Autumn Art Auction 2013 by North Dakota Museum of Art

Autumn Art Auction Volume 15, 2013

North Dakota Museum of Art

The North Dakota Museum of Art is grateful to our sponsors who have given generously to guarantee that the arts flourish.

North Dakota Museum of Art Board of Trustees

Board of Directors

Evan Anderson

W. Jeremy Davis

Ganya Anderson

Nancy Friese

Foundation

Julie Blehm, Vice President

Bruce Gjovig

W. Jeremy Davis

David Hasbargen

Virginia Lee Dunnigan

Laurel Reuter

Susan Farkas Bruce Gjovig Darrell Larson, Chairman

North Dakota Museum of Art Staff

Mary Matson

The 2013 Autumn Art Auction is underwritten by

HB Sound & Light and

Truyu

Aesthetic Center

both of Grand Forks, North Dakota

Sally Miskavige, Secretary

Matt Anderson

Laurel Reuter

Guillermo Guardia

Lynn Raymond

Sungyee Joh

Alex Reichert, Treasurer

Brian Lofthus

Tammy Sogard

Danielle Masters

Linda Swanston

Laurel Reuter, Director

Kelly Thompson

Gregory Vettel

Lois Wilde

Matthew Wallace

Joshua Wynne

Justin Welsh

Wayne Zimmerman, President

Brad Werner

Corinne Alphson, Emerita Kim Holmes, Emeritus Barb Lander, Emerita Ellen McKinnon, Emerita Douglas McPhail, Emeritus Sanny Ryan, Emerita Gerald Skogley, Emeritus Anthony Thein, Emeritus

Part-time Staff Rory Burkhart Sheila Dalgliesh Kathy Kendle Wayne Kendle Jeremy Lane Kristen Poitra Evan Sprecher Michael Brien Sarah Borgen

Front Cover: Chuck Kimmerle, Of Fading Light, 2009. Digital photograph, 20 x 14 inches. Back Cover: Albert Belleveau, Outcropping House, 2008. Stone and steel. 7 feet high, 42 inches wide and 56 inches deep.

Erika Gallaway Keira Kalenze and over fifty volunteers

North Dakota Museum of Art

AUTUMN

Art

Auction

S at u r d a y, N o v e m b e r 9 , 2 0 1 3 Wine and hors d’oeuvres 6:30 pm Auction begins at 8 pm

Auction Preview Autumn Art Auction is Underwritten by

Friday, October 25 until auction time in the Museum galleries Monday – Friday, 9 to 5 pm, Saturday – Sunday, 1 to 5 pm All works to be auctioned will be on display.

HB Sound & Light and

Truyu

Aesthetic Center

patrons Altru Health System 63* All Seasons Garden Center 59 Dakota Harvest Bakers 77

Auction Walk-about Laurel Reuter, Auction Curator, will lead an informal discussion about works in the Auction Monday, October 28, 7 pm, in the galleries.

Sponsors Bremer Bank 68 Greater Grand Forks Symphony Orchestra 62 Rhombus Guys 58

Grand Forks Herald 82 Hugo’s 69 Minnesota Public Radio 54 Plains Chiropractic & Acupuncture P.C. 56 Salon Seva 83 William F. Wosick, MD 51

Supporters Blue Moose Bar & Grill 72 Chester Fritz Auditorium 75 First State Bank 60 Fort Garry Hotel 67 Grand Forks Country Club 75 Greater Grand Forks Community Theatre 78 Ground Round 79 ICON Architectural Group 60 Little Bangkok 80 Midcontinent Communications 73 Museum Café 55 * Indicates page number Auction Supporters continued next page

Supporters North Dakota Quarterly 70 Prairie Public 52 River City Jewelers, Inc. 57 Reichert Armstrong Law Office 58

Buy local. Read the sponsor pages to learn about those who invest in the Museum. Almost all are locally owned and operated.

Sadie’s Couture & Event Styling 74 Sanders 1907 53 Summit Brewing Company 80 Curtis Tanabe, DDS 61 Duc Tran, DDS 64 Wall’s Medicine Center & Health Mart Pharmacy 79 Waterfront Gallery, Northern Plumbing Supply 52 Wogaman Insurance Agency Inc. 76 You Are Here 53, 76

Advertisers Mary Adams, Prudential Crary Real Estate 73 Brady, Martz & Associates, P.C. 73 Daktyl Tattoo 62

Contributors Acme Tools/Rents 61 Alerus Financial 70 Ameriprise Financial, Debbie Albert 64 Avant Hair & Skin Care Studio 64 Browning Arts 56, 57 Capital Resource Management 74 Demers Dental, Chelsea R. Erickson, D.D.S. 61 Demers Dental, Paul Stadem, D.D.S. 61 EAPC Architects and Engineers 56 Forx Roller Derby 73 Gregory J. Norman Funeral Chapel 72 Happy Harry’s Bottle Shops 81 Mayport Insurance & Realty 67 Nancy Schumacher Photography 55 Norby’s Work Perks 57 Opp Construction 72 Oxford Realty 74 Oxford Realty, Kelly Thompson 53 RH Standard 78 Simonson Station Stores 78 Sterling Carpet One 81 Swanson & Warcup, Ltd. 81 Zimney Foster, P.C. 76 Xcel Energy 81

Drees, Riskey & Vallager, Ltd. 55 Emily Dawes Photography 62 Grand Forks Subaru, Kevin Hruska 70 JLG Architects 70 Meland Architecture 68 Valley Dairy Stores 68 Vilandre Heating & Air Conditioning, Inc. 56

Ross Rolshoven, Auctioneer

Auction Chairs

Ross Rolshoven is a many-sided man. Foremost, he is

NATALIE AND CARSON MuTH: Natalie and Carson Muth are

an artist who works in assemblage, hand-colored photography,

chiropractors and owners of Plains Chiropractic & Acupuncture.

and painting. Among his exhibitions was a solo show of

Since beginning their life in Grand Forks in 2009, Carson and

assemblages at the North Dakota Museum of Art in 2002. The

Natalie welcomed the birth of their two daughters, Ella and

work was based in the iconography of the West, in historical

Collette. Their new addition should be making an appearance in

myths and representations of cowboys and Indians. These themes

February; big sisters are thrilled. Carson is a Nebraska native who

overlap with family, relationships, and contemporary life.

obtained his undergraduate degree at Concordia university in

Rolshoven is a collector of early Western settlement and American Indian art and artifacts. He is completing his sixth year on Medora’s North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame Board of Directors. He has been a volunteer for numerous civic events and charities over the past thirty years, including the North Dakota Museum of Art. In addition to making and collecting art, Rolshoven collects and restores vintage boats. He was North Dakota’s only professional boat racer for a number of years, having finished as high as fourth place in the National APBA tournament in Kankakee, Illinois— and totaled a boat or two along the way.

Seward, Nebraska. Natalie grew up in Mayville, North Dakota. They met as students at the Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa. While still in school, they participated in a humanitarian mission trip, along with twenty students and faculty members, to Vietnam to provide chiropractic care and aid. In Vietnam they and their fellow students provided care to over 3,500 patients in rural areas of southern Vietnam. They returned to Mayville before settling in Grand Forks to open their own practice. Natalie's interaction with the Museum began when she volunteered at the Winter Gala while studying at uND. After returning to the area they became more active in NDMOA events and enjoy attending the Summer Concert Series as a family.

In everyday life, however, he is a legal investigator who handles

According to Museum Director Laurel Reuter, “the Muths are

high profile cases involving corporate, civil, and criminal

part of a wave of young professionals either growing up or

matters. He owns and operates Great Plains Claims, Inc., along

moving into the region who are becoming core supporters of the

with his brother Reid, in Grand Forks, North Dakota. His work

Museum. They and their children are the Museum’s future. I am

routinely takes him across the upper Midwest—a boon to his

so pleased to see this wonderful transition.”

collecting and his need to acquire endless numbers of objects for making assemblages. Rolshoven is a Summa Cum Laude uND graduate and father of

Auction Committee Bob Feeley

Katie Norby

Cathi Feeley

Matt Norby

three children; his oldest daughter, Ashley, is assistant to the

Sadie Gardner

Sally Miskavige

owner of two galleries in Taos, studying to be an art appraiser and

Brian Goodman

Brian Shumacher

continuing to barrel race. Daughter Jensen and son Carsen attend

Chulita Goodman

Jenny Shumacher

Bryan Hoime

Maura Tanabe

school in Grand Forks.

Rules of the Auction

•

Each registered guest will receive a bidding card as part of

In 1999, the Museum held its inaugural Autumn Art Auction. This

the price of a ticket. upon receiving the bidding card, each

was the first live auction of work by contemporary artists in North

guest will be asked to sign a statement vowing to abide by

Dakota and beyond. Our goal was to develop a buying audience

the Rules of the Auction listed in this catalog.

for our artists. Neither Museum staff nor the artists knew what

Absentee bidders will either leave their bids on an Absentee Bid Form with Museum personnel in person or by phone, or arrange to bid by phone the night of the Auction. Absentee bidders, by filling out the form, agree to abide by the Rules of the Auction.

•

would happen. Would the auction be perceived as a place to pick up good work at rock-bottom prices? And yes, during those early years prices were often close to wholesale. The Museum’s faith in its audience, however, didn’t waver and gradually prices began to climb. Fortunately, our artists stayed with us.

Each bidder will use his or her own bidding number during

Today it seems that everyone is sponsoring sales and auctions,

the Auction.

strategically positioned before the Museum’s auctions. Clearly

•

All sales are final.

we have been successful. Artists are making money—the

•

In September 2002, the Office of the North Dakota State Tax Commissioner determined that the gross receipts from the sales made at the Auction are subject to sales tax of 6.75%. This does not apply to out-of-state buyers who have

•

who look to local artists to enhance their walls have helped us, with Kim Holmes from Sanders leading the way. Best of all, young people are growing up expecting “real” art in their lives. As you know, this Auction set the precedent for paying artists

In the event of a dispute between bidders, the auctioneer

before paying ourselves. We never ask artists to donate art—

shall either determine the successful bidder or re-auction

although some do. These are the rules of the game: Artists set a

the item in dispute.

minimum price, which they are guaranteed to receive. Work that

Purchasers may pay for items at any point following 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.

•

Museum is covering expenses. Local nonchain restaurant owners

works shipped to them.

sale of a work but must pay for all art work before the

From the Museum Director

doesn’t reach minimum, is brought in by the Museum and returned to the artist. Any amount over the reserve bid and the Museum’s equal match is split 50/50 between the artist and the Museum. For example: Reserve bid is $1,200. The work sells for $1,395 and the artist receives $1,200 and the Museum receives $195. If the same work sells for $2,400, it is split evenly.

Works of art in the Auction have minimum bids placed on them by the artist. This confidential “reserve” is a price

Others in the region have adopted our policy. Therefore, instead

agreed upon between the artist and the North Dakota

of always being asked to donate, artists can count on actual

Museum of Art below which a work of art will not be sold.

income from auctions. And, bless you for not forgetting that this is also a benefit for the Museum so you have been generous.

The Artists

The Museum

Remember, when you buy through the Auction, the price

Listed by lot number

includes framing. Frames are often custom made by the artists or

#1 Presley La Fountain

the Museum staff who use archival materials. This adds

#2 Meghann Hlibichuk

significant value to most artworks, often as much as $400 in the

#3 Matt Anderson

Grand Forks market but considerably more elsewhere. Sales tax

#4 Justin Crowe

is charged on art that stays in state.

#5 Dan Jones

Each year we widen our pool of artists with ties to our audience,

#6 Dan Jones #7 Dan Jones

thus creating a richer environment for art to flourish. This year we

#8 Dan Jones

have artwork by artists who had recent solo exhibitions: Margaret

#9 Aleksandr Hettich

Wall-Romana, Jennifer Angus, Dan Jones, and Rena Effendi.

#10 Aleksandr Hettich

We could not publish this catalog without the underwriting of our sponsors. Please take your business to these companies and

#11 Zhimin Guan #12 Gretchen Kottke #13 Gretchen Kottke

individuals, thank them for their significant contributions, and

#14 Adam Kemp

note how most are locally owned and operated. Sometimes they

#15 Punchgut

say, “I don’t care if I get an ad, I just want to give to you guys.”

#16 Linda Whitney

Supporting cultural life is not in the interest of most chains but

$17 Willian Charles Harbort

rather has become the business of the butcher, the baker and the

#18 Duane Shoup

keeper of bees, that is, those who live among us. This year the

#19 Guillermo Guardia

Auction is underwritten by Truyu Aesthetic Center and HB Sound

#20 Gretchen Bederman

and Light. Over the years, Truyu has held its own events in the Museum. HB Sound and Light has changed the way you hear concerts and speakers in the Museum. We are deeply grateful for their behind the scene miracles. Every bill from Tricia and Jamie Lunski includes a markdown or donation. Thank you. —Laurel Reuter, Director

#21 Gretchen Bederman #22 Jennifer Angus #23 Kim Bromley #24 Marlon Davidson and Don Knudson #25 Margaret Wall-Romana #26 Margaret Wall-Romana #27 Carole d’Inverno

Above: James Rosenquist’s Through the Eye of the Needle to the Anvil, oil and acrylic on canvas, with oil on a recessed plywood panel, 17 x 46 feet, 1988. The exhibition was comprised of one monumental painting, a commemoration of his mother’s life. His parents, Ruth and Louis Rosenquist, were early North Dakota pilots home-based at the Grand Forks Airport.

#28 Mollie Douthit #29 Albert Belleveau #30 Albert Belleveau #31 Vivienne Morgan #32 Josie Lewis

#33 Jessica Christy #34 Walter Piehl #35 Helen Otterson #36 Rena Effendi #37 Armando Ramos #38 Marley Kaul #39 Brian Paulsen #40 Helgi Hjaltalin Eyjolfsson #41 Helgi Hjaltalin Eyjolfsson #42 Jessica Mongeon #43 Eleanor McGough #44 Pirjo Berg #45 Jessica Matson-Fluto #46 Sue Fink #47 Lisa York #48 James Culleton #49 Valgerður Duúkka #50 Valgerður Duúkka #51 Kelli Nelson #52 Jon Offutt #53 Chuck Kimmerle #54 Samuel Johnson #55 Samuel Johnson #56 Patricia Stuen Listed by page number 3 Auctioneer Auction Chairs and Committee 4 Rules of Auction 5 Director’s Introduction 55 Dan Jones Interview Back cover, Trustees and Staff 5

Lot #1

Presley La Fountain Santa Fe, New Mexico Buffalo, 2011 Monotype 24 x 18 inches Range: $500 – 700 Presley La Fountain’s life radically shifted in June 2002 when he was violently attacked on the street in Santa Fe, just weeks before the Santa Fe Indian Market. The artist’s right hand was mangled. Determined not to give up sculpture, he learned to carve with his left hand. His health, however, continued to deteriorate and he was forced to give up stone. The monotype in this auction represents his two-dimensional art, which he continues to create from his wheelchair. Most recently, Mr. La Fountain exhibited monotypes at the American Cultural Center, university of Shanghai for Science and Technology.

