum of Art, by legislative act, serves as the
All sales are final.
In September 2002 the Office of the North Dakota State Tax
official art museum of the State of North Dakota. The Museum's
Commissioner determined that the gross receipts from the
purpose is to foster and nurture the aesthetic life and artistic
sales made at the Auction are subject to sales tax. State sales
expression of the people living on the Northern Plains. The
tax is 5% of the total sale and the Grand Forks city tax is
Museum will provide experiences that please, enlighten and
1.75% of the first $2,500 of the sale. Out-of-state buyers
educate the child, the student and the broad, general public.
who have the work shipped to them will not be subject to
Specifically, the Museum will research, collect, conserve and
North Dakota sales tax.
exhibit works of art. It will also develop programs in such related arts as performance, media arts and music.
In the event of a dispute between bidders, the auctioneer shall either determine the successful bidder or re-auction the item in dispute. Purchasers may pay for items at any point following the sale of that work but must pay for all art work before the conclusion of the evening—unless other arrangements are in place. Absentee bidders will be charged on the evening of the auction or an invoice will be sent the next business day. Works of art in the auction have minimum bids placed on them by the artist. This confidential "reserve" is a price agreed upon between the artist and the North Dakota Museum of Art below which a work of art will not be sold.
From the Museum Director
Each year we open the fall season by publishing
Milena Marinov is a Bulgarian who lives in Fargo and paints
the Autumn Art Auction catalog. Gradually the catalogs are
traditional icons in the style of the Eastern Orthodox Church. I
accumulating into a historical record of art in our time and place.
included her because her painting is very beautiful and also
If it weren’t for our important sponsors whose ads fill the last half
because it is exciting to have her in our midst.
of this book, the catalog would not be published. Please take your business to these important entities; thank them for their significant contribution; and note how many of them are locally owned and operated. Supporting cultural life is not just in the interest of the “big boxes” but rather it has become the business of the butcher, the baker and the keeper of bees.
Zhimin Guan grew up in China as did Aliana Au. And thrown into the mix are artists born and raised in our region. For example, this is the first auction to include the work of Todd Hebert. He grew up in North Dakota, finished his BFA in art at UND, and went on for his MFA at the Rhode Island School of Design where Nancy Friese was his teacher. In 2005 he was
This season we are introducing more artists from Winnipeg, our
named Emerging Artist of the Year by the Aldrich Contemporary
closest large city and the center of a thriving art community. I
Art Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut. Friese, also an artist with
don’t remember a time when as many young, ambitious,
work in the Auction, serves on the Museum’s Board of Trustees.
insouciant, and talented artists have sprung onto the scene at one time. The late Caroline Dukes used to be my Winnipeg guide. This year Aganetha Dyck invited artists to bring work by her studio for me to see. Within several hours I met a dozen new artists, many of whom I now introduce to you. You will remember
Our art community has flourished by welcoming ideas and people from around the globe. We also need our museum supporters and art buyers, those who enjoy looking and those determined to live with art.
Aganetha’s work with bees that was exhibited in the Museum last
You may arrange to place bids in advance or to bid by phone
summer. You may also remember the cover of last year’s auction
during the auction. Unashamedly, I invite you to help us make
catalog, a collaboration between Aganetha and her son Richard.
this event as successful financially as it is historically and
This year Richard has an earlier scan in the auction. To make it
aesthetically. And remember, we never ask our artists to donate.
he literally placed the lamb on the scanner bed and “took its
They receive their minimum bid before the Museum takes a
picture.”
dime. Only after you have done your fine work as buyers do the
We are introducing the photography of Katherine Keck, a new member of the Museum Foundation Board of Directors who comes from Los Angeles. Other artists include Guillermo Guardia, a ceramist from Peru who is working on his second master’s degree from the University of North Dakota. Guillermo, or Memo as we know him, worked at the Museum this past summer. Ewa Tarsia, now of Winnipeg, emigrated from Poland.
Museum and the artists split the profits 50/50. Once again, thank you to Burton Onorfio, our auctioneer who has also become our friend, to our chairs and their committees, to Lois Wilde and Barbara Hatfield who assisted with the catalog, and to the wonderful museum staff who make it look so effortless. Laurel Reuter, Director North Dakota Museum of Art
Lot #1 Tim Schouten Petersfield, Manitoba Untitled (In the Absence of Horses) Encaustic on plywood 12 x 11 inches 2006 Tim Schouten’s untitled work comes from the series “In the
Range: $500 - 700
Absence of Horses” recently shown at the Ken Segal Gallery in Winnipeg. Consisting of 100 small encaustic paintings, the series evolved from a single image of a horse rolling in dirt. According to Mariianne Mays, the work is based on a poem of the same name by the late American poet and animal rights philosopher Vicki Hearne. . . . Schouten’s fascination with horses and his interest in the “historic relationship between man and horse” are informed by Hearne’s writings on the inner moral lives of domestic animals.
light for depth and substance, or fragile translucence. Schouten continues, The encaustic technique uniquely confers the strength, vigour and intensity of the horse’s emblematic movement. Revealing as they are in their energy and presence, the figures are simultaneously ethereal—as though resisting seizure, whether literal or imagined. Hooves circle the air, muscles slacken and contract, spindly, elegant legs never betray
The painter grapples happily with the untamed aspects of his
the mass they support. Yet their presence welcomes us to a
subject matter. As Schouten reminds us in his artist’s statement,
physical reality more insistent than memory or philosophy, rife
horses—except for their limited, specialized use in rodeos and
and rich and wild with the immediacy of life. (Border Crossing,
ranches—are now more frequently present in legend than in
Vol. 24, No. 1, Issue 97, 2005)
reality. So a significant aspect of his work lies in honoring the vitality of these animals that were once domesticated for human use and then fell out of fashion. In his encaustic technique, rather than using the wax and pigment for inlay, Schouten applies a mixture of oils, beeswax, and microcystalline in thick brush and hot iron work. He also works back into the pieces with various heating implements and other tools. The result is lush and ambient, contingent on the play of
Tim Schouten was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and lives with his wife and horses on a farm between Winnipeg and Lake Winnipeg to the north. He studied art in Toronto, first at Arts Sake, Inc. and in 1990 at the Toronto School of Art.
Lot #2
Guillermo Guardia was born in Lima, Peru, in 1975. He completed a BFA in Industrial Design at the Universidad Católica
Dave Britton
del Peru in 1999. As part of his studies he took a ceramics class
Grand Forks, North Dakota
and found he loved it. Soon he was applying to graduate
McVille, North Dakota
programs in ceramics in the United States. In 2005 he completed
35mm Fujichrome, June 29, 1998
his MFA in Ceramics from the University of North Dakota and is
Image 13.75 x 21 inches
currently enrolled at UND in a second graduate degree program,
Range: $200 – 300
seeking a Master of Science in Industrial Technology. Guardia comes for an ancient ceramic culture of pre-Columbian Peru. From the time he was little he was steeped in the images and materials of those early potters. From his family, his teachers, television, and classroom visits to museum, he learned to venerate the early traditions. In particular, he loved the work of the Mochica culture, a pre-Incan civilization that flourished on the northern coast of Peru from about 200 B.C. to A.D. 600, known especially for its pottery vessels modeled into naturalistic human and animal figures. Guardia intuitively carries the past forward in his ceramics, preferring narrative work based in the figure, unglazed and burnished surfaces that allow the clay itself to dominate the
Dave Britton grew up around old grain elevators owned
work. The work in the exhibition, Johnnie, breathes with life,
and operated by his father Clarence Britton. These North Dakota
both contemporary and ancient.
elevators were in Keith—six miles east of Devils Lake—Kempton, Merrifield, and Northwest Mills Elevator in Grand Forks—a partnership of Clarence, Earl Kurtz, and Eugene Ellingrud, which was sold to North Dakota Mill and Elevator in 1953.
Lot #3
as he sold Swenko barley shakers to elevators in eastern North
Guillermo Guardia
Dakota and western Minnesota. During his high school years, he
Grand Forks, North Dakota
drove the Merrifield Grain Co. truck, picking up grain his dad had
and Lima, Peru
bought from various elevators in the same area. He has fond
Johnnie, 2003
memories of several of these old elevators, their managers, and
High fire ceramics
For two summers in 1958 and 1959, Britton traveled with his dad
their communities.
