A u t um n
North
A rt
Dakota
A u c t io n
Museum
of
Art
This Autumn Art Auction and its catalog is dedicated to
Sanny Ryan whose on-going financial gift of $60,000 annually supports museum staff salaries.
The North Dakota Museum of Art is grateful to our sponsors who have given generously to guarantee that the arts flourish.
The 2008 Autumn Art Auction is underwritten by
Karen Stoker Burgum who developed North Dakota’s first art hotel in Fargo:
Hotel Donaldson
Cover: Brian Paulsen, Fox Fields, 2008, watercolor, 13 x 9 inches.
North Dakota Museum of Art
AUTUMN
Art
Auction
S at u r d a y, O c t o b e r 2 5 , 2 0 0 8 Wine and hors d’oeuvres 6:30 pm Auction begins at 8 pm
Auction Preview October 14 until auction time in the Museum galleries Monday - Friday, 9 to 5 pm, Saturday - Sunday, 1 to 5 pm All works to be auctioned will be on display.
patrons Clear Channel Radio East Grand Floral
Supporters Altru Health System, Truyu Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc.
Grand Forks Herald
Avant
High Plains Reader
Blue Moose Bar & Grill
Holiday Inn Hotel Donaldson
Bronze Boot Chester Fritz Auditorium
KVLY TV
Choice Financial
KXJB TV
Community Bank of the Red River Valley
Leighton Broadcasting Minnesota Public Radio
Red River Plastic Surgery, Dr. Judson Crow Curtis Tanabe DDS
Merrill Lynch
Farmer's Insurance Group, George Wogaman
Prairie Public
Greater Grand Forks Community Theater
Office of Academic Affairs, UND
Gustafson Gluek, PLLC HB Sound & Light
Sponsors Bremer Bank WDAZ TV
Ellen McKinnon Museum Café North Dakota Eye Clinic North Dakota Quarterly Auction Supporters continued next page
Buy local. Read the sponsor pages to learn about those who invest in the Museum. Please return their investment.
Supporters Rhombus Guys Sanders 1907
—John Foster, Retiring Chairman
Mary Ann and Don Sens
Museum Board of Trustees
Special Olympics Suite 49 Summit Brewing Company Third Street Gallery UND Alumni Foundation Valley Bone and Joint Waterfront Gallery, Northern Plumbing Supply Whitey’s
Advertisers Brady Martz and Associates
Contributors Acme Electric Tool Crib of the North Axis Clinic Camrud, Maddock, Olson & Larson, Ltd. Capital Resource Management Columbia Liquor Greater Grand Forks Symphony Orchestra Gregory J. Norman Funeral Chapel Letnes, Swanson, Marshall, & Warcup Ltd. James S. McDonald, DDS Praxis Strategy Group Rite Spot Liquor River City Jewelers Salon Seva UND Writers Conference Wells Fargo Xcel Energy Zimney Foster P.C.
Browning Arts Burger King Chad Caya Painting David C. Thompson, P.C. Drees, Riskey, Vallager, Ltd. Edward Jones, Mark A. Larsen Fine Print Forks Chem-Dry Gate City Bank Hovet Roofing, Inc. Meland Architecture Monarch Travel & Tours Earl Pomeroy Reichert Armstrong Law Office Robert Vogel Law Office, P.C. Valley Car Wash Vilandre
Burton Onofrio, Auctioneer
Becky Sefcovic Uglem and Amy Lyste, Chairs
Burton Onofrio recently retired as Attending Neurosurgeon at the
Becky Sefcovic Uglem and Amy Lyste, Chairs, are
Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, where he also served as
Directors of the Third Street Gallery on Kittson Avenue in
Professor of Neurosurgery in the Mayo Medical School. His first
downtown Grand Forks. The two women became friends while
job after retirement was as Senior Consultant for Pain Disorders,
attending the University of North Dakota where they graduated
Neurosurgical Service, Massachusetts General Hospital in
with B.F.A. degrees. Uglem went on to complete an M.F.A. from
Boston. His training includes an M.D. degree from the Medical
UND, while Lyste worked in the field of graphic design.
College of Cornell University (1957); a surgical residency at the New York Hospital Medical Center (1958); and a fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in neurosurgery (1964), all of which resulted in a life-time career at the Mayo Clinic. As busy as his professional career has been, he has also lived a wonderful life within the arts. It began when he married Judy, a self-taught potter who has emerged as a sculptor of national stature. Judy was deeply involved in the Rochester Art Center, and Burton soon joined the Board of Directors. Most recently— another retirement job—he co-chaired the Capital Campaign
In March of 2006, they opened the non-profit Third Street Gallery, which exhibits the work of local and regional artists. To provide more exhibition space for artists, they moved to a larger space on Kittson Avenue. Uglem lives in downtown Grand Forks with her husband Shannon P. Uglem, an attorney who practices in Northwood, and their daughter, Lola. Lyste also lives in Grand Forks with her husband, Dr. Derek Lyste, and their daughter, Emma. Dr. Lyste is a second year resident in Family Practice at Altru in Grand Forks.
Building Committee of the Rochester Art Center. The new
The staff of the Museum and the Third Street Gallery consistently
building opened in the spring of 2004 with the central gallery
support each other’s work. The Museum sent the Third Street
named in honor of Judy and Burton Onofrio—gifted by a former
Gallery’s opening announcement to its entire mailing list. Matt
patient.
Wallace, the Museum’s Director of the Rural Arts Initiative,
In another corner of his life, Onofrio runs art auctions. For twenty-six years he was the auctioneer of the Rochester Art Center annual auction, most often organizing it as well. Both the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis and the University of Minnesota Art Department have called upon him to serve as auctioneer. For twelve years he has been the announcer of the Rochester Art Center Art Festival. Onofrio’s days, however, are spent in Judyland, the garden he created with his wife. And finally, this is a man who loves animals, in particular his menagerie of cats who have full run of the garden.
serves on the Board of the Third Street Gallery. And now Becky and Amy Jo are chairing the Autumn Art Auction to the benefit of all artists.
Museum Mission Statement
MISSION: To foster and nurture the aesthetic life and artistic
Rules of Auction
q
Each registered guest will receive a bidding card as part of
expression of the people living on the Northern Plains through
the price of a ticket. Upon receiving the bidding card, each
exhibitions, programs, and publications which engage the
guest will be asked to sign a statement vowing to abide by
region, the country, and the world.
the Rules of the Auction listed in this catalog.
VISION: To create the richest learning environment possible for
q
Bid Form with Museum personnel in person or by phone, or
experiencing art and developing community that affirms the
bid by phone the night of the auction. Absentee bidders, by
highest level of respect for art, artists, and audiences.
filling out the form, agree to abide by the Rules of the Auction.
VALUES: For the Museum to be successful, our most important resource, our people, must have a clear sense of where we are
Absentee bidders will either leave their bids on an Absentee
q
going, and the collaborative spirit in which we undertake that
Each bidder will use his or her own bidding number during the auction.
journey. Our values are guiding principles for how we will go about our work. They are guideposts to daily conduct that speak
q
All sales are final.
to the integrity of our behavior.
q
In September 2002 the Office of the North Dakota State Tax
1) Rural Lens: We interpret rural life through the arts, just as we
Commissioner determined that the gross receipts from the
view the art of the world through a rural perspective.
sales made at the Auction are subject to sales tax at 6.75 %.
2) Global Context: We place the lives of artists and audiences
This does not apply to out-of-state buyers who haveworks
within the context of contemporary art and critical thought from
shipped to them.
around the world. 3) Humanities Focus: We function as a laboratory for all forms
q
shall either determine the successful bidder or re-auction
of artistic, aesthetic and cultural inquiry. 4) Collaboration:
the item in dispute.
We build and nourish relationships with
artists, visitors and each other.
In the event of a dispute between bidders, the auctioneer
q
Purchasers may pay for items at any point following the
5) Scholarship: Academic rigor and quality research underpin all
sale of a work but must pay for all art work before the
museum programs and publications.
conclusion of the evening—unless other arrangements are
6) Stewardship: We
are stewards of the public trust for the
in place. Absentee bidders will be charged on the evening of
artistic environment of our region, and the human, financial and
the auction or an invoice will be sent the next business day.
physical resources of the Museum.
q
Works of art in the auction have minimum bids placed on them by the artist. This confidential “reserve” is a price agreed upon between the artist and the North Dakota Museum of Art below which a work of art will not be sold.
Photograph by Mike Mohaupt
From the Museum Director
Landscapes and ideas about landscape seem
From the beginning, the Museum has never asked artists to
to dominate this year’s auction. Clearly, this reflects the influence
donate work, although some do. Instead, we allow them to
of our climate and topography upon we who live here. In many
establish their minimum price, an amount the Museum
parts of the world days go by with no mention of the weather.
guarantees. The auction procedures are:
We, on the other hand, open endless conversations with the weather. It is our bridge to everywhere. Over the years the auction has grown into the venue where you can find the very best of what our own artists are making, and this includes art
DIVISION OF MONEY between the artist and the North Dakota Museum of Art on a work sold in the Auction: The artist is guaranteed to receive the amount of the reserve bid. If work
about life on the northern plains and woodlands.
does not reach minimum bid, it will be brought in by the
The overriding goal of this auction is to build a buying audience
and the Museum’s equal match is split 50/50 between the artist
for the artists who live among us. For decades, the only artists
and the Museum. Example: If a reserve bid is $200, and the work
who could stay in northern Minnesota and North Dakota while
sells for $395, the artist receives $200 and the Museum receives
continuing their professional careers had to find a different way
$195. If the same work sells for $500, the artist and the Museum
to make a living—usually teaching on the college level. Our
each receive $250.
mantra became, “If we don’t support them, who is going to.” Art has also become an accepted part of younger people’s lives. They participate, they buy, they live with art—and all of our lives
Museum and returned to artist. Any amount over the reserve bid
Gradually we have seen the prices for art increase as our buying audience experiences the pleasure of knowing artists and living
become richer.
with art. And also gradually, the Museum has begun to make
Not all of the artists live locally but they all have some
before every art entity in the region began holding their own
relationship with either the Museum of Art or the region. And,
auctions—and positioning them to compete with the Museum’s
given that Winnipeg is our closest large city—and a hotbed for
auction. Then non-art entities thought, “why not us?” It was as if
artists—we consider the Manitoba art community our own.
the Museum threw a pebble into the pond and art auctions
We could not publish this catalog without the underwriting of our sponsors. Please take your business to these companies and
some money from the auction as well. It wasn’t long, however,
rippled out. Fortunately, what is good for artists is good for the Museum—and selling work is very good for artists.
individuals; thank them for their significant contribution; and
Remember, when you buy through the Autumn Art Auction, the
note how many are locally owned and operated. Sometimes they
price includes framing or presentation. Frames are often custom
say, “I don’t care if I get an ad, I just want to give to you guys.”
made by the artists or the Museum staff who use archival
Supporting cultural life is not in the interest of the “big boxes” but
materials.
rather has become the business of the butcher, the baker and the
auction sales.
keeper of bees—and of Ellen McKinnon who buys her own ad because it pleases her.
This alone adds significant value to most of the —Laurel Reuter, Director
Lot #1 marks, lines and tones on the paper. Now, it has been almost ten
Morgan Owens
years since I created those drawings and I’m just finding the
San Francisco, California
words to match those sensations.
