Friday, July 31, 2015

Shana Kaplow - Painter and Video Artist

Particulates, 2015, ink on paper in 300 parts, 16’ x 20’
Shana Kaplow



Name: Shana Kaplow
City/State: St. Paul, MN
Email: skaplow@iphouse.com
Website: www.shanakaplow.com
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/shana.kaplow

Bio: 
Shana Kaplow is a painter and video artist living and working in St. Paul, Minnesota. Her work deals with issues of connection and separation linking personal narratives to larger social forces. She has exhibited her work nationally and internationally at museums and galleries including The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, The TEDA Museum of Contemporary Art (Tianjin, China), The Asheville Museum of Art (NC), The Plains Art Museum (ND), 55 Mercer Gallery (NY), Franklin Art Works (MN), Detroit Artists Market (MI), The Art Space (Tel Aviv), The Soap Factory (MN), The Third Place Gallery (MN), The Weinstein Gallery (MN), Macalester College Gallery (MN), and Thom Barry Fine Arts (MN). Her video work has been screened at The Walker Art Center, and the Austro-Sino Arts Program in Beijing, China. She has received several grants and fellowships for her work including the MN State Arts Board Artists Initiative Grant, the Joan Mitchell Foundation Artists Grant for Painters and Sculptors, the Bush Foundation Artist Fellowship, the McKnight Foundation Artist Fellowship, and the Arts Midwest/NEA fellowship. She was an artist in residence at the Red Gate International Art Residency in Beijing, China, and the Vermont Studio Center Artist Residency in Vermont. She has an upcoming exhibition at Rosalux Gallery (Minneapolis) in August, 2015, and will be included in the Midwest Biennial at The Soap Factory in September, 2015. Shana is Professor in the Art Department at St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, Minnesota.



Tell me about your work? What are you currently working on? How is this different from past projects?
I am continuing to work with ink painting on paper, video, and sometimes three-dimensional structures. I am currently working with the idea of connection and separation through the depiction of everyday objects like chairs and tables. These are utilitarian objects but they are also intimate ones. We use them with our bodies – they reflect the architecture of the body and the home. I am thinking about various ways of working with the materials as a way to straddle what seem like opposite attitudes. Sometimes I work in super tight realism and other times I work really loose and improvisationally. Mostly I am interested in infusing the ‘body’ of each approach with something of the other’s qualities. I am spending time with this idea of residues and the unseen qualities that come to mind. For me, the work stems from questions about how these ineffable qualities also create challenging implications that link personal lives to larger global and industrial conditions. I want to take that on as a both a poetic and a real world concern.

How did you decide to become an artist?
I grew up around art and artists (and scientists). My mother is a painter - making and looking at art was always part of the culture of our home. The idea of asking questions as a creative or scientific endeavor was encouraged. But it was during college that I realized that my heart and mind were the most engaged in the art department and decided to listen to that. I was attracted to the freedom of thought that art made room for.



What was the best advice given to you as an artist? 
That this endeavor has a long arc – you don’t have to have it all figured out. Just keep working and asking questions of yourself and your work.

Many artists struggle to find ways to sell their art.  How do you sell your work?  How do you market yourself?
I do not have commercial gallery representation, but over the years have sold work through a variety of different gallery contacts. (http://www.thomasbarry.com, http://www.weinstein-gallery.com and http://www.elizabethleach.com). I have occasionally sold independently. More recently, I became a member of Rosalux Gallery www.rosaluxgallery.org, an artists’ collective gallery in Minneapolis. I don’t always think of it as “marketing myself”, but I do think that building real relationships is one of the most meaningful channels that helps to connect my work to someone that might want to own it. I also have a web presence as a way to inform people about my work. www.shanakaplow.com, http://www.mnartists.org/skaplow

Who are some of the Minnesota artists you enjoy?
There are so many!
Alexa Horochowski http://alexahorochowski.com
Andrea Carlson http://mikinaak.com
Anne Sugnet
Christine Baeumler https://vimeo.com/48815490
JoAnne Verburg http://joannverburg.com
Margaret Pezalla-Granlund http://www.mpezalla.com
Anne George…. http://annegeorge.net
Val Jenkins
I could go on …



If I were to follow you around to see art in Minnesota, which places would we go? What would we see?
The Bindery Projects http://thebinderyprojects.com/thebindery_projects/home.html
MAEP/MIA http://new.artsmia.org/exhibitions/maep/
The Soap Factory http://www.soapfactory.org
The Third Place Gallery http://www.wingyounghuie.com/events
The Waiting Room http://www.waitingroomart.org
David Peterson Gallery http://davidpetersengallery.com
Walker Art Center http://www.walkerart.org
Burnet Gallery http://burnetgallery.com/home.html