18.5 high x 7 wide x 11 inches deep
According to Britton, the elevators are a dying symbol of our prairie heritage. They were an integral part of the economy, an informal social gathering place for farmers, and reference points on our flat prairie landscape. The old wooden, cribbedconstruction elevators became inefficient and are being destroyed rapidly. Britton, who started Britton Transport in 1980 in the basement of his home in Grand Forks, has photographed over 1,000 elevator locations on the plains, some of which no longer exist. This may well prove to be one of the significant systematic records of an important architectural archtype of early twentieth-century
Range: $200 - 250
Ewa Tarsia is a Polish artist who became a Canadian citizen
Lot #4
in 1995. The success of her artistic career in Canada will be celebrated in June 2007 when she will be officially inducted
Ewa Tarsia
into the Royal Academy of Arts. Whereas she works in diverse
Winnipeg, Manitoba
media including painting, sculpture, tapestry, landscape design,
Something Undeniable
and drawing, she is known internationally as a printmaker. She
1, 2, 3, 4, 5
has showed in international print biennials in Spain, France,
Mixed media
Poland, Austria, United States, England, Germany, and Korea.
Each 10 x 10 inches, 2006 Range: $800 – 1,100
The signature work included in this auction represents the evolution of her printmaking into personal techniques that meld
Sponsored by Merrill Lynch
the actual printmaking plate into the final work of art. According to Kristen Pauch-Nolin, Ewa Tarsia suggests that it is
beyond the product into a place where it can live.”
the fundamental elements of her process—the manipulation of
Tarsia describes herself not as a typical printmaker, but as an
materials and building of textural surfaces—that motivate her
artist who uses her love of the techniques and processes involved
rather than the appearance of her finished pieces.
in printmaking to share her interactions with the ever-changing environment with her audiences. As an environmentalist, she
Tarsia’s position is not entirely unexpected. As a printmaker, she
sees the irony of using plastic and paper to create images that
is part of a tradition of artists who acknowledge that their
celebrate the beauty of the natural world. “It reflects our society,”
plates—the pieces of metal, plastic, wood and linoleum that they
she says of the work. “Plastic is everywhere.”
print from—are the true objects of their affection. Covered with marks, lines and subtle traces of colour, printing plates are often
Formally trained in painting and sculpture at the School of Fine
as interesting as the images pulled from them.
Arts in Poland, she began printmaking when she arrived in Winnipeg in 1991. For the past 14 years, Tarsia has been working
The five-part suite in this auction reflects her current practice of
full time as a printmaker and painter. Her specific area of interest,
challenging standard printmaking practices by transforming
monoprinting, involves the creation of a one-of-a-kind image on
hundreds of her Plexiglas plates into three-dimensional
a smooth surface such as Plexiglas that is eventually transferred
installations. Each plate is visually complex, offering a fully
onto paper.
active and engaged surface that, once transformed into sculpture, reveals both the artist’s obsessive process and the beauty that motivates her to continue.
There is rawness and unbridled energy that comes, regardless of medium, from her complete preoccupation with process. On her printing plates the energy is manifested in intensely manipulated
“The memories of every decision, choice and thought are
surfaces. She describes building them up, scratching into their
inscribed on my printing plates, and I seek to share that
surfaces and then applying layers of colour. “It is a sickness,” she
dimension with my audience,” says Tarsia. “I will elevate creative
half-jokes, “an uncontrollable compulsion medicated only by the
activities to the rank of the finished work to open the energy of
production of more art.”
my procedures. Through this revelation, I seek to push my work Ewa Tarsia will have a solo exhibition at the North Dakota
Lot #5
Milena marinov Fargo, North Dakota The Last Supper Egg tempera on oak panel with glazes 17 x 18.5 inches Range: $1,600 - 1,800
Milena Marinov was born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. She
Orthodox Christians venerate the icons in order to show honor
graduated in 1982 from Dupnitza College of Education,
and respect for the people and events depicted. They do not
Bulgaria, with a degree in graphic art. Her life direction changed
worship icons, for the same council that defended their use, the
when she took her first job as an art conservator with the
Second Council of Nicaea, forbade their worship.
Bulgarian National Institute of Cultural Heritage and the Gallery of Old Art and fell in love with orthodox religious art. Milena has work in collections throughout the world, including North Dakota. She maintains her studio and lives in Fargo with her husband, who teaches at North Dakota State University, and their two sons.
Marinov utilizes the antique method of egg tempera painting, which uses the yolk as a strong, transparent binder, and dry pigments for color. In her work, she uses such hard woods as walnut, cherry, or oak. She impregnates the wood with a diluted glue adhesive containing zinc oxide and titanium oxide, traditionally rendered from rabbit skin and fish bones. A
In religious art, an icon is an artistic representation or symbol of
completed drawing is transferred from a sheet of paper to the
anything considered holy and divine, such as paintings,
surface. Areas where 23-karat gold leaf will be applied are
sculpture, or mosaics, sometimes quite small in size, generally
treated with a Pompeii red glue to fix the gold leaf.
regarded by their users as a physical manifestations of the thing represented. Icons are used particularly in Eastern Orthodox churches and places of worship.
The artist adheres to the strict guidelines of the cannon of icon painting, which can carry very specific instructions. For example, in painting “Jesus Enters Jerusalem,� Christ must be riding a white
Lot #6
Zhimin Guan Moorhead, Minnesota Violinist Acrylic on paper 39 x 25 inches, 2006 Range: $800 - 1,200 Sponsored by the High Plains Reader When he lived in the northeastern Chinese city of Dalian, Guan was only five minutes from the Yellow Sea. Then in the spring of 1995, Guan came to the United States, driven by the desire to examine the complexities of Western contemporary arts. After three years, he earned his MFA in painting and drawing at Fort Hays State University, Kansas. Guan has successfully blended his academic training in visual art with the aesthetics of Eastern philosophy. As an artist, he is deeply committed to unifying the West with the East in his own distinctive manner—a new synthesis of technique underpinned by a holistic philosophy. Today Zhimin Guan is an Zhimin Guan was born in China in 1962. He started to paint when he was nine years old, influenced by his father,
Associate Professor of Art at Minnesota State University Moorhead.
Chintian Guan, a traditional Chinese calligrapher and ink painter. Zhimin received rigorous training in calligraphy and ink
Guan's art has been exhibited throughout China and
painting before he was fifteen years old. At the same time, he
the United States in such institutions as the China
developed a strong interest in the Chinese philosophy of Taoism
National Art Gallery in Beijing; China Academy of
and in ancient Chinese poetry. During his BFA studies at Fuyang
Fine Arts Museum, Hangzhou; Singapore Asian Arts
Teachers College in China, he concentrated on oil painting and
Gallery; the Salmagundi Club, New York; CCC/USA,
again received rigorous training in drawing and painting in the
Philadelphia; The Minneapolis Institute of Fine Arts;
Western classical style. From 1985 to 1994, he taught painting,
Dunton Gallery in Chicago; Fraser Gallery,
drawing, and design at Dalian Institute of Industrial Design in
Washington, DC; Museum of Southwest Texas,
Dalian, China. Besides teaching, Guan devoted himself to his art
Corpus Christi; Plains Art Museum, Fargo; and the
practice.
North Dakota Museum of Art.
Lot #7 Meera Margaret Singh is a Winnipeg photographer who explores the dynamic that exists between people and their environment. While looking at the blurred space between fiction and reality, she tries to blend the narrative flow of cinema and the stilled moment of a fixed image.
Meera Margaret Singh Montreal, Quebec You Left (and then you never left me) C-print, 2004
You Left (and then you never left again) is from Meera’s most
30 x 40 inches
recent series of C-prints wherein she creates an atmosphere that
Range: $800 - 1,200
elicits a sense of loss or vulnerability in relationships, be that between individuals and/or the spaces they occupy. Working with a large format camera, Meera develops her narratives using elements of a material culture (the clothing one wears, the art on one’s walls, the trees in one’s garden) as clues to interpreting her characters. Notions of tableau, portraiture, and staged photography are evoked. Acknowledging that we live
University of Manitoba. She was recently involved in a Manitoba
in a society that is consumed by reality television and obsessed
Association of Women Artists mentorship with ceramicist Grace
with social trespass, Meera creates a mise-en-scene that allows
Nickel. Meera currently resides in Montreal and is attending
viewers access into others’ spheres.