Allan Houser (1914-1994), La Fountain’s teacher and mentor, studied at the Santa Fe Indian School. Commonly known as the Dorothy Dunn School after its prominent teacher, Allan became

Presley La Fountain was born on the Turtle Mountain Reservation in 1956. One of ten children, La Fountain was raised in the conflicting worlds of the traditional life-style of the Belcourt Ojibwa peoples, the White culture surrounding the Reservation, and his 1960s Indian Boarding School experience in

its most famous painter and by 1939 his work was exhibited in major American cities. During the war years, Houser moved to Los Angeles and for the first time saw such European modernists such as Brancusi, Arp, Lipschitz, and Henry Moore, whose work would have a lasting influence on Houser.

North Dakota. He attended the university of North Dakota

In 1947, Houser was commissioned by the Haskell Institute in

before transferring to the Institute of American Indian Arts. It was

Lawrence, Kansas, to make a memorial sculpture honoring the

here that he fell under the influence of Allan Houser, the father

Native American students from Haskell who had died in World

of American Indian sculpture.

War II. Completed in 1948, this work entitled Comrade in Mourning was his first significant marble carving.

As a sculptor, La Fountain, like Houser his teacher, became known for his stone carvings of Indian subjects. According to the artist, “The Influence of being part of the modern world and also a Native American Indian has been a source of strength that enables me to keep my own personal integrity in harmony with my art.” He went on to receive many awards and commissions including the 1976 First Annual American Indian Art Show, Governor's Award from the united Tribes in Bismarck, North Dakota, and the 1986 Wheelwright Museum Award, Santa Fe, New Mexico, for the Most Promising Young Sculptor and Carver.

In 1962 Allan joined the faculty of the newly created Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe. There he founded the sculpture department. As he taught and created sculpture he began integrating the aesthetics of the modernists with his narrative ideas. By the late 1960s, museums and private collectors sought out his sculpture, his influence spread, and a new sculpture movement was born. He best is known as an influential teacher and for his bronze editions based in Indian themes. Importantly, he taught most if not all of North Dakota’s Indian stone carvers.

For eighteen years, La Fountain participated in the annual Santa

In 1994, Suzanne (Sanny) Ryan, who served as Chair of the North

Fe Indian Market, receiving first place for Best Sculpture (2000).

Dakota Museum of Art Board of Trustees, purchased the bronze

His brother Bruce La Fountain followed in his footsteps, also 6 becoming a prominent stone carver based in Santa Fe.

sculpture Raindrops for the Museum. Houser’s Navajo woman herder and lamb is installed in the Museum Sculpture Garden.

Lot #2

Meghann Hlibichuk Moorhead, Minnesota Athazagor, 2013 Oil and acrylic on canvas 30.25 x 30 inches Range: $350 – 450

Meghann Hlibichuk is a painter from the North

childhood interest in Asian language and customs, and her

Dakota/Minnesota area currently studying at Minnesota State

frequent interaction with foreign students is making itself felt in

university Moorhead. Her painting was recommended for this

her painting.

auction by her professor Zhimin Guan.

“Athazagor, is one of three abstract paintings that emphasizes

Although she was born in Denver, Colorado, Hlibichuk grew up

conflicting ideals that arise when interacting with others. It

in Dickinson, North Dakota. In 2008, she graduated from high

comments on the desire to please others and the helplessness

school. As a child, Hlibichuk had shown above-average skills in

that one feels when their kindness fails to produce reciprocation.

drawing and crafting. Her high school’s art curriculum was

ultimately, one drowns in their appetite for amorous

comprehensive, and this allowed her to explore ceramics,

compensation,” according to the artist.

painting, photography, and mixed media. Taking these classes allowed Hlibichuk to develop a close friendship with her art teacher whom, she says, always encouraged her to believe that she could turn her passion into a successful career. This support led her to pursue a degree in the visual arts. Currently, Hlibichuk is experimenting with non-objective and figurative abstraction. She focuses on interaction and miscommunication between individuals from different cultural backgrounds—she herself is part American Indian. Her

Lot #3

Matt Bjorn Anderson Emerado, North Dakota Surveillance, 2013 Watercolor and ink on paper 30 x 20 inches Range: $1,800 – 2,200

My drawing Surveillance is based on a painting by John James Audubon titled Black Vultures, Carrion Crows with Deer Head. In Audubon’s painting he depicts two vultures hunched on the ground jealously guarding a deer’s decapitated head. One of the vultures appears to be just about ready to pluck out the deer’s lifeless eye. Both vultures, protecting their prize, are looking directly at the viewer. Although the situation is rendered

Matt Anderson grew up outside Gackle, North

realistically, the vulture’s postures seem exaggerated and

Dakota, where he spent most of his time exploring the outdoors.

contorted. This is possibly due to the fact the Audubon’s paintings

In 2004, he graduated with a BA from Northern State university

were actually still lifes. Still life can be translated to mean “dead

in Aberdeen, South Dakota and in 2009 with his MFA from the

nature.” He often posed animals for his paintings after he shot

university of North Dakota in Grand Forks. He primarily makes

them.

drawings with ink, watercolor, and digital media. For him “drawing has been a practice I’ve utilized to gain understanding and grow creatively.”

With Surveillance there are four vultures perched atop an array of four security cameras. As in Audubon’s painting, the vultures are confronting the viewer with direct eye contact. Their bodies

According to the artist, For the last few years I have been

are slightly askew and it’s hard to tell where one begins and the

interested in exploring my relationship with the natural

other ends. The security cameras are turned away from the

environment—not only my relationship as it’s influenced by the

viewer and one even has its “eye” plucked out, which dangles

obvious contentions dramatized by the general media, but also

from a vultures hooked beak. While creating this image I was

the more subtle and sublime interactions. My most recent

thinking of some of the paranoid aspects I have of nature. The

watercolor drawings engage a more nuanced approach to

Nature that’s watching me and evaluating me. This lead to

understanding the natural environment. Some of my influences

thoughts of security cameras—or maybe “insecurity” camera

are from artists such as Walton Ford, Josh Keyes, and Nick Fisher.

would be more appropriate. This drawing asks more questions

I’m also influenced by urban design and how it shapes my

than it answers, but in that way it addresses my pursuit to

8 perception of nature.

understand my environment.

Lot #4

Justin Crowe Hudson, Ohio Set of Three Tech Vessels 2013 Porcelain, blue glaze and silver luster Three works, each 4 x 4 x 4 inches Range: $275 – 325 Above: Small Dish, two views

Justin Crowe is an artist originally from Northeast Ohio. In 2011, he received his BFA from Alfred university in New York with a focus in ceramics. Justin creates sculptural artwork about our culture’s relationship with new technologies such as mobile tech, QR Codes, and online social networks. In 2011, Justin was featured in Ceramics Monthly magazine’s “undergraduate Showcase” and his artwork has since been published in Clay Times magazine, HuffingtonPost.com, and TrendHunter.com. His sculpture was recently exhibited at the Ohio Craft Museum. I am interested in social phenomenon brought on by new technologies such as, mobile computing, crowd sourcing, and social networking. The Internet space is vast, young, and quickly evolving, which forces us to rapidly adapt to complex new tools.

Tech Bowl

My work explores our culture’s relationship with these ‘new’ technologies in order to offer an objective perspective and an opportunity for reflection. My art often takes an anthropological perspective to observe how our innate human tendencies are applied to new tools brought about as a result of technological advancement. This Set of Three Tech Vessels is made with porcelain decorated with a transparent blue glaze and accented with silver luster. The combination of flowing glaze and modern metallic luster creates a narrative about new and old technologies. I enjoy functional pottery because it reached its pinnacle in technological advancement 20,000 years ago. It is beautifully simple. This kind of functional elegance is rare in our modern age of temporal technology. Ceramic is the perfect material to explore these themes as it embodies both the permanent and the ephemeral. Tech Vessel 9

Lot #6

Summer, 2010 – 12 Image 8 x 9 inches, framed 19 x 20 inches

Lot #5

Spring, 2010 – 12 Image 12 x 12 inches, framed 23.5 x 33 inches Lots #5,6,7,8

All proceeds from the sale of these works are donated to the Museum by Dan Jones

Dan Jones Fargo, North Dakota Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter Stone lithographs Range: Each $350 – 450

Lot #7

Fall, 2010 – 12 10 Image 11 x 11 inches, framed 22.25 x 20.5 inches

Lot #8

Winter, 2010 – 12 Image 6.5 x 9.5 inches, framed 17.5 x 19.5 inches

Lot #9

Aleksandr Hettich Grand Forks, North Dakota River, 2012 Oil on canvas board 11 x 14 inches framed Range: $200 – 350

Lot #10

Aleksandr Hettich Grand Forks, North Dakota Woods, 2012 Oil on canvas board 11 x 14 inches framed Range: $200 – 350

All proceeds from the sale of these paintings are donated to the Museum by Aleksandr Hettich Dan Jones is best known as a painter of landscape of western Minnesota and southeastern North Dakota. This landscape of the Red River basin provides the artist with endless subjects. A native of Fargo, North Dakota, where he currently resides, the artist has long practiced plein air painting.

Aleksandr Hettich was born in Tajikistan, the southernmost republic in the former Soviet union. He grew up in a valley surrounded by the Soviet union’s tallest mountains. In

While best known for his paintings, Jones is a master at making

1993, a civil war forced him to flee to Belarus to a small

monumental charcoal drawings on paper, pulling from this

collective farm where the climate and scenery were quite

simple material the essence of light and of blackness, or

different from what he was used to. During long Belarussian

twilight—that time after sunset and before dark. His light is

winters—cold like in North Dakota—when he struggled to settle

mostly ambiguous. It might be the full light of day casting deep

in a new place, he started taking painting lessons from a local

shadows in the underbrush. Only the presence of the artist’s

artist. He fell in love with the process of creating art work, from

gesture is solid, real. The four works in this auction comprise a

stretching a canvas to the final steps of framing a painting. His

suite of four stone lithographs.

works are images of nature—the beauty he has learned to see in

The artist’s paintings are included in many museum, corporate,

the many landscapes he has lived.

and private collections including the National Endowment for

After several years of looking for a new homeland and unable to

the Arts, the Plains Art Museum in Fargo, the North Dakota

return to Tajikistan, Aleksandr settled in Grand Forks. He lives

Museum of Art in Grand Forks, and the Rourke Art Museum,

here with his wife and three children. He works in information

Moorhead, Minnesota.

services at Altru Health System.

Zhimin Guanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s painting is sponsored by Altru Health System

Lot #11

Zhimin Guan Moorhead, Minnesota Messenger, 2012 Oil, acrylic, and watercolor on paper 42 x 52 inches framed Range: $2,250 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 2,700

Zhimin Guan: For the last few years, I have been

Zhimin Guan was born in China in 1962. He started to paint

experimenting with creating landscape paintings on various

when he was nine years old, influenced by his father, Chintian

surfaces and scales. My intention has been to blend traditional

Guan, a traditional Chinese calligrapher and ink painter. Guan

landscape painting with expressionism, conceptualism, and the

received rigorous training in calligraphy and traditional ink

aesthetics of Oriental philosophy. Most summers I return to

painting before he was fifteen years old. At the same time, he

China. In the summer of 2012, I participated as an artist in

developed a strong interest in the Chinese philosophy of Taoism

residence near the southwest corner of China, between Yunan

and in ancient Chinese poetry.

and Sichuan provinces, Lugu Lake areas, Xichang City. I had never been here before. This region, 9,800 feet above sea level, is covered by a series of huge mountains (about 900 square miles of forests and mountains). One must drive ten hours to reach

During his BFA studies at Fuyang Teachers College in China, he concentrated on oil painting and again received intensive training in drawing and painting in the Western classical style.

another city about 300 miles away on circling mountain roads. It

From 1985 to 1994, he taught painting, drawing, and design at

is very beautiful, breath-taking, and seems dangerous when

Dalian Institute of Industrial Design in Dalian, China. Besides

riding on the charter bus. There are thirty-five artists from China

teaching, Guan devoted himself to his art practice. Then in the

and the United States painting everyday. It was co-organized by

spring of 1995, Guan moved to the united States. Since 1998, he

Dantang Museum in Xichang and Blue Roof Gallery in Sichuan

has been a professor of art and design at Minnesota State

Province. Temperatures were 50-65 degrees. For me it was the

university Moorhead and visiting professor at China Dalian

greatest learning, painting, and traveling experience ever.

university of Technology, School of Art and Architecture, Anhui

Inspired by that residency, Guan created twenty large-scale, abstract paintings in various media. These paintings draw upon his deep respect and affinity for Chinese calligraphy and abstract expressionism. The original influence of Chinese landscape painting is revealed in the work. With a minimalistic use of brush strokes, Guan suggests the spiritual presence of mountains, water 12 and sky.

Normal university; School of Art, in Wuhu, Anhui Province; and the Dalian International Institute of Art and Design, among others. He exhibits widely throughout the region and in China.

All proceeds from the sale of these works are donated to the Museum by Gretchen Kottke

Lot #12

Gretchen Kottke Gretchen Kottke has had a love affair with art and paint since she can remember. After decades and decades of focusing on the figure, however, she is shifting her focus to “the glorious forms found in nature,” according to the artist. It has

All That Remains, 2013 Oil on canvas 9 x 12 inches Range: $200 – 250

been a natural progression as the preservation of Planet Earth has always been central to her beliefs. This change clarified for her as she saw her figures become more and more isolated, often having turned their backs to the viewer. Somehow, the figures communicated that they were imposing their attitude toward God, an attitude of not turning from God but of listening in silence to the spirit. For the artist, the two small pieces in the auction provide communion between the divine in Nature and herself and have given inspiration to the changing direction of her work. In a sense, she has gone back to her beginning; her deep love of Nature and knowledge that Nature must be held holy for only then can she move forward with the assurance of peace in the soul. She suggests that, “if we continue to question Nature, we must then be students of the truth and question the footprints we wish to leave.” Kottke was born in Bemidji, Minnesota, and raised in

Lot #13

Cooperstown, North Dakota. She studied Art and French at

Gretchen Kottke

North Dakota’s Jamestown College and at the university of North Dakota. Her many years working in the medical field took her to major metropolitan areas in nine different states until finally she made her way back home. upon returning, she opened a small fine art gallery (The GK Gallery), which was open for seven years

Pebbles of the Earth, 2013 Oil on canvas 9 x 12 inches Range: $300 – 350

and showed artists from across North Dakota and Minnesota. Kottke considers the Gallery her finest achievement. Currently she is part owner of Renaissance Engineering and Testing Inc, where she serves as accountant.