In addition to www.Local-Artist-Interviews.com, where do you go online for good art resources, whether to find a new artist, or to see what is going on in the art world locally and otherwise? 
Two Coats of Paint http://www.twocoatsofpaint.com
Painters Table http://painters-table.com
Bomb Magazine http://bombmagazine.org
Walker Art Center Blog http://blogs.walkerart.org
Contemporary Art Daily http://www.contemporaryartdaily.com
Gorky’s Granddaughter http://www.gorkysgranddaughter.com
Minneapolis City Pages http://www.citypages.com

What can we expect to see from you in the future?
I have an exhibition with Rebecca Krinke coming up in August 2015 at Rosalux Gallery called Low Lying Area. The show runs August 2 – 30th. The opening reception is Saturday, August 8th from 7-10 (it’s free and open to the public). In September, my work will be included in the Midwest biennial entitled, Superusted, curated by Cheryl Wilgren Clyne at The Soap Factory (September 12 – November 1, Opening September 12, 7-11pm). In October, I will have work in the Drawing Project’s inaugural show at Homewood Studios.


Shana Kaplow


Image List:
1. Particulates, 2015, ink on paper in 300 parts, 16’ x 20’
2. Particulates (detail), 2015, ink on paper in 300 parts, 16’ x 20’
3. The Table’s Body and Persistent Fugitive 1 + 2, 2015, ink on paper, 48” x 70” and 40” x 50”
4. Studio view, new work in progress, 2015, ink on paper, 44” x 30”
5. New work in progress, 2015, ink on paper, 44” x 30”
6. Image of artist


Friday, July 24, 2015

Rebecca Krinke - Scuplture-Installation

Rebecca Krinke

Name: Rebecca Krinke
City/State: Minneapolis, MN
Website: http://dreamwindowrk.tumblr.com (my current work, in process) http://rosaluxgallery.com/my_portfolio/rebecca-krinke/ - .VaLtkxNViko (portfolio on Rosalux Gallery site) http://www.mnartists.org/rjkrinke (portfolio on mnartists.org site)


Bio: Rebecca Krinke's practice works across sculpture, interior installations, public art, site works, and social practice. She has exhibited her work indoors in gallery settings (including BV Gallery, Bristol, England, Black Box Theatre Gallery, Galway, Ireland, Experiential Gallery, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA) and outdoors (including Franconia Sculpture Park and Silverwood Park). Krinke often creates temporary, participatory projects, such as her Black Box Camera Obscura, Northrop Plaza, U of MN, What Needs to Be Said? installed in a vacant storefront in St. Paul and the Nash Gallery in Minneapolis,Flood Stories, commissioned by the Plains Art Museum in Fargo, ND, and Unseen/Seen: The Mapping of Joy and Pain in Minneapolis-St. Paul. She recently completed a commission for the public art program in Sacramento, CA, called Unknown/Known, an augmented reality project that explored a key street in that city.




Tell me about your work? What are you currently working on? How is this different from past projects?

My art from graduate school culminated in a group of sculptures made primarily of pine needles that I installed as a temporary event in a pine forest. I called this work The Place to Share Beauty and Fear. This continues as an apt way to talk about my work, although I now often say, “I work in wonder and terror.” These seem to be the fundamental and paradoxical aspects of being alive. 

I am currently working on the installation that I will put up in Rosalux Gallery for an exhibition with Shana Kaplow opening August 2. The installation is called Dream Window/What is the City dreaming? and it is a direct outgrowth of my Northern Spark project Dream Window - which had two components - a surreal bed sculpture suspended high in the Mill City Museum’s Ruin Courtyard, and on the ground below, my team and I asked festival goers if they wanted to write or draw about a dream or nightmare they have had. We collected almost 500 dreams on beautiful Mylar pages. For the Rosalux show, I am reconfiguring the bed sculpture and planning to showcase the collected dreams as part of the installation. This project extends my temporary participatory work by bringing back the artifacts of the experience (the bed, the dreams) to a gallery show.

How did you decide to become an artist?

My art began with a powerful dream I had - as an adult - about a bear. It inspired me to make a sculpture of a bearskin rug out of aluminum foil as a gift to a friend. This started my first body of sculpture (all of aluminum foil) where I explored themes of animal, wildness, dreams, and domesticity. This work was shown and awarded. I eventually went to art school to have access to facilities, expand my material range, enjoy a community of artists, and deepen my work.

What was the best advice given to you as an artist?
Be present, and make art from being present.