Concordia University’s Master of Fine Arts photography program. She was included in the Winnipeg Art Gallery’s Supernovas
Meera Margaret Singh is a native Winnipeger who holds Bachelors degrees in Anthropology and Fine Arts from the
exhibition in 2006, which showcased the work of twenty-nine
Lot #8
K.D. Thornton Winnipeg, Manitoba Fresh Prey 23 cat food cans, provisions intact, with digital labels, 2004 Range: $1,300 - 1,500
K.D. Thornton works with technologies: mechanical, electronic, biological and any others she might find interesting. Generally, her work addresses social issues, conditions or problems (consumerism, pharmaceuticalism, sexism, mortality, denial, and taxonomies), often targeting these structures through humour and subversion. She has a BFA (honors) from the University of Manitoba and an MFA (Art + Technology) from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her sculptural and installation works have been exhibited in Europe, Canada and the United States, as well as interactive works online, since 1994. In response to the observation that in nature, cats generally do not indulge in beef, lamb, tuna, etc., particularly grilled, roasted, or with rice, the artist created a new line of cat food. The 23 flavors of Fresh Prey catfood are derived from creatures cats might actually consume, whether in the wild or domestic life.
frisky field mouse tasty gecko cardinal sin chipmunk treat simply sparrow international mole plump red robin cordon blue jay nevermore raven roadkill crow tender tree frog oriole interrupted cockroach snack humble wren chinchilla dinner little brown bat wish upon a starling escaped lab rat forbidden budgie beloved hamster gerbilicious glittering goldfish
Lot #9
Bill Harbort Minot, North Dakota Coming Soon!! Mixed-media collage 38 x 26 x 3 inches, 2006 Range: $500 - 800
Bill Harbort was born and raised just north of New York
to teach graphic design and illustration at Minot State University.
City. After receiving his BFA and MA degrees from Syracuse
Gradually Harbort, the commercial artist, began to explore fine
University, he pursued a career in commercial design. Over the
art. He states, Paint-by-numbers, coupons and clip art are just a
years he worked as a package designer for Revlon, as the art
few ingredients often found in our popular culture landfill. Being
director for a children’s educational software company, and as a
a college professor has given me time to explore my painting, still
freelance automobile illustrator. During the 1960s and 1970s,
driven by pop culture words/images and messages. Each collage
Harbort self-published thirty-one limited edition art prints of
is sealed with a yummy coating of poured-on clear-cast plastic.
American muscle cars. While working on the East Coast, Harbort
My paintings may be tragic, comical or simply aesthetically
was a member of the New York Society of Illustrators. He became
pleasing.
widely recognized for his automotive airbrush work, which appeared in over twenty-five different automotive publications. Tiring of commercial work, he moved to North Dakota in 1996
Lot #10
Melanie Rocan Winnipeg, Manitoba I’m so cold Watercolor on Stonehenge paper 9.25 x 7.5 inches, 2006 Range: $400 - 600
Melanie Rocan is a member of the Winnipeg artists collective Two Six. According to Robert Enright (writing about the Winnipeg artists’ collective Two Six in The Globe and Mail 11/12/03), Melanie Rocan is the only female member of the group—and the youngest—and she casts a delicate shadow across the testosterone-sprayed landscape inhabited by her fellow two-sixers. Her work is mixed in its media: an assortment
(Montreal), Art Gallery of Calgary (Calgary), Contemporary Art
of stretched-fabric pieces, luscious oil and acrylic paintings and
Gallery (Vancouver). In 2006 she was part of a group exhibition
darling water colour occupy different parts of the gallery. What
at the Winnipeg Art Gallery titled Supernova, and a Too-Sicks
they have in common is a cheeky whimsicality where a dress is
exhibition at gallery 1.1.1., at the University of Manitoba. In
saved from prettiness by solid clothespins that hold it in place,
2005, she was part of an exchange program with the Glasgow
or where the barest whisper of a wine glass is abused by the
School of Art in Scotland, and in 2004-2005 she completed her
contents of a gorgeous ashtray smeared on the same filmy table
first year in the Master in Fine Arts program at Concordia
top. And her tiny watercolors—which she considers paintings—
University. In 2004, Melanie had an exhibition titled Familiar
are confections.
Places at the Paul Petro Art Contemporary Art Gallery, in Toronto.
Born in 1980, this bilingual Franco-Manitoban graduated from the University of Manitoba with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Honors Degree with a thesis in painting.
She has recently been
nominated as a semi-finalist in the 8th annual RBC Canadian Painting Competition. Her work is included in a group exhibition traveling to the following galleries: the Museum of Contemporary Art (Toronto), Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery (Kitchener, ON), Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal
In 2003 she was part of the Young Winnipeg Artists group exhibition at Plug-In Institute of Contemporary Art and has shown work in the Too-Sicks collective show À La Planche, at the Annex Gallery in Winnipeg. In 2001-2002 she was the artistin-residence for the Franco-Manitoban Cultural Center, in SaintBoniface, and in the beginning of her thesis year she had a solo show entitled Little Dream at the Center which completed her residency. In 2007 she will be part of a Too-Sicks group show at the Harvey Levine Gallery, in Los Angeles.
Lot #11 Jessie Palczewski, an enrolled member of the Cheyenne
Jessie Palczewski
River Sioux Tribe of South Dakota, was born in Eagle Butte, South
Spearfish, South Dakota
Dakota, and raised in Reeder, North Dakota. She received her BS
Past to Present, 2006
in Fine Arts in 2003 from Black Hills State University and her
Digital photographs, Japanese paper, thread
MFA from the University of North Dakota in 2006. According to the artist, While holding on to the tradition of fine art, I wanted to explore the sentimental qualities that exist in the craft of quilting. Consequently, I decided to investigate this idea
63 x 68 and hangs 10 inches off the wall, Range: $2,500 - 3,000 Sponsored by Chester Fritz Auditorium
further by using an unlikely material, paper. I wanted to
My quilts express personal experiences from both my American
communicate a level of fragility that relates to my feelings by
Indian and European backgrounds. They tell stories that words
drawing upon the transparent-look of the paper. The paper makes
alone cannot accurately depict. Quilts are narrations that
the quilts completely non-utilitarian, but functional as a
transform over time carrying a legacy of the past and adapting to
communicator of emotion. Furthermore, the medium that I have
the present, which gives them a timeless quality. As an artist in
chosen allows me to work in the areas of painting and
search for personal growth, quilts have been my outlet for life
printmaking, which are the foundations of my artistic identity.
occurrences that are otherwise hard to communicate.
Lot #12
Marley Kaul Bemidji, Minnesota China Song: Generations Uncounted Egg tempera / acrylic wash on birch panel 20 x 60 inches, 2006 Range: $2,900 - 3,900 Sponsored by Clear Channel Marley Kaul maintains his studio in Bemidji, Minnesota. His paintings continue to explore his surroundings including the
Lot #13
lush farmlands of southern Minnesota, the pinelands and prairies of northern Minnesota and the Dakotas, and images from his travels. Kaul blends personal symbols with social and political
Duane Perkins Winnipeg, Manitoba
issues, transforming simple images into complex metaphorical
Untitled
statements. This work is at once autobiographical and a social
Porcelain
commentary on daily life.
14.5 x 16.5 inches, 2006 Range: $1,400 – 1,800 pair
"China Song: Generations Uncounted" is one of several new paintings that relate to the prairie. The ring-necked pheasant was brought to the West Coast at the close of the 18th century. It made its way to the Dakotas where it thrives like many other immigrants. The prairie embodies birth and rebirth, a place to meditate on our relationships to the earth, a symbol of faith, time and acceptance of hardship. Marley’s wife Sandy serves on the North Dakota Museum of Art Board of Trustees. One day in the deep of winter Sandy came to a late afternoon meeting, and Marley drove over from Bemidji with her. While waiting, he looked at the exhibitions, browsed in the campus bookstore, and then drove northwest of Grand Forks to sketch. When Museum Director Laurel Reuter saw this painting, she deemed it the best capturing of light streaming through sleet and frost she had ever seen. “Magnificent!”