Lot #14

Adam Kemp Grand Forks, North Dakota Cow Drone Rig, 2012 Acrylic on canvas 48 x 36 inches Range: $1,500 – 2,500

During the other seasons I take the whole painting out into the landscape. The painting in this auction was started outside but as it evolved it became a mixture of sketches, memories, photographs, and written notes. I primarily paint straight from the tube rather than mixing

Adam Kemp began painting cows six years ago when Frank

painting. Or I will mix on the canvas. It is a fair criticism to say I

Matejcek saw his paintings of black dogs in snow. He said to

could be a more accomplished painter if I went back to mixing

Adam, “You should come out and paint my cows.” So he did,

paint on the pallet. I like the elasticity and urgency of painting

marveling that “Frank allows me to walk across his land and

direct from the tube with acrylic paint. If I make a mistake, I can

interact with the cows.” This resulted in Adam’s cow shows in the

paint over it in fifteen minutes.

Matejcek barns each summer. According to Adam, These cow paintings are an interesting tie to my earlier work. I did lots of portraits. Now I look and find how each cow’s face is different. The cows are immigrants—like me. And we both enjoy the winter. Black Angus cows are everywhere in the North Dakota landscape. People refer to me as a local artist, which I find quite charming. Are these local cows? In high school we were not allowed to use black paint so I relish using black paint for my cows. I enjoy sketching cows because I also sketch the landscape around them. When making a painting on canvas I try not to take that for granted. Is the cow part of the landscape or the landscape part of the cow? When I am out painting I really don’t care. Today, however, the landscape is changing and changing fast. So oil wells have entered my cow landscapes. Making these paintings out-of-doors gives me an excuse to be 14 outside. When the weather is freezing cold, I make sketches.

I saw the oil rig that is in the painting when I was driving back from Williston. I was on Highway 1804 and there were Angus cattle all along the road. The drone in the background refers to North Dakota’s ever growing new industry. This barn in the painting originally referred to Frank and Lucy’s barn, which I painted as a silver-gray dilapidated barn, but it evolved into a traditional red barn. Kemp was born in ugley, Essex, England. He received a BFA from Newcastle upon Tyne in 1986. His studies were based in the rigorous learning of technique and art history. He came to Grand Forks to cast the sculpture that stands on the southwest corner of university Park, having studied bronze casting in Italy. He stayed to earn his MFA from the university of North Dakota in 1989. He continues to actively work within the regional arts community, generously showing his work on the streets and in local galleries. His workshops with teens and children are in great demand throughout the region, including the week-long sessions through the Museum’s Summer Art Camps.

Punchgut’s painting is sponsored by HB Sound & Light

Lot #15

Punchgut Fargo, North Dakota 2 AM, 2012 Acrylic spray paint 24 x 18 inches Range: $800 – 1,100

Punchgut: From the time he was a scribble-minded kid,

It has been said that Punchgut is not a North Dakota artist but an

Punchgut created provocative images, getting published in a

international artist who happens to live in North Dakota.

national mainstream magazine, Seventeen, for the first time as a

Inspiration for his work comes from stimuli as varied as

teenager. Finding any other career direction unimaginable, he

firecracker packages, 1980s video games, and distorted

has worked exclusively in the field of art and design ever since.

photocopies. No imagery is safe from his artful eye. Squish the

Art collectors around the world often find his contributions in

Moon shows the silhouette of his own small child holding the

The Art of Modern Rock, The Art of Electric Frankenstein, Rockin’

glowing moon between his thumb and forefinger. Godzilla,

Down the Highway, and High Times, among a slew of other

Jesus, and corn dogs are among the unexpected images that have

publications, magazines, and international art shows. He has

appeared in some of his well-known works.

received mention in the Wall Street Journal and a Punchgut collaboration can be seen in the Walt Disney film, Sky High.

If his inspiration is vast, so is his artistic style. From corporate logos to found-object pieces, even an avid collector will be hard-

It is not uncommon for Punchgut to simultaneously have prints

pressed to identify his work in a line-up. Some might declare he

on display in a high-profile L.A. gallery, as well as a record-store

is best known for his old-fashioned illustration skills with a #2

bulletin board in Nowhere, uSA. Regardless of where they

pencil, while newer works are created with spray paint over

appear, his limited-edition, screen-printed “gig posters” routinely

elaborately hand-cut stencils, often on ancient barn wood or

sell out. Collectors in the united States, Europe, and South

rustic tin. The only similarity between any of his mediums is the

America commonly snatch up concert posters featuring G Love

presence of just the right amount of ambient creepiness to keep

& Special Sauce, Damien Rice, Kings of Leon, and his dancing

each piece sharp.

Grand Forks water tower.

—P.B .Queen

Lot #16

Linda whitney Valley City, North Dakota Oyate . . . they came, 2013 Mezzotint 24 x 18 inches Range: $700 – 900

Linda Whitney’s artwork is sponsored by Dakota Harvest Bakers

Linda Whitney: Oyate…they came is a mezzotint

knowledge of the plate terrain and texture through the tactile

image from a series of conversations about the effect of the

plate creation. The smoky and sensual surface quality of the

Europeanizing of the North American continent.

resulting image can only be achieved by this arduous approach.

Thematically I am a narrative artist. In this case, images were

Whitney is professor of art and chair of the department at Valley

appropriated from the Lakota and Dakota people and filtered

City State university. Her mezzotints have traveled throughout

through my point of view to tell the tale of the coming of the

North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Serbia,

Europeans, smallpox, and the near annihilation of the people of

Nicaragua, and Russia. Her work has recently been on exhibit at

this region. These historic and grand cultures were all but

the Clemson National Print and Drawing Exhibition, Clemson

decimated in a few short years and those left standing were

university, SC; Pacific League Pressing Matters, Palo Alto, CA; Ink

cheated of their traditions, religion, and freedoms. The ancient

Press Repeat National Printmaking Exhibition, William Patterson

voices, however, were not silenced and the drumbeats are strong

university, Wayne, NJ; Americas 2013 National Works on Paper,

again. I tell this story as an outsider. Although, I trace Native

Minot State university; Parkside Small Print Exhibition, Parkside,

ancestry through my Cree great-grandfather; I never knew him nor

WI; IPE Greendoor Studios, Derby, uK; National Small Works

was I able to experience his culture. I live the Native experience,

Exhibition, Washington Printmakers Gallery, Silver Spring, MD;

then, vicariously through the stories and traditions of others.

Saddleback Art Gallery Exhibition, Mission Viejo, CA;

34th

Annual Juried Exhibition, Custer County Art and Heritage Center, The mezzotint process is time and labor intensive. I find a

Miles City, MT; Free Town Studios, Lafayette, LA; Managua,

personal connection to this process through the rocking,

Nicaragua; and Novi Sad, Serbia.

16 gouging, scraping and polishing of the plate. I earn an intimate

Below, Lot #17

William Charles harbort aka Billy chuck Minot, North Dakota Ode to a Great Mystery, 2013 Plexiglas, mixed-media collage 42 x 66 inches

“Songs for Spirit Lake” installed in New York City’s Rauschenberg Project Space, June 2013. Harbort’s Passing Through Spirit Lake on the right.

Range: $900 – $1,100

Plexiglas panels were singing birds, bones, skulls, and other pop culture references to passage, all against fleeting, moving, blue wisps of cloud. The work in this Auction grew out of “Passing Through Spirit Lake.” It needs to be mounted away from the wall or floated from the ceiling to achieve its greatest effect, according to Museum Director Laurel Reuter.

William Charles Harbort, aka Billy Chuck, is one of six artists commissioned by the North Dakota Museum of Art to work with the people of North Dakota’s Spirit Lake Reservation to create a body of art work about contemporary life on the Reservation. An exhibition of the first round of work was

Bill Harbort is a professor in the art department at North Dakota’s Minot State university where he teaches foundation art, graphic design, and illustration courses. He is a co-founder and coorganizer of NOTSTOCK, MSu’s signature arts event. Prior to teaching and moving to North Dakota, he worked in

shown at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Project Space in

New York as a package designer for a major cosmetics company,

New York’s prestigious Chelsea Art District in June 2013. The

an art director for a children's educational software company and

artists invited the Cankdeska Cikana Drum Group to perform at

he built a reputation as an award winning automotive artist. He

the New York opening.

specialized in airbrush renderings of muscle cars and his work

Harbort created a poly-poplin banner fourteen feet high and nineteen feet across that bares the image of a running bison. The

appeared in over twenty-five different popular automotive magazines.

banner was overlaid with Plexiglass panels such as the one

He currently exhibits at many lowbrow art galleries and is best

currently in this auction. Titled Passing Through Spirit Lake, the

known for his mixed-media collages that celebrate clip art,

work alludes to the movement from life on earth into the afterlife

coupons, calendar girls, and ephemera from pop culture. He

where a Spirit Lake Dakota Sioux would need such things as food

often signs his work as Billy Chuck, a pseudonym that is taken

and shelter provided in traditional life by bison. Mounted on the

from his first and middle name, William Charles.

Duane Shoup’s artwork is sponsored by Salon Seva

Lot # 18

Duane Shoup Shevlin, Minnesota Entry Table, 2013 Walnut Height 30 inches, length 40.5 inches, depth 12 inches Range: $700 – 900

Duane Shoup, grandson of a carpenter, grew up in

He follows in the footsteps of Sam Maloof who also created his

Maryville, Indiana, south of both Gary and Chicago. By his late

own private world where he made furniture masterpieces known

twenties, he felt the urge to break out so he went fishing in

for their simplicity and practicality. As his own master, Shoup

Minnesota. This self-taught furniture maker ended up buying

does what he wishes, challenges his already-formidable skills,

forty acres near the small town of Shevlin, building a house and

handles beautiful woods, and makes a living in the process.

all its furnishings, and embedding himself in Northern Minnesota

Sometimes he incorporates the bark into the design, sometimes

deep woods. Here he could find the hardwoods he needed to

he strips the bark away to achieve a more polished work like the

establish his studio, Wildwood Rustic Furnishings.

table in the Auction.

Shoup says, I use only renewable woods—oak, ash, cherry, walnut, maple, and pine as well as downed and damaged trees that showcase the color and featured wood grains only nature can produce. Inspiration for my work flows from the natural world all around me and the north woods I call home. Each log, slab, twig, bentwood, or free-form composition represents materials purposefully selected on site and processed at my own mill, giving me complete control of the creative process from forest to final form. Finished pieces preserve the force of nature in 18 furnishings and have the potential to become family heirlooms.

Advice from Duane Shoup: If you buy a table, take it home and wax the surface. Sam Maloof developed the finish I used on the table: equal parts of polyurethane varnish, tung oil, and linseed oil. You add the final wax.

Lot #19

Guillermo Guardia Grand Forks, North Dakota December, 2013 Ceramic 20 x 46 x 22 inches Range: $1,500 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 2,500

All proceeds from the sale of this sculpture are donated to the Museum by Guillermo Guardia

Guillermo Guardia (Memo) was born in Lima, Peru, in 1975. He hails from an ancient pre-Colombian ceramic tradition. From the time he was little he was steeped in the images and materials of those early potters. In particular, he

The sculpture December is the first piece in many years where

loved the work of the Mochica culture, a pre-Incan civilization

Guardia sculpts a large human body. It is covered with puzzle

that flourished on the northern coast of Peru from about 200 BC

pieces from head to toe. There are two patterned lanes that repeat

to 600 AD, known especially for its pottery vessels modeled into

in the surface, one is carved higher than the other, and both

naturalistic human and animal figures.

patterns seem to be moving in opposite directions. Â Blue and

Working on the puzzled pieces was and is a collection of personal and social emotions. All of us have been through that feeling of emptiness or missing something in our lives that we

purple colors differentiate each pattern. Also the colors and shadows emphasize the reliefs on the surface and movement and direction of the puzzle pieces.

cannot describe. It might be a person, personal goals, places, or

Guardia came to North Dakota in 2002 to pursue his MFA in

the search for an answer to an unknown question. This body of

ceramics at the university of North Dakota. He also obtained his

work started with a human body filled with jigsaw pieces holding

MS in Industrial Technology from uND. Now he works at the

with his hand just one single piece.

His whole body is

North Dakota Museum of Art as the artist in residence. He is a

completed, no single space is empty, but he is holding one and

studio member of Muddy Waters Clay Center in Grand Forks,

wonders where it goes. Also I think that puzzle piece can

where he keeps working on his own art. Memo has been

represent how one can or cannot fit into a particular group of

included in many important juried art exhibitions throughout the

people, or what we wanted or want to be.

united States.

Lot #20

Gretchen Bederman Glendive, Montana and Mandan, North Dakota Night Flight, 2004 Oil on canvas 36 x 72 inches Range: $1,000 – 1,500

Below: Lot #21

Gretchen Bederman Glendive, Montana and Mandan, North Dakota Cactus, 2012 Encaustic 8 x 8 inches Range: $250 – 400

Gretchen Bederman: My images are metaphors for my life experiences,” Mandan, North Dakota artist Gretchen Bederman explains. “I combine memories of actual places with a mixture of reality, myth and dream.” Bederman began life in Houston, Texas. As a young artist, she moved around frequently, spending time in Santa Fe, Chicago, and San Francisco, and even studying abroad in Florence and Milan. But in 1980, Bederman tool a trip that would change her life. That year, she visited North Dakota, fell in love with the State and has lived here since. Over the years, Bederman has worked as a teacher, a graphic designer, an illustrator, a lithographic printmaker, a set designer and more. As an artist, she works in multiple media, focusing primarily on painting, sculpting and drawing. Bederman likens her art to poetry. “I weave my images with representation and

trees. For the most part, I’ve created these images from my mind’s

abstraction, she explains. As poetry releases our imagination

eye, looking within to memories and impressions with the

from limitation and reaches for our emotional essence, I am

intention of imparting a universal and soulful essence.”

exploring the possibilities of joining the outer world with inner experiences. My search is for images that resonate with the viewer on the unspoken landscape.” Gretchen Bederman’s painting in this auction is both beautiful and surreal.