‘Night Dreams Fade’ from series Looking In, No. 47 Charcoal and Acrylic on Rives BFK Paper
Owens, who grew up in North Dakota, received his B.F.A degree
30 x 42 inches
in 1995 from the University of North Dakota, and attended the
Range: $350 - 400
M.F.A.
program at Illinois State University, Bloomington. In
2009 he will graduate with his M.F.A. from the Academy of Art University where he studies animation. This includes traditional
Morgan Owens has specialized in drawing and
2-dimensional
painting since 1995. His subject matter varies from still life, to
animation with a specialty in character animation, character
non-objective abstraction, to off-beat juxtapositions of images
development and design, story boarding and layout, and
creating sometimes humorous and, other times, highly
animatics and full animation.
introspective works. In 2006, he took to animation to explore the illustrative nature and sequential structure of film to tell stories. According to Owens, The abstract drawings I’ve made are expressions of what I sense in my mind and body. A decade ago, I didn’t have the words or images in my mind to connect with my sensations so I drew without words or recognizable images. I think an artist may create a painting of dancing lovers or a flower bathed in morning light. In doing so that artist connects the sensation in his mind and body with that image giving the viewer a place to begin to understand that sensation. There are also
animation
and
3-dimensional
computer
He has been an Artist in Residence at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, at Studios Midwest in Galesburg, Illinois, and the Fresno Art Museum in California. After graduating from the University of North Dakota, Owens worked as a freelance artist for two years, before founding the education department at the North Dakota Museum of Art (1997-2001). This was followed by three years as Curator of Exhibitions at the Fresno Metropolitan Museum in California. He has recently opened his studio in San Francisco.
moments in an artist’s life when sensations in the mind and body
His pieces have been exhibited at the Arrowmont School of Arts
cannot be matched to a recognizable image. When I made my
and Crafts, Fresno City College, Knox College in Galesburg, the
abstract drawings, I had to put charcoal to paper and react to the
North Dakota Museum of Art, and various galleries.
Art
\ärt, ∂rt\,-noun (Middle English, from Old English eart, akin to Old Norse est, ert). 1. The conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects, also works so produced. 2. The quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing or of
more than ordinary significance. 3. The class of objects subject to aesthetic criteria; works of art collectively, as paintings, sculptures, or drawings: a museum of art, an art collection.
Craft\'kraft\
- noun (Middle English, strength, skill, power, from Old English cræft; akin to Old High German kraft strength). 1. A profession requiring manual dexterity or artistic skill, involving the skillful making of decorative or practical objects, crafts such as pottery, carpentry, and sewing. 2. Skill; dexterity: The silversmith worked with great craft. -transitive verb (used with object) 1. :to make or produce with care, skill, or ingenuity: is crafting a new sculpture; a carefully crafted story.
Lot #2
Jordan Ochsner’s interest in art began during childhood on a farm in South Dakota. Like most active rural children, his life was anchored in the outdoors. He now realizes
Jordan Ochsner
that this background is what sparked his curiosity about organic
Vermillion, South Dakota Art and Craft 2007
forms and surfaces.
Stoneware
Coming to the University of North Dakota in 2004, Ochsner
Each approximately 12.75 x
discovered clay. He was initially drawn to thrown, functional
14.25 x 2.75 inches
work, but gradually developed an interest in unique alterations of traditional forms.
Range: $300 - 400
After working closely with fellow UND
ceramicist Guillermo Guardia, Ochsner began to experiment with representational techniques. This led to his incorporation of graphic surface elements into a work such as Art and Craft. Guillermo's work inspired Ochsner to think more passionately
with function and concept. It is unique in that it touches upon a subject close to his heart, one that has often been debated, defamed or denied: Art and Craft.
about expression, and to use the inherent surfaces of functional
Even though Ochsner attends medical school at the University of
work as a platform for engaging ideas. Art and Craft represents a
South Dakota, he continues to work with clay under professor
step in Ochsner's journey towards combining innovative design
Michael Hill at the University of South Dakota.
Todd Strand: January 1951, I came into this world at or near a point considered to be the Geographical Center of North America, Rugby, North Dakota. My dad was a photographer in Rugby for forty years. He used to pack his Graflex cameras, his large suitcase full of film holders and flash bulbs and me into our ’53 green Ford and head for a wedding at one of the country churches, usually in the direction of the sand hills south of town. The parishioners were always very considerate and hospitable. There was usually a place reserved for the photographer to park in front of the church and a hot meal waiting afterwards. While dad worked inside the church, I would sit in the warm June sun and entertain myself by musing over my brother’s baseball trading cards or by wandering through the cemetery next to the church while the wedding was in progress. I returned to that church twenty years later and found it converted to a hay barn. I mention this not only for the sake of nostalgia, but to point out that my photos are very much related to my origins. This photograph was taken with a Widelux panorama camera along Highway 41 just north of Velva, North Dakota. The scene shows my trusty 1968 Chevy Impala with altocumulus clouds (marshmallow clouds) overhead. The scene was photographed at 10:15 pm, June 6, 1990. Tornadoes touched down shortly after my photo session. Strand attended Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, from 1969-1971 and went on to earn his B.A. in Printmaking from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville in 1974. He participated in the 1976 Dakota Photo Documentary Project, which was a photo survey of every single town in North Dakota. In 1978 he became the photo archivist for North Dakota’s State Archives and Historical Research Library Division. His colleagues honored him with the Staff Award for Excellence in 1999. He left the Historical Society in 2000 and moved to Minneapolis where he works for a children’s book publishing company (Lerner Publishing Group) as a photographer and photo archivist. Lot #3
Todd Strand is known for his black and white photographs wherein he attempts to capture "honest and indiscriminate"
Todd Strand
scenes, primarily of North Dakota. He mostly takes photos with
Minneapolis, Minnesota
a Widelux camera that has a rotating lens, which produces a
Storm Clouds Along Highway 41
panoramic image, often with a Funhouse effect. Fargo Forum
North of Velva, North Dakota,
writer Sylvia Paine has described his work as producing a
July 6, 1990
“sensitive record of moods and attitudes of other senses besides
Black and white ink jet photograph
the visual.” Since 1975, Strand has exhibited photographs
16 x 39.5 inches
annually at the Rourke Art Museum in Moorhead. Most recently,
1990 / 2008
Strand showed a large body of work in the North Dakota
Range: $400 - 600
Museum of Art’s exhibition Remembering Dakota.
Lot #4
Guillermo Guardia Grand Forks, North Dakota and Lima, Peru Adam, 2008 Cone 6 ceramics, underglazes 16 x 11 x 8 inches Range: $500 - 800
I had to go to Peru and immerse myself in pre-Columbian ceramics before I understood Guillermo’s work. Given that context, I believe he is creating important contemporary art deeply embedded in the past. Laurel Reuter, Director North Dakota Museum of Art
Guillermo Guardia (Memo) was born in Lima, Peru,
Series—human figures made from puzzle pieces—and his Baby
in 1975. He comes from an ancient ceramic culture of pre-
Devil series.
Columbian Peru. From the time he was little he was steeped in the images and materials of those early potters. From his family, his teachers, television, and classroom visits to museums, he learned to venerate the early traditions. In particular, he loved the work of the Mochica culture, a pre-Incan civilization that flourished on the northern coast of Peru from about 200 B.C. to A.D. 600, known especially for its pottery vessels modeled into naturalistic human and animal figures.
Guardia is currently completing six Baby Devils that have been commissioned for a major Latin American collection based on human rights. He holds a B.F.A. in Industrial Design from the Universidad Católica del Peru (1999). As part of his studies he took a ceramics class and found himself fascinated. Soon he began to apply to graduate programs in ceramics in the United States. In 2005 he completed his M.F.A. in Ceramics from the University of North Dakota and is currently enrolled at UND in
Guardia intuitively carries the past forward in his ceramics,
a second graduate degree program, seeking a Master of Science
preferring narrative work based on the figure. His unglazed or
in Industrial Technology.
underglazed and burnished surfaces allow the clay itself to dominate the sculpture. The work in the exhibition, Adam, breathes with life, both contemporary and ancient. Guardia has created a work for the auction that refers to both his Puzzle
Most recently the artist mounted a solo exhibition at the Third Street Gallery in Grand Forks.
Barbara Hatfield:
A recent review of Hatfield’s
work likened it to “the bare bones of a Barnett Newman” and ”bits of Agnes Martin.” “Without aesthetic flourish or apparent utility, its presence remains mysterious. It is from this shadowy zone between the organic and the inorganic that Hatfield’s work draws its power.” With a practice consistently grounded in drawing, Hatfield continues to produce works that invite intimacy and contemplation. Often visually spare, the work exudes a quiet strength and simplicity. Discovery, questioning, and process are defining characteristics of her practice and her Lot #5
work of art.
Barbara Hatfield
Raised on a farm in eastern North Dakota, Hatfield writes, “My
New York, New York
vision and sensibility is shaped by the openness of my native
Drawing 10.25, 2007
landscape and further developed by my study of poetic and
Ink & graphite on paper
philosophical lessons and traditions of Asian art. Nature’s
12.5 x 9.5 inches
directness and its paradoxical strength and fragility are a strong
Range: $550 - 650
underpinning and motivation for my work.
Installations,
paintings and works on paper all exemplify my willingness to let the abstract speak and allow viewers their own inquiry and imagination.” Hatfield received her M.F.A. from Parsons the New School for Design in New York City. She has exhibited at the Unit B Gallery in San Antonio; the North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks; FiveMyles, Brooklyn; Dinaburg Arts, New York; Long Island University Salena Gallery, Brooklyn; La Mama La Galleria, New York; and Kentler International Drawing Space, Brooklyn, among others. Her works are in the permanent collection of the North Dakota Museum of Art and private collections in the United States, Switzerland, Germany, France and Japan.
Lot #6
Alana Bergstrom Grand Forks, North Dakota Flamingo, 2007 Acrylic, gauche, watercolor, and graphite on canvas 40 x 30 inches Range: $550 - 650
Alana Bergstrom has been watching and painting
Bergstrom graduated with distinction in 2007 with a B.F.A. in
birds most of her life. According to the artist, birds in their habitat
Painting from the Massachusetts College of Art. She won several
have always captivated me. They are elusive, but always present.
scholarships including the Lawrence Kupferman Memorial
I form relationships with creatures I can neither talk to nor touch.
Award in 2007 and the Massachusetts College of Art Auction
Within each of these paintings, a bird form commands the
Award, Spring 2005. While an art student, she showed regionally
composition. As the series evolved, my own habitat began to
in Northampton, Amherst, and Boston.
corrupt the bird’s environment. Natural elements are manipulated through graphic lines and contemporary colors. These dualities explore the reality of nature.
Born in Rapid City, South Dakota, she lived there until age ten when her mother died. She then moved to Manistee, Michigan, where she stayed through her sophomore year in high school.
Time is essential in all the paintings in this series. The viewer is
She completed high school in 2001 at Red River in Grand Fork,
invited to explore abstract spaces. Colors clash, textures collide,
while living with her brother. Following high school Alana spent
and images of birds form themselves. These contrasting elements
a year in Minneapolis and a second in Northampton,
create an irreverent sense of time. As the viewer moves
Massachusetts, before entering college. In Northampton she
throughout, the tempo changes fortuitously. This is the essence of
worked in a birding store, a job she held throughout her college
birding: subtle elements are exposed just as quickly as they
years. She returned to Grand Forks in 2008 where she continues
camouflage themselves again. As smaller details coincide, the
to build her portfolio before applying to graduate schools.
overall tone is materialized.
