Arts

​Zhimin Guan: Opening Reception

September 20th, 2017

Zhimin Guan has been a professor of art at Minnesota State University since 1998. Guan’s artworks have been exhibited throughout the United States and China and he has appeared in more than 200 selective professional exhibitions and received 25 art awards.

Guan grew up in one of China’s ancient regions, called Anhui province, which is located in central China. Guan was influenced by the people around him and he explained the environment while growing up. “It seems that the people…

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Ben Rheault opens “Enantiodromia: Studies” at Rourke Museum

September 13th, 2017

Enantiodromia: noun; a principle that states any force will inevitably produce its opposite. After stumbling upon this term in a book about psychoanalyst Carl Jung, artist Ben Rheault discovered the theme for his upcoming exhibit at the Rourke Art Gallery and Museum.

The pieces in the exhibit started when Rheault was approached by friends of his in a band to design cover art for songs they were releasing.

“Listening to their music, their themes were similar to what I was dealing with,…

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​Decent exposure at the Hodo

September 13th, 2017

photo by Lew Ableidinger

High Plains Reader had the opportunity to chat with our very own J Earl Miller about Exposure 2.0, a group exhibition of photography curated by Miller, currently on display at the Hodo Lounge.

High Plains Reader: Can you tell our readers how Exposure got started?

J Earl Miller: Honestly, Lew Ableidinger is the main reason I started this show. I started following him on social media. I thought his photographs were next level but he lived in Harvey, N.D. I am pretty…

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King of his castle

August 23rd, 2017

Gary Greff’s new sculpture and the future of the Enchanted Highway

When HPR spoke to Gary Greff in 2015 he was in the midst of a crowdfunding campaign to fund his latest sculpture. We spoke of his plans to build a 70-foot spider web composed of ¾ inch cables suspended from an array of colorful prairie flowers. Cement mixers were to be transformed into salvaged metal spiders.

Greff, the visionary behind the world’s largest salvaged metal sculptures and creator of North Dakota’s…

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​The Buzz at Red River Market

August 16th, 2017

Interactive Hive through Plains Art Museum goes to market

Photo by Jerry Sherven

This summer, interns between the ages of 11 and 18 participated in Buzz Lab, a program through the Plains Art Museum that gives students the opportunity to teach the public about pollinators through art, design and interaction.

On Saturday, the Buzz Lab interns will bring part of their summer project to the Red River Market. Called the Hive, the interns enlisted local artist Dwight Mickelson to design and…

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​State folklorist chosen as featured artist at capital

July 26th, 2017

Within the borders of North Dakota lie many worlds that are each expressing themselves in traditional art and culture. During his time as the state folklorist, Troyd Geist has been documenting a diverse array of cultural identities that span art forms and cultures.

For the months of July, August and September, Geist’s photographs from his work throughout the state will be on display at the North Dakota State Capitol. As part of his work, Geist documented traditional life and culture…

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​Sculptor Casey Hochhalter opens at Ecce

July 26th, 2017

In his upcoming exhibit at Ecce Gallery, sculptor Casey Hochhalter explores the parallels between intertwined worlds: those of animals and plants. His surreal sculptures cross colors and shapes, making each a unique view of the world for the creator and the viewer.

“The forms themselves are not exclusively plant or animal,” the artist said when explaining the pieces. “There are certain characteristics that are inherent in them, things like dimensions, surface, volume, shapes and…

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​Shane Balkowitsch: Sizing up humanity through antiquated craft

July 19th, 2017

Shane Balkowitsch was nervous. He squatted under an inky shroud, gazing ahead above the rim of his eyeglasses. In front of him, hoisted on a modern tripod, was his accordion camera with its intense red bellows. Only steps away unfolded a 19th century sea scene of travail and strife, of a deathly woe and a fervid vitality.

Or at least its reenactment. Volunteers – clothed in shoddy garbs and smeared in dramatic makeup – clamored on a wooden make-do barge in the open prairie. Gathered…

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​Living legend

July 12th, 2017

At 94 years old, acclaimed regional printmaker Charles Beck continues to work on artworks every day. Although he has had to stop his daily printmaking practice and now lives in a nursing home, Beck has not been detoured from continuing to create art.

Instead of printmaking, Beck now uses acrylic paint and ink to create colorful images of nature that are inspired by his memories of places in Otter Tail County and the Red River Valley.

Before his stroke several years ago, Beck would…

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​Brittany Anderson’s landscapes: the contents of a void

June 28th, 2017

Brittany Anderson’s travels have led her to many places, from Bismarck to Moorhead, Iceland to Switzerland and North Carolina back to North Dakota. Rather than documenting a place with a camera, Anderson chose to use her paintings to express the attitude and environment of the places she’s stayed.

On view now at Ecce Gallery in Downtown Fargo is Anderson’s exhibit “Temporary Voids,” a dramatic, conceptual look at the landscapes Anderson’s experienced throughout her life.

After…

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