According to Museum Director Laurel Reuter, the flying horse has a long history in literature, and most memorable of late is Athansor, the flying horse in Mark Helprin’s 1983 Winter’s Tale. Bederman’s ghost horse, however, claims no territory, no place

The artist continues, “For over 20 years, the predominate theme

beyond the darkness of night. It could be the horse of a dream,

in my artwork has been an expression of the elemental forces of

or out of a Cormac McCarthy novel. Like all of her best paintings,

our earthly life, a spiritual quest of sorts, an attempt to fuse matter 20 and spirit symbolized by women, horses, birds, vessels, and

the viewer is given the essence but left to wonder. What is this painting? What is it about? What was the artist’s intention?

All proceeds from the sale of this work are donated to the Museum by Jennifer Angus Lot #22

Jennifer Angus Madison, Wisconsin Emerging, 2012 Mixed media, glass, wood, insects, gourd, paper, and pins 4 x 3 x 3 inches Range: $350 – 550

Jennifer Angus first showed at the North Dakota

through educational publications in which various species of

Museum of Art in 2003, as part of the group exhibition “Bugs

wildlife from insects to elephants were anthropomorphized so as

and Such.” Angus returned in August 2013 to fill the Museum's

to have greater appeal to the general reading public. Voracious

galleries with more exotic bugs and creatures. My installation, In

collecting of all manner of plants and wildlife was extremely

the Midnight Garden, takes inspiration from the Victorian era.

popular at that time. I have created the installation to suggest the

Both adults and children were introduced to the natural world

Victorian house filled with strange and wonderful collections in every drawer, box, or bell jar. The work in the auction is one small bell jar with its tiny scenario. While I may allude to threatened species, none of the insects I use are endangered. The vast majority of insects on the endangered species list are there because of loss of habitat, not over collection. The insects I use are farmed or collected by local indigenous peoples providing them a livelihood. Since most of these species come from a rain forest environment, the people collecting will not cut down the jungle which provides their livelihood. It is ecologically sound. They are a renewable resource.

Right: Auction work from Jennifer Angus’s exhibition at the Museum in August 2013. Exhibition above.

Lot #23

Kim Bromley Pelican Rapids, Minnesota Billboard Series: Back, Reclining Figure Oil and collage 48 x 55 inches Range: $1,200 – 1,700

Kim Bromley, since moving to North Dakota in 1996, has

beyond illustration. This work is about being a billboard that

completed a number of paintings in various series including

comments on its effect on our society, on seeing, responding and

several landscape series of the North Dakota plains, works

life itself.

inspired by a residency in Chicago, paintings using discarded billboards, a group of duck paintings and drawings inspired by judging the North Dakota High School Duck Stamp painting competition, a series of paintings of his Minnesota pond, and, most recently, a more introspective personal series of paintings around the theme of Moby-Dick, to be exhibited this fall at the Plains Art Museum. Back, Reclining Figure, the work in the auction, is from Bromley’s “Billboard Series.” To change the advertising on the face of a billboard, one just glues another sheet on top of the last, accumulating up to twenty layers deep before they are stripped away or the billboard discarded. Bromley’s series was created from discarded billboards—he has torn the many layers of billboard material from the original structures it was adhered to.

Kimble Bromley has served as a visiting artist throughout the upper Midwest, Ecuador, and Mexico. He has painted abroad in Cuba, Jamaica, Ecuador, and Mexico. His work has been supported by grants from Kellogg, Teagle/Bell South, and Partners of the Americas. As Professor of Art at North Dakota State university, Bromley teaches painting and drawing. One component of his studio classes involves hypnotizing his students to assist them with their creativity. Bromley’s interest in hypnosis has led him to research the significance of hypnosis on creativity. Bromley and his coresearchers published “Hypnotic Enhancement of Creative Drawing” in the October 2007 issue of The International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis.

According to the artist, the concept of billboards has always

Bromley joined North Dakota State university as Coordinator of

fascinated me. First and foremost, billboards create an immediate

the Department of Visual Arts in 1996. Previously, he taught at

and powerful visual impact. They follow principles of design.

Kentucky Wesleyan College, Owensboro Community College,

They mark their territory and influence how we think. Yet, they

DePaul university, Prairie State College, and Southern Illinois

merely illustrate a specific idea. My challenge in working with

university.

22 billboards is to create something as visually powerful that goes

Lot #24

Marlon Davidson & Don Knudson Bemidji, Minnesota Seasons, 2013 Mixed media with wood, paper, and acrylic 43 x 47 x 2 inches Range: $600 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; $1,000

Marlon Davidson & Don Knudson are

their private collection. It is a wall sculpture comprised of

collaborative artists who live in Bemidji, Minnesota, where they

fragments of wood from the beaches of Lake Superior combined

have been involved in the art community for twenty-three years.

with collage elements. Since that time, the artists have produced

During this time, Marlon has maintained a career in art

hundreds of collaborations in various sizes, from about twelve by

production as well as served a five-year stint as Executive

twelve inches to six by eight feet. Their works may be seen in

Director of the Bemidji Arts Council and as an instructor in visual

public settings such as in government buildings and universities

arts at Bemidji State university.

as well as in private homes. The artists have been in the

Don has been a furniture maker, owned and operated a bed and

Museumâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Autumn Art Auction for the past nine years.

breakfast, and produced sculpture works on his own. Both artists

Marlon and Don seek to produce a harmonious statement in their

have worked independently and collaboratively and are

efforts. The goal of the work is to achieve a dialogue between the

included in both public and private collections across the united

wood and the collage. They feel that there are elements of both

States and in Europe. They were both educated at Bemidji State

the current art scene and more traditional movements in their

university and at the Minneapolis School of Art.

collaboration, and they both take a serious interest in the history

Their collaborations happened in a natural sort of way. Don had been framing work for Marlon for years and one day it became apparent that the frames were taking on more than a secondary role in the artwork itself. Both artists realized, almost simultaneously,

that

what

they

were

producing

was

collaborations. The wood part of the compositions became more important and Marlonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s collage efforts began to seek harmony with the wood in a new and significant way. The first true collaboration that the artists created is called Altar (1985), still in

of art. The most important source of inspiration for both artists is the natural world, the forests and fields, the lakes and thickets of northern

Minnesota,

which

their

home

landscape.

Conversations with other artists and reading are also important as they develop their art. In addition, both artists visit galleries and travel widely. All of these activities are sources of inspiration, and, in agreement with the famous art historian Bernard Berenson, they believe that life can be lived as a work of art. 23

Margaret Wall-Romana: For painters like myself who are interested in the history of the medium, paintings speak to and of each other across the centuries. If I study a Rogier van der Weyden’s Deposition From the Cross that I admire (c.1432), it’s not other depictions of religious devotion I’m inclined to think of, but the mighty and often bawdy works of Max Beckmann. Despite the 500 years between them and the dissimilarity of their narratives, both artists loved the human figure and made work whose gravitas and formal ingenuity link them for me. Looking at a Rembrandt, standing as close as I can and trying to feel what it was like to place those strokes, I’m liable to begin musing about Philip Guston; the centuries collapse in the face of shared sensibilities, and narrative is revealed to be what it has always been for the great painters: an excuse to make a painting. Lot #25

I love what’s involved in painting representationally—the close

Margaret Wall-Romana

observation and concentration required to translate looking,

Minneapolis, Minnesota

through paint into a record of having seen. A Manet flower in its

Other Seasons, 2013 Oil on cut-out wood panel 16 x 19.5 x 1.5 inches framed Range: $1,500 – 1,800

Lot #26

Margaret Wall-Romana Minneapolis, Minnesota Arrangements in Yellows and Reds 2004–2013 Pastel, charcoal, and gouache on paper 40 x 26 inches Range: $1,500 – 1,800

Lot #27

Carole d’Inverno Seattle, Washington

McCanna, North Dakota, 2013 Gouache and acrylic on archival paper 22 x 33 inches Range: $800 – 1,200

Carole d’Inverno: The North Dakota Museum of Art invited me, along with artist Pirjo Berg, to spend two weeks in

All proceeds from the sale of this work are donated to the Museum by Carole d’Inverno

residency at McCanna House. I had never been in the Great Plains of North Dakota and I found the surroundings inspiring. One night, I was awakened by a continuous stream of lightning. Silence, no thunder. I spent some time looking out the window, the dark shapes of the shelter belt around the farm, the lighter strip of the country road. When I woke up, I made this painting

Wall-Romana cont.

to try to capture the beauty of the storm and the eerie stillness around the farm. The artist completed over two dozen works

vase, a lady’s ear in a Sargent portrait, the brocade of a Holbein

during her stay at McCanna House under the series title “The

robe—these things remind me that paint on a flat surface can be

Northern Kingdom.”

magic. But my first crush as a serious student of painting was Abstract Expressionism, and for me being a painter is still about

Carole d’Inverno was born in 1956 and grew up in Italy and

that in-the-moment engagement with the developing image, with

Belgium where she studied science for her advanced degrees.

the possibility of upheaval and radical re-envisioning always near

She moved to the united States in 1979 and now resides in

—invited and necessary.

Seattle, Washington. A self-taught artist, Carole has exhibited extensively in solo and group shows in the States. Her work is in

I would describe my ongoing project as one of negotiating these

the public collections of Seattle Group Health, Seattle university,

competing impulses towards abstraction and representation, and

and private collections across the united States and Europe.

inventing new ways of making them dovetail. The work process I’ve developed—one of working on each piece as I regularly pair, un-pair, flip and re-pair the multiple panels that constitute it— purposefully confounds for a time any direct path to finished paintings, and creates a wide-open space for engagement with the developing work that is challenging and invigorating. Those are two things I need my time in the studio to be.

The artist is the recipient of numerous awards and honors. She was in Residence at the Abbey de Pontlevoy in France (2010), the Vermont Studio Center in the States (2009 and 2010), and at the Wassard Elia Center in Ascea, Italy (2009). While there, she also participated in the 2009 Biennale di Firenze. In 2002, Carole d’Inverno was awarded Best in Show in the Richland City Arts Competition, juried by Debra Byrne, former Director of

Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Wall-Romana

Curatorial Affairs and Exhibitions at the Frye Art Museum in

moved to Minneapolis seven years ago. She holds a BA from the

Seattle, Washington. The artist is fluent in Italian and French. She

university of California, Davis, and an MFA from the School of

and her husband, musician/composer Bill Frisell, have one

the Art Institute of Chicago.

daughter, and are active in the Seattle art community.

Lot #28

Mollie Douthit Grand Forks, North Dakota Shattering Van Dyke and Peppermint, 2013 Oil on panel 13 x 13 inches Range: $300 – 600

Hibernian Academy 183rd Annual Exhibition, which is the oldest and longest running open submission exhibition in Ireland. Douthit received the Hennessy Craig Award of €10,000 ($15,636) given to any painter under the age of thirty-five who was in the open submission section. The painter must have studied at a recognized art college on the Island of Ireland. The award is to enable the painter to pursue a course of selfdetermined study either in Ireland or abroad. Douthit will use it

Mollie Douthit: My practice currently investigates

to spend another year studying in Ireland.

visualizing the codes that objects generate through the use of paint. I consider my practice to be grounded in an exploration of objects, which exist in physical reality, utilizing the genre of still

Albert Belleveau: The Outcropping House was inspired

life panting. This approach encapsulates a conversation between

by the challenge of building wall panels using the Rock Iron Art

absence and presence. Using a cool and limited palate implies a

technique, according to the artist. I desired to build some kind of

sense of loss. The objects float in a field of space, remaining in a

structure and as I was using rocks from Lake Superior that broke

state of tension that lacks a gravitational ground. This use of space

off of outcroppings and tumbled by millennia of waves. The

alludes to the emotional resonance that objects hold.

Outcropping House is a natural fit with nature. Sit down and take a load off of your mind and feel the waves.

I choose objects that recall memories and that are often generic products that are easily consumable or reproducible. The

Rock Iron Art is the synthesis of a life-long love affair that sculptor

preciousness of these objects exists in what they signify. Painted

Albert Belleveau has had with two of northern Minnesota's most

from life, I am attempting to connect deeply to the physical

plentiful resources. He uses rocks and metal in sculptural form to

description of the object that best expresses my emotional

depict humorous life forms, unique functional furniture and

attachment through the substance of paint. In doing so the paint

decorating accouterments.

is also being described, allowing a silent conversation to occur between myself, paint, and the object.

Regarding Outcropping House: The wind-and-wave softened stones are collected by the artist during his frequent kayaking

Born and raised in Grand Forks, North Dakota, Mollie Douthit

trips on Lake Superior and are sculpted at his Puposky studio. The

earned her BFA degree from the university of North Dakota in

rocks are selected by size and color and then thrust into cherry

2009, and a Post Baccalaureate Certificate from the School of the

red cages of steel, formed and tightened under enormous

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in 2011. Currently, Mollie is

pressure, then welded to depict the artists sculptural ideas. The

pursuing her MFA degree at the Burren College of Art in

finished sculpture is sandblasted to even the surfaces and sealed

Ballyvaughan, Ireland. Her work has been featured in the

with two coats of lacquer, or allowed to weather and oxidize.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Medal Award auction. Douthit’s work was also recently chosen for publication in the 2013 MFA edition of New American Paintings. 26 In the spring of 2013, Douthit was accepted into the Royal

Albert Belleveau started working with metal in his father's fabrication shop at the age of five. He continues to interpret the world he experiences in metal and other natural materials. He has created large scale sculpture and ornamental structural iron

Lot #29

Albert Belleveau Puposky, Minnesota Balancing Act, 2013 Stone and steel 12 x 36 x 3 inches Range: $150 – 300

All proceeds from the sale of Balancing Act are donated to the Museum by Al Belleveau

Outcropping House installed outside

Outcropping House detail with seat Belleveau cont. projects for both public and private commissions. His smaller works have traveled the world.