Lot #7
Zhimin Guan Moorhead, Minnesota Autumn Oil and wax on metal 14 x 17 x 1 inches, 2007 Range: $600 - 800
Zhimin Guan speaks of his painting process: I am
examine the complexities of Western contemporary arts. After
amazed to see how painting materials and gesture marks
three years, he earned his M.F.A. in Painting and Drawing at Fort
transform each other into a spiritually and physically integrated
Hays State University, Kansas. Guan has successfully blended his
autonomy. I strive to establish a vital breath and universal
academic training in visual art with the aesthetics of Eastern
harmony through forms, colors, space and dynamic gestures. In
philosophy. As an artist, he is deeply committed to unifying the
my art career, I have always incorporated the traditional with the
West with the East in his own distinctive manner—a new
experimental, the figurative and the abstract. I wish to continually
synthesis of technique underpinned by a holistic philosophy.
change through aesthetic modification over time and discover the right form and metaphor among endless possibilities.
Since 1998, he has been a professor of art and design at Minnesota State University Moorhead, while acting as visiting
The artist was born in China in 1962. He started to paint when
professor at China Dalian University of Technology, School of
he was nine years old, influenced by his father, Chintian Guan, a
Art and Architecture; Anhui Normal University; School of Art, in
traditional Chinese calligrapher and ink painter. Zhimin received
Wuhu, Anhui Province; and the Dalian International Institute of
rigorous training in calligraphy and ink painting before he was
Art and Design, among others.
fifteen years old. At the same time, he developed a strong interest in the Chinese philosophy of Taoism and in ancient Chinese poetry. During his B.F.A. studies at Fuyang Teachers College in China, he concentrated on oil painting and again received rigorous training in drawing and painting in the Western classical style. From 1985 to 1994, he taught painting, drawing, and design at Dalian Institute of Industrial Design in Dalian, China. Besides teaching, Guan devoted himself to his art practice. When he lived in the northeastern Chinese city of Dalian, Guan was only five minutes from the Yellow Sea. Then in the spring of 1995, Guan came to the United States, driven by the desire to
Guan’s art has been exhibited throughout China and the United States in such institutions as the China National Art Gallery in Beijing; China Academy of Fine Arts Museum, Hangzhou; Singapore Asian Arts Gallery; the Salmagundi Club, New York; CCC/USA, Philadelphia; The Minneapolis Institute of Fine Arts; Dunton Gallery in Chicago; Fraser Gallery, Washington, DC; Museum of Southwest Texas, Corpus Christi; North Dakota Museum of Art, and a solo exhibition in 2007 at the Plains Art Museum, Fargo.
Lot #8
Linda Whitney Valley City, North Dakota Lady IX, 2007 Mezzotint, Edition of twenty 11.75 x 8.75 inches Range: $150 - 250
Lot #9
Linda Whitney Valley City, North Dakota Queen Meresankh III, 2008
Linda Whitney: Throughout history portraits have been
Mezzotint, edition of twenty 11.75 x 8.75 inches
manifested as idealized images, pictures of physical likeness,
Range: $150 - $250
psychological profiles, symbolic storyboards, and / or various combinations. Today, if the hindsight of historic approaches is added to all known and possible techniques, the contemporary framework of the portrait may tell us as much about the artist as it does about the sitter. My mezzotint portrait images concern (individual) personal realities, dreams, desires, accomplishments, and disabilities rather than physical likeness. Individuals are much more a sum of experiences, wishes, and accumulations than what
facial
features and the body language might express. Also, few individuals are endowed with enough idealized beauty or classic physical characteristics to make an interesting work of art for anything more than sentimental reasons. Also, my sitters do not sit. Their visual impressions are created through research, through intense looking, and by my aesthetic responses to years of knowing, cumulative conversations, and witnessed events. Their stories, much like the oral tradition, are filtered through my interpretation. My intent is to allow the viewer the freedom to revalue both the image and the response.
She received the 2002 North Dakota Council on the Arts Fellowship and the 1999 North Dakota Governor’s Award for the Arts in recognition of her work with children, and as an artist and teacher. She also received the Art Midwest / NEA Regional Fellowship Award and the Intermedia Arts Minnesota Interdisciplinary Arts Grant. Her work has been included in numerous regional, national, and international exhibitions with the most recent being a traveling solo exhibition through the North Dakota Art Gallery Association’s New Bohemia traveling exhibition program; the Northern National Art Competition, Nicollet College Art Gallery, Rhinelander, Wisconsin; Watermark
Artist, professor of art, and Chair of the Art Department at Valley
08, Southeastern Community College, Whiteville, North
City State University, Linda Whitney holds a B.A. and an M.F.A.
Carolina; and Lemon Street Gallery Annual, Kenosha,
from the University of North Dakota.
Wisconsin, as well as area exhibitions.
Daniel Sharbono is a Minot artist, designer, and freelance graphic designer whose recent projects include design work for Main Street Books, 10 North Main, Otis and James Photography, Dakota Kids Dentistry, Minot State University, and 62 Doors Gallery and Studios. Found objects and materials discovered at flea markets, yard sales, old barns and garages, and the occasional curbside shopping trip, are rescued and recycled for use in artwork that gives these objects the opportunity to be appreciated. Most of Daniel’s work is about observing the things around you and learning to appreciate them for their inherent aesthetic qualities—signs of a personality, loyalty, and a past filled with Lot #10
experiences everyone can relate to.
Daniel Sharbono Minot, North Dakota Made in Hong Kong Acrylic and found materials, 2007 15.25 x 21 x 2.24 inches Range: $350 - 450
Lot #11Daniel
Sharbono Minot, North Dakota Tools, 2007 Acrylic and found materials, 43.75 x 5.5 x 1.25 inches Range: $800 - 1,200
Lot #12
Bill Harbort
Bill Harbort was born and raised just north of New York
Minot, North Dakota
City. After receiving his B.F.A. and M.A. degrees from Syracuse
Strippers and Gold Diggers
University, he pursued a career in commercial design. Over the
Mixed-media collage
years he worked in New York as a package designer for Revlon,
with cast resin
as the art director for a children’s educational software company,
28.5 x 52.5 x 2.5 inches
and as a freelance automobile illustrator. During the 1960s and
2008
1970s, Harbort self-published thirty-one limited edition art prints
Range: $400 - 600
of American muscle cars. (For the unfamiliar, muscle cars, also called Pony Cars, have giant V-8 engines with super chargers and special exhaust. These gas-guzzlers were really fast! Muscle cars reached their epitome in the 1960s with the advent of such cars as the GTO, certain Mustangs, Camaros, and some Chrysler
Gradually Harbort, the commercial artist, began to explore fine
models like the Challenger. Unfortunately the energy crisis killed
art. He states, paint-by-numbers, coupons and clip art are just a
the genre.)
few ingredients often found in our popular culture landfill. Being
While working on the East Coast, Harbort was a member of the New York Society of Illustrators. He became widely recognized for his automotive airbrush work, which appeared in over twenty-five different automotive publications. Tiring of commercial work, he moved to North Dakota in 1996 to teach
a college professor has given me time to explore my painting, which is still driven by pop culture words/images and messages. Each collage is sealed with a yummy coating of poured-on clearcast plastic. My paintings may be tragic, comical or simply aesthetically pleasing.
graphic design and illustration at Minot State University—and he
The artist lives in Minot with his wife Sandy, sons Nicholas and
loves it.
Tyler, and his family of ex-racing greyhounds.
Lot #13
Kim Bromley Fargo, North Dakota Scott, 2006 Collage and oil on canvas Range: $1,800 - 2,200
Lot #14, right
Kim Bromley Fargo, North Dakota As Time Passes, 2007 Oil on canvas Range: $3,000 - 3,500
Kim Bromley created Scott as part of his Billboard Series.
colorful works of art are about color, light and a celebration of
In real life, billboards are changed on a regular basis by slapping
life.The Pond paintings were shown at St. John’s College in
a printed sheet—or sheets—of paper on top to cover up the last
Collegeville, Minnesota, during the summer of 2008.
message. After the billboard accumulates approximately eight layers, they are all stripped off, not unlike removing layers of old wallpaper. Then the accumulation begins anew. Bromley goes to the billboard company and selects scraps of layered paper, which he collages onto his canvas with rabbit-skin glue, over which he commences to paint and draw. The billboard scraps suggest the layering of time.
Artist Bromley is an Associate Professor and Academic Coordinator of the Art Department at North Dakota State University. He earned his
M.F.A. in Painting and Drawing,
Southern Illinois University at Carbondale (1986), and an M.A. in Painting and Drawing, University of Northern Iowa (1983). He has completed painting residencies in Cedar Falls (2004); Chicago (1998); Badlands, South Dakota (1997); Cuba (1994);
According to the artist, The concept of billboards has always
Jamaica (1993); Ecuador (1992); and in Mexico (1987 and 1990).
fascinated me. First and foremost, they create an immediate and
His work is represented by Yvonne Rapp Gallery, Louisville,
powerful visual impact. They follow principles of design. They
Kentucky.
mark their territory and influence how we think. Yet, they merely My challenge in working with
This artist has another life as a performing hypnotist. In graduate
billboards is to create something visually powerful going beyond
illustrate a specific idea.
school I was always taken aback with how one day a painting
illustration.
would just flow off the brush. The next day was a struggle to
This work is about being a billboard and comments on their effect on our society.
make anything on the canvas go right. Why was one day any different from the next? Then, in the early 90s I saw a stage hypnosis show.
I had used hypnosis for pain control at the
Bromley’s second work in the auction, As Time Passes, is from his
dentist’s.
Pond Series. These works were painted on location at a pond on
direct his subjects to do was fascinating. I started using self-
his family's rural property not far from Pelican Rapids. These lush,
hypnosis in my studio and saw a difference.
But seeing the creative things this hypnotist could I thought, if
Lot #15
Jerrel Holm Valley City, North Dakota Badlands Thorn Vessel Porcelain, 2007 31 x 8.75 inches Range: $500 - 600
Jerrel Holm: According to Holm, the harsh, rough, and desolate land surrounding my former studio in western North Dakota often seems at odds with the delicate, smooth, and pure porcelain being formed on my potter’s wheel. This western environmental influence is apparent in the forms I make today ranging from barrel shapes to squat, bulbous, mushroom-like pieces. The simple taut forms with clean hard lines expand and contract from a base and conclude with a small opening on some, while others remain completely closed. The forms become more complex and unusual as the smooth surface is interrupted by the rhythmic repetition of points, resulting in a sense of tension. This tension is repeated in the torn rims of porcelain bowls and sculptural forms to create a natural organic image. Other works begin as vessels but at the end of the forming process are bestowed with masculine and feminine characteristics to become sculptural. Some pieces are left naked of glaze to express harsh, frozen winters. An ash-type glaze coats the surface of others, reminiscent of hot arid summers. My sculpture survives the winter season out-of-doors. Porcelain is the most exacting of clays, demanding a special kind of respect and patience. I find the slow meticulous way I work in tune with my nature. hypnosis is opening me up to my creativity, surely it can assist
Following graduation from Minot State with a B.S in education, Holm taught
students with theirs. So I received my hypnotherapy certification
art in the public schools in Minnesota for twelve years while completing his
and developed what I call my "Creativity Enhancement
M.S. at Saint Cloud State University. In 1981 he began teaching in Watford
Workshop." In 2000 I linked up with Dr. James Council of the
City, North Dakota. In 1992, while still teaching, he completed his M.F.A.
Psychology Department at NDSU. We have been researching
at the University of North Dakota. After teaching for twenty-four years, it
the significance of hypnosis on creativity and have found it to be
seemed time to become a studio potter, which filled the next ten years. He
significant. My use of hypnosis in the studio and my hypnosis
then returns to the classroom in 2004 at Valley City State University where
research continues.
he continues to teach.