Lot #14
Duane Perkins Winnipeg, Manitoba Untitled Porcelain 14.5 x 13.5 inches, 2006 Range: $700 - 900
Duane Perkins has been working as a full-time studio artist for thirty years. Born in 1947 in Chicago, he lived there until he moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, to attend Bethel College where he majored in art and philosophy. During his last year he needed another credit so enrolled in his first ceramic class. A few months later he graduated and moved to Winnipeg with his future wife and immediately set up his ceramic studio. He has looked carefully over the years, citing John Glick and Don Reitz as influences along with Ralph Bacerra and Luckman Glasgow. Perkins sees his work as visual rather than idea-based. His goal is to make a beautiful object, preferably in one firing. For example, to decorate the surface of the magnificent porcelain urns in this auction, the artist begins with slips that are then glazed. He then paints on the decoration using slips, glazes, and oxides that he has formulated. A final coat of glaze prepares the object for firing.
Lot # 16
Adam Kemp Grand Forks, North Dakota Snowfall Oil on oval wood panel 31 x 66 inches, 2005 Range: $500 - 700 Sponsored by KVLY TV
Lot #15
Adam Kemp Grand Forks, North Dakota Dog in Snowfall Oil on wood panel 41 x 46 inches, 2005
Department was grounded in the tradition of the British Modern School—Sir Anthony Caro, Henry Moore, and most importantly, Barbara Hepworth, whom his parents had taken him to visit when he was a child. Her studio in Cornwall looked like my bedroom so I figured there was hope.
Range: $500 - 700 Kemp earned an MFA degree from the University of North Sponsored by KVLY TV Adam Kemp, born in 1962, grew up forty miles northeast of London in the Essex countryside. From age fourteen through nineteen, Adam sketched with watercolors because I could take them anywhere. At about sixteen, I noticed there were a lot of things that could be painted on—and I did. He graduated from Newcastle upon Tyne with a BFA in 1986 but not before studying for a year at a wood restoration school in Florence, Italy, and working with a Newcastle blacksmith for six months.
Dakota where he learned to cast bronze in the new foundry. In addition to paintings, Kemp’s work includes a commissioned wall mosaic at the Hotel Donaldson in Fargo (summer 2003); murals at the International Center at the University of North Dakota (2002); School of Fish created by Kemp and thirty-one six-through twelve-year-old children enrolled in the 2002 Museum of Art Summer Arts Camp; a set for a play, Flood of Memories by Francis Ford, based on the North Dakota Museum of Art Oral History Project following the 1997 flood; and Café Kosmos, a meeting place for high school students which Kemp
While in college he realized he was a failed watercolor painter. I
took on as a personal mission after the flood. He and the high
put too much paint on so I would have to give my pictures a bath
school students turned the two-floor building into a work of art.
in the tub. Finally the Department of Painting asked him to leave
Kemp continues to teach popular week-long sessions in the
just as the Department of Sculpture accepted him. The Sculpture
Lot #17
Barbara Hatfield Thompson, North Dakota In the circle with Hokusai Ink on paper 30 x 22inches, 2006 Range: $1,600 – 1,800
Barbara Hatfield: How to write about drawing? It’s visual. It’s kinesthetic. It’s immediate and, when one is fortunate, fully engaging. The everyday filters fall away. Liveliness and immediacy blossom. There is no separation between drawer and drawing. One is simply drawing. The ‘…ing’ is important, that motion. When tired, we often seek stillness, but the motion in drawing is in concert with stillness and can be remarkably refreshing. I hope the work produces a similar experience for the viewer: a moment of recognition, a willingness to give a bit of time and allow oneself to be in the drawing. Raised on a farm near Thompson, North Dakota, Hatfield has also lived in Minnesota, New Mexico, Colorado and New York. She is active in numerous facets of art with experience in teaching, curating, and administration. Hatfield earned a Bachelor’s degree from Minnesota State University in Moorhead and a Master of Fine Arts in Painting from Parsons School of Design, New York. Her work is in collections in Japan, France, Switzerland and the United States.
Lot # 18
Vance Gellert
Landscape which closed on September 19, 2006.
Minneapolis, Minnesota Cloud, Lake of the Isles, 1998/2005
Vance Gellert earned a BA in physiology and a PhD in
Image: 30 x 30 inches on 34 x 34 sheet
pharmacology, both at the University of Minnesota, before
Range: $1,000 - 1,800
realizing that he really wanted to be a photographer. He
Sponsored by Holiday Inn
returned to school at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond and finished an MFA in photography in 1984. In 1989
Vance Gellert is both a photographer and a curator.
he became co-founder and director of the Minnesota Center for
Whereas the Lake of the Isles photograph in this auction
Photography, a position he held until 2003. He resigned to
represents his black and white work, both his color photography
become a full-time photographer.
and his curatorial work were recently showcased in the North Dakota Museum of Art.
He is currently working on a project in Bolivia. According to Gellert, a licensed pharmacologist, his goal is to foster
For nearly three years Gellert traveled through Minnesota and
understanding of the contributions of shamanic ritual and belief
North Dakota in search of self-taught artists who are compelled
systems to medicinal plant efficacy that may hopefully lead to
to practice their craft. His photographs of the artists and the
novel new research protocols. The actual product would be a
landscapes in which they live, accompanied by a piece of each
photographic book containing conceptually created portraits of
artists’ work, came together in the exhibition Real: Artists and
Dan Jones, who lives and works in Fargo, is among North Dakota's few artists able to make a living from their art. He has long practiced plein aire painting, gathering with a group of fellow artists and going to the countryside to sketch and paint. The landscape of the Red River basin provides him with endless subjects. According to Museum Director Laurel Reuter, “this Lot #19
wonderful painting is a departure for Dan. He has moved closer
Dan Jones
taking the long view of the region’s idyllic landscape with its
Fargo, North Dakota
rolling hills and running streams. The crows in the painting take
Murder of Crows
on individual personalities. They are of this world but also not of
into the landscape, focusing upon living creatures instead of
Oil on canvas 48 x 48 inches, 2006 Range: $2,600 - 3,600 Sponsored by Office of Academic Affairs, UND
this world, suggesting an almost Asian approach to landscape.” The artist’s paintings are included in many museum, corporate and private collections including the National Endowment for the Arts, the Plains Art Museum in Fargo, and the Rourke Art
Lot # 20
Madelyn Camrud Grand Forks, North Dakota Early Summer, 2005 Acrylic, graphite, oil paint and varnish on paper 29 x 24 inches Range: $600 - 800 Sponsored by Prairie Public
Madelyn Camrud says, Most of my landscape paintings are about climate and weather, the drama of which I learned to know while growing up in rural North Dakota. I think the most successful pieces offer the viewer more sky than ground as if to
Madelyn Camrud has donated all proceeds from the sale of this painting to the Museum of Art
draw the eye upward from the horizon line. This reminds me of the way we, while living on the farm, looked at the sky to try and figure out what the day's weather would be. In this piece I believe 'the weather' is already taking place. I'm not exactly sure what it is, though there seems to be a strong presence of wind.
A North Dakota native, Camrud was born in Grand Forks, and received degrees in visual arts and creative writing from the University of North Dakota. She first practiced visual art, then studied it, and finally worked, surrounded by it, at the North Dakota Museum of Art. She, in fact, founded this live auction in
In her current landscape series, Madelyn begins with a
order to celebrate the artists in our region while helping the
photograph of the land, focusing on the horizon line which
museum survive financially. Camrud also inaugurated the
holds the most interest for her—a flat land with few trees and a
Museum Benefit Dinner and Silent Auction, the Membership
great view of the sky. From the horizon line and its trees, she
Program, and the Docent Program. Meanwhile, she was
builds up and down with paper collage, scraping the edges with
introduced to poetry, and spent two decades working on poems.
ceramic paste, while attempting to make the borders of the
This House is Filled with Cracks was published by New Rivers
photograph disappear on the board. The first paint layers are
Press, Minneapolis, in 1994. She has a second chapbook of
acrylic; an umber glaze makes the final coat. Intermingled are
poems forthcoming from Dacotah Territory Press, Moorhead
images of words, for Madelyn Camrud is also a practicing poet.
