Exhibition Summaries

Rodin: A Magnificent Obsession, Sculpture from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation

April 17 - July 13, 2008

Rodin: A Magnificent Obsession is a complete retrospective of the artist's career and includes more than 60 bronzes, from small studies to monumental works. The works were chosen according to major projects and themes of Rodin's career (such as The Gates of Hell, The Burghers of Calais, and partial figures). The exhibition spans the length of Rodin's career from his earliest bust of his father, Jean Baptiste Rodin, to his later studies of dancing figures. In addition to the bronzes, there are works on paper, photographs, portraits of the artist, and an educational model that demonstrates the complexities of the lost-wax casting process, Rodin's favored method of sculptural reproduction.

Art View: Burden: Recent Prints by Katy Matich

June 30, 2008

Matich is the inaugural recipient of the Hannaher’s, Inc. Print Studio Internship. Her work reflects the relational status between her and the dominant patriarchal forces in her life.

ArtView: Recent Work by Nate Booth

July 2 through September 29, 2008

Booth is something of a scavenger, digging in dump sites for inspiration and making assemblages out of found objects. Through his art he becomes a mythmaker, emoting feelings that are simultaneously of certain familiarity and yet undeniably foreign, like a memory long forgotten in a world of dreams. Myths in Booth’s art, being powerful expressions of culture, become tangled in other source material such as media, spiritualism, language and personal history. Part of the Museum’s signature ArtView program, which features local and regional artists in the Museum’s additional gallery spaces.

Community Art Project: The Art of Giving

July 24 through September 7, 2008

Watch area community organizations create, fabricate and donate! Organizations make sculpture out of materials that are then donated to worthy agencies. Construction of the projects will not only help organizations fulfill their missions, but it will be a fun, social event for all those involved.

Rembrandt: The Consummate Etcher and Other 17th Century Printmakers

July 31 through October 19, 2008

Rembrandt is generally considered one of the most important figures in western art history. This ranking has been remarkably stable in the 300 years since his death and is due, in part, to his virtuoso style, the wide range of subjects he included in his work and his prolific output. Typically it is his painting that garners the most public attention, but his etchings demonstrate the same genius, subject diversity and vitality that he generated with a brush. This exhibition brings together the printed work of Rembrandt and 16 of his contemporaries. Organized by the Syracuse University Art Collection Traveling Exhibition Program.

Studio Crawl Preview Exhibition

August 7 through October 5, 2008

Plains Art Museum exhibits the work of more than 50 artists included in the Fargo Moorhead Visual Artists annual Studio Crawl, held the first weekend in October. Maps are available at www.fmva.com.

ArtView: Punchgut Stains the Plains

August 3, 2008

The Art and Graphic Design of Matt Mastrud – Fargo native Matt Mastrud is a graphic designer and artist whose work has been seen around the United States. His clients have included Microsoft, the North Dakota State University Athletic Department, the University of Northern Iowa, the rock band Drive-By Truckers, as well as illustrations and gig posters for many musicians. His work has been published in The Art of Modern Rock, Rockin’ Down the Highway and The Art of Electric Frankenstein. His work explores the prairie landscapes as well as the edgy subcultures of alternative rock and roll music.

Innovation and Change: Great Ceramics from the Permanent Collection of the Ceramics Research Center, Arizona State University Art Museum

September 21 through November 16, 2008

This exhibition highlights 75 masterworks by many of the leading international artists of our time, offering a panoramic survey of the potential of clay as an expressive art form. The objects range from functional ware for everyday use to more expressive sculptural forms by such prominent artists as Rudy Autio, Rick Dillingham, Shoji Hamada, Ewen Henderson, Asger Jorn, Karen Karnes, Maria Martinez, Otto and Gertrud Natzler, Lucie Rie, Edwin Scheier, Angus Suttie, Toshiko Takaezu, Akio Takamori, Peter Voulkos, Kurt Weiser and Betty Woodman.

ArtView: The Colors of Pastel: Work by Sandi Dahl

October 1 through December 29, 2008

Dahl is a pastel painter whose primary focus is exploring landscape. She grew up on a farm with many artists in her family. In the past 20 years she has studied with nationally known artists like Wolf Kahn and is a signature member of the Pastel Society of America. Her work is in numerous collections including the permanent collection of Plains Art Museum. She said of her work, “My paintings are not of a specific scene, but of a sense of place in a moment of time. I would say that my focus is that of a colorist seeking the emotional impact of color together with the landscape of contemporary realism.”

Pulp Function – Curated by Lloyd Herman, Founding Director of the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian

October 30, 2008 through February 8, 2009

Pulp Function explores all aspects of paper as an art medium and includes handmade paper pulp, recycled paper, paper cuts, cardboard, papier mache and folded or otherwise manipulated paper. Approximately 75 works will be featured including jewelry, vessels and wearables by artists such as Gugger Petter, Kay Sekimachi, Jerry Bleem, Kiwon Wang, Sylvia Seventy and Shelly Hedges. This exhibition is supported in part by the Caroline R. Graboys Fund. This exhibition was organized by the Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, Mass.

Art on the Plains X (AOP X)

November 26, 2008 through March 1, 2009

This tenth exhibition of regional juried art returns as an invigorated biennial with guest Juror T.L. Solien, figure painting professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Solien has participated in numerous exhibitions including at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Corcoran Museum in Washington, D.C. and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He was a recipient of the McKnight “Mid-Career” Artist Fellowship and his work is in numerous university, museum and corporate collections, including Plains Art Museum, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Art Institute of Chicago. Solien earned his MFA from University of Nebraska.

Wood & Strings: A Luthier's Renaissance

February 26 through June 7, 2009

In the midst of what has been referred to as a “renaissance” of independent luthiers (makers of stringed instruments), today’s acoustic guitar players, connoisseurs, and collectors have realized a new appreciation for the art, craft, and science involved in building the guitar. Using methods and principles steeped in tradition as a point of departure, today’s guitar builders continue to explore the possibilities of sound and design, to address and apply the properties of each material used, and to create instruments that are as unique and personalized as the music they are built to produce. This exhibition will explore and present these themes through selections of handmade instruments by the finest builders of today as well as instruments of historic significance.

School Spirit: Celebrating Youth Art Month

February 27 through March 29, 2009

This exhibition celebrates local young artists from the region. An artists’ reception for the students, their friends and family will be held at Plains Art Museum on Sunday, March 8, 2009.

Keys to the Collection: Works from the Permanent Collection

Ongoing

Keys to the Collection can be thought of as the art collection of Fargo-Moorhead. The art in this exhibition reflects the aesthetic interests of our various communities. Most of the art in the permanent collection was either donated by local collectors or acquired from local and regional artists. The exhibition was rotated in May to feature recent acquisitions while continuing to exhibit favorites and “old friends.”

International Harvester Historical Photographs

Ongoing

Photographs of the Museum building pre- and post-renovation present the transformation of a warehouse that manufactured farm equipment into a state-of-the-art, accredited art museum.