I consider this work not an exploitation of nature, but rather a fusion of nature and the human spirit to form a new creation that can transcend both. —Albert Belleveau
Lot #16
Albert Belleveau Puposky, Minnesota Autumn Bench, 2006 Cut steel with stone. Cushion by Minnesota textile artist Pat Black Range: $1,800 - 2,200
Albert Belleveau is involved in a life-long love affair
with metal in his father’s fabrication shop at the age of five. He
with two of northern Minnesota’s most plentiful resources: rocks
writes, I moved to my grandparents’ farm in 1970 and continue
and metal. “Rock Iron Art” is the syntheses of his transformation
to roam the hills and valleys of Maple Ridge Township. I live in a
of these materials into sculpture wherein he creates humorous
log house surrounded by the fullness of nature, the inspiration for
life forms, unique functional furniture, and decorating
many of my works. I have primarily created with metals in my
accouterments.
mature years but I have always collected sticks and stones and glued them together to create little sculptures—I did this
He collects the rounded, wind and wave softened stones during
primarily between the ages of 7 and 16. At age 17 I began to
his frequent kayaking trips on Lake Superior. Back home in
work as a welder. I often spent my coffee and lunch breaks
Puposky, he turns them into sculpture. He selects the rocks
welding sculptures. The last ten years I’ve worked vigorously
according to size and color, and then thrusts them into cherry red
developing “Rock Iron Art.”
cages of steel, formed and tightened under enormous pressure and subsequently welded into sculpture. The finished sculpture
Still today, Belleveau continues to interpret his world experience,
is sandblasted to even the surfaces, and sealed with two coats of
often humorously, in rocks, metal, wood, and found objects. He
lacquer, or allowed to weather and oxidize. Such a work was
has created large-scale sculpture and ornamental structural-iron
part of the Museum’s exhibition REAL: Artists and Landscapes,
projects for both public and private commissions. His smaller
summer 2006 and curated by Vance Gellert.
works have traveled the world. The artist and his family continue to reside in Maple Ridge township of northern Minnesota, a land
Born in Minneapolis in 1959, Albert Belleveau began working
of rocks and iron.
Lot #17
Marley Kaul Bemidji, Minnesota Looking for the Bee Acrylic on canvas 30 x 44 inches, 2008 Range: $2,800 - 3,300
Marley Kaul is one of the region's most senior artists. As during his thirty years of university teaching, he continues to paint daily in his studio near Lake Bemidji, to exhibit generously throughout the region, and to move his art into significant private and public collections. At the turn of the century, Kaul was one of seventeen artists commissioned to fill a room at the Hotel Donaldson in Fargo.
of over painting is required before the drawing recedes. The work in this auction, "Looking for the Bee,� is painted with acrylic on canvas. Yet Kaul employs the same techniques of under-drawing that is overlaid with thin layers of acrylic paint. The artist was sitting in his living room painting what he saw as he looked out the south window. He recorded the everyday plants of his
Minnesota home, and with great deftness, the
Kaul is a prolific painter and a twenty-first century man
reflections through the window. The mood is one of quiet
sensitized by philosophical and political thought who continues
restfulness. Paintings such as these are creating an important
to teach through and about his art. He paints interior and exterior
legacy. Years from now, they will be highly prized as historic
worlds: landscapes, lush with life, fruitful, ever questioning the
renditions of an earlier time and place.
crossover between public and private life. The paintings of this important American regionalist are layered with meanings shaded from the casual viewer. For the past seventeen years much of Kaul's work has been developed through egg tempera processes on carefully prepared gesso-covered panels. This links him to many early painters and their ability to discipline their working habits. Egg tempera is closely related to drawing as it requires a prepared line and value under-drawing to be laid onto the panel in India ink (Value is the difference between light and dark that helps define the shape of objects.). This drawing continues to show through the initial layers of pigment. Since the pigment is translucent, a great deal
Kaul’s work has been recognized and collected by almost every major museum in Minnesota and North Dakota and this speaks volumes about his tireless commitment to his development as a painter and his desire to continue to explore new ideas. Ultimately, Marley Kaul is a superb painter with a scholarly bent who has become widely respected and loved within the region he calls home.
Lot #19
Herman de Vries Winnipeg, Manitoba Redwood Platter Turned redwood 14 x 3 inches, 2008 Range: $250 - 350
Lot #18
Herman de Vries Winnipeg, Manitoba Box Elder Platter Turned box elder wood 16 x 2 inches, 2008 Range: $225 - 300
Box Elder Platter: I received a phone call from a lady looking for someone to cut down a huge box elder tree in her back yard. She had inherited the home from her grandparents and remembered swinging in the tree, which she called a “Manitoba Maple”—the common name for the tree. She was devastated that it was dying
Herman de Vries was born at Ochre River, Manitoba. He received an M.A. in Music Education from the University of Sioux Falls and South Dakota State in the 1960s. Today he is a retired business executive and a former professional singer and music teacher. A self-taught wood turner, he began in 1997 and was teaching classes a year later. At first, I never considered this a art. As time went on, the wood itself began to “speak” to me, and soon every piece of firewood was a fresh opportunity.
and needed to be taken down. I turned several small pieces for her and used a couple of pieces from a crotch in the tree to turn platters. This piece shows the division in pattern commonly seen in the crotch of a tree. Unfortunately, most of the tree was not suitable for turning as it was decayed. Redwood Platter: It is crafted from old growth redwood recovered from stumps of redwood trees cut down long ago in California. I was fortunate to obtain some nicely figured redwood and the dimensions of the raw wood dictated a platter form. The unusual aspect of this piece is a continuation of several platters
It came full circle when I went to the a lonely spot where my
and shallow bowls that I have done which use a “rolled rim”
parents homesteaded and where I was born. I saw the old maple
effect. To hollow the rolled rim is very difficult and requires the
trees that my father and mother had planted in the early 1920s.
woodturner to create his own special tools. Additionally, the
Some were dying. Taking the wood from that dying tree and
wood has a “flame” figure that is not commonly found in
turning it into a piece of turned art became a way of preserving
redwood, showing a chatoyance (like a holograph) not often seen
something that represented the future to my youthful father and
in this wood.
mother. I am their future, and the tree was their future. If I am able to leave behind a legacy, it seemed only fair that the tree should be able to do the same. I only helped a little.
Lot # 20
Adam Kemp, Grand Forks’ unofficial Artist in Residence, was born in 1962 and grew up forty miles northeast of London
Adam Kemp
in the Essex countryside. From age fourteen through nineteen,
Grand Forks, North Dakota
Adam sketched with watercolors because I could take them
Dandelions, Lincoln Park, 2007
anywhere. At about sixteen, I noticed there were a lot of things
Acrylic on canvas
that could be painted on—and I did. He graduated from
54 x 72 inches
Newcastle upon Tyne with a B.F.A. in 1986 but not before
Range: $1,500 - 2,300
studying for a year at a wood restoration school in Florence, Italy, and working with a Newcastle blacksmith for six months. While in college he realized he was a failed watercolor painter. I put on too much paint so I would have to give my pictures a bath in the tub. Finally he switched to the sculpture department, which was grounded in the tradition of the British Modern School—Sir Anthony Caro, Henry Moore, and most importantly, Barbara Hepworth, whom his parents had taken him to visit when he was a child. Her studio in Cornwall “looked like my bedroom so I figured there was hope.”
addition to paintings and sculpture, Kemp’s work includes a monumental commissioned wall mosaic at the Hotel Donaldson in Fargo (summer 2003).
Kemp continues to teach popular
sessions in the Museum’s Summer Art Camp and to run the You Are Here gallery in downtown Grand Forks, of which he is halfowner. But most importantly, Kemp has made art a living presence in everyday life in Grand Forks. The fish sculptures he and thirty children made in Kemp’s first art camp grace public parks and restaurants. The Museum garden always houses the most recent camp spectaculars. And people take his work home,
Kemp earned an M.F.A. degree from the University of North
paintings that are based in our own home landscape, paintings
Dakota where he learned to cast bronze in the new foundry. In
to be treasured and passed on to following generations.
Lot #21
Stuart Klipper’s panoramic landscapes are ordered by
Stuart Klipper
themes of permanence and change. This includes his celebrated
Minneapolis, Minnesota
photographs of Antarctica, which were shown in New York’s
Trail County, North Dakota, 2008
Museum of Modern Art in 1991. (In November, 2008, his
Type C print, 12 x 38 inches
photographic book The Antarctic from the Circle to the Pole will
18 x 11.5 inches
be published by the Chronicle Books and National Science
Range: $1,300 - 1,700
Foundation Office of Polar Programs Artists and Writers Program. Over the course of twenty-five years, he was a five-time grantee.)
disappointingly, nary a grocery store I asked in stocked skyr.
Klipper, ever the wanderer, has also photographed the Outback
I returned to the state again this past January (2008). I had been
of northern Australia, the deserts of Israel and the Sinai, the rain
persuaded to ride shotgun with a friend who had some business
forests of Costa Rica, the Far North regions of Greenland,
to attend to in Grand Forks. She hadn’t much need to inveigle, I
Iceland, Svalbard, Alaska, and Lapland (where he photographed
very much wanted to go to North Dakota again.
the area irradiated by the fallout from the Chernobyl disaster). And most recently, North Dakota.
For one, I had to taste the fabled chocolate-dipped potato chips of Widman’s chocolate shoppe. And a tad more challenging, I
Klipper writes, I made it out to Dakota Territory—South
had a yen to make pix out on these High-Lined plains in mid-
Dakota—the first couple of times around 1980. First as a camera-
winter, when it was good and cold and the northern tier states
carrying visiting artist; and then, a bit later on, just to wander
were snow-covered.
about and work on a corporate art commission. I was not disappointed—I’ll put it this way, if a mere smidgen of Visually and culturally whetted, north of the border next
agriculture were ever introduced to the Antarctic, that’s what
beckoned. Its primary allure was that it was emptier even than its
winter looks like in North Dakota. I spent a couple of chilly
southern counterpart. I finally crossed the Red River from
wind-driven days on the road amply confirming this. The high
Minnesota in the wet summer of 1988. Via research, I knew I had
point of this foray was finding the KVLY-TV mast, the planet’s
to first focus on the state’s upper right hand corner. This is where
tallest structure. It occurred to me to perhaps shoot it in a vertical
cadres of ocean- (but apparently not wind) hating Icelanders—
format.
the scions of the Norse whose history and culture had long held a strong fascination for me—once had settled to break the prairie
Born in 1941, this Bronx, New York, native graduated with a B.A.
and to farm.
in architecture and design from the University of Michigan. Klipper currently lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His
I had already visited Iceland over six times (and Greenland
photographs have been exhibited and are collected by the Art
once), and I was keen to see the mid-continental landlocked
Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art, the Minneapolis
haven that had drawn these -sons and -dottirs of the old country
Institute of Arts, the Walker Art Center, International Center for
(and prompted them to cross the ocean one last time). So, I lit out
Photography, the Museum of Contemporary Photography, the
to Pembina and Cavalier counties to give a look-see. Town
Ogden Museum of Southern Art, the North Dakota Museum of
names were tell-tales, runic inscribed headstones too; but,
Art, and numerous others.
Lot # 22
Dan Jones Fargo, North Dakota Sheltered Bales, 2008 Charcoal on paper 31 x 50.25 inches Range: $3,200 - 3,800
of the gloaming, of the twilight, the time after sunset and before dark. His drawings suggest gloaming, to be or become dark, shaded, or obscure. To make despondent, sadden. Yet, the light is ambiguous. It might be the full light of day casting deep shadows in the underbrush. Only the presence of the artist’s gesture is solid, real.