Lot #21
Gretchen Bederman Bismarck, North Dakota Horse Oil on canvas 48 x 72 inches, 2002 Range: $1,500 – 1,800 Sponsored byGrand Forks Herald
Gretchen Bederman’s art is dominated by horses and
Since 1992, Bederman has been in twenty-nine group shows and
women. According to the artist, these images symbolize and
twenty-two solo exhibitions in North Dakota and Minnesota.
visually animate the elements of earth and its relationship to fire,
Over the course of the last year she had a solo exhibition at
air, and water. She combines memories of actual places with a
Fargo’s North Dakota State University, a two-person show at the
mixture of reality, myth, and dream. She uses the figure in both
Spirit Room in Fargo, and a joint exhibition with Walter Piehl in
human and animal form to tell the story. Bederman grew up in
Miles City, Montana. She was a visiting artist at NDSU and taught
Houston, Texas, and settled in North Dakota after a 1980 visit.
at the North Dakota Museum of Art Children’s Summer Camp. In
She completed her undergraduate work at Minnesota State
September 2006 Bederman moved to Glendive, Montana, where
University Moorhead and received an MFA in painting from the
she will head up the art department at Dawson Community
University of North Dakota in 1996. While in Grand Forks, she
College.
served as a docent for the North Dakota Museum of Art and worked as an Artist-in-Residence at Lake Agassiz Elementary School.
Lot #22
Brent Brannif Minot, North Dakota Tiger Beat Brent Brannif makes colored pencil drawings and pop music. Tiger Beat, the work in the auction, draws from both. Tiger Beat magazine debuted in September of 1965 as a bubble
Color pencil and photo transfer 30 x 40 inches, 2006 Range: $500 - 700
gum rag consulted by 12-year-old girls interested in seeing pictures of their music heroes, finding out what was cool to wear, what to think, how to handle the hip scene. Brannif, who grew up in Devils Lake, North Dakota, credits his first art teacher, Central High School’s Bob Moore, with teaching him “that an artist should always be truthful to himself in his art.”
Art is the glue that holds music together.
In this work he looks back at himself in childhood, cocooned in the sleeping bag he “absolutely loved.” He began music about the same time he discovered art, that is, he picked up a guitar and began to play. Soon Brent was in
Lot #23
college at Minot Sate University; Walter Piehl was teaching drawing and painting; and he was exploring electronic music on the side.
Cyrus Swann Pine River, Minnesota
Today Brannif continues to live in Minot where he works as
Inverted Invested
technician at the local television station. For seven years he
Salt and soda-fired stoneware
tuned away from colored pencils, replacing them with oil and
26 x 9 x 3 inches, 2006
canvas. Gradually he migrated back and continues today making his strongest work in that medium. He also continues as a rhythm guitarist but acknowledges that it difficult to find other musicians interested in creating their own music. Most want to play cover in bars as a way of making a living.
Cyrus Swann is a multi-media artist who focuses on threedimensional ceramics, moving from pottery, to sculpture, to installation. According to the artist, my work explores the depths of form and surface available in the medium but also addresses issues of mass production, consumer waste, and the comparative value of objects. I am also interested in pushing my technical ability. I have a commitment to tradition and craft although I don't feel bound by rigid definitions or parameters. Swann, now 27, received a BFA from Bemidji State University in 2002 after which he moved back to Pine River, Minnesota, to establish his studio. He had a solo exhibition at the North Dakota Museum of Art in the summer of 2006, at which time his functional work was featured in the Museum Shop. Inverted Invested is part of an ongoing series exploring the idea of the bowl as shape, and as a starting point for sculptural forms. In this piece the forms are both opened in and closed out, inviting and shut in at the same time. This work, while suggesting human behavior, can also be viewed as abstract form and surface. According to the artist, I want the ceramic material Lot #24
to speak and am interested in drawing attention to pottery’s ability to communicate beyond function.
katie McCleery Travis City, Michigan Untitled Raku with gold leaf 18.5 x 15 x 5 inches, 2005 Range: $300 - 500
Katie McCleery retired from the University of North Dakota at the end of the 2004-05 academic year, having taught ceramics since 1973. She spent fourteen of those years carving architectural murals in brick, working closely with the Hebron Brick company, North Dakota's oldest and only functioning brickyard. Two years ago she retired from carving brick because of the wear and tear on my body. It's very heavy work and although I enjoyed it and was proud to have had the opportunity to do a good number of carvings, it became clear that, if I wanted to continue to work as an artist, I would have to make some changes. I've always done other works as well as the carved murals. I've done a fair amount of work in raku since it is fast and fun and have explored slip casting as well as continued working in stoneware. Recently I took on an architectural restoration job and got some experience with flexible mold systems and a new casting material. I like learning new things and having choices about how I work and what kind of work I do. McCleery’s next project is to build her own house in Michigan.
Lot #25
Jon Solinger has taken hundreds of images of trees in the Red River Valley of the North. These are among the most important works of art about this time and place to be produced during our era. And they are so beautiful.
Jon Solinger Moorhead, Minnesota Shelterbelts, Suite of eight prints Digital and film Each 11 x 8.5 sheet , 2000 - 2004 Range: $700 - 1,000 Sponsored by KXJB TV
Laurel Reuter, Director North Dakota Museum of Art Jon Slinger of Moorhead began photographing tree claims and shelterbelts around the turn of the century, commissioned by the North Dakota Museum of Art and funded by Nodak Electric Foundation. He headed out with his black and white, square-
characteristics, commodity charts, and other such tools of
format camera to capture fully mature shelterbelts, originally
twenty-first century farming, Solinger enriches his newest color
planted after the Dust Bowl era. Even as he recorded their history,
photographs with layers of information. His themes incorporate
rows of old trees were becoming obsolete. Planted for an earlier
ideas of land usage along with the history of the life of trees in
time, they stood in the way of the massive machinery of
the Red River Valley.
contemporary agriculture. More and more were dug up and burned. If replaced at all, it would be with single rows of trees.
During the summer of 2005, the North Dakota Museum of Art
By 2005 Solinger broadened his story with digital cameras and
unveiled Solinger's work, some eighty photographs winnowed
Photoshop.
Using core samples of the soil, satellite images,
out of dozens more. Variations of that exhibition are touring
investigations into the evolution of machinery for tilling and
through the Museum's Rural School Initiative and the book
planting,
documenting Solinger’s work will be published in 2007. This
global
positioning
systems
to
identify
soil
suite of eight photographs, printed as miniatures, celebrate Jon
Lot #26
nancy Friese Cranston, Rhode Island Four-color woodcut, 8.5 x 31.5 inches, 2005 Range: $600 - 900
“Maybe he marveled while watching the heavens as a toddler in
weather. Reflecting sundogs. Northern lights. Rainbows. Fiery
Hedalen, Norway. Maybe his parents directed his attention to the
sunsets. Heat mirages. Swirling snow transformed by sunlight
stars as they sailed back and forth across the Atlantic. We know
into an impressionist’s palette. For only through light and
for sure that it was in western Dakota Territory that Ben Huset’s
movement does color exist as a living entity. This is the
interest in the planets turned to fascination and finally to
underriding truth of Friese’s art. Like the grandfather, the artist
devotion.”*
immerses herself into the wildness of weather, into its untamable
This self-taught man went on to become the Weatherman of the Great Plains. From 1937 into the 1960s his annual Ben Huset’s Forecast served as the farmer’s bible. Nancy Friese, Huset’s granddaughter, inherited a similar passion for the natural world. Her prints and paintings spring from astute observation within the landscape. And they are fed by her intense understanding of the forces of weather. Movement, brilliant color, slashing lines and inner tensions spill onto canvas and paper and then reappear in woodcuts, drypoints, and aquatints. Weather never exists as a static entity. In her work, change is imminent; the landscape is volatile, hiding great storms and
energy, into its patterns, and into its beauty, an element never absent in Friese’s art. Unfashionable? Perhaps. True to human experience? Certainly. One wonders if the temperament derived from the fierce weather of Friese’s ancestors didn’t form her artistic bedrock. Had she been the child of more benign climates would she have made an altogether different kind of art? Recently Friese purchased her grandmother’s family homestead in North Dakota, searching not only for home but also a place to paint. Laurel Reuter, Nancy Friese, Paintings and Prints, Boston: Pepper Gallery, 2006.
massive cloud buildup, winds, and movement even in moments of calm. The earth, the plant world, and the sky, each have an equal presence, just as the whole of her picture plane is potently alive. She works from both the factual and the intuitive and therein lies her art. The artist credits the Weatherman with her enduring interest in the landscape. For thirty years this has been her subject. Not the Fauvists but the grandfather taught her to see the colors of
*Hoffman, S. (2006). Ben Huset’s forecasts. Unpublished manuscript.
