Arts

​Under pressure

November 7th, 2013

Eric Ista, Jeff Knight and Matt Charpentier / Photo by Jill Ockhardt

Cropped gets local graphic designers to compete for Photoshop glory

There’s a new kind of competition in town – one that doesn’t involve balls, food or money.

It’s called Cropped. It’s based off the Food Network television show “Chopped,” but instead of food, contestants work with a “horrible” selection of computer stock images and fonts. And instead of cooking utensils, contestants worth with a computer, a mouse and Photoshop.

Next Thursday, Nov. 14, Cropped will host…

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FM Ballet’s new thrills

October 17th, 2013

Gabriela Baierle-Atwood and Matt Gasper / Photo by Dan Leeaphon

Artistic director Matt Gasper has some stellar goals for the Fargo-Moorhead Ballet, a blooming and somewhat young dance company housed by (but separate from) Gasper’s School of Dance and Performing Arts.

“The main goal of it is to become nationally recognized as a leading dance company in the Midwest,” he said.

The organization is taking a number of “baby steps” to reach this highly attainable aspiration. When the company started more than five years ago, it had only six dancers…

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Hot Air: The Rise of Neil Hamburger

October 10th, 2013

Hot Air: The Rise of Neil Hamburger

Anyone hungry for a greasy new hamburger?

Los Angeles comedian Neil Hamburger might be able to feed your greasy fix with his slick comb over, oversized glasses, spiffy tuxedo, whooping cough and potty mouth this Saturday, Oct. 12 at The Aquarium.

We interviewed the comedian to talk about his experiences in Fargo-Moorhead, his severe distaste for Steven Tyler and his website dilemmas.

He did not miss a single beat.

High Plains Reader: Hey, Neil. How are you doing today?

Neil Hamburger: Good,…

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​Go Inside The Studio at the 2013 Studio Crawl

October 3rd, 2013

Cover by Raul Gomez

By Alicia Underlee Nelson

Across the Red River Valley – from Harwood to Hawley and various points in between – dozens of artists will throw open the doors to 41 different studios and workspaces this weekend during the Fargo-Moorhead Visual Artists’ Studio Crawl. The annual event runs Saturday, October 5 and Sunday, October 6 and it’s a great way for artists to connect with their fans and for art enthusiasts to pull back the veil and better understand the artists’ creative…

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Artists move uptown

September 26th, 2013

Cover by Raul Gomez

By Diane Miller

It seems that each day, Fargo’s downtown is becoming more chic, elegant and modern. The trend continues with this Thursday’s grand opening of The Uptown Gallery, a fine looking space for gifted local artists to display their work.

Owner and CEO Steve Revland, 60, was born and raised in Fargo. For nearly 40 years, he has been designing and handcrafting is own high-end wood furniture.

Naturally, Revland has also gathered and maintained relationships with other veteran…

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​T.L. Solien’s “Toward the Setting Sun” comes to the Plains Art Museum

September 19th, 2013

C-Train, 2010, mixed media on paper, 30 x 36 in., Courtesy of the artist T. L. Solien

By Lauren Beek

“Call me Ishmael” are three words you’ve most likely encountered before. Whether you heard the phrase in an English class, an old movie or a contemporary play, this opening line is arguably one of the most well-known in literature.

Herman Melville’s great American novel “Moby-Dick” has inspired many great works of art around the world. Since 1851, filmmakers, playwrights, musicians, painters, actors and authors have all paid tribute to the multilayered story of…

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AENDEE. opens on 8th

August 22nd, 2013

She’s just 25 years old and already runs her own company.

It’s literally a one-woman operation.

Ashley Nicole Dedin owns and operates AENDEE (pronounced “A-N-D”), a shop and studio that carries her own line of upcycled clothing and accessories for anyone to buy.

As of right now, Dedin does all her own sewing, package designing, public relations and bookkeeping. She also built the AENDEE website, maintains a blog for the brand and manages the brand’s Facebook page.

Her only…

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​‘Conventional’ gets a new platform

June 6th, 2013

Jessica Wachter at the Plains Art Museum

Arguably the most buzzed about young artist in town, North Dakota State University art and interior design graduate Jessica Wachter doesn’t necessarily create the most outwardly accessible artwork.

But that may be another arguable statement. Yes, her work is abstract, simply meaning any viewer could interpret the image differently. “I am not painting an apple for you to only see an apple,” says Wachter, who is originally from Bismarck.

Though…

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Wolftree: ​MSUM students and alumni create local publication

May 23rd, 2013

“Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter.”-- Francis Chan/Wolftree's motto

A new quarterly magazine, Wolftree, will be publicly released at its launch party this weekend.

Wolftree is a small publication based out of Fargo, which aims to support aspiring artists, dreamers and adventurers of the Midwest by highlighting their talents and experiences.

The idea for this publication originated this past December as a joke among…

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Warhol at The Plains Art Museum

January 31st, 2013

Andy Warhol, Annie Oakley, Silkscreen on paper, 1986, 36 x 36 in., Courtesy of the Cochran Collection. � 2013 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

"Once you 'got' Pop, you could never see a sign the same way again. And once you thought Pop, you could never see America the same way again." - Andy Warhol (“Popism: The Warhol ‘60s”)

Andy Warhol made an unparalleled impact on the culture of American art. Starting this Saturday, The Plains Art Museum will bring his legacy to us. “Andy Warhol: Creating Myth and Icon” will feature two galleries displaying up to 40 original works, making this the first major Warhol exhibition our…

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