Dan Jones, who lives and works in Fargo, has long practiced plein aire painting, gathering with a group of fellow artists and going to the countryside to sketch and paint, most recently with Carl Oltvedt and Robert Crawford Crowe for their joint exhibition at the Plains Museum in Fargo in 2007. The landscape of the Red River Valley provides him with endless subjects. According to Museum Director Laurel Reuter, the drawing in the auction is among Dan’s very best. And so simple: two round bales of hay coming out of darkness. The light is moving in from behind the trees, from the back of the painting, gleaming through the upper trees, casting shadows into the lower foreground, turning the hay bales into monoliths.
Jones, who studied at North Dakota State University and the University of Minnesota, exhibits widely in the Midwest. His paintings are included in many museum, corporate and private collections including the National Endowment for the Arts, the Plains Art Museum in Fargo, and the Rourke Art Museum, Moorhead. According to the artist, Anyone who has followed my career for the past few years knows I have a certain fascination with hay bales. Round or rectangle, the shape doesn’t really matter to me. I love the way they catch the light, the shadows they cast, and the way they physically inhabit the space they are randomly placed in. Viewed from a distance, they add to the patterns created
Jones is a master at making monumental charcoal drawings on
when cut and bundled, but close up they have their own
paper, pulling from his simple materials the essence of blackness,
personality, like big hairy beasts resting in the grass.
Lot # 23
Gretchen Bedermen Mandan, North Dakota Circle, 1998 Oil on canvas 48 x 72 inches Range: $1,700 - 2,000
Gretchen Bederman’s painting in this auction is
earthly life, a spiritual quest of sorts, an attempt at fusing matter
both beautiful and surreal. According to Museum Director Laurel
and spirit symbolized by women, horses, birds, vessels, and
Reuter, these pastel ghost horses might tread on a lunar
trees. For the most part, I’ve created these images from my mind’s
landscape. They could be the horses of a dream, washed as they
eye, looking within to memories and impressions with the
are in the intense light of a mirage. Maybe they stepped out of a
intention of imparting a universal and soulful essence.
Cormac McCarthy novel. The horses emerge out of drawing, wispy, shifting, not solid, but dominating the flat, unknown landscape. Like all Bederman’s best paintings, the viewer is given the essence but left to wonder. What is this painting? What is it about? What was the artist’s intention?
Bederman grew up in Houston, Texas. She has lived in North Dakota since 1980, and she has a home in Mandan. In September 2006 she moved to Glendive, Montana, where she heads up the art department at Dawson Community College. She completed her undergraduate work at Minnesota State University
The artist responds, for over 20 years, the predominate theme in
Moorhead and received an M.F.A. in painting from the University
my artwork has been an expression of the elemental forces of our
of North Dakota.
Lot # 24
Melanie Rocan La Broquerie, Manitoba Pony Oil on canvas 54 x 42 inches Range: $1,300 - 1,600
Melanie Rocan: Born in 1980, this bilingual Franco-
the ever growing disconnect between us and our environment is
Manitoban graduated with a B.F.A. from the University of
emphasized.
Manitoba and
completed her M.F.A. in 2008 at Concordia
University, Montreal. She has recently been nominated as a semifinalist in the 8th annual RBC [Financial Group] painting competition. Her work is part of a group exhibition traveling to galleries across Canada including the Musee d’art contemporain de Montreal, The Museum of Contemporary Art in Toronto and the Contemporary Art Gallery of Vancouver. In 2005, she was in an exchange program with the Glasgow School of Art in Scotland. In 2007 she was participated in a Too-Sicks group show at the Harvey Levine Gallery in Los Angeles.
I rely on an intuitive process to create these works which gives me the freedom to search and make discoveries. I find the struggle of creating work by intuition and memory makes me in constant search to re-invent and build the work within the internal domains of my conscience. This process also allows room for balance from my hand and the medium itself to communicate.
I use a variety of languages and diverse
techniques combined on one surface, a pastiche in the imagery as well as in the way I paint. By using these techniques I want to capture and evoke inconsistencies of emotions, making the
My recent work speaks of the fragility of human beings and the
work linger in between a darkness and a playfulness, to be able
reality of the subconscious state. I want to capture a distressed
to affect and give sensations.
beauty in the work which suggests the inner emotional condition, highs and lows, a psychological unease. There is a dichotomy between the difficulty to comprehend the reality of the internal world and a reaction to the outside world’s fragility and the present state of the earth. I use the environment to address issues concerning identity. and, by isolating the figure,
I am interested in illustrating opposing forces in my work, and by unifying and combining these dualities, they can exist together as one entity, one cannot exist without the other. As stated above, I want to evoke an inconsistency of emotions, making the work linger in between a darkness and a playfulness.
Madelyn Camrud has donated the proceeds from the sale of this painting to the Museum of Art
Lot #25
Anton Boubin 1902 - 1973 Apple Trees in Spring c. 1970-72 Oil on canvas 23.25 x 31.25 inches Range: Not established
Anton Boubin, who died in Crookston, Minnesota, in
Boubin’s granddaughter, Emily Boubin, writes in her blog,
1997, is a Czech artist who refused to capitulate to Communism.
Mission Emily: Because of increased fear of the death of his
Having served two years in prison from 1948-1950 he was
family, my grandfather and his family eventually fled from their
returned for another year after only two months of freedom. In
country. Grandfather and his oldest son first traveled to Vienna.
retaliation for this stubbornly clinging to the ideal of freedom, his
Then, using fake passports, my father and grandmother escaped
lucrative dental practice in Prague, his home, artist studio and all
on the last train to leave Czechoslovakia before the Communists
belongings were confiscated. He was forbidden to practice the
closed the borders to travel. My dad's last memory of his country
dental profession in any manner and, although allowed to paint,
of origin was incredible fear that they would be discovered.
was forbidden the sale of paintings as a means of livelihood. He
While on the train, a young boy spat at a Russian soldier. The
became a farm laborer or woodcutter.
train was stopped and both the young boy and his father were shot and killed. Eventually, in 1969, my dad and his family were
At one time the family of four was forced to move to living
sponsored by the Sisters of St. Joseph in Crookston, Minnesota
quarters that consisted of a six-by-eight foot room which they
where my Grandfather Anton lived for a couple years before his
occupied for over three years. One day desperation forced Mrs.
death in 1972. Unable to practice his dental profession, he made
Boubin to sneak a painting from the room in an attempt to obtain
a meager living providing for his family by painting beautiful
money, milk or food in exchange. A neighbor informed and this
paintings from his memories of beautiful Czechoslovakia.
time both his wife and youngest child underwent severe interrogation by the police before they were released. Beatings that followed knocked out most of his teeth. His artist hands were permanently scared from being stomped on—one can’t practice dental work if his hands are broken and mangled— and yet the stubborn spirit and determination of this tiny man, who at that period of his life was sixty-three years of age, remained unbroken. —Excerpt from the Crookston Daily Times, October 28, 1970, by Cathy Wright.
Today Anton Boubin’s “old world” paintings are highly prized, especially by the Czech Republic, which is attempting to buy them back for the national collection. For years the paintings hung in the original Sanders 1907 in Grand Forks where his wife worked as a baker.
Lot #26
Tim Schouten‘s Treaty 3 Suite (Outside Promises) comprises fifteen paintings in encaustic on canvas. The suite is
Tim Schouten
one of eleven elements of The Treaty Suites Project. The Treaty Suites Project was conceived in 2003 as a series of eleven suites
Petersfield, Manitoba
of paintings, each based on photographs taken at the exact
Looking Out On Lac Seul from the
locations of the signings of each of the eleven “numbered
Kejick Bay Island (Treaty 3 Suite)
treaties” between First Nations and Canada. The project grew to
Diptych, encaustic on canvas
include the locations of adhesions to the Treaties, which were
Each panel 24 x 24 inches, 2008
signed in years following the initial signings. This whole series is
Range: $ 2,500 - 3,500
an extension of the Treaty Lands project that has made up the major part of my practice since 1998.
virtue of their Indian blood, claim a certain interest or title in the lands or territories . . . the said Half-breeds have elected to join
This series is based on photos taken at a number of locations in
in the treaty . . . it being further understood that the said Half-
Manitoba and Ontario within Treaty 3 territory. Treaty 3 was
breeds shall be entitled to all benefits of the said treaty.”
signed between “Her Majesty the Queen and the Saulteaux Tribe of the Ojibbeway Indians” on Harrison Creek at the North West Angle of Lake of the Woods in October of 1873. Once the site of a Métis community called Norwest and a Hudson Bay Company trading post on the Dawson Trail, this location has now almost completely reverted to bush. Traces of Dawson’s Route remain, but little else. The area is home to several Ojibwa First Nations on both sides of the Canada/United States border. Harrison Creek still provides good wild rice harvesting in years when the water levels aren’t too high.
—Tim Schouten, November 2006
The lyrical landscapes of the treaty series are visually gorgeous, luminous and shimmering, and all the while underpinned by troubling questions of land ownership in North America. The artist researches each treaty site, photographing the landscape, digging through historical files in search of the records of treaty enactment, intent upon understanding the layers of conflict and beauty associated with each specific place. For Schouten landscape is visual place. Landscape is also the dumping ground of human grief. As the critic Marianne Mays eloquently
Adhesions to Treaty 3 were signed at Lac Seul and at Fort Francis
summarizes, “political questions of property and Aboriginal
in 1874 and 1875 respectively. The Fort Francis adhesion is
disenfranchisement beat at the heart of these paintings.”
outstanding in that in an isolated incident of treaty activity, specific provisions were included for people of mixed blood in the Rainy River area, who in the wording of the document, “by
Schouten is a leading Canadian painter who was born in Winnipeg, left for forty years, and returned to make his home north of the city near Lake Winnipeg.
Lot #28, right
Angela Luvera Winnipeg, Manitoba Dance of Bees, 2005 Mixed media on canvas 12 x 21.25 inches Range: $450 - 550
Lot #27
Ali LaRock Bismarck, North Dakota Everybody Leaves, 2008 Mixed media on canvas 12 x 8 inches Range: $350 - 450
Ali La Rock, who grew up in New Town, North Dakota,
Like most artistic people I have been interested in art since I was young. Much of my artwork now still has that same childlike quality it did when I was a child. —Ali La Rock
lives in Bismarck. In 1998 she received her B.F.A. in painting from Minnesota State University, Moorhead. In addition to working as an artist, she is active in the Artists-in-Residence program sponsored by the North Dakota Council on the Arts. Through her
childlike world. This intertwining is not only represented
own studio she runs art birthday parties, gives private lessons, and
psychologically, but in a physical way as well. The paint itself is
teaches at the International Music Camp, through Bismarck’s
often aggressively scraped away, built up thick, pushed around,
Parks and Recreation Office, at after school classes for the Theo
and layered. In my more recent paintings, cut and torn fabric is
Art School, and the Plains Art Museum in Fargo.
collaged onto the canvas as a background and almost becomes a comfort blanket or clothing to soften the intense energy of the
LaRock says about her art, The raw and primitive quality of my paintings is the most honest way for me to work and express myself. Many of my painted images are taken directly from my sketchbook and visual journals. I feel that I am able to translate the freshness and intentions of the original sketches into paint by using the materials in a way that is most natural and immediate to me.
image and message. Text is also an important part of my art. Often the idea for the text and the image happen together in the dialogue that is created in my sketchbook, so it seems only natural to keep them this way once they become a painting. The words I use in my art not only help to further convey my ideas, but they also become an important element of the composition that can be experimented
The canvas becomes a place where the chaos of the adult world
with and manipulated, in much the same way that I work with
can meet and become woven together with the wonder of the
the paint.