Lot #30

Albert Belleveau He resides in Maple Ridge township of Northern Minnesota with

Puposky, Minnesota

plenty of rocks and iron. Belleveau has worked tirelessly on the

Outcropping House, 2008

Bemidji Sculpture Walk over many years. The North Dakota

Stone and steel with cast bronze self portrait and crescent moon

Museum of Art recently acquired one of Belleveau’s major wall

7 feet high, 42 inches wide and 56 inches deep

sculptures, Expecting from the “Knotty Girl Series.”

Range: $6,000 - 8,000 27

Vivienne Morgan’s artwork is sponsored by All Seasons Garden Center

Lot #31

Vivienne Morgan Bemidji, Minnesota Inheritance, 2013 Archival digital print Image 30 x 20 inches Range: $700 – 1,000

Vivienne Morgan: Inheritance: The Land We Call Our Own In a recent trip to Vancouver, British Columbia, I became

absorbs all that had gone before it and spends it all in growth, the

fascinated with the giant Red Western Cedar nurse stumps in the

inheritance is slowly dwindled away to nothing. The new tree

old growth forests. These trees can live up to 1,800 years and

must eventually find its own balance and a solid place in the soil.

reach up to 380 feet high. Nurse stumps are the remnants of the

This is where it either stands alone and thrives, or falls and dies.

early logging of the ancient forests, which took place from 1850s onwards. The great height of the stumps—often twelve to twenty feet—came about because the incredible girth of the Redwoods and Western Cedar made cutting difficult work. To speed cutting, loggers stood on springboards attached higher up the trunk, the tree was cut from there, and the foot of the tree was wasted. Now, the forests are almost emptied of these giants, and the nurse stumps are their headstones. Still after more than one-hundred years, these nurse stumps nurture new saplings, which grow and compete for a foothold in their inherited real estate. The ancient

This particular relationship of Red Cedar nurse stump and its spindly offspring struck me as rather like a scene in a museum diorama. Here, all elements of past and future were frozen in the light. The young tree sitting atop the crumbling stump is fleshy and supple, with only one, bent, leg like root to stand upon. Like the dangling branches seen in the trees around, we await the inevitable. “Walking Trees” is a series in which I am examining tree migration and ecological succession framed in human terms.

tree body provides moisture to drink, nutrients to feed, and

Vivienne Morgan was born in England in 1958. In 1979 she

mycorrhizal fungi to protect from disease. As one sapling grows

moved to the united States and earned her MFA from Bowling

and takes over, it rides atop the stump, claiming the real estate, 28 sending roots down the outside the of trunk. As the new tree

Green State university. She now lives in the countryside near Bemidji, Minnesota.

Josie Lewis’s artwork is sponsored by Hugo’s

Lot #32

Josie Lewis Minneapolis, Minnesota The Big Reveal, 2012 Found paper and resin 15 x 15 x 3 inches Range: $600 – 800

Josie Lewis: Minnesota Originals says about this artist,

sensibility but by being heavily built up they flirt with being

Josie Lewis doesn’t read fashion magazines. She turns them

sculptures. The resulting object is a square-ish disc that has

upside down and flips quickly through, on the hunt for color and

fifteen to twenty alternating layers of resin and paper and is

texture. When she finds something she likes—an eye, a fishnet

several inches thick. the final surface is highly glossy, with

stocking, a vibrant hue—she pulls the same page from the nine

rounded edges. I refer to them as “slabs.”

other copies of the magazine she bought and cuts a stack of the same image. These pieces build her hypercomplex, three dimensional worlds trapped in layer upon layer of resin, inviting the viewer ever closer. Josie Lewis says about herself: I make highly ornate, complex

Like a prairie, my work is a mix of randomness and system: a strange, breathing machine made out of flowers, gears, and fungi. A third grader accurately pronounced that my work was a machine made of fireworks. There is abundant pattern, disembodied fragmented images, and portraits of single-celled

collages with found photographic images and epoxy resin. Using

pond water creatures. There is a rhythmic topography, map-like,

images from a variety of pop culture glossy magazines,

that references a satellite image confused with a blown-up

sometimes in multiples, I cut, sort, organize, and, in the end,

cellular structure. The resin slabs are enormous maps, a Petri dish

liberate. The scissors is my scalpel, the page my Petri dish. I cast

of cancers, worm holes, embroidery, mosaic, and starscapes.

the bits of cut images and layers of glassy, thickly poured resin. It is a semi-scientific sorting and reordering of the basic formal elements of modern “style.” This is recycling at its most exquisite. Under my surgery, “fashion” becomes heavy with meaning.

Josie Lewis received her BA from Bethel university in St. Paul, Minnesota, and her MFA from the university of Minnesota in 2008. She exhibits widely throughout Minnesota and the Midwest and was included in several of the last North Dakota

The layers of resin alternating with the layers of paper create

Museum of Art Silent Auctions held in conjunction with the

shadows and deep space. There is a sense of a topographical map

Benefit Dinner in late January, early February.

with literal topography. The work originates from a painterly

Lot #33

Jessica Christy

Jessica Christy’s field notes for each work:

Valley City, North Dakota Whitewash: #0015, #0010, #0016, 2012

#0010, Bison Bones:

#0010, bison bones

Material: Bison rib bones

#0015, lithograph

Provenance: Animalia, Chordata, Mammalia, Artiodactyla,

#0016, sheet metal and oil

Bovidae, Bison (Tatanka)

Each 15 x 8 x 2 inches

Description: The railroads, which today carry signs of

Range: $600 – 800 for all three

economical prosperity were at one time a contributing factor to the fall of the sacred buffalo.

Jessica Christy: Coexistence of the indigenous and non-indigenous has been grounds for scenarios played out in everything from politics to Hollywood. Christy’s work explores

Notes: Over hunting (desirable buffalo hide). Railroad development. Room for cattle ranges. Development of grazing land.

the juxtaposition of these two cultural conditions. Whitewash:

#0015, Spider

specimens of the hipster class, Hollywood propaganda, and

Material: lithograph on paper.

miscellaneous paraphernalia of the American dream, explores

Provenance: Iktomi vs creepy crawly.

the contribution of the digital world to this dialogue of

Description:

coexistence. Not only does it offer a platform for many views to

phobiato the Natives, spiders bring well being.

collide, it also allows for accessibility to these perspectives—an

Notes: Spider woman spun the world and her web connects us

opportunity easily made but not easily deleted. Each feather-

all. Killing a spider disconnects us from this web.

shaped work is representative of a misappropriation of the culture. From here, it is treated as a piece of archived material and accessioned into the series with a number and provenance.

While regarded as a creepy crawly worthy of

#0016, Columbus Day Media: Sheet metal and oil Provenance: October 12, 1492. Columbus arrives in America —

Christy is a native North Dakotan, born to two artists on the

marked as an official holiday every year.

Sanger Art Farm, located at the northern edge of the Sheyenne

Description: Despite his mass genocide, enslavement, and

River Valley. She received her bachelor's degree from Valley City

general mis-treatment of the Natives, we celebrate this man every

State university, and her MFA from the university of North

year in October.

Dakota. Jessica has shown her work extensively both regionally

Notes: Text of Norman Soloman’s article for Media,

30 and nationally, winning numerous awards.

October 1995

Lot #34

Walter Piehl Minot, North Dakota

Walter Piehl is a painter who draws and incorporates

Gumdrop: Sweetheart of the Rodeo, 2013

drawing into his acrylic paintings. He does not use drawing to

Acrylic on canvas

make studies for paintings but as a primary medium, either

36 x 48 inches

embedded into paintings or as separate works of art. But

Range: $3,000 – 3,900

ultimately Piehl is most widely known as a painter. His goal is to make his surfaces dance with subtle variations. Drips, feathered edges, scumbled paint, and the judicious use of glazes all contribute to his rich surfaces. His fractured spaces, transparency, multiple images, and their afterimages cause his works to sing with movement. unlike most artists, Walter Piehl was quite young when he decided to make art from his own life. Born into a family that raised rodeo stock, Walter rode as a matter of course. Likewise, in a household without television, he drew constantly. He went on to paint and draw horses, year after year, never wearying of his subject, never despairing in his quest to create contemporary Western art. This master painter, while continuing to live the

In 2008, Walter Piehl won the Bush Foundation’s first Enduring Vision Prize worth $100,000. Earlier, he received the 2005 North Dakota Governor’s Award for the Arts. The artist has twice served on the Board of the North Dakota Council on the Arts, for several years on the Board of Trustees of the North Dakota Museum of Art, and is on the founding governing board of the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame in Medora.

cowboy life, has found the means to visually enter the sport. In

In 2013, united Limited Art Editions (uLAE) created an edition

the process he has led droves of artists into a new arena called

print with Walter for the benefit of the North Dakota Museum of

Contemporary Western Art—but most don’t know that this artist

Art. The thirty prints in the edition will all be sold and all the

from North Dakota charted their course years ago.

funds will go to the Museum for general operating.

Lot #35

helen Otterson Grand Forks, North Dakota Blossom, 2011 Ceramic 5 x 4 x 2 inches Range: $150 – 250

helen Otterson: My work is influenced by nature

sculpture. The work in this Autumn Art Auction is small, suitable

and biology. Drawing on my native California landscape and

for holding in one’s hand or placing on a desk where one could

the beautiful botanical gardens of South Florida, I create

glimpse it nearby.

work that aims to illuminate the precious balance of life and the beauty of the natural world. I am intrigued by the succulent’s ability to survive in a harsh environment and produce colorful lush forms. I am drawn to the dichotomy of these plants that thrive in water-deprived environments, yet produce voluptuously plump leaves and tendrils. Following nature’s lead, I create sculptures with reoccurring forms that vary in scale and mimic the ideals of nature. Viewers marvel at the elegant, soft colors of Otterson’s hand-built sculptures, not unlike the colors of the delicate flowers, leaves, and grasses of northern climates. Because Otterson has lived in the South, her pallette includes the heightened hues of places with intense sun, the oranges and reds and yellows of Florida, Mexico, and Southern California.

Exhibited throughout the united States and internationally, Otterson’s ceramic and glass sculptures have been published in 500 Sculptures, 500 Figures, Clay Times, and Ceramics Monthly. Her work is part of the permanent collections at the Casper, Wyoming’s Nicolaysen Art Museum, Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland, and the university of California, San Diego's Cancer Center. Otterson received a BFA in Ceramics from the Kansas City Art Institute and her MFA in Ceramics from the university of Miami as well as a BA in Studio Art and Art History from Skidmore College. She has been an Artist in Residence at the International Ceramic Studio in Kecskemét, Hungary; A.I.R. Vallauris, France; Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, Newcastle, Maine; Vermont Clay Studio; Baltimore Claywork; and Anderson Ranch

She also casts components in glass, a blossom, a stem, a cluster

Arts Center, Snowmass Village, CO. She has taught at university

of something. These, when added to the sculptures, provide

of Miami, the Kansas City Art Institute and Florida Atlantic

another visual element as they reflect or conduct light while her 32 ceramic glazes absorb light, bringing a matte softness to the

university. Currently, Otterson is an Assistant Professor at the university of North Dakota, Grand Forks.

Lot #36 Rena Effendi Cairo, Egypt Anna's deer heads. Crow Hill, Spirit Lake., 2013 C Print, edition 1 of 10 20 x 20 inches Range: $1,100 – 1,500

Rena Effendi: is an Azerbaijani photographer who lives in Cairo. She was born in 1977 in Baku, Azerbaijan, and grew up in the uSSR, witnessing her country’s path to independence— one marred by war, political instability, and economic collapse. From the outset, Effendi focused her photography on issues of conflict, social justice, and the oil industry’s effect on people and the environment.

In 2011, she received the Prince Claus Fund Award for Cultural Development and moved to Cairo where she has been focusing on issues surrounding the Egyptian Christian minority in the postrevolution era. For this project, she received a grant from the Magnum Foundation Emergency Fund. In 2012, Effendi was short-listed for the Prix-Pictet Global Award for Photography and Sustainability, for her series documenting life of the survivors of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Effendi’s involvement with World

From 2002 to 2008, Effendi followed a 1,700-kilometer pipeline

Press Photo goes back to 2005, when she was a participant in the

through Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey documenting the

Joop Swart Masterclass. In 2012, she was a selector for, and later

impact this multibillion-dollar project had on impoverished

contributor to, the organization’s Reporting Change project.

farmers, fishermen, and other citizens. This six-year journey became her first book Pipe Dreams: A Chronicle of Lives Along the Pipeline, published in 2009, and an exhibition that Museum Director Laurel Reuter saw in the Istanbul Biennial and brought to North Dakota in the winter of 2011. The project received numerous awards, including a Getty Images Editorial grant, a Fifty Crows International Fund Award, a Magnum Foundation Caucasus Photographer Award, and a Mario Giacomelli Memorial Fund Award.

Rena Effendi turns her attention to Spirit Lake. Effendi was one of six artists selected by the North Dakota Museum of Art to create art in response to contemporary life on Spirit Lake Reservation. The artists have been commissioned to explore how people live within the landscape, who the people are, and their patterns of intermingling the past and present in contemporary life. The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation is supporting the artists’ work for three years. Their first exhibition, “Songs for Spirit Lake,” opened in New York City in June 2013.

Over the past ten years, Effendi has covered stories in the post-

Rena Effendi included a suite of photographs with text, including

Soviet region, as well as in Turkey and Iran, including the 2008

the work in this auction. She will return several times to Spirit

Russia-Georgia conflict, women victims of heroin and sex

Lake over the next two years to continue making artwork in and

trafficking in Kyrgyzstan, and the hidden lives of youth in Tehran.

about life in that place.

All proceeds from the sale of Bounce are donated to the Museum by Armando Ramos

Lot #37

Armando Ramos Valley City, North Dakota Bounce, 2012 Clay and automotive finish 29 x 38 x 10 inches Range: $1,000 – $1,500 Note: Bounce is photographed in a group exhibition with Ramos’s sculpture in the foreground.

Armando Ramos is a generous and vibrant force in the

that question the largeness of these larger-than-life embodiments.

North Dakota art scene since moving to the State in 2009 to

In examining my own history, I deny the authenticity of the past

teach at Valley City State university, according to Museum

memories and the invincibility of adulthood. Instead, I seek to

Director Laurel Reuter. He grew up in Texas but left the state for

create an existence of complicated iconography that gives odd

college. He completed his undergraduate studies at the Kansas

relevance to sculptures and paintings.

City Art Institute and graduate studies at Montana State university. In the years following graduate school he lived and maintained a studio in San Francisco.