Many artists struggle to find ways to sell their art. How do you sell your work? How do you market yourself?

As a maker of large sculptures, installations and participatory projects, my work is not readily collectible - and I have not focused on selling it. I have received commissions and grants – I have and do put energy into this. I am currently taking stock of my “marketing plan”, meaning how I position my work. I have a strong private streak, yet I am also working with the public and ideas of the public realm, so it's an interesting paradox. I am thinking of my “marketing plan” as another art project and am looking forward to what will develop, such as a new website, and hopefully some more innovative and underground efforts too.


Who are some of the Minnesota artists you enjoy?

My colleagues in Rosalux Gallery are all very strong artists, http://rosaluxgallery.com/ I have so many other friends and colleagues who are terrific artists - it is very difficult to choose or say.

If I were to follow you around to see art in Minnesota, which places would we go? What would we see?

As a sculptor, I feel affinity with Franconia Sculpture Park and Franconia in the City, http://www.franconia.org/ and also the Soap Factory http://www.soapfactory.org/ for the adventure of some work they show - such as sculptor Chris Larson’s recent “Wise Blood” opera/collaboration. SooVac http://www.soovac.org/,Wing Young Huie’s Third Place Gallery, http://www.wingyounghuie.com/test , TuckUnder Projects http://www.tuckunder.org/, Minnesota Center for Book Arts, http://www.mnbookarts.org/ and All My Relations Gallery are inspiring venues. http://www.allmyrelationsarts.com/.




In addition to www.Local-Artist-Interviews.com, where do you go online for good art resources, whether to find a new artist, or to see what is going on in the art world locally and otherwise? 

I sign up for the emails to come to my inbox - 
from the City Pages http://www.citypages.com/ 
Mnartists.org 
http://www.mnartists.org/ 
The Line http://www.thelinemedia.com/ and several others.
Nationally and internationally I look at the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/pages/arts/design/index.htmland Guardian UK http://www.theguardian.com/uk




Do you have any exhibits to promote in the near future? 
Shana Kaplow and I have a two-person exhibition called Low Lying Area, at Rosalux Gallery running 8/2/15-8/30/15, with the reception Saturday, August 8th from 7-10 PM.




What can we expect to see from you in the future?
I have been making a series of bed sculptures, and I hope to make an even more comprehensive interior room – with a bed, cabinets, and a reading table, holding sculptural books I make to be handled/read by gallery goers as they contemplate the room. I see this project as extending my work more deeply into the psychological, the haptic, and the participatory.






Image List:
1. Dream Window (bed sculpture), at Mill City Museum Courtyard, Northern Spark commission, June 13, 2015
2. Dream Window (bed sculpture), at Mill City Museum Courtyard, Northern Spark commission, June 13, 2015
3. Dream Window (bed sculpture), at Mill City Museum Courtyard, Northern Spark commission, June 13, 2015
4. Dream Window (bed sculpture), at Mill City Museum Courtyard, Northern Spark commission, June 13, 2015
5. Dream Window (festival goers writing their dreams  on Mylar using special “glow boxes” created by Krinke and her team), at Mill City Museum Courtyard, Northern Spark commission, June 13, 2015
6. Incident, (bed sculpture), at Rosalux Gallery, Mpls, MN, July 2014
7. Incident (detail), at Rosalux Gallery, Mpls, MN, July 2014






Friday, July 3, 2015

Nadia Honary - Video

Nadia Honary

Name: Nadia Honary
City/State: Minneapolis/MNEmail: nadia.honary@gmail.comWebsite: https://vimeo.com/nadiahonary and http://www.mnartists.org/nadiahonaryFacebook page:https://www.facebook.com/nadia.honaryTwitter: @nadia_as_it_is

Bio~ A graduate from the University of Iowa with three degrees in Cinema and Video Production, Spanish, and Studio Arts, I have been doing multimedia production work of varying degrees for nearly 10 years. I am passionate about sharing stories through video, having collaborated and produced videos and photos for several nonprofit organizations and local artists of various disciplines. I am also intrigued with experimental video work as a form of storytelling and have found that my most honest intentions come out through this format. Currently I am working fulltime for the local public access television station St. Paul Neighborhood Network, teaching individuals in the community techniques in production and providing the tools to enable people to tell their own stories through video. It is through this work as well as the artists I get to work with every day that prove that art is a vehicle for social change.



Tell me about your work? What are you currently working on? How is this different from past projects? My work is primarily in the documentary storytelling format, though I also do a lot of work with experimental videos. I have always been fascinated with telling stories through images which is how I ended up collaborating with several local artists in the Twin Cities communities doing various photo and video projects. 