Lot #29
Doug Pfliger Minot, North Dakota Trick Dogs IX, 2008 Wood, metal, paint 17.5 x 8 x 5 inches Range: $350 - 450
Angela Luvera: “My art explores the tension between organic and geometric forms, both in relation to our past and present.” This Winnipeg artist and architect/landscape architect, obtained her degrees from the Rome Academy of Fine Arts and the Universities of Rome and Genoa. Her background as an artist is in the areas of painting, printmaking and large scale sculptural works. Luvera has received awards and other recognition in both Canada and Italy, including two major Manitoba Arts Council Awards, a Canada Department of Foreign Affairs grant, the Premier Award in the University of Modena’s national sculpture competition, and the Gold Medal in Painting at the 20th Annual Marina di Ravena National Arts Competition. She was a winner of Ottawa’s 2002 national outdoor sculpture competition. Luvera maintains private studios in Winnipeg and Rome.
Doug Pfliger began his Doug’s Dogs series in 2005, which he originally called Scrap Pile Dogs. The folksy quality of the dogs is intentional, but the fact that each dog ends up having a personality all its own has been quite serendipitous.He
therefore partial to the canine form. Dog-shaped household
searches for the components for the dogs at thrift stores, dollar
objects such as oil lamps and purely decorative figures of dogs
stores, and hardware, hobby, and lumber stores in the area.
were popular in ancient Roman homes, and the very Roman tradition of an image of a dog inscribed with the words ‘cave
His tendency is to work within the confines of the wood shapes
canem’ or ‘beware of the dog’ persists today! Doug’s Dogs do not
and dimensions selected, and then alter the forms as needed. The
bite, require only an occasional dusting, and will not chew up
dogs’ pedigrees are at best indeterminate, but their roles as
your favorite pair of shoes.
faithful friends and companions are clearly defined. According to the artist, At times I feel like one of Santa’s elves in my workshop
A Hazen, North Dakota, native, Pfliger currently teaches art at
as I build, paint, and embellish each dog—At present there are
Minot State University where he received his B.S. in art education
over 130 dogs that are in my possession or have been released to
(1984). He taught art in the public school system for thirteen
good homes.
years before pursuing graduate work. He received his M.F.A. (1997) from the University of North Dakota and began to teach
Why dogs and not cats? Simply put, I am a dog owner, and
at Minot State University in 2001.
Lot #30 paragraph-like forms made from hand-stitched threads. The
Ingrid Restemayer
running threads provide the grids that anchor the floating fish.
Minneapolis, Minnesota The Nature of Things, 2008
For years Restemayer's art has alluded to storytelling or narration
Mixed Media print with fiber
through the use of her intaglio images as pseudo-illustrations
30 x 45 inches
which suggest a story when paired with code-like paragraph
Range: $1,200 - 1,800
shapes formed from her hand-embroidery. Restemayer has spent more than a decade growing and developing her unique combination of printmaking and fiberart techniques. She studied overseas in Auckland, New Zealand
Ingrid Restemayer is a printmaker and fiber artist originally from North Dakota but now living and working in northeast Minneapolis. Influenced by generations of fine crafters, Restemayer's work reflects traditional embroidery techniques
and in 1996 earned her B.F.A. in Printmaking, Fiberarts and Mixed Media Visual Arts from the University of North Dakota. In the past several years she has shown extensively and gained gallery representation across the United States and overseas.
while incorporating other process-intensive mediums through
As well as being dedicated full-time to producing and exhibiting
collage. The Nature of Things comes from a body of work which
her artwork, Restemayer is heavily involved in the Minneapolis
features recognizable imagery (Koi, or Carp) that have been
arts community, serving on the Board of Directors of the Rosalux
intricately etched on handmade papers. The etchings are
Gallery and as a lead committee member for the development of
collaged with fine printmaking papers and punctuated by
the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District.
Lot #31
Ewa Tarsia Ewa Tarsia is a Polish-born Canadian artist. Whereas she
Winnipeg, Manitoba
works in diverse media including painting, sculpture, tapestry, landscape design, and drawing, she is known internationally as a printmaker. She has showed in international print biennials in
Eyes Wide Open, 2008 New Polymer media on canvas 30 x 60 inches
Spain, France, Poland, Austria, United States, England, Germany,
Range: $2,500 - 3,500
Japan, and Korea. Most recently, Tarsia was included in the New York’s International Print Center’s NEW PRINTS 2008/Summer. As a printmaker, Tarsia is part of a tradition of artists who acknowledge that their plates—the pieces of metal, plastic, wood and linoleum that they print from—are the true objects of their affection. Covered with marks, lines, and subtle traces of color, printing plates are often as interesting as the images pulled from them. Each plate is visually complex, offering a fully active and engaged surface that, once transformed into sculpture, reveals both the artist’s obsessive process and the beauty that
The success of her passion for garden design was celebrated in the January 2008 issue of Manitoba Gardner. In August 2008 she opened her solo show at the North Dakota Museum of Art. The galleries resembled the blaze of color and the plant complexity of a summer garden, just as her own Winnipeg garden is widely praised for both its brilliant color and the plethora of plants that are only supposed to flourish much farther south. Her husband Ludwik grows rhododendrons; Ewa grows everything else.
motivates her to continue. As an environmentalist, Tarsia sees the
Eva Tarsia was born in Gdansk, Poland in 1959. She studied at
irony of using plastic and paper to create images that celebrate
the School of Fine Arts in Gdynia from 1974-79. In 1988 when
the beauty of the natural world. “It reflects our society,” she says
she moved to Vienna, Austria, with her husband. While in
of the work. “Plastic is everywhere.” The success of her artistic
Vienna, she pursued the study of sculpture. They arrived in
career in Canada was celebrated in June 2007 when she was
Winnipeg in 1991 where they continue to make there home.
inducted into the Royal Academy of Arts.
From 1995 – 2000, Ewa worked as a graphic designer while
The work in this auction, Eyes Wide Open, represents the evolution of Tarsia’s printmaking into personal techniques that
studying Advertising Art and Computer Graphics at Winnipeg’s Red River College. She received her diploma with honors.
meld the actual Lucite printing plate into relief paintings on
The artist is in the following public collections: Agentur Barth,
canvas. The highly-textured painted surfaces of the canvas foil
Germany; Consulate of the Netherlands, Winnipeg, Manitoba;
the smooth surface of the Lucite panels—for the printmaking
Éditions des Plaines, Winnipeg, Manitoba; French Embassy,
plates are placed face down upon the canvas. Adding to the
Gdansk, Poland; Intercity Papers, Winnipeg, Manitoba; The Keg
complex rhythm of the work is the highly-textured undersurface
Restaurant, Winnipeg, Manitoba; Limberg Zeichnung Atelier,
gleaming through what appears to be the smooth surface of the
Vienna, Austria; Ministry of Heritage and Culture, Manitoba;
Lucite panels. The rich gold in all its variations dances across the
Tama University, Tokyo, Japan; the North Dakota Museum of Art,
painting from left to right.
plus numerous private collections.
Lot #32
Mariah Masilko Minneapolis, Minnesota Initiation, 2007 Oil on canvas 16 x 20 inches, Range: $300 - 500
Mariah Masilko: As a child in North Dakota, Mariah Masilko acquired a love for stormy skies, long grass moving in the wind, and lonesome patches of trees. Since 1987, when she explored her first abandoned building, she has been attracted to the beauty of their loneliness,
their desolation,
their quiet
melancholy. The forgotten abandoned structures are a disappearing link to the past. Masilko bases her oil paintings and colored pencil drawings on
Engraving is a method of cutting or incising a design into a material, usually metal, with a sharp tool called a burin. Engraving is one of several intaglio techniques for making prints. The print can be made by inking the incised (engraved) surface. “Engraving� may also refer to a print produced in this way.
photographs she takes on her explorations. She uses water-
Most engraving is done by first laying out the broad, general
mixable oil paints, which have the same pigments and quality as
outline onto the plate. After this step is complete the artist can
traditional oils, but can be thinned and cleaned with water. In her
begin to engrave the work. The burin is pushed along the plate
work she explores light, shadow and contrast, and recently has
to produce thin strips of waste metal. After the metal is displaced,
been experimenting with color: fanciful colors that give a
a scraper (a sharp-edged tool) is used to remove the burs as they
dreamlike quality to an otherwise realistic scene.
will be an impediment to the ink. By using a mirror to do the drawing, the printer accommodates the reversal that occurs in
Masilko grew up in Grand Forks and graduated from Central High
printing.
School in 1992. She briefly studied architecture at the University of Oklahoma, before moving to Minneapolis and graduating with
To tell if the print is done on copper or on steel, one can look at
a Bachelor of Arts in studio art from the University of Minnesota
the date. If the print is done before 1821, it is done on copper
in 1997. Her work has been in many local exhibitions and was
and if after 1830, it is most likely incised by the engraver on steel.
displayed from January through June of 1997 at the North Dakota
If there is no date, the lines are further apart and appear heavier,
Heritage Center in Bismarck.
and there is a warmer sense, it is a copper print. With steel
Lot #33, Queen Anne
Lot #33 - 37
Anonymous Artisans Engravings Various sizes from 6 x 3 inches Range: $75 - 125 each
Lot #34, King Edward IIV
Lot #35, Admiral Vernon
Nancy Friese has as donated the proceeds from the sale of these engravings to the Museum of Art
engravings there is often a silvery tone with parallel lines and cross hatching closer together. These engravings are most likely from books of biographies. The prints were often copies of paintings or other prints. The artist
Lot #36, Queen Mary II
who painted the portrait may be noted on the edge of the print, as well as the engraver's name under the title of sculptor. Sometimes the print publisher is also included. What still fascinates us today is the extreme effort required of the engraver. The handwork is meticulous. These prints are tributes to the dedication and craft of the engraver. The lines reveal the person and an intensive system of abstract organization and detail. More recently the biographies of engravers have become available and many are now known for their own particular style and abilities. Nancy Friese advises that viewers take a magnifying glass and examine these portrait engravings to see the beautiful interweaving of lines and marks used to construct a likeness of a specific historical person. In Friese’s eyes, “these are remarkable works to collect.�
Lot #37, Phylip Yorke, Earl of Hardwicke
Lot # 38
Vivienne Morgan Bemidji, Minnesota Tangle Trees, 2008 Archival digital print on Innova 30 x 45 inches Range: $1,200 - 1,500
Vivienne Morgan: It's been nearly thirty years since I came to Minnesota from England and I'm still whining about
Vivienne Morgan has donated the proceeds from the sale of this photograph to the Museum of Art
winter. I want to see soft lush greens and color year around, not the hardness of the white winter, so I stay inside and try not to notice. One ice crusted morning I dragged myself out of the warmth of the studio. I finally saw the overwhelming blue sky. Tangle Trees was taken that morning before the sun banished the frost from the branches.
North Dakota Museum of Art in the fall of 2004 and at that time gifted a major work to the Museum from her Navigation Series. She will open her second exhibition in November 2010. The Jackson Pollack Foundation granted this Portland artist $20,000
The artist will be spotlighted at the North Dakota Museum of Art with a solo exhibition November 2, 2008 through January 5. She has developed a new body of work about which she says, "My sense of identity is tied to the landscape: to me that has meant finding a way of looking at my local forested landscape and seeing some trace of England or Europe in order to feel home. I often shoot in the gloaming, letting the low sun soften the landscape and transform the sense of space.
