Runcie Tanaka Gallery Talk by
NDMOA Director, Laurel Reuter and NDMOA Artist-in-residence, Guillermo Guardia.
March 9, 2010.
Sarah Hultin
Jessica Mongeon
Jay Pfeifer
Fragmento
Carlos Runcie Tanaka
February 17 - April 11, 2010
The exhibition is brought to the North Dakota Museum of Art by the generosity of James Harithas and the Station Museum of Contemporary Art in Houston.
Born in Lima, Peru, and a one-time philosophy major at the Universidad Católica del Peru, Carlos Runcie Tanaka chose instead to dedicate himself to the art of pottery making, undertaking studies in Brazil, Italy and Japan. Since 1978 he has run a pottery studio in Lima. Carlos Runcie-Tanaka is an artist with superb artistic skills, compelling visual insights, and a profoundly spiritual sense of mystery.
Of Peruvian, Japanese and English heritage, his artwork presents contemporary universal symbols of inter-ethnic unity. He has absorbed the lessons of traditional pottery and pioneered an approach that goes beyond obvious or direct references to the traditions of his mixed ancestry. As a result, Tanaka’s works also bring the strands of his identity together with ancient mysteries that have a powerful contemporary resonance.
Cecelia Condit: 1981 to Present
Cecelia Condit
February 17 - April 11, 2010
An American video artist, Cecelia Condit’s work focuses on the contrast between the everyday world and fairy tales, with topics ranging from female aging to the imaginary world of children to suburban cannibalism. Since the early 1980s Cecelia Condit’s narrative tapes have explored the not-so-average experiences of the “average woman” in a social climate of sublimated violence, fear, and misogynist aggression. Her dark-humored tapes conflate fairy tale morals with the grisly sensationalism of tabloid headlines, incorporating live action, appropriated television images, and original music into frequently operatic narratives. According to the artist, “My work centers around the theme of how bizarre events disrupt mundane lives. By contrasting the commonplace with the macabre, humor with the absurd, I address a reality that is both surprisingly believable yet strange enough to belong only to the realm of fiction.”
“I consider myself a storyteller whose work swings between beauty and the grotesque, humor and the macabre, innocence and cruelty. My videos explore the dark side of female subjectivity and address the fear, aggression and displacement that exist between ourselves and society, ourselves and the natural world.”
Condit is also Professor of Film and Video at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Paint Local II
January 25 - April 11, 2010
Paint Local II is the follow-up exhibition to Paint Local, an exhibition which featured the work of Pirjo Berg, Lori Esposito, Dyan Rey, Adam Kemp, Mike Marth and Zhimin Guan.
Paint Local II features three Red River Valley painters.
Sarah Hultin is a recent graduate of Minnesota State University Moorhead. Her recent body of work is titled “Rural Inhabitants." This body, according to Hultin, "reawakens memories prominent in abandoned homes on the prairie. The walls of the abandoned house conceal the past. Beyond the structures, which have proved impermanent, we cannot distinguish ourselves from those of our ancestors."
"The subject of my work," states Jessica Mongeon, "is a contrasting harmony and tension between humans and nature. My recent work is meant to invite the viewer to think about the natural world, and their place in it.
I work with acrylic on canvas because acrylic paint allows me to work through concept and format ideas more quickly than oil. My work can be characterized by the use of broad brushstrokes and hues that are inspired by nature."
Jay Pfeifer is a contractor and handy-man by trade. From his shop in Fargo, ND, Jay creates work with familiar materials of his trade. The glue, asphalt, wax, measuring tapes and nails become his paint. The discarded plywood, lumber and shingles find a place as his canvas.