Currently I am working on a documentary involving personal identity, the way society has this need to categorize and label each other, and why it can be confusing when you are half...something. I'm half Iranian so this project is through the eyes of an Iranian American and is focused on my family but my hope is for this to expand to other cultural communities. It's different because rather than telling the story of someone else's organization or focusing on another artist, I am focusing the lens on myself and my family. It's a very vulnerable place to be, but it's a story I have mulling over for a long time now. I can't keep it in. 

I am also working in collaboration with another local photographer, Ilya Natarius, on a film photography project featuring local artists in the Twin Cities about what inspires them, to be featured at the Gamut Gallery in late spring of 2016. 


How did you decide to become an artist? It took me a long time to call myself an "artist" and really feel like I could own that. Sometimes I still feel like a phony. But since I was very young, I always felt more inclined to be creative. It started out with a fascination with acting and theater. When I first picked up a camera as a teenager and started capturing my friends while they were performing, I knew I would never put the camera down. A couple years later, I learned how to edit images together through video, and that's when I became obsessed because I learned how to play with time, create stories, and capture life moving around me. I haven't stopped since. 


What was the best advice given to you as an artist? A documentary that is all about documentary filmmaking called Capturing Reality includes interviews with several brilliant filmmakers and is a film I draw a lot of inspiration from. New York City based producer and director Jennifer Fox says in the film "It is only when you can't walk away from a subject that you should make it." That quote really resonates with me as I go forward with my own projects. I'm doing this because I have to and it's terrifying but that's what makes it beautiful. 




Many artists struggle to find ways to sell their art.  How do you sell your work?  How do you market yourself? As an emerging artist, trying to find the balance between funding my projects while maintaining the creative energy it takes to complete a project is a challenge. My main concern is finding the proper platform to share my work with as many people as possible because I aim to create a dialogue. I like it when my videos or photos inspire people, or when it gets someone to think about things in a different way. 
This is why I am most excited about collaborating with other artists and seeing the art that emerges through community work. The freelance work I do happens through these collaborations, through always saying yes, even when there may not be much time. My day job at the public access tv station, St. Paul Neighborhood Network allows me to continue to improve on my technical skills while teaching others how to make videos which is inspiring and has created a network of opportunities as well. And again, I still sometimes struggle with the term "artist" and whether or not I can own that identity, which is why I have a hard time marketing myself. I'll get there someday. For now, I'm enjoying my job and the people in my life who continue to push me to create. 



Who are some of the Minnesota artists you enjoy? 
There are so many! One thing I love about living here is I could talk all day about the various artists who work in several different disciplines that inspire me deeply.Two ceramists that I respect are Meg Brown and Kordula Coleman, especially since it's a medium that is so far out of reach to me. Meg's work is simple and clean, yet each piece explores movement even though it's frozen in time. How anyone can create this through clay is beyond me but Meg does it and it's amazing. Kordula's sculptures study the human form and I love how each piece seems to say something different. I look at her work and a story emerges. 

The work of the physical theater performance company Live Action Set is a constant source of inspiration as they explore ensemble-driven work and immersive performances. Noah Bremer and Joanna Harmon are currently the driving forces behind this amazing company and I am lucky to have had the chance to work with them on their latest projects, Crime and Punishment and The Half-Life. 

Spoken word poet, performer and writer, Andre Jenkins does amazing work empowering the black and transgender community and is currently a featured artist at Intermedia Arts. Guante is another spoken word and hip hop artist whose work is focused on social justice and deconstructing traditional notions of masculinity.

If I were to follow you around to see art in Minnesota, which places would we go? What would we see? Intermedia ArtsThe Soap Factory, Northrup King Building at the Infinitree Media Productions studio, Mixed Blood TheaterThe Phoenix Theater, and the MIA to name a few. We would see an array of theater performances. We will experience different art installations that make use of the space as part of the work. We would see my friends' production studio and goof around, recording musicians and playing with light. We would hang out at the MIA because sometimes you just need to be in a beautiful art gallery and spend some time with a painting. 



In addition to www.Local-Artist-Interviews.com, where do you go online for good art resources, whether to find a new artist, or to see what is going on in the art world locally and otherwise? 
I go to mnartist.org, and I also do a lot of volunteering (most frequently for the Soap Factory, MSPIFF, and Mixed Blood Theater) which always leads me to more fun art and theater destinations. 

What can we expect to see from you in the future?
My experimental short video will be screening at the Southern Theater on July 24th (2015) for the AE Art House Film Festival and I will also be on the panel discussion as one of the Featured Artists that afternoon at the same location.