Gift from David and Julie Blehm.
Lot #27
Mike Marth Moorhead, Minnesota Untitled Oil and mixed media on canvas 24 x 24 inches, 1999 Range: $300 - 500
Mike marth was born in 1962 in St. Paul Minnesota. He
enhance that surface. It seemed natural to include them; they
received an MFA in painting from Southern Illinois State
related to an earlier city series—urban stuff, the stuff of our
University in 1991. Marth currently lives in Moorhead, MN
environment. The decay and waste products of “life” seemed to
where he maintains his studio. Over the years he has taught in
relate well to what I was doing and thinking.
the design department of North Dakota State University. He also worked as curator at the Donaldson Hotel in Fargo during the first years of its reincarnation in the 21st century. In 2000 the exhibition “Mike Marth, A Decade of Still Life” was shown simultaneously in six sites in Fargo/Moorhead. At that time Sally Jeppson, Curator at the Plains Art Museum in Fargo, interviewed Marth for the High Plains Reader. The following quotes are taken from that interview: Over time I edit or refine my imagery to better suit my needs. I have always worked in series. I never feel satisfied exploring an idea with one or two works, they seem to generate more questions than they answer. So I repeat things, like a coffee cup, to more fully explore what it can do for me in my work. My techniques used to be more traditional. As my palette evolved
I don’t want to give my work individual titles, because it narrows the focus. . . . When I have a coffee cup in my painting, it’s not just a coffee cup. It’s a symbol. Once I heard a comment about Giorgio Morandi and his “society of objects.” That’s the way I think of the objects in my still life series—as symbols for people in the society that I’m a part of. Some of the objects can have multiple meanings. A chair can be stability or rest, it can be stagnation or isolation, security or lack of adventure. I might be thinking about it one way for one image and use it to mean something totally different in another. I do look at the objects as having some character suggestions. I use the coffee cup because it’s such a common drinking vessel, and you know, your average “cup of Joe” sort of thing. The contours and forms say a lot too. I think a brandy snifter has a kind of
and objects became more stylized, I started to enjoy the surfaces
feminine quality. A coffee cup makes less money than a teacup.
of the paintings more. I would find and incorporate stuff to
These sorts of things guide my selection of objects for my work.
Lot # 28
Katherine Keck travels the world “in search of the essence
Katherine Keck
of the emotion of the moment.” She began her formal study of
Los Angeles, California
photography at the Cortona School of Photography in Cortona,
Art of Net Throwing
Italy, under Alan Matthews. She later attended the Speos School
(Taken on the Niger River,
of Photography in Paris, France. Most recently she studied in
Mali, French West Africa)
Rome through the Venice School of Photography.
Digital print on watercolor paper Limited edition #2 of 7
Through her work, she seeks “to capture images that stand as
30 x 40 inches, February 2005
symbols of humanity with the goal of revealing what is often the
Range: $500 -700
underlying emotion or hidden sentiment of the moment.” Her mirror-like compositions utilize reflection to offer the viewer a hidden glance into the spiritual side or essence of our existence— the vibrating energy of nature that is often hidden to the viewer. Her photographic travel has taken her to such places as Italy, the cottages of England; a river trip along the Yukon River, 150 miles south of the Arctic Circle to study life in the Athabascan villages, to Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand; and to North Dakota to photograph grain elevators. Keck recently traveled to French West Africa and has completed a photographic essay chronicling this trip called Timbuktu and Beyond.
Katherine Keck has donated the proceeds from the sale of this photograph to the Museum of Art
Lot #29
Occasionally a work of art is too ethereal to be reproduced. Todd Hebert’s Bubble and Snowman
Todd Hebert
is such a work. But then, those who live among
Los Angeles, California
bubbles and snowmen know that certain skies
Bubble and Snowman #12
and weather conditions can mask anything. Visit
Acrylic on paper, 2006
the Museum to see this work of art.
13 x 42.5 inches Range: $1,000 - 1,500
fog that cloaks the landscape. Last year Hebert was interviewed by Lupe Nunez-Fernandez for ArtReview Magazine, and said:
Todd hebert was born in Valley City, ND in 1972. He
[In my early work} there were always things in transmutation, in
received a BFA from the University of North Dakota in 1996, and
curious cycles of change: a raccoon into a basketball or a
in 1998 he earned an MFA from the Rhode Island School of
snowman into a scarecrow. I started thinking that just having the
Design. He has been a fellow at both the Fine Arts Work Center
snowman or a basketball in a painting, exhibited within the
in Provincetown, and at the Core Program, Glassell School of Art
commercial fine art context was a gesture, a transformation: one
in Houston. He currently lives and works in Los Angeles and is
that was not illustrated, but embodied. That seemed to be a
represented by Mark Moore Gallery in Santa Monica.
bigger, better idea. "Narrative" eventually fluttered off my radar.
Hebert won the prestigious 2005 Emerging Artist Award from The
The snowman is just an absurd, ridiculous image of a "man"
Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT. Upon Hebert
(three round balls of snow…a man?) crudely, and whimsically
receiving the award, Jessica Hough, Curatorial Director, wrote:
built from the immediate surroundings. This started as a
Viewers of his work may be surprised to learn that Todd Hebert
culture/nature thing, and for some people that is interesting. But,
produces his paintings in a small, grungy, windowless one-car
I like that the snowman is a personage and an object at the same
garage. This environment seems to have little to do with Hebert’s
time. I hope that the smile is a welcoming gesture: a parallel to
ethereal paintings which lead us to imagine him working in a
what I want the viewer to bring in seeing it. But the smile can
much more idyllic setting. . . . Particle-filled air is a good place
either be scary or warm. It is an image of ambiguity and
to start when considering Hebert’s work. His hazy, seemingly
projection. I like that so many ideas and associations can be
out-of-focus compositions have us thinking we are looking
plugged into the image. I think coolers are similar: they keep
through an atmosphere of water or dust. This effect, achieved by
things hot or cold.
the artist through airbrushing, is hard to get used to at first. We naturally want to bring the image into sharp focus so that we can
Ambiguity is an important thing in picture making and can give
see all of what we think is there. But then we realize that the
an image a power and resonance. People have to remember
beauty and appeal of the paintings is in part due to this gossamer
what they saw. With this in mind, I've lowered the detail, upped the precision. I think I have enough detail for duration while
Lot #30
Vivienne Morgan Bemidji, Minnesota Final Embrace, 2006 Archival digital print on aluminum 50 x 40 inches Range: $1,500 - 1,800 Sponsored by Leighton Broadcasting
Vivienne Morgan: I came from England twenty-seven
photograph, often my own garden and local landscapes. Back in
years ago, and now I often think about what it means to migrate
winter at the computer, the photographs change and, like shifting
and immigrate, what it means to be rooted. I heard about trees
memories, become akin to meditations on life.
that walk across England: they slowly migrate by falling, sending out roots, sending up new trees, falling. The time scale of their movement is imperceptible to us, but their remains leave the trace of their paths. Walking through a slate quarry on a spring morning in England, I saw this pair of trees in an intimate embrace, hanging onto the edge of a cliff.
It occurred to me
that they might have walked there on purpose.
I'm English—not a snow lover—but the weather here fills me with nostalgia for England in winter. I've lived in the United States for all these years and I've never taken American citizenship. Sooner or later I must make a choice. I've been thinking about what it means to migrate and immigrate. What it means to fly, to change, to slow down or grow ill, perhaps grow better or stronger, but to inevitably grow old, and to finally stop
The photograph is printed on aluminum because I like the way it
in one place. This meditation on acceptance has led me to look
kicks back the light. The work glows the way light glows through
locally for places that remind me of England, of Europe, to find
trees in the natural world.
solace or perhaps as a point of compromise.
