Opening Reception December 15, 2012, 6pm – 10pm
On Display: December 15, 2012 – April 15, 2013

The Gallery at Fox Tax, in conjunction with guest curator Hannah Frick, is pleased to announce a holiday opening party for it’s next group art exhibition, Post-Apocalyptic Blues: Tales from the Mayan Fiscal Cliff.  For this holiday opening party, not only will the eight participating artists be presenting their end-of-the-worldly views via photo, sculpture, painting and other mediums, but they will also be donating small works that will be wrapped as gifts and sold sight unseen for $100. Proceeds from these gift sales will be given to the American Brain Tumor Association.

Post-Apocalyptic Blues features work by Laura Andrews, Elisa Berry Fonseca, DC Ice, Kyrié Kotlowski, Joshua Mercil, Katie Parr, Jon Reischl, and Jeremy Szopinski. At this point, various theories and beliefs that December 2012 will bring about an apocalypse of sorts are well known and pervasive.  Talk of spiritual transformations, a new era, fiscal cliffs, pre-smartphone calendars and the ever-nearing end of the world dominates news, culture and conversation.

Artists in this exhibition encompass these ideas by exploring themes of survival, new realities, other worlds, and the afterlife.  Approaches vary from seriousness to lightheartedness, from sadness to humor.   Painting, photography, sculpture, and mixed media are all represented in this eclectic group of work. Will this be the end or only just the beginning? See for yourselves if this exhibition survives the apocalypse (and tax season at Fox Tax).

Opening Reception October 20th, 2012, 6pm – 10pm

On Display: October 20 – December 7, 2012

We are excited to present a solo exhibit of works by abstract painter/photographer, Polly Norman, author of an unusual process of hand painting her own photographs of objects and naturally occurring scenarios using Pennsylvania glass block as a filter.

Norman’s abstract work takes an unusual journey to creation; she shoots high resolution images in black & white through glass block, then adds a layer of photograms and finally hand-paints these archival prints.  In Norman’s words, “I am fascinated by the warping the glass block affords. The refraction, reflection and shadowing are more interesting to me than real objects or naturally occurring scenarios. The pieces have an ‘underwater’ appearance that I think is fetching.”

Sometimes Norman simply prints her images ‘as is’ in black and white.  ”Letting the design dictate is very important in the process of making art. It maximizes the inherent beauty and compelling quality of the pieces. Some of these would have been less effective if more design or color was added,” she says.  Norman collects many types of glass block and judicially chooses which ones to use depending upon the subject matter. She primarily employs the ”Decora” design because it gently warps and allows more light to come through.

Polly Norman’s artwork has been awarded, published and exhibited nationally, internationally as well as locally. She was a finalist for the 2010 Bush Foundation Artist Fellowship and the 2004 McKnight Foundation Photography Fellowship. Locally, Polly has been represented by Flanders Gallery, Nina Bliese Gallery, Gallery 360 and Gallery 13. She also showed at Amsterdam Whitney in New York and Perfect Pear Gallery in Chicago.  Norman is newly represented by The Vickers Collection, Aspen, Colorado.

CHECK OUT A REVIEW OF THE SHOW AT MPLSART.COM:

“Of all the exhibitions I went to last year, this is my favorite. My words can’t capture the ethereal beauty of the work.” — John Megas

STILL THERE: WORKS BY KENNETH STEINBACH

On Display: September 8 – October 5th

We are proud to present a solo exhibit of work by Kenneth Steinbach, a local artist and art professor with a long history of variegated conceptualizations spanning multiple mediums and materials.

For this event, he will be displaying a new set of works in which repetitive ink drawings of ordinary objects are suspended between layers of resin.  By layering 30-50 ink drawings of the same object between thin layers of resin, Steinbach is able to create eerie, ghost-like apparitions seemingly afloat but yet trapped in the plasma-like depths of the resin.  The act of repeating and layering the images has the effect of transforming a simple line drawing of an ordinary object into a multi-dimensional phantasm that floats and flits as the viewer moves and interacts with the work.

Please come join us for the Opening Reception on Sept 8th from 6 pm to 9 pm. The physical depth of the layering and the resulting ocular illusions elicited can really only be appreciated by viewing these works in person!

Kenneth Steinbach is an art professor at Bethel University and a member of artist-owned Form + Content Gallery.  He has exhibited work extensively across the country over the past 15 years.  His work has both an exacting technical/sculptural aspect as well as a conceptual and cultural element.

You can find images of his older work on his website: http://kennethsteinbach.com

Domaine De La Sensation:
New Works by Alejandro Komori

Opening Reception: July 12, 2012 6-10pm

On Display: July 12 – August 25, 2012

We are very excited to present a limited-time exhibit by Alejandro Komori, a Parisian-based artist whose name and artwork both belie his strong roots in a heritage that criss-crosses both Latin and Japanese cultures.  Please join us on July 12th for a rare opportunity to meet the artist and view his work!

The artworks on display were produced right here in Minneapolis in the past month while Komori was here studying under Algerian born master painter Freddy Munoz, whose worldly travels, like Komori’s, have contributed greatly to his work. With a strong background in the classical European style of painting, Komori came under the guidance of Munoz seeking to liberate himself from the restraints imposed by his own training.  Munoz’s decades of studying, creating, exhibiting and teaching have informed Komori’s most recent work and taken him into a new realm, both personally and artistically, by combining his previous explorations of movement and the human form with a series of landscapes inspired by his time here.

In Komori’s words, ”It is through my daily interactions with people that I find my inspiration, be it a conversation with a close friend or an exchange of glances with a stranger crossing the street; it is this connection that serves as a starting point for my work.  Human nature serves as an inexhaustible crucible of information – strengths, emotions and movements.”  From this experiential inspiration, it is easy to see how Komori’s work is deeply reflective of his multi-cultural background; his paintings reveal both the passionate and “explosive” (his words) aspects of Latin culture and the contemplative and Zen-like qualities of Asian society.  It is the merging of his two heritages – Mexican and Japanese – that have greatly influenced the trajectory of his work.

Komori was born and raised in Mexico City and has spent the past 19 years in Europe – including Spain, London, and Paris, where he has lived for the past four years.  His work has been shown across Europe, as well as in Tokyo and Mexico City.