Ramos has been an artist in residence at The Richard Cartier Studios (Napa, CA), Vermont Studio Center (Johnson, VT), and at California State university at Long Beach (Long Beach, CA). He

The 2012 Museum Auction included a set of Ramos’ celadon

is currently a Professor of Art at Valley City State university and

yunomis (or traditional Japanese handle-less tea cups). They were

was recently awarded a 2012 Individual Artist Grant from the

elegantly thrown on the wheel and beautifully presented on a

North Dakota Council on the Arts.

wooden tray. This season his handbuilt, neon red dog represents the other side of his aesthetic. He says, Through portraiture and caricature, I create comically irreverent images drawn from my jumbled youth. Pop culture, mass media, religious iconography, and quotidian observations are civilly canonized as high-relief 34 sculptures, minimalist interventions, and absurd juxtapositions

His work has been exhibited at the Virginia Brier Gallery (San Francisco, CA), The Oakland Museum (Oakland, CA), The Dairy Art Center (Boulder, CO), Elmhurst Art Museum (Elmhurst, IL), Studio Couture (Detroit, MI) and, the North Dakota Museum of Art in Grand Forks.

Lot #38

Marley Kaul M a r l e y K a u l : In 1803 the Lewis and Clark expedition

Bemidji, Minnesota

saw their first Magpie. Since they had not seen one before, they

Prairie Rhythms, 2013

referred to it as a Corvus Genus (crow and raven family) and later

17.75 x 41.25 inches framed

established its relation to its European ancestors. Some historians

Acrylic on canvas

believe it traveled the Bering Strait to the North American

Range: $1,500 – 3,000

continent. It prefers the prairie and other treeless areas and the Magpie’s voice complements the sounds of crickets and other prairie creatures. The plant in the painting, Prairie Smoke, grows in colonies and has a wonderful flower made up of multiple string-like strands that float and move in the wind. In abundance

This painting is sponsored by Plains Chiropractic & Acupuncture P.C.

it appears like smoke. This composition is intended to show a wind force from the left while the bird hovers into that same wind. Prairie Rhythms was created with the concept of “dance” as the prairie seems to be in constant motion. Marley Kaul’s work in both content and energy emphasizes his connection with natural forms and poetic metaphor. Born and

painter with a scholarly bent who has become widely

raised in Good Thunder, Minnesota, Marley Kaul was educated

respected and loved within the region he calls home.

at Mankato State university and the university of Oregon. Now retired, he was long-time chairman of the Art Department at Bemidji State university. He continues to paint daily in his studio near Lake Bemidji, to exhibit generously throughout the region, and to see his work moving into significant private and public collections. Kaul’s work has been collected by almost every major museum in Minnesota and North Dakota, which speaks to his tireless commitment to his development as a painter and his desire to explore the world around him. In 2009, he completed the design for a stained glass window for

Like Northern European artists of long ago, Kaul paints domestic life: the world surrounding his home in Northern Minnesota, his garden, what he sees out of his windows, the birds who come to the feeders, his grandmother’s tea pot, and all the other utensils and accruements of daily existence. “During my career as a painter,” Kaul says, “my artistic concepts have revolved around ecological issues, natural growth and decay, and what I witness every day in my yard, garden, and community.”

the First Lutheran Church in Bemidji, where in 2001 he had

In October 2013, the exhibition, The Art of Marley Kaul, will

designed another window for the chapel, as well as created a

open at The Anderson Center in Red Wing, Minnesota. Curated

painting for the altarpiece. ultimately, Marley Kaul is a superb

by The Anderson, the exhibition is slated to tour.

Lot #39

Brian Paulsen Grand Forks, North Dakota Near Fourth Avenue, 2013 Watercolor on paper 9 x 13 inches Range: $800 – $1,200

Brian Paulsen makes small paintings incorporating

make small paintings. I could then enter juried shows all over the

places he calls home. He hails from Seattle but has become a

States because shipping was inexpensive. By 1974-75 I began to

long-term resident of North Dakota. The work in the Auction

win purchase awards and prizes. One of the first was a $500

springs from the artist’s everyday environment in Seattle where he

prize from Whitney curator Elke Solomon in “Manisphere,” a

grew up. He begins with his camera but “it would be boring to

Manitoba/North Dakota annual exhibition.

just copy the photograph in a painting so I add objects that seem to relate but which fit no narrative.”

I was raised with geometry all around me especially in the materials of carpentry, building, repairing, making, and all those

Laurel Reuter says of his painting in the exhibition, “upon seeing

other useful occupations. My grandfather was a sign painter and

the painting, I find myself singing Malvina Reynold’s 1962 song:”

a muralist. My father was an inventor and builder of houses,

Little boxes on the hillside, Little boxes made of ticky tacky, Little boxes on the hillside, Little boxes all the same. There’s a green one and a pink one

cabinets, and boats. My studio was in the same space as his wood and tools. The realm of Popular Mechanics—a service magazine founded in 1902 to present clearly written technical material to the average American man—schooled my imagination.

And a blue one and a yellow one,

I came to know illustration as practiced by professionals, a world

And they’re all made out of ticky tacky

given form and order through signs and symbols and hand

And they all look just the same.

lettering.

And the people in the houses

Still today, Paulsen hand letters the exhibition titles on the walls

All went to the university,

of the North Dakota Museum of Art—maybe the last museum in

Where they were put in boxes

America to be thus graced.

And they came out all the same, . . . . Except Paulsen throws a wrench into the placid scene. The scale is off, a ball bigger than the house floats above it, all the people are absent. One becomes lost in his perfectly ordered town.

Paulsen, one of North Dakota’s important painters, taught at the university of North Dakota until 2007. uND named him a Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor, its highest honor. In 2007 the North Dakota Museum of Art mounted a solo exhibition

According to the artist, Many years ago I saw a miniature juried

which resulted in a book about Paulsen’s work (2008). He has

show advertised somewhere. I have been rejected from such

been a visiting artist at dozens of colleges and universities and

exhibitions in the past because my small works were slightly 36 larger than the rules allowed. In 1973, I made the decision to

shown in more than 100 juried exhibitions, eighty solo shows, and 200 invitational exhibitions.

Lot #41

Helgi Hjaltalín Eyjólfsson Reykjanesbae, Iceland McCanna Targets (Triptych), 2013 Watercolor on paper Each 6 x 6 inches Framed 13.25 x 22 inches Range: $600 – 800 Below, Lot #40

Helgi Hjaltalín Eyjólfsson Reykjanesbae, Iceland McCanna Targets, 2013 Watercolor on paper, 18 x 24 inches Range: $500 – 700

Helgi Hjaltalín Eyjólfsson and the North Dakota Museum of Art have a fine relationship. It began in June 2010 when Helgi Hjaltalín joined four other artists on flights from Reykjavik to Grand Forks. They were invited for the installation and opening of their exhibition, Into the Tussock: Contemporary Icelandic Art. Inadvertently, they were also invited to witness from their hotel window several tornadoes passing near Grand Forks. In 2011, Helgi Hjaltalín returned to North Dakota, to the heart of “Icelandic country.” He had acquired a fine reputation as a

plenty of art, including the work in this auction. Helgi Hjaltalín Eyjólfsson was born in Iceland in 1968 and lives with his family by the sea in the countryside near Reykjavik. He specialized in art at the Breidholt Comprehensive School (198488); the Icelandic School of Arts and Crafts (1988-91); Kunstakademie Dusseldorf (1991-92); AKI Akademie voor Beldende Kunst, Enschede, Holland (1992-94); and the San Francisco Art Institute (1994-95). His first solo exhibition was in Iceland (1996), followed by over twenty solo exhibitions since. He has shown in group exhibitions both at home and abroad.

teacher of children, enhanced by stories of him ushering his stoic

Helgi founded the Gallery 20m2 (Gallery 20 square meters) in

and constrained Icelandic students out into the rain to make

1996 when he returned home after studying abroad and ran it

watercolors. As Artist-in-Residence he spent a week collaborating

until 1998. He was involved in the running of Gallery Hlemmur

with students at Cavalier to create a town from wood scraps

from 1999 to 2002. He has been a board member of artist

while documenting the process with photographs. Less than a

organizations such as the Reykjavik Sculpture Association and

year later, he returned for another week and another workshop,

The Living Art Museum. He taught at the Icelandic School of Art

this time in Cando.

and Crafts from 1996 to 2001. Helgi Hjaltalín has worked in a

In June 2013, Helgi, accompanied by his artist/wife Valgerður Guolaugsdottir Duúkka—who is also in this auction—returned to Grand Forks. They spent a month as artists-in-residence at the

collaborative project called “Aim” with Pétur Örn Fridriksson from 2000 onward. Helgi Hjaltalín is also an educator and has specialized in museum installation.

Museum’s McCanna House. They brought their three-year-old

The North Dakota Museum of Art acquired the multi-faceted

son along and he came down with chickenpox—another North

installation “Favorable Circumstances” from the exhibition Into

Dakota experience. Helgi and Valgerður nevertheless made

the Tussock: Contemporary Icelandic Art.

Jessica Mongeon’s painting is sponsored by William F. Wosick, MD

Lot #42

Jessica Mongeon Belgrade, Montana Borealis, 2013 India ink and acrylic on paper 72 x 60 inches Range: $1,800 – 2,200

Jessica

Mongeon:

My work exposes and

to label and categorize, since some of the text contains

explores structures that are found in the natural world, as well as

abstracted place names and dates. Without providing mediation

the world of imagination. Rather than depict a specific

and by obstructing the act of naming, viewers are free to

landscape, I aggregate my feelings from multiple experiences.

construct their own interpretations.

Sketching and journaling as I travel by foot through various types of terrain, I collect data for my paintings. I approach my environment as an artist, seeking to communicate experiences through large-scale paintings.

Jessica is a recent MFA graduate from Montana State university in Bozeman, Montana. She completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from the university of North Dakota and grew up on a family farm in Rolette, North Dakota. Her work has been

The paintings are left structurally open in order to invite multiple

exhibited regionally and nationally, including a juried exhibition

interpretations and places of entry. An otherworldly element is

at the Painting Center in New York City called “Natural /

added as I contort and manipulate the space, intuitively working

Constructed Spaces.” In September 2013 Jessica will be

in layers. The process of painting mediates and translates spatial

participating an Artist Residency at the Anderson Center in Red

experiences and awareness. In this painting I included lines of

Wing, Minnesota. From October through mid-November she is

indistinguishable text, hinting that there may be something to

taking part in a month long Sam and Adele Golden Foundation

understand without revealing the exact message. We see the 38 world through the filter of language. It also speaks to the desire

Artist Residency in Columbus, New York.

All proceeds from the sale of Flying Through Darkness are donated to the Museum by Eleanor McGough

Lot #43

Eleanor McGough Minneapolis, Minnesota Flying Through Darkness, 2013 Acrylic on panel 16 x 20 inches Range: $400 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 550

Eleanor McGough creates elaborately layered works

historical fabrics, botanical drawings, and scientific imagery

on both paper and panel. My paintings explore our fleeting place

more than direct observation of nature. Yet she discloses the

in the larger patterns of weather, migrations, motion, and time.

interconnectedness of the natural world, in her case creating an

Imagined hybrid life forms inhabit terrestrial, aquatic, or

imaginary natural order of her own making. Her playful, almost

atmospheric spaces, revealing a fragile and tenuous relationship

psychedelic designs evoke delight and invite sustained study. In

within these systems. I am drawn to the research of high altitude

more recent work, McGough subdues her color range to shades

entomology that details the astonishing fact that billions of

of gray, black, and white, as though viewing a magical garden at

insects are carried in air drafts through the layers of our

night, illuminated by moonlight.

atmosphere. This idea serves as a visual metaphor to the broader context that all life is transitory and swept up in vast currents of energy.

Originally from Washington State, McGough has lived in the Twin Cities for twenty years. She began to paint in high school. She studied at the Brighton Polytechnic in England during the late

Colleen Sheehy writes: Eleanor McGough is a master colorist.

1980s before earning her BFA in painting from the Kansas City

Her densely layered paintings on both board and paper create

Art Institute in 1990. Her most recent solo exhibition was at The

intricate, jewel-like patterns, using imagery that suggests but

Phipps Center for the Arts in Hudson, Wisconsin, in 2013. She

does not necessarily directly reference actual plant species.

has an upcoming exhibition with Claudia Poser at the

Other layers or areas resemble microscopic worlds of amoeba,

Bloomington Art Center in 2014.

bacteria, or algae, which merge and overlap with forms at various scales, creating dazzling shifts in perception. McGough relies on shapes and patterns from nature, sometimes translated through textile patterns of botanical forms, and she is inspired by

Lot #44

Pirjo Berg Grand Forks, North Dakota Long Journey, 2013 Oil on canvas 24 x 48 inches

Pirjo Berg’s painting is sponsored by TRUYU Aesthetic Center

Range: $700 – 1,100

Pirjo Berg suggests that color, texture, and shape are at the

affiliate by critic Gary Faigin (2008); and a three-person exhibit

core of her paintings, which are inspired by the lines, repetition,

at Seattle’s Nordic Heritage Museum (2007). Commissions

texture, and geometric forms she sees in the familiar and mostly

include one by the NBBJ (architecture firm) for Valley Medical

Finnish textiles she lives with in her home. The rhythms,

Center in Renton, Washington, and another by the Max-Hotel.

contrasts, and lines of Long Journey reinforce the idea of textile

(Seattle artists each created work for one guest room. Catalog

just as her thick application of paint is tactile, beckoning the

produced.) She was invited on the curatorial team for “Nordic

viewer to touch.

Artists Northwest,” an invitational exhibit at the Nordic Heritage

This Finnish artist was born in Helsinki and grew up there. She moved to Seattle in 1991 with her geologist husband, returned to

Museum, and Convergence–Ballard Building C Artists (where she maintained a studio and helped develop the Ballard ArtWalk).

art school in Finland from 1996-2000, and rejoined her

In August 2010, Berg opened a two-person exhibition at the

husband in Seattle in 2000 after graduating with a BFA in

Vanhan Suurtorin Galleria, Turku, Finland. Spring 2010, she was

painting from the School of Art and Media, Tampere, Finland. She

the featured artist selected by the North Dakota Council on the

also studied with the EDGE Program, Artist Trust, Seattle,

Arts for a solo show in the Governor’s Office in Bismarck. Berg

Washington, in 2005.

was included in the 2012 Plains Museum’s “Art on the Plains XI”

Career highlights include the six-person exhibition “Paint Local” at North Dakota Museum of Art (2009); a solo show in Seattle’s 40 Gallery 63Eleven, which was reviewed on NPR’s Washington

juried exhibition (Fargo). In the summer of 2013, she spent two weeks at the North Dakota Museum of Art’s McCanna House as an artist-in-residence.

