August 24 - October 10, 2010
No Lo Se
John Snyder

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For decades artist John Snyder has wanted to find a piece of paradise upon which to build a chapel. He recently purchased his “piece of Paradise” in northeast Iowa, and in his current exhibition at the North Dakota Museum of Art he explores the themes, signs and symbols of the spiritual quest exemplified by both Buddha and Jesus Christ. Through woodcuts, paintings, and sculpture Snyder considers the relationships between the ultimate truth and ourselves. In his Drawings from the Underground, the slave ship becomes symbolic of both the physical and spiritual journey into this realm—a passage recognized by the artist as his own voyage through a deep depression.

Fantastic
August 24 - October 10, 2010

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Fantastic brings together of the work of a dozen artists from the United States, Canada, England, Iceland, and Argentina who delve into the implausible, incredible, and improbable. It is as though the artists provide the viewer with the characters and the setting, but require that the viewer supply the narrative. Many works echo earlier paintings. Argentinean artist Rez borrows from Da Vinci and Velázquez. David Becker of Detroit seems steeped in Bosch and Bruegel. Grand Forks’ Brian Paulsen keeps company with Edward Hopper and Franz Kline.