I am a multi-media artist out of necessity: in the winter I work
Vivienne Morgan was born in England in 1958. In 1979 she
indoors in the warmth of my studio, often at my computer. In the
moved to the United States and earned her MFA from Bowling
summer I work outdoors whenever I can: I garden, build, and
Green State University. She now lives in Bemidji, Minnesota.
Lot #31
Richard dyck Winnipeg, Manitoba Lamb C-print of a flatbed scan 30 x 24 inches, 2005 Range: $500 - 800
Richard Dyck is a Winnipeg-based artist whose work includes audio, installations, photographs, and computer-based interactive digital games and applications. His has exhibited across Canada, in France and Serbia, and in the United States. In the summer of 2005 he showed his Hive Scans in the North Dakota Museum of Art. In the fall of 2006 he will mount a solo exhibition titled "The End of Scanning by Richard Dyck with flower and leaf arrangements by Susie Rempel", a three-part grid installation of 2000+ flatbed scans for Platform: Centre for Photographic and Digital Arts, in Winnipeg. The work in the auction, reproduced in his book Species, was created by placing a lamb on a scanning bed. According to Dyck, the print is soft, not pixilated, but soft. This is because the original image is scanned at 72 dpi (dots per inch), out of kindness to the animals because higher resolution scans take much longer and the animals would start to frighten after too much time.
We study the arts because they make our hearts wise, the highest of human goals. Museum Mission
Lot #32
Walter Piehl Minot, North Dakota spotted pup: Sweetheart of the Rodeo Acrylic on canvas 48 x 36 inches, 2005-06 Range: $3,500 – 3,900 Sponsored by Capone’s
Walter Piehl was born into a family that raised rodeo stock
contemporary Western art. By drawing, overdrawing, and re-
so he rode horses as a matter of course. When he arrived at
drawing, Piehl could leave the traces of movement on the paper.
graduate school at the University of Minnesota in 1969, Bill
He worked and reworked the surface, always leaving enough
Goldstein, now the Director of Universal Limited Art Editions but
description for the viewer to follow the motion of a falling hat, a
then a fellow student, commented that from the beginning
rider flying backward, the gesture of a flinging hand, a boot
Walter drew with great confidence and skill. We were beginning
following the body into a somersault as the rider is tossed.
students and he arrived full-blown. He put his hand to paper and the lines flowed. And he drew horses.
When I finished this painting the colors reminded me of the cowboys’ favorite dessert. We call it “spotted pup.” Rice pudding
But before that, at the beginning of his experience with the
spotted with raisins—and cinnamon if one is lucky.
world outside of Marion, North Dakota, Walter went to Concordia, a small Lutheran college in Moorhead, Minnesota, enrolling in 1960. Cy Running was his teacher. Walter was the skittish colt. I was so used to calendar art, to illustration, to cowboy art as it appeared in the magazines, I had a hard time.
Today Piehl is widely recognized as one of North Dakota’s senior painters and as the artist who singularly pioneered the contemporary cowboy art movement. In 2003 the Plains Art Museum mounted a retrospective of his paintings and drawings. In 2004 he was honored with the Governor’s Award for the Arts
Piehl went on to draw and paint horses, year after year, never
and in 2005 he was appointed to the North Dakota Council on
wearying of his subject, never despairing in his quest to create
the Arts as a member at large.
Lot #33
Aliana Au Winnipeg, Manitoba Sheepskin Cat on a Red Chair Oil on Linen 24 x 21.5 inches, 2004 Range: $1,600 – 2,000
Aliana Au first exhibited this painting at the Winnipeg Art
reality. The chair series is an expression of fantasies and personal
Gallery in 1981. At that time she said, My family lived in the city
experiences, a mosaic of different elements in my life that reach
of Canton (Guangzhou) in China for a number of years. It was a
out to me.
city of very few lights at night, and the summer seasons were very hot. We spent a lot of nights lying on a canvas bed outside, with our mother sitting on a chair fanning the mosquitoes away. The sky was always blue with stars, a crescent or full moon; and I remember very well my thoughts as a young child at that time. Winters were cold there, our clothes were those from our father’s childhood. He was always far away from home yet I felt a strange kind of closeness to him, perhaps from the clothes we both wore.
Au’s interest in art started early. She studied Chinese brush painting with Professor Au Ho-Nien in Hong Kong and then came to Canada to further her art study, graduating from the School of Art at the University of Manitoba. A Canadian citizen, Au resides in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Au’s work has been exhibited in numerous galleries including the Winnipeg Art Gallery, the Moose Jaw Art Museum, the Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba in Brandon, and the John
In my grandfather’s house, I remembered observing the remnants
Michael Kohler Art Center in Sheboygan, Michigan. Her works
of his existence, possessions once loved which now were left in
are housed in various private collections in Sweden, Greece,
such a way that the life force still appeared to exist in their form.
England, the United States, and Canada. In Canada Au’s work is in collections of the Winnipeg Art Gallery, the Province of
To me, a chair is a vehicle where one’s mental being expands and travels in time and space while one’s physical being remains in
Manitoba, Canada Council Art Bank, Toronto Dominion Bank,
Lot #34 Barton Benes New York, New York Pencil Dance Mixed media on paper 10.5 x 8.5 inches Range: $400 - 600
Barton Benes’s works are highly idiosyncratic, sometimes
The North Dakota Museum of Art and Barton Benes have had a
humorous, more than a little impish, and always a fresh lens
long friendship that began when Barton designed the Museum
through which to view the world. Much has been made of this
Shop. Then, because he made museums in his own work, the
artist’s fascination with celebrity—that, in today’s world, a scrap
Museum staff asked him to create the Museum’s Donor Wall. In
from a movie star is valued with the same fervor once reserved
1989 Barton had his first exhibition in conjunction with the
for a piece of the true cross. But Benes’ work strikes more than
grand opening of the newly-renovated Museum. Later he
one note, and comments on the complexity of what we, as a
showed Lethal Weapons, his work about AIDS. And following
society, preserve, revere, treasure, or discard. It’s a vexation
the 1997 flood, the Museum commissioned Barton to make a
known to museum professionals charged with caring for ever-
Flood Museum from fragments of memory-laden objects
growing collections; it’s a puzzle in most individual’s lives where
contributed by people in the community who had gone through
the revolving door of consumerism endlessly circulates “stuff.” At
the flood. When Barton dies, he is leaving the contents of his
least, while viewing Benes’ assemblages, one pauses for a
apartment to the North Dakota Museum of Art. The apartment
moment to muse over the rubbish of experience.
contains many museums within it including African and Egyptian
Linda Tesner, 18 July 2006
sculpture, work by contemporary artists, stuffed animals, an African voodoo altar, etc. etc. etc. It will become the Museum's
Lot #35 Lot #36
Craig Love Winnipeg, Manitoba Untitled from series Along the Red Carpet Watercolor and ink on paper 5 x 5 inches, 2005 Range: $150 - 200 each
Craig Love was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1975. He graduated from the University of Manitoba in 1999 with a BFA with Honors in Painting. In 2004 he received his MFA from Parsons School of Design, New School University, New York. He Lot #37
returned to Winnipeg to take up life as a painter. He is already amassing an impressive exhibition record which includes
a
three-person show with Cliff Eyland and Krisjanis KaktinsGorsline at Winnipeg’s Cream Gallery in 2005; a group exhibition, Life and Limb, at Feigen Contemporary Gallery in New York in 2004; Things They Carried, Arnold and Sheila Aronson Gallery, New School University, New York, 2004; and Newton’s Prism: Layer Painting, Gallery One One One, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, 2003. These small paintings on paper represent only one aspect of the artist’s work. In addition he creates larger, more abstract paintings on canvas and board. But over the course of eighteen months, Craig Love worked intensely, ultimately creating several hundred such miniatures.
Lot #38
Lot #39
Tim Schouten Petersfield, Manitoba Wall and Turret (Treaty I)
below the surface. Still today, as in the United States, legal wrangling continues between the Canadian government and its native citizens.