Lena McGrath Welker had a solo exhibition at the
Like the 19th
for the North Dakota show, which she has been working on for three years. The sale of Aphelion, the work in this auction, will help fund her 2010 show. Aphelion is a diptych that connects loss of place, loss of lives, and loss of the language to partly describe these events. The artist describes the work: Aphelion: noun: the point of a planet’s or a comet’s orbit most
century Barbizon painters, I want to make the wild, wooded
distant from the sun.
landscape a tranquil, pastoral, and orderly place, even if there
Every day I rise at 4:00 A.M. to read, write, study, and have a
really are wolves in the shadows."
period of solitude before starting my work day. In December of 2002, as the U.S. Government was sending troops into
Vivienne Morgan was born in England in 1958. In 1979 she
Afghanistan and preparing to invade Iraq, I went outside as usual
moved to the United States and earned her M.F.A. from Bowling
to bring in the newspaper, and also as usual to look at the night
Green State University in Ohio. She now lives in the countryside
sky. That morning, and every single morning since that day, I have
near Bemidji, Minnesota.
looked up at the stars and moon and thought about all the people
Detail
Detail
Lot # 39
Lena McGrath Welker Portland, Oregon Aphelion (diptych), 2007 Collage of paper, books, scrolls, silk weaving, stitching and pigment 78 x 64 x 6 and 34 x 26 x 6inches Range: $3,000 - 6,000
around the world who are looking at the same stars through the
constellations, and also with counting marks and abstract writing
terrible filter of war. At first I thought specifically of Iraq, but it
that references names. In only the third time in ten years of
wasn’t long before I had extended my thoughts to all people
making art filled with illegible writing, I have embedded
everywhere suffering through wars in their own homelands.
fragments of ‘real’ words and phrases, all related to the heavens,
Only now, five years later, do I understand this to be a rather
from the poems of Paul Celan, Ingeborg Bachman, and Georg
uncanny and long-lasting reaction to a single event; certainly it is
Trakl. Each of these poets survived terrible wars and wrote about
not the first of its kind in my lifetime.
them in connection with their own personal experiences with
I recently came upon the word “aphelion,” and understood that there was a sense of loss built into the word, and also that it was time to make some work about this daily experience of mine. Only after composing two pieces, one smaller than the other,
loss. I have also quoted the contemporary poet Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, a woman of abiding love and goodness, whose fragments about the stars help incrementally to adjust the equilibrium of the unspeakable sorrow of the other poets’ words.
with papers nestled inside one another, or nudged up against
As I work, I am thinking about Baltic, Armenian, Afghani, Greek,
each other, did I realize that it wasn’t “people” around the world
Serbian, Iraqi, Palestinian, African, Irish, Columbian women and
that my heart had been calling out to, but women and children,
children, and countless others who have died or witnessed death
and that I had unconsciously described this in the very fabric of
and torture all around them, under the indescribably exquisite
these two collages.
and lonely galaxy that covers us all.
The books, scrolls, and single folios are filled with drawings and stitched imagery of Ptolemy’s diagrams, star measurements,
an icy wind blows from our stars —Georg Trakl, from Downfall
Gaëtanne Sylvester has donated the proceeds from the sale of this sculpture to the Museum of Art Lot #40
Gaetanne Sylvester Winnipeg, Manitoba Nine Months “Neuf Mois” #2 Paper clay, 2001 15.5 x 15 x 9.5 inches Range: $500 - 700
Gaetanne Sylvester: I am fascinated with the fact that
In 2001 she was included in the Manitoba exhibitions Knowing
I started as a microscopic dot . . . and how that dot came into
Bodies at Saint Norbert Arts Center; Histoire de sens at Maison
being . . . and what my mother’s role was in this mysterious
des artistes; and was featured in a solo exhibition at Source at the
event. I realize my experience as a woman and mother is very
Centre culturel franco-manitobain. In 2003, she participated in a
personal, but it is also universal. My work celebrates the
national in/situ project, Parallaxe, in Saint-Boniface. In 2004, she
historical relevance of the feminine element and is an attempt at
was included in Homecoming, a juried alumni exhibition at the
placing that element in a contemporary setting. I take inspiration
University of Waterloo Gallery, and in Noir et blanc at Maison
from rituals, fertility symbols, societal attitudes, and the impact of
des artistes. In 2005 she was included in the Manitoba Craft
new medical developments, particularly surrounding DNA, have
Council’s annual juried exhibition and invited for a printmaking
all inspired me.
residency at Graff in Montreal. In 2007 she was selected for a
Clay has a special significance to me: it best conveys both the power and the fragility of life. It is tactile and sensual in its raw form. I have taken many risks with it as a medium, silkscreening computer generated images on wet clay, and using it like a canvas with oil paint. In this series, the work Nine Months is intended as an ambivalent metaphor for the genome as well as for feminine sensuality. It emphasizes the fragility of life while
residency of digital arts at Centre Sagamie, Alma, Québec. She was featured in a duo exhibition, Sparks and Whisperings at Maison des artistes; a group exhibition, Treasures from the Collection, Buhler Gallery, Curated by Pat Bovey at the Saint Boniface Hospital; and a group exhibition Rencontres: Encounters at the Musée des maîtres et artisans du Québec in Montreal, curated by Denis Longchamps.
underlining its tenacity, and the importance of the genetic bridge from the past to the future. Born in Manitoba, Sylvester pursues her art career in Winnipeg where she maintains a studio in the Exchange District. She has participated in exhibitions across Canada, in New York, Denver, Hong Kong, and Guadalajara, Mexico.
It’s always just beginning. Everything is always just beginning. —Jakusho Kwang
Painting is a blind man's profession. He paints not what he sees, but what he feels, what he tells himself about what he has seen. —Pablo Picasso
Lot #41
Madelyn Camrud Grand Forks, North Dakota Devils Lake, 2007 Acrylic and pencil on paper 24 x 22 inches Range: $700 - 800
Madelyn Camrud, born in Grand Forks and raised in
thick layers of paint and then written across the face of the
rural Thompson, has lived all but nine months of her life in North
painting—flowing, illegible calligraphy that only suggests poetry.
Dakota. Like most significant creations, her poems and her art
Choosing pencil rather than a denser medium like charcoal, the
work are deeply anchored in this private life and the places she
writing becomes wispy, threading in and out of her clouds.
knows as home.
Clearly, the Impressionists, who were beginning to show their
Madelyn Camrud’s beautiful painting, Devils Lake, provides a
work in Paris in the 1860s, are between the Luminists and
lesson in the history of landscape painting over the last two
Camrud. Their loose brush strokes, grand gestures, and fractured
centuries. This work echoes the luminosity of J.M.W. Turner, the
light resonate in Devils Lake. Anyone who has spent time at or
English Romantic landscape and marine artist who lived
on Devils Lake will sense the spirit captured in the painting. The
between 1775 and 1851. Known as the painter of light, Turner’s
wind is up; the sky is tumultuous, backlit by sun streaming
watercolors and canvases, with their chromatic palette and
through the cloud bank. It is clear that being within that
broadly applied atmospheric washes of acrylic, speak to
landscape is sublime.
Camrud’s Devils Lake. Her paintings, like Turner’s, are more about light than the details of a specific place.
The painting seems more like an object than a painting because, unlike watercolorists, Camrud didn’t tape her paper to a board.
Turner’s influence crossed the Atlantic to be taken up by the
Instead the wet paper is allowed to curl as it dries, another way
Luminists, a group of American painters who worked between
of suggesting movement.
the 1850s and the 1870s (most importantly, Fitz Hugh Lane (1804-1865), John F. Kensett (1816-1872), Martin J. Heade (1819-1904) and Frederick E. Church (1826-1900). The effects of light in landscapes, a poetic atmosphere, and a suggestion of the sublime characterized their work. Unlike Camrud’s painting, however, those artists often painted from an aerial perspective and their brush strokes were invisible. Camrud’s perspective is looking directly into Devils Lake with its towering sky. Not only are her brush strokes visible, she has built up the canvas with
Madelyn Camrud has donated the proceeds from the sale of this painting to the Museum of Art
Walter Piehl wins Bush Foundation’s First Enduring Vision Prize worth $100,000.
Lot #42
Walter Piehl Minot, North Dakota Fearsome Freddy: American Minotaur Acrylic on canvas 48 x 36 inches, 2008 Range: $3,500 – 4,500
Walter Piehl is a painter who draws and incorporates
This master painter, while continuing to live the cowboy life by
drawing into his acrylic painting. He does not use drawing to
roping and calling the rodeo, and by teaching his sons to ride and
make studies for paintings but as a primary medium, either
rope, has found the means to visually enter the sport. In the
embedded into paintings or as separate works of art. But
process he has led droves of artists into a new arena called
ultimately Piehl is most widely known as a painter. His goal is to
Contemporary Western Art.—but most don’t know that this artist
make his surfaces dance with subtle variations. Drips, feathered
from North Dakota charted their course.
edges, scumbled paint, and the judicious use of glazes all contribute to his rich surfaces. His fractured spaces, transparency, multiple images and their afterimages cause his images to sing with movement. Unlike most artists, he was quite young when he decided to make art from his own life. Born into a family that raised rodeo stock, Walter rode as a matter of course. Likewise, he drew constantly in a household without television. He went on to paint and draw horses, year after year, never wearying of his subject, never despairing in his quest to create contemporary Western art. In the beginning he worked alone, one of the very first to turn his back on the established ways of painting rendered into cliche by followers of Frederic Remington and Charles Russell.
Piehl has twice served on the North Dakota Arts Council, once on the Board of Trustees of the North Dakota Museum of Art, and is on the founding governing board of the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame in Medora. Walter Piehl received the North Dakota Governor's Award for the Arts in 2005. As Piehl moves through his sixth decade, he is at the height of his creative powers. His large paintings are magnificent, and the more abstract they become, the more they are saturated with color, the more the temperatures shift between warm and cool, the more they encompass the real energy of the raging bull, the minotaur, or the Sweetheart of the Rodeo—the bucking horse.
Lot #43
David Krindle Winnipeg, Manitoba Untitled Woodfired stoneware with ash glazes 18.75 x 14 inch diameter, 1983 Range: $400 - 600
David Krindle has been a full-time potter for twenty
The less refined approach, local materials, recycled clay, and the
years. Prior to this, he worked as a teacher and visual artist.
marks of the fire speak of the process of turning earth into a
David's work emphasizes the qualities of earthiness found in
vessel for human use. In our increasingly technological and
pottery. He uses coarse clays and local unrefined materials in his
complex society where the objects around us may come from
glazes to create a sense of age, earthy origins, and the human
halfway around the world and where the object's earthly origins
marks of the potter. He fires most of his work in a wood burning
are thoroughly disguised, these pieces are a reminder of an
kiln because the wood fire adds an elemental look to the finished
aspect of life that, as we sit in front of our computers, is easy to
pot, as the work in this auction illustrates.
forget. More and more we are divorced from our natural place in
David's larger pieces are currently moving in a more sculptural direction with combined thrown and hand-built parts. He is combining different clays, slips and marking methods to produce work that is more challenging visually and conceptually. David's functional work retains some of the simplicity of traditional hand pottery. The warm clays and muted, earthy colors help create a sense of connection to the past. His shapes and decoration is in the tradition of the local country potter.
the scheme of things. In a small way, the mug beside your computer helps us keep you in touch with who we are.