Lot #45

Jessica Matson-Fluto Horace, North Dakota Detachment, 2012 Oil on canvas 14 x 11 inches Range: $400 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 500

Jessica Matson-Fluto: This painting is from a body of

Detachment represents a monochromatic silhouette of twins.

work that represents the essence of the figure, which is created

This piece alludes to the disconnect between the figures as they

primarily from my subconscious mind. These figures are

are not interacting with each other nor their abstracted landscape

developed through my internal dialogues with myself. A

but are more concerned or interested in the viewer.

particular thought or emotion will arise from my choices of brushwork and color palette. Only then will the composition begin to take form, often in a more abstracted manner. At times, reference to the figure will come to express an emotional quality in the painting, but, in the end result, the figure may not even be of the same body type, position, or gender. Here, the essence and presence of the fabricated figure is important. Creating, struggling, destructing and reworking are a constant in my creative process. The painting Detachment was created while I was pregnant with my identical twins and on bed rest. After having surgery for Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome, I was placed on bed rest for fourand-a-half months. During this period, I had copious amounts of time to think about my unborn children and their surgery, performed to help correct the sharing of unequal amounts of nutrients and blood.

Jessica Matson-Fluto was born in Spokane, Washington in 1980. She received her BFA from Minnesota State university Moorhead in 2006 and her MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 2008. Matson-Fluto currently teaches at Minnesota State university Moorhead and makes work in her studio in Horace, North Dakota. She shows her work regionally and is included in public and private collections throughout the united States. Matson-Fluto also continues her education by partaking in workshops and master classes with various artists nationwide. Matson-Flutoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work is included in private and public collections throughout the Midwest. She continues to display her work locally and nationally and is an active member of the arts community. She and her husband currently live in Horace, North Dakota, with twin sons. 41

Lot #46

Sue fink Grand Forks, North Dakota Oregon Mill in the Rain, 2012 Watercolor on paper Image 16 x 21 inches Range: $450 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 600

Sue fink: I try to simplify my paintings and drawings of landscapes to my experience of being in it. I often choose the outdoors as subject matter because it is always accessible, be it wilderness, farmlands or cities, broad vistas or intimate spaces. I prefer to paint on site, however, with our winters I sometimes substitute drawing and photography as my references. I like to

Sue Finkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s painting is sponsored by the North Dakota Museum of Art

paint with oils because I paint slowly and want the long drying time necessary to solidify the surface, layering and mixing while I paint. To achieve my most essential statement, I abstract the original drawing or sketch, which is often quite realistic. I turn the canvas, scrape it, experiment with color and try to challenge the way I organize and frame a scene, coming close to and sometimes creating an entirely new landscape painting. The work in the Auction was started in 2010 and finished in the spring of 2011. The title Oregon Mill in the Rain was both a lament that the trees had not yet lost their leaves before it snowed, and that I wanted to be outdoors painting, not confined back in my studio.

Fink received her BFA from Pacific Northwest College of Art, (Portland, Oregon, and has studied at Oregon State university, Corvallis, and university of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Her prior

Sue Fink served as Director of Education at the North Dakota

experience before joining the Museum staff includes Instructor,

Museum of Art where she developed the highly popular Summer

university of North Dakota; Instructor, Community College of

Arts Camp as both an instructor and coordinator, and the

Southern Nevada; Arts and Humanities Program Developer, Lied

fundraiser for Antique to Chic to support the Camp program. She

Discovery Children's Museum, Las Vegas; Art Educator, Lied

was responsible for Family Days, endless tours and lectures, as

Discovery Children's Museum; and Director and Developer,

well as program curriculum development for the Rural Arts

ArtSmarts for at-risk teens. In February 2012, Sue Fink spent a

Initiative, a traveling exhibition program that serves all of North

month in residence at the Vermont Studio Center. In August 2013

Dakota. She retired September 1, 2013 to devote her time to 42 making art.

she opened a solo exhibition of her paintings and watercolors at Valley City State university.

Lot #47

Lisa York Gaithersburg, Maryland Black and White Vessel, 2013 Ceramics 29 x 16 x 12 inches Range: $400 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 800

Lisa York: A form made with the intention of being used

New York. During her time there she had the opportunity to study

opens an opportunity for the user to interact with the piece for

art in London, France, and Tanzania. After completing her BA in

entertainment or everyday living; an orchestration of interactions

2008, she spent a year volunteering for an organization called

between object and user. I was exposed to indigenous textiles

Neema Crafts in Tanzania where she helped set up a ceramic

and ceramics through international travel and that increased my

studio. She has also volunteered with newer studios in

appreciation of raw, simplified forms. In my own work, I record

Guatemala. In 2010, she completed her Certificate of Ceramic

similar shapes, patterns, and ideas I find interesting by drawing

Arts at Hood College. After graduating from Hood College, she

on the surface of the vessel. I leave some ceramic pieces

did a year long apprenticeship with Kevin Crowe, a wood fire

unadorned; others are decorated with lines and abstracted

potter in Virginia. In 2012, she accepted a residency in Sanboa,

flowers, which contribute to an overall sense of earthiness. My

China. She returned to Grand Forks to work on her MFA in

ceramics are organic and individualistic, with rims that wobble

ceramics at the university of North Dakota.

and surfaces that are asymmetrical. These qualities reinforce the ideas of landscape, and expand the possibilities of how the pieces are seen and experienced. Although Lisa York first became interested in drawing and painting, she started working with clay at Houghton College in

Lot #48

James Culleton Winnipeg, Manitoba Little Red Banjo, 2010 Waterjet cut steel, red powder coating 24 x 8.5 x .25 inches Range: $400 – 600

2009 book “Contouring Quebec.” His art and designs have been shown in New Zealand, Germany, Canada, and throughout the united States. He has exhibited in the Winnipeg area at The Pavilion Gallery Museum, St. Boniface College, the university of Manitoba, Ace Art, The West End Cultural Centre, and the Winnipeg Art Gallery. Little Red Banjo is an example of Culleton’s relief wall works made with CNC technology (computer numerical control) and high pressured water to create steel cut-outs of his blind contour drawings (made quickly while looking at the subject and not the pencil and paper). The same contour drawings end up in books, the newest being “Lyrical Lines,” a visual who's who of Canada's roots music scene in some of Winnipeg's most venerable music venues. In Grand Forks, under another guise he wins raves for the appearance of his “music outfit” Knick Knackerson & the Minglers. The son of an Anglophone father and a Francophone mother, Knackerson writes music in both French and English. After long exposure to country music, Knackerson picked up the guitar at eighteen. A self-taught musician, he has been playing and writing music with a guitar for the past twenty years. Recently he has added the muck bucket bass (a two-string

James Culleton is also known as “Knick Knackerson” in the music world. Culleton is a man of wide interests and great talent—as well as a family man. His seven-year-old spent ten days with his papa in August 2013 at McCanna House, the Museum’s artist-in-residence compound. During this time, the artist dug back into the history of McCanna and its namesake, historic family. This was the beginning of what will evolve into many drawings and songs as well. Born in St. Boniface, Manitoba, in 1974, this multi-faceted artist studied painting and drawing at the university of Manitoba where he earned his BFA with honors in 1997. In 2006, he received a grant from the Conseil des arts et lettres du Quebec to rediscover his French roots using blind contour drawing and a 44 Global Positioning System. This resulted in the publication of his

homemade bass), the kazoo, and the cigar-box guitar. Knackerson has also been a member of Winnipeg bands the Godkings, Mogus, and The New Eastman Stringbusters. Bands he has played with from Montreal include The Archaic Music Experience, The Delroys, and The Royal Mountain Ramblers. As their name suggests, the Minglers have had many line-ups since their formation in the late nineties. And then another life. Since 2006, Culleton has been Design Director for Palliser Furniture upholstery Ltd., a leading North American furniture company with local manufacturing facilities in Canada and Mexico. He creates upholstery fabrics as well as functional furniture. “And he is a lovely human being,” claims Museum Director Laurel Reuter.

Lot #50

Lot #49

Valgerður Duúkka

Valgerður Duúkka Reykjanesbae, Iceland

Reykjanesbae, Iceland Jill DeVries, 1975 Miss October, June 2013 Color pencil drawing on wood panel

Marlene Janssen, 1982 Miss November, June 2013 Color pencil drawing on wood panel 20 x 20 inches

20 x 20 inches

Range: $700 – 1,100

Valgerður Guðlaugsdóttir Duúkka: In

Valgerður Duúkka´s inquiry into the truth of assumed self-image,

and around 1990, when the artist embarked on her art studies,

the mask of womanliness, vulnerability, and power, reveals the

feminism had lost much of its appeal. It was a time of so-called

uncomfortable fact that womanliness, and the masquerade that

post-feminism, where some of the theories of antifeminists had

comes with it, is at the same time the reflection and foundation

been absorbed at the same time that the original feminism had

of paternalism, and that women alone are not in a position to

become a minor element in postmodernism theory. As a

overturn the situation that they are in.

consequence overtly feminist art lost its former status and was seen as obsolete and jaded, while the idea of “inherent womanliness” was resurrected and marketed with a vengeance.

—Þóra Þórsdóttir Translation by Aðalsteinn Ingólfsson

Valgerður Gudlaugsdóttir was born in 1970 in Reykjavik,

Although Valgerður Duúkka´s art is assuredly feminist in

Iceland. At an early age she started attending evening classes in

character, it is first and foremost a sincere process of research and

art schools and in Comprehensive School she enrolled in the art

interpretation of her societal experience, much like that of other

department. She graduated from the Icelandic Academy of Arts

contemporary artists. She happens to be a woman and her

and Crafts, Sculpture Department in 1994 and continued her

experience as a woman is uncomfortably similar to the

education at Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki, Finland. Valgerður

experience of other women some forty years ago, or a hundred

has had regular solo exhibitions since she graduated from school

years ago for that matter. Thus, her works are far from being old

and has taken part in many group exhibitions both in Iceland and

news and refer to contemporary issues, to a society so saturated

abroad. From 1999 until 2001 she founded and ran the gallery

by marketing forces that it is able to envisage a school for “little

Galleri Hlemmur together with a friend from school. They

princesses,” complete with lessons in womanly subservience. We

concentrated on exhibiting young Icelandic artists. Valgerður has

are still faced with images of women as sex objects, the

won awards for her artist activity both in school and after, and in

objectification of ourselves and our daughters as dolls, sex dolls,

the Icelandic tradition has received many stipends. Her works are

porcelain dolls, and Barbie dolls.

in all major public collections in Iceland.

Kelli J. Nelson’s painting is sponsored by Minnesota Public Radio

Lot #51

Kelli J. Nelson Minneapolis, Minnesota Ekstasis, 2013 Oil on wood panel 60 x 48 inches Range: $750 – 1,200

kelli Nelson always starts with the body. Figurative forms

dependent on our social and environmental relations.” Ekstasis

emerge and are obliterated through a process of overlapping and

straddles another boundary, the one between drawing and

erasure, making it unclear where one figure ends and another

painting. Gestural lines define figures and create psychological

begins. As the individual bodies coalesce with each other and

barriers, yet they remain fluid opening up to their backgrounds,

their ground, they lose some or all of their identity, creating

blurring the distinction between form and atmospheric space.

images resting precariously on the threshold between figuration and abstraction. She suggests “painting positions itself

A Grand Forks native, Nelson earned a BFA in painting from the

somewhere between materiality and image, and in these tensions

university of North Dakota in the 2010. She currently lives in

something enigmatic is felt, something that transcends the

Minneapolis where she completed her MFA in drawing and

pictorial plane, yet only exists immanently within it.”

painting in the spring of 2013 from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Nelson teaches drawing at the Minnetonka

Her painting Ekstasis, a Greek word meaning to “stand outside of

Center for the Arts and is a volunteer for the Art Adventure

oneself,” comes from her “Permanent Liminality” Series, which

Program through the Minneapolis Institute of Art, which

explores “the obscuring of boundaries, between self and other,

introduces children K-6 to works of art from various cultures.

46 person and environment, to reflect the idea that identity is largely

Lot #52

Jon Offutt Fargo, North Dakota Winter Reeds, 2012 Blown glass 15.75 x 5 x 5 inches Range: $300 – 400

Jon Offutt plays with fire. At his glassblowing studio in Fargo—named after the Roman god of fire Mulciber—he uses roaring, 2,000 degree heat as a tool to transform molten glass into beautiful, award-winning glass vessels and sculptures. Offutt earned an MFA in glass from Southern Illinois university at Carbondale, and he passes along his knowledge to new students of glass. He also demonstrates his craft for the public and to a new generation as he travels throughout the region with his Mobile Glassblowing Studio.

The vessel titled Winter Reeds is an example of my newest work.

Jon’s new series of work is a response to his travels around the

I continue to simplify my ‘mark making’ as I depict our prairie

region.

surroundings.

The bold horizon line of the prairie provides many nuances of

Offutt is the executive director of the Fargo Moorhead Visual

light and perspective, he says, and the vastness of the sky

Artists (FMVA) Studio Crawl, an event where Fargo/Moorhead

demands a sensitive depiction of atmosphere. My “Dakota

artists open their studios to the public, showing recent works,

Horizons” work celebrates the topography of our surroundings—

providing demonstrations and answering questions. In addition

the evolving seasons, the subtle movement of sweeping

to organizing the event, Offutt often participates in the Studio

grasslands, the shifting character of our sky.

Crawl by opening his own studio to the public.

Lot #53

Chuck Kimmerle Casper, Wyoming Of Fading Light, 2009 Archival inkjet print 20 x 14 inches Range: $500 – 600

Throughout much of that time, Kimmerle followed his inner passion and photographed the landscape where he lived. His work is not what is usually considered as pretty or scenic, but is instead a study of the shapes and textures and forms, often harsh and drastic, which comprise the landscape. In 2009, Kimmerle mounted a solo exhibition, “The

Chuck Kimmerle was born in Minnesota’s Twin Cities,

unapologetic Landscape,” at the North Dakota Museum of Art.

and spent his formative years nearby. After a four-year stint in the

In 2010, he followed his wife, a New York City native, to her new

Army Infantry, where he gained an appreciation for, and love of,

job in the least populated state in the united States: Wyoming,

the power of photography, he enrolled as a Photographic

where he now works as an educational and commercial

Engineering Technology student at St. Cloud State university. He

freelance photographer.

went on to earn a BS degree in what is now an outdated field of study.

