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Please join us to celebrate the opening of two new exhibitions, Kellyann Burns: Combing Conversations and Josh Johnson: Double Goer. Both artists will be present to speak and answer questions at the opening. Hors d'oeuvres and beverages will be served. This event is free and open to the public, including free parking in front of the Museum. The exhibition will continue through August 25, 2024.Kellyann Burns is an American abstract artist who focuses on process and color. Her hard-edged, geometric abstract paintings are created by stacking flat layers of color, one on top of the other. Pigment is pulled or scraped across the panel with a metal spatula, leaving masked and dripped pigment as evidence of her process. The edges of her work reveal the history of accumulated layers of color and the paint buildup is left exposed. Burns considers sandpaper to be as important a tool in her process as brushes and pallet knives, as every layer of paint is sanded. This allows previous layers of pigment to be exposed within fields of solid color through varying intensity and pressure. Additionally, sanding allows a smooth, lustrous, and dense surface to be created. Some areas become matte and translucent while others, in contrast, are glossy and opaque. Because of these qualities, Burns is able to manipulate subtle changes of light both within, and reflecting from, her richly-colored oil paintings.
Josh Johnson: Double Goer is the ninth exhibition in the “Art Makers Series” underwritten by Dr. William F. Wosick of Fargo, ND. Because few professional opportunities are available for artists from the region, the Art Makers Series was designed to spotlight artists from the region, or those with ties to the region. Museum Staff selects artists who seem on the edge of a breakthrough in their work. They are often at a juncture in their artistic careers where a “leg up” could invigorate, revitalize, or change the course of their art.
Sculptor Josh Johnson makes connections between two environments – one at hand and the other remembered. There is a personal meaning behind the work that functions as the impetus for the pieces. Johnson takes materials out of context by assigning them different functions and explores the vast possibilities of his chosen materials. Materials mined from the surroundings, the wood of "trash trees” and species growing in the creases of the artist's Southwest Missouri neighborhood, are synthesized into recognizable subjects plucked from nature and domestic interiors. He carves, joins, and constructs forms that are repeated again and again, blurring the line between production and ritual.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
261 Centennial Dr, Grand Forks, ND, United States, North Dakota 58202