Kyoto, the work in the auction, captures the fragility of traditional Japanese architecture in the ancient city of Kyoto. The sticks that form the structure suggest the balance and the economy of bamboo structures, humble in both intent and execution. The delicate drawing on paper reminds one of light coming through shojo screens and doors. The painting reflects muted, pastel, Japanese colors washed by the mist of island humidity. Kyoto epitomizes the balance, elegance, and grace of traditional art. —Laurel Reuter Marlon Davidson & Don Knudson have devoted their lives to art, first individually and ultimately as collaborators. The work in this auction results from over a dozen years working in wood and collage to make collaborations of varying sizes and shifting configurations. Their collaborative art works are
in private and public collections throughout the
United States and Europe. Davidson and Knudson were both born in Northern Minnesota and attended Bemidji State College and the Minneapolis School of Art (now the Minneapolis College of Art and Design). Davidson combined his art with education, first in public schools and later at Bemidji State University where he taught in the Visual Arts Department. Knudson has worked since the late fifties as a sculptor and furniture maker. We are lifetime artists. We have worked for over four decades, both in the Twin Cities and later in Bemidji where we have lived for eighteen years. We think of our lives as an artistic statement. The great art historian Bernard Berenson wrote repeatedly about “life as a work of art.” Whereas one never arrives at that state, we find it a worthwhile journey. Making art objects is an everyday part of our lives. We think of our art as a way of explaining
Lot #44 Marlon Davidson & Don Knudson Bemidji, Minnesota Kyoto, 2008
ourselves to ourselves. Through it, we try to understand our culture, and to live actively within it. We also explore the past through our art—especially the history of art. While we use a variety of materials, our main source of inspiration is nature and historical art.
56 x 24x 2 inches
We worked and lived for twenty years in the Twin Cities and are
Mixed media
aware that our work is informed by the art and artists we knew
Range: $1,500 - 2,000
while living there.
Lot #45
Nancy Friese Cranston, Rhode Island River, 2007 Watercolor 19.5 x 24.75 inches Range: $1,00 – 1,200
Nancy Friese’s watercolor River is painted on smooth, non-absorbent synthetic paper, which gives a watery sense to the overall image. The painting site is along the banks of the Red River in Lincoln Park, Grand Forks. The critic and author Debra Bricker Balken writes "for the past thirty years or so, Nancy Friese has worked en plein air, casting the ephemeral dimensions of the landscape as resplendent, sometime near abstract shapes." Friese, who teaches at the Rhode Island School of Design, purchased her grandparents’ homestead near Buxton as a summer retreat. She serves on the North Dakota Museum of Art Foundation Board and was included in the Museum’s Remembering Dakota exhibition in the summer of 2008. She is a painter and printmaker who has shown extensively both
Colony, I-Park, and with the City of Pont-Aven, France. Friese has an M.F.A. from Yale University School of Art, graduated from the University of North Dakota with a B.S. in nursing, and the Art Academy of Cincinnati with a B.F.A.. She also spent a year in graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley. The artist is working on a new body of large-scale watercolors for an upcoming show in Austin, Texas. Her recent paintings from the Emerald Necklace park system in Boston will be shown at the Trustman Gallery in April 2009, and her twelve foot landscape paintings will be featured in A Place in Time exhibition at the Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery in California in November.
nationally and internationally in over thirty solo and 100 group exhibitions. She has received three National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, including the U.S./Friendship Commission sixmonth grant to Japan. Nancy received the College Art Association and Reader’s Digest Giverny Grant, a Blanche E. Colman Award, and a George Sugarman Foundation Award for painting. Her artist-in-residences include the MacDowell Colony, Millay
Nancy Friese has donated the proceeds from the sale of this watercolor to the Museum of Art
Each watercolor is a collage of vague, symbolic images of remembered life experiences. My father built homes and hunted. My mother cut him some slack . . . . I sat and watched. —Brian Paulsen
Lot #46
Brian Paulsen Fox Fields watercolor 13 x 9 inches Range: $800 - 1,500
Brian Paulsen:
My memory isn’t too good for what
My watercolor technique is methodical, slow and preplanned in
is useful or necessary. Mostly I remember in a collage fashion,
steps. I draw out the composition on tracing paper so that I can
memory of bits and pieces, the way I make art today.
make corrections easily. I transfer the drawing to watercolor
I always react to the utility of a work, the formal aspects, a sunset, a house against a tree. I am less good at looking at art and trying to understand the artist’s intention, or perceiving the artist’s philosophical underpinnings. I not good at making connections between symbols and intentions. The historical and the philosophical grasp elude me.
paper. I then apply wet watercolors next to, or on dried color areas, with synthetic white hair lettering brushes. I paint two paintings per sheet of stretched paper. The artwork is small, which facilitates finishing an idea quickly and moving on to the next work. Paulsen is one of North Dakota’s important, senior painters who
When I create a painting I am looking at it formally, a memory,
taught at the University of North Dakota from 1973 until he
or the association the image has with my own life experiences.
retired in 2007. UND named him a Chester Fritz Distinguished
Regarding the painting in the auction, my son-in-law has a farm
Professor, their highest honor. He has been a visiting artist at
outside of Grand Forks. One day he found a fox scull and gave it
dozens of colleges and universities, and juried eight exhibitions.
to me. I was doing a series of paintings with this piece of stripped
Since 1962, Paulsen has shown in over 1001 juried group
cloth, which I really like, so the painting became a picnic. The
exhibitions, eighty-two solo exhibitions, 204 invitational
cloth is the tablecloth. I placed the fox scull on a plate. The
exhibits, and been invited to include prints in seven print
setting is a field on my son-in-law’s farm in the Red River Valley.
portfolios in the United States, Canada, and abroad. In 2007 the
I liked the idea of painting the shadow of the skull on the plate.
North Dakota Museum of Art mounted a solo exhibition which
If one is looking for a “message” it can be found in the
will result in a book about Paulsen’s work (2008).
juxtaposition of images that, for me, are historical memories from my life.
Lot #47, upper left
Lot #48, upper right
Shaun Morin
Shaun Morin
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Winnipeg, Manitoba
See Ya’ Latter Mixed media on paper 6.5 x 5 inches, 2005 Range: $200 - 300
barely out of art school, Two-Six are already successful artists with street ‘cred’ and art world sanction.
Midnight Special
Two-Six makes paintings and drawings and art videos and music
Mixed media on paper
CDs. In galleries they install, along with large stretched paintings,
6.5 x 5 inches, 2005
collections of small wall works they call ‘Shame Walls,’ a
Range: $200 - 300
punning reference on Halls of Fame. Like Winnipeg's Royal Art Lodge . . . 26 makes ‘all-media-any-venue’ art, initiating their
Shaun Morin is a hot young artist in a city that has become a hub
own shows not only because that is how most young artists
for hot young artists: Winnipeg, Manitoba. Well entrenched in
introduce themselves to the art world, but also because it gives
the practices of young artists is the instinct to join together in
them total control over their work. Artists like 26 regard any
collectives. It began in 1996 when the Royal Art Lodge came into
exhibition space as more-or-less equivalent to any other, and
being and went on to win international success. They came to the
they put as much loving attention into a telephone pole
North Dakota Museum of Art in 2000 with their exhibition
installation as a group show at the local kunsthalle.
Garage Video (Just as bands are formed in the family garage with instruments bought at garage sales for 10¢, beginning video
The collective 26 had its first exhibition together in 2002 at the
artists work in borrowed spaces on a shoestring.).
Graffiti Gallery in Winnipeg, two years before Morin graduated from the University of Manitoba. Just as he jump-started his
Morin is a founding member of 26, or two-six, Too-Sicks, etc., as
exhibition career, Morin won many scholarships during his
is Melanie Rocan who also has work in this auction. According
college years beginning in 201 and 2002 with the National
to Rocan, Too-Sicks collective is a group of artists that work
Aboriginal Achievement Foundation Fine Arts Scholarships.
individually but together, they share ideas and feed off of one another. There's always someone to talk to about your work and
Likewise, Morin has been successful in establishing his
give criticism.
individual career with solo exhibitions in Winnipeg, Montreal, and Toronto where the Katharine Mulherin Contemporary Art
According to Winnipeg artist/critic, Cliff Eyland, although
Gallery handles his work.
Lot #48
Sarah Hultin Fargo, North Dakota Rural Landscape 32 x 26 inches Oil on canvas Range: $250 - 400
Sarah Hultin was born in Hoople, North Dakota. Her
sincerity within the seemingly mundane. This setting grounds
interest in art was ignited at a young age. It seems she always
people to the past while fastening a sense of emotional and
drew and painted. .Clearly, she came to understand her small
physical well being to the present. The silent land bestows a
world through visual language. In 2004, she enrolled at
feeling of comfort through the spirit of nature while the space
Minnesota State University Moorhead in graphic design.In 2007
behaves as a powerful resistance to change. The distortion of the
she switched to painting and plans to complete her B.A. in the
landscape proposes a disconnection due to the separation from
fall of 2009.
rural surroundings—the landscape appears a distant memory.
According to the artist, Through distance and time, I have learned
The loose brushstrokes used to apply oil paint brings energy and
to value the serenity of the rural lands. Focusing on the essence
excitement to the natural essence of the rural landscape. Color
of nature, Rural Landscape provides a sense of solitude and
interacting with emotion suggests both movement and time.
Explore . . . Endure . . . Evolve . . . North Dakota Quarterly is proud to support the North Dakota Museum of Art’s Autumn Art Auction—part of our ongoing support of art and artists in the upper Midwest. Kimono, a collage of thread, pigment, and acrylic on washi (Japanese paper), by Timothy Ray of Moorhead, Minnesota, is on the cover of our current issue, available for $8 each in the Museum shop. North Dakota Quarterly is local in origin but national and international in its range, as in our recent Translation Issue featuring Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Wilbur, William Jay Smith, W. D. Snodgrass, and world famous authors like Timothy Ray, Kimono
Sophokles and Pierre Corneille.
North Dakota Quarterly, Merrifield Hall Room 110, 276 Centennial Drive Stop 7209, Grand Forks ND 58202-7209, (701) 777-3322 e-mail: ndq@und.edu www.und.nodak.edu/org/ndq
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North Dakota Museum of Art Board of Trustees
North Dakota Museum of Art Foundation Board of Directors
Kjersti Armstrong
W. Jeremy Davis
Victoria Beard, Vice Chair
Kevin Fickenscher
David Blehm
Nancy Friese
Julie Blehm
Bruce Gjovig
Ann Brown
Daniel E. Gustafson, Vice Chair
Chad Caya
David Hasbargen
W. Jeremy Davis
Margery McCanna
Virginia Dunnigan
Betty Monkman, Chair
John Foster
Laurel Reuter
Bruce Gjovig
Al Royse
David Hasbargen, Chair
North Dakota Museum of Art Staff
Jean Holland Kim Holmes Sandy Kaul
Justin Dalzell
Rick Mercil
Sharon Etemad
Dianne Mondry
Suzanne Fink
Laurel Reuter
Elizabeth Glovatsky
Alex Reichert, Treasurer
Amy Hovde
Pat Ryan
Kathy Kendle
Wayne Zimmerman, Secretary
Brian Lofthus
Corinne Alphson, Emerita
Laurel Reuter
Barb Lander, Emerita
Gregory Vettel
Darrell Larson, Emeritus
Matthew Wallace
Robert Lewis, Emeritus
Justin Welsh
Ellen McKinnon, Emerita
Katie Welsh
Douglas McPhail, Emeritus Sanny Ryan, Emerita
Student Employees
Gerald Skogley, Emeritus
Stephanie Clark
Anthony Thein, Emeritus
Rachel Crummy Adam Fincke Andrew Yost and over fifty volunteers
North Dakota Museum of Art, 261 Centennial Drive Stop 7305, Grand Forks, North Dakota 58202-7305 USA