In the past year, Kimmerle and his work have been featured in multi-page spreads in photography publications such as:

While at St. Cloud State, I began working at the school paper,

Lenswork, B&W, Outdoor Photography (uK), Black and White

which was followed by a photojournalism position at the St.

(uK), f/11, dodho and Outdoor Photographer. In addition, over

Cloud Times and, subsequently, jobs at newspapers in

the past year, he has had a solo exhibit at the Nicolaysen Art

Pennsylvania and finally North Dakota, where I was part of a

Museum and has participated in half a dozen group and juried

four-person staff named as finalists for the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for

shows around the country.

Spot News Photography. Kimmerle was a photographer at the Grand Forks Herald during the 1997 flood. Subsequently he

Regarding the photograph in the auction taken in western Grand

collaborated with fellow photographer Eric Hylden and Laurel

Forks County: My chosen piece, Of Fading Light, is part of recent

Reuter, Director of the North Dakota Museum of Art, to produce

and ongoing project in which I explore the state of vernacular

the book and exhibition Under the Whelming Tide: the 1997

relics in regions dominated by agriculture. These are not intended

Flood of the Red River of the North. These years were followed

to be statements about “loss” or “decay” or “abandonment”, but

by a decade as the photographer at the university of North 48 Dakota in Grand Forks.

rather about a proud life and the inevitable outcome which all things face.

Lot #54

Samuel Johnson St. Joseph, Minnesota Wall Platter, 2005 wood fired stoneware slab construction 16.5 x 16 x 4 inches Range: $400 – 500

Samuel Johnson

was born on the eastern

Lot #55

prairie of the Red River Valley in 1973. After graduating with

Samuel Johnson

distinction from the university of Minnesota, Morris, Johnson

St. Joseph, Minnesota

apprenticed with Richard Bresnahan at The Saint John’s Pottery

Flat Sided Bottle, 2013

from 1996 until 1999—the longest apprenticeship in the

Stoneware, gas kiln fired

Minnesota studio’s thirty year history. In 2000, he studied

13.5 x 10 inches diameter

Scandinavian ceramic design at Denmark’s Design School in

Range: $200 – 300

Copenhagen. While in Denmark, he also worked at the International Ceramic Center in Skaelskor. In 2001, Sam traveled to Japan and worked for a time in the studio of the renowned potter Koie Ryoji, but also took the opportunity to visit other notable ceramists including Goro Suzuki, Kanzaki Shiho, Isezaki Jun and Ryuichi Kakurezaki. After returning to the States, he enrolled in the graduate program at the university of Iowa, completing his MFA in 2005. Since that time, he has worked as Assistant Professor of Art at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s university. During 2012, Johnson spent several sabbatical months traveling in China to various pottery centers. He was surprised to find no ceramics programs in universities. There is a clear separation from their ancient pottery tradition, he surmised. He visited the Qingyang Taoist Temple in Chengdu where he found all kinds of great pots made 800 years ago, but nothing contemporary. Speaking of the slab wall platter Johnson said, I always liked this work especially the way the ash washed over the piece during firing. I also like the rough, thick edges reinforced by the cracks in the sides of the work. In the Flat Sided Bottle, also in this auction, I am experimenting with new ways of glazing.

Patricia Stuen’s quilt is sponsored by Grand Forks Herald

Lot #56

patricia Stuen Wahpeton, North Dakota Star Quilt, 2012 Hand stitched blocks Machine-stitched quilting 103 x 84 inches Range: $500 – 800

patricia Stuen: A vibrantly-colored star quilt created by

important to give than to get,” she explained to the Carrie

Pat Stuen, a longtime teacher at Circle of Nations in Wahpeton,

McDermott of the Wahpeton Daily News, “and star quilts are

is part of the exhibition “The Sum of Many Parts: 25 Quiltmakers

used for honoring people.”

from 21st-Century America.” “The Sum of Many Parts” is a program conceived and sponsored by the united States Embassy, Beijing in collaboration with Arts Midwest and South Arts.

Stuen, who came out of retirement four years ago to substitute teach and be a reading tutor, learned about the star quilt from Esther Horne, a respected Native elder. “It’s a symbol of Indian

The exhibit opened at the Shanghai Museum of Textile and

America, and over the decades people say that I have brought my

Costume Design at Donghua university in Shanghai in

own signature style to the form,” Stuen said.

September 2012. It featured interactive workshops for Chinese audiences and presentations from united States arts specialists and quilters featured in the exhibition. The traveling exhibit will tour for two-month installations at major cultural institutions in the cities of Kunming, Nanning, Changsha and Dalian. Stuen has made more than 400 quilts over three-plus decades, 50 selling some and giving others as gifts. “In society, it’s more

As well as receiving recognition in the traveling exhibit, Stuen has been teaching quilting to students at Circle of Nations. She has about six in her class this year. “They’ll take them home and give as gifts,” she said. “Even the boys are doing it.”

Becoming an Artist Dan Jones Interviewed by Laurel Reuter Director, North Dakota Museum of Art

Dan Jones, Self-Portrait, 2011. Charcoal, 12 x 19 inches.

LR: How does one become an artist? Bred in the bone?

sessions, however, opened another door for me. Jack Youngquist,

Happenstance? Nothing else seems to fit? Achieved through

who had retired from the art department at Moorhead, came to

grueling work thinking it might be the path to fame and fortune?

the Saturday gatherings and I would sit next to him. He

I asked Dan Jones that question. He thought for awhile, and then

heightened my interest in working with the figure, in paying

began to tell me his story.

attention to detail. Through him, I recognized the pull of realism.

DJ: Sometimes I still wonder if I am an artist. I didn’t start until

I came back to NDSU after a year realizing that abstract painting

late, maybe in the early 1980s when I quit construction and

didn’t appeal to me. I also knew that it was important to learn the

decided to go to North Dakota State University (NDSU).

fundamentals of the trade. At NDSU I would be left alone. Even though at Minnesota I was treated as a grad student and allowed

In the early 1970s, I got caught up in the passions of the time:

to pursue whatever I wanted to, there were only two of us

sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Having decided to go clean, I

interested in realism. Still, we did a lot of research into the

checked myself into a Minneapolis treatment center to get off

techniques and mediums of the old Masters. I brought this desire

coke. My cousin Tim picked me up on the day I was released,

to grasp old techniques back to NDSU where they carved out a

March 30, 1980, and we went to the Walker Art Center, a place

studio for me. I taught myself to paint as closely to the old

completely new to me. It was the last day of the Picasso

Masters as I could. I was grinding my own pigments, mixing my

Retrospective. It blew me away. Maybe this is when my artistic

own mediums, copying Rembrandt and Manet paintings. The

life began.

faculty would allow me to sign up for sculpture, photography,

A year later, I passed my GED [high school equivalency test]. I

whatever, and just work on painting in my studio.

enrolled at NDSU in architecture, which I never much liked. But

One bitter cold winter, I flew out to see a friend living in

I had to take a drawing class. Now this I could love. My drawing

Redondo Beach, California. A week later I returned to minus 30-

instructor was Catherine Mulligan and I couldn’t understand

degree temperatures. Oh, no, not again, just like laying bricks.

anything she said. ‘Picture planes. Chiaroscuro. oblique angles.’

This time I gathered up all my drawing supplies, canceled

I knew nothing about art. Somehow, she taught me how to see

everything except Catherine Mulligan’s drawing class, and holed

things differently, things I never would have noticed. So, leaving

up in my apartment for six weeks to teach myself how to draw,

architecture behind, I enrolled in the Art Department and spent

again by copying Old Masters, Jacques-Louis David, Nicolas

the first year immersed in painting and art history.

Poussin. That is when I started using charcoal.

I progressed rapidly; people began to suggest that I had some

Six weeks later when it warmed up, I collected my drawings,

talent. Then, of course, I thought I should go to a bigger school

pinned them up at the department, and got an A for the class. I

so I transferred to the University of Minnesota where Abstract

would get A grades in sculpture and photography but never made

Expressionism dominated the department. Independent life

class—just made As. Got on the Dean’s List and all I did was sit

drawing from a model and Saturday Morning Open Drawing

in the studio and make art. Then he moved to Oregon.

that I couldn’t return. It sat in flat files for ten years and I forgot about it. We had to move home and studio when the Fargo dike went in and here was all this paper. It reemerged as the charcoal drawings which comprised my 2013 NDMOA exhibition. I am a realist but I also like to improvise. I start by toning a piece of paper and then begin picking out images. This is when I really enjoy the work. I might have a photograph or sketch in front of me but when I let it go, or just set it aside, and respond to the suggested images on the toned paper, I am happy. The sooner I get away from the model the quicker it goes and the more successful the drawing becomes. They also echo my fascination Dan Jones, Bales on Hill, 2012. Charcoal and conté, 31.5 x 47.5 inches

with Tonalism, a late nineteenth century art movement that grew out of the Barbizon school. Like those painters, I make outdoor sketches and finish the landscapes indoors. By laying down

After a few years on the West Coast I moved back to Minneapolis. I got a studio in the warehouse district and started painting on a regular basis. Landscapes. My interests in old Masters subsided upon seeing Milton Avery’s work at the Walker Art Center. He could describe space with just large shapes of color. No modeling. He would tilt up the foreground to read like a shape—back in 1983 I was already painting high horizon lines with large, flattened foregrounds.

blocks and shapes of muted colors or soft blacks and grays, the paintings don’t suggest subject as much as mood, timelessness, mists and shadow. I use charcoal on the exquisitely subdued, pastel or gray papers to achieve a similar soft result. When I play my harmonica with a really good band I sound terrific. I rise to the level of my fellow players. This high quality paper makes me rise to the level of the material. It always amazes me that artists focus on how expensive materials are when they are such a small part of the cost. I remember Willem de Kooning

It was also a visually rich time. We lived across from the

saying that he and his wife would go without eating for a week

Minneapolis Institute of Arts so I joined the Drawing Council and

so they could buy cadmium red.

started receiving invitations to openings and lectures. I remember in 1989-90, The Institute hosted “Jim Dine Drawings: 1973 – 1987.” He gave a talk and as Drawing Council members we got to go through the show with him. We could ask him about his work. Wonderful! That was when I first saw color used in

Color makes painting harder. I enjoy painting, especially the larger ones and the works that are more improvisational. The color is the hard part. Drawing is always the “funnest” stage of painting, the initial beginning.

charcoal drawings. Dine just added subtle touches of color,

Making things, finish carpentry, knowing how to stretch a canvas,

usually with pastel. That’s the impetus for the little red barns in

frame it, etc. Process, how something is made. It’s all part of what

my charcoal drawings Dine’s huge drawings forced me think

makes me. I was always fascinated by Norman Rockwell’s

about scale. He was using pieces of paper 55 x 40 inches, up to

drawing

60 inches even. Drawings as I had known them were modestly

photographically. It’s kind of like golf, a game you can never win.

sized, but no longer—probably his biggest influence on me.

All you can do is play. Draw and draw and draw. The French

Then in early 1990, the economy crashed and the bottom fell out of the art market. In June 1992, we went up to Moorhead for Jim O’Rourke’s Midwestern exhibition and we decided to stay. Julia would look for a job and I would open a gallery/frame shop in Fargo. I didn’t have deep pockets and during the 1997 flood of the Red River nobody bought art or got things framed. I had opened up an art supply department because artists wanted highend supplies. Nobody came. I sold two tubes of watercolor paint and the next day the woman brought them back because she 66 found them cheaper online. But I had a stock of awesome paper

ability.

could

illustrate

things

almost

painter Jacque-Louis David said, in order to learn to draw you have to do 10,000 drawings but they are never good enough. I haven’t completely shaken off the yoke of realism but it concerns me less. Milton Avery showed me the way. A big black shape on a canvas can be read as a big plowed field. So ultimately, my drawings are about creating shapes and the viewer forms them into their own something. Conversations took place between Jones and Reuter in December 2012. This interview is excerpted from the catalog Dan Jones: Charcoal. The corresponding show was organized by the North Dakota Museum of Art in January 2013.

Explore . . . Endure . . . Evolve . . .

In Memoriam of our beloved editor, Robert W. Lewis 15 Dec 1930â&#x20AC;&#x201D;26 Aug 2013 Nina Smart, Santo Roberto

North Dakota Quarterly, Merrifield Hall Room 110, 276 Centennial Drive Stop 7209, Grand Forks ND 58202-7209, (701) 777-3322 e-mail: und.ndq@email.und.edu www.und.nodak.edu/org/ndq

North Dakota Museum of Art

The North Dakota Museum of Art is grateful to our sponsors who have given generously to guarantee that the arts flourish.

North Dakota Museum of Art Board of Trustees

Board of Directors

Evan Anderson

W. Jeremy Davis

Ganya Anderson

Nancy Friese

Foundation

Julie Blehm, Vice President

Bruce Gjovig

W. Jeremy Davis

David Hasbargen

Virginia Lee Dunnigan

Laurel Reuter

Susan Farkas Bruce Gjovig Darrell Larson, Chairman

North Dakota Museum of Art Staff

Mary Matson

The 2013 Autumn Art Auction is underwritten by

HB Sound & Light and

Truyu

Aesthetic Center

both of Grand Forks, North Dakota

Sally Miskavige, Secretary

Matt Anderson

Laurel Reuter

Guillermo Guardia

Lynn Raymond

Sungyee Joh

Alex Reichert, Treasurer

Brian Lofthus

Tammy Sogard

Danielle Masters

Linda Swanston

Laurel Reuter, Director

Kelly Thompson

Gregory Vettel

Lois Wilde

Matthew Wallace

Joshua Wynne

Justin Welsh

Wayne Zimmerman, President

Brad Werner

Corinne Alphson, Emerita Kim Holmes, Emeritus Barb Lander, Emerita Ellen McKinnon, Emerita Douglas McPhail, Emeritus Sanny Ryan, Emerita Gerald Skogley, Emeritus Anthony Thein, Emeritus

Part-time Staff Rory Burkhart Sheila Dalgliesh Kathy Kendle Wayne Kendle Jeremy Lane Kristen Poitra Evan Sprecher Michael Brien Sarah Borgen

Erika Gallaway Keira Kalenze and over fifty volunteers

Autumn Art Auction Volume 15, 2013

North Dakota Museum of Art