Encaustic on canvas 32 x 42 inches, Range: $2,000 - 2,500 Sponsored by East Grand Floral
The lyrical landscapes of the treaty series are visually gorgeous, luminous and shimmering, and all the while underpinned by troubling questions of land ownership in North America. The
Tim Schouten has a second encaustic in the Autumn Art
artist researches each treaty site, photographing the landscape,
Auction, Lot #1. Wall and Turret, however, is part of a different
digging through historical files in search of the records of treaty
and on-going series of paintings made on the sites of treaty
enactment, intent upon understanding the layers of conflict and
signings between Canada and its native people. The treaties gave
beauty associated with each specific place. For Schouten
rights of land usage and economic support to the native
landscape is visual place. Landscape is also the dumping ground
inhabitants in exchange for land ownership, both above and
of human grief. As the critic Mariianne Mays summarizes, political
questions
of
property
and
Aboriginal
Fred thomas Winnipeg, Manitoba Untitled (both works), 2005 Mixed Media on Found Objects Range: $200 - 350 each
Lot # 41 12-inch diameter Lot # 40 14 x 8 inches Fred Thomas: That combination of aesthetic tough love is
Two Six, has hit the street running. I should say hit the street
evident in the work of Fred Thomas, the oldest member of Two
pedaling. Two Six (as in the size of a bottle of whisky) is a core
Six and the collective's most experienced graffiti artist. He has
association of seven artists, most of whom have been into graffiti,
retired from the street but continues to make his arresting art.
and continue to participate in what they call "party-bike nail-
His subjects are invariably disenfranchised street people
bombing." On these excursions, weather permitting, the
observed in the street, while his surfaces are found on the
members of Two Six pack art pieces, beer, hammers and nails,
street—crushed oil cans, pieces of wood and cardboard,
and go riding off to find congenial outdoor locations where they
discarded street signs. Thomas's ability to seamlessly match
can "install" their art. Those favored locations aren't galleries, but
surface with image is remarkable, as is his technique. He uses a
telephone poles, signs, fences and corners of urban buildings.
can of spray paint with more finesse and skill than a lot of artists
Their interventions are most often subtle, and always an
use their hands.
improvement on what they find. (Robert Enright writing in The Globe and Mail, 11/03)
Lot #42
John Widdel Grand Forks, North Dakota Paddles, 2006 Various woods and sizes Sold in groups of three Range: $500 - 700
Lot #43
William Eakin Winnipeg, Manitoba Ink jet print 8.5 x 11 inches, 2005 Range: $300 - 400
William Eakin is among Canada’s most significant photographers. Through his photographs of photographs he has explored contemporary society’s obsession with UFOs, aliens, and extraterrestrials. Over the years he has collected and photographed all manner of mass-produced and common John Widdel, a Grand Forks native, hand crafts canoe
objects, transforming pop culture artifacts into poetic icons.
paddles - sculpture to be used. The winner of the bid will choose
Trinkets and decorative commercial junk, old and new, amateur
a group of three. Widdel designs and builds each paddle. In
art, folk art, and craft objects: He calls these sorts of things
order to achieve the greatest contrast, he personally selects the
"ordinary art." His subject is often the cast aside and the
reddest mahogany, the darkest walnut, the blondest aspen and
mundane—except when he is photographing gardens. Driven by
the wildest cherry. The blades are as different as fingerprints but
his subject, the work becomes exquisite as in this modest
still retain the unmistakable style of the hands that made them.
photograph of an orchid.
The blade tips are made of fiberglass resin, mechanically bonded to the blade.The handles are constructed from laminated, straight-grained wood, giving them needed strength while allowing them to flex. Widdel attended the University of North Dakota for two years before becoming sidetracked by his own small construction company. All he wants to do is build things: to have a grand shop exhibiting every metal tool and every wood tool that exists.
Educated at the Vancouver School of Art and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, Eakin has been a practicing artist for thirty years. His photographs have been exhibited across Canada and in the United States, The Netherlands, France, Japan and Taiwan. A recipient of numerous awards from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Manitoba Arts Council, including the Duke and Duchess of York Prize in Photography, Eakin has taught in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Victoria and at the School of Art at the University of Manitoba. His photographs are in many public collections such as the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, Canada Council Art Bank, Winnipeg Art Gallery and Edmonton Art Gallery, among many others.
Lot #44
Albert Belleveau: To escape from a life of partying and drinking, a young Albert Belleveau moved from the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul to live on his grandparent’s farm in the
Albert Belleveau
country north of Bemidji, Minnesota. There he found two things
Puposky, Minnesota
that laid the foundation for his artistic vision: a buzz box AC
Woman of Mettle Welded steel
welder and a pile of iron scrap.
28 x 29.25 inches, 2005 He inherited his grandfather’s ability to value junk and save it,
Range: $1,500 - 1,8000
not that he knows exactly what he’ll do with it at the time he finds it. First, the stuff must go into his creative thinking cauldron. There, guns are transformed into gun racks and tools into a tool shed. Al’s playful dolphins (endorphins) are also
work sells well and he is often called upon to do residencies and
excited by the rock and steel rod he brings together with fire and
workshops. He particularly likes working with kindergarten kids.
brute force into objects that address physics’ primordial
He fires their creative juices by teaching them to weld with that
quantum dilemma: Is it particle or is it wave? His work reflects
same old AC buzz box.
Heisenberg’s answer: not certain, depends on how you look at it. It’s something to look at and ponder while sitting in the outhouse. Note: The full figure of Woman of Mettle is shown above along Al’s current series gently celebrates the sensual female form. Although not formally trained, Al has had numerous shows. His
with a close-up of the torso.
Explore . . . Endure . . . Evolve . . . North Dakota Quarterly is proud to support the North Dakota Museum of Art’s Autumn Art Auction, continuing our ongoing promotion of art and artists in the upper midwest. We regularly feature artwork from the region and beyond on our covers. For example, an oil pastel by Jim Parks, University of Minnesota Moorhead, is on the cover of our most recent issue, Hemingway: Places and People, available for $12 each in the museum shop. Jim Parks, The Peanut Steps of Freeport
Bring this ad to Room 15 in Merrifield Hall to receive a free regular issue or a $10.00 discount on a subscription.
North Dakota Quarterly, Merrifield Hall Room 110, 276 Centennial Drive Stop 7209, Grand Forks ND 58202-7209, (701) 777-3322 e-mail: ndq@und.edu www.und.nodak.edu/org/ndq
North Dakota Museum of Art Board of Trustees
North Dakota Museum of Art Foundation Board of Directors
David Blehm
Kevin Fickenscher, Chair
Julie Blehm
Nancy Friese
Ann Brown
Daniel E. Gustafson, Vice Chair
John Foster, Chair
Kitty Keck
Cheryl Gaddie, Vice Chair
Darrell Larson
David Hasbargen, Vice President
Margery McCanna
Jean Holland
Betty Monkman, Secretary
Sandy Kaul
Laurel Reuter
Gretchen Kottke, Treasurer
Gerald Skogley
Darrell Larson Judi Paukert
North Dakota Museum of Art Staff
Alex Reichert Laurel Reuter, President Pat Ryan
Justin Dalzell
Gerald Skogley
Suzanne Fink
Wayne Zimmerman
Pene Hargreaves
Corinne Alphson, Emerita
Barbara Hatfield
Virginia Dunnigan, Emerita
Amy Hovde
Bruce Gjovig, Emeritus
Connie Hulst
Barb Lander, Emerita
Kathy Kendle
Robert Lewis, Emeritus
Brian Lofthus
Ellen McKinnon, Emerita
Laurel Reuter
Douglas McPhail, Emeritus
Gregory Vettel
Sanny Ryan, Emerita
Matthew Wallace
Anthony Thein, Emeritus
Stacy Warcup Justin Welsh Student Employees: Jeannette Baker, Caroline L. Brosseau, Amanda Rice Sereysophaktra Som, Jennifer A. Verlinde Katie L. Welsh, Andrew Yost and over fifty volunteers
North Dakota Museum of Art, 261 Centennial Drive, Stop 7305, Grand Forks, North Dakota 58202-7305 USA