Swan Song Contemporary Arts

The ReInventors thru January 29, 2012

2011-11-24T13:30:00.000-08:00

Maiden Rock, WI - Swan Song Contemporary Arts presents The ReInventors featuring new sculptural works by Jan Elftmann, Dean Lucker, Jim Proctor and David Wyrick. The exhibition will be on view at Swan Song Gallery (W3557 Main Street Maiden Rock, Wisconsin) Saturdays and Sundays from 10:30-5:00 through January 29 and by appointment. For more information, contact Swan Song gallery director Cynde Randall at 612-250-9222 or cynderandall@centurytel.net.

The ReInventors presents a fantastic array of material based sculptures by four exceptional artists who locate their artistic inquiry in real space and time. Jan Elftmann, Dean Lucker, Jim Proctor and David Wyrick are known for distinctly different bodies of work but share a profound commitment to transformative practice, re-inventing, re-purposing and/or hybridizing the objects and ideas of their occupation. Their new exhibition at Swan Song Contemporary Arts offers up art that is whimsical, mysterious, obsessive, transcendent and foreboding.

Jan Elftmann is known for her inspirational leadership in America’s Art Car movement and her extraordinary embellishment of automobiles, such the truck that she covered with 10,000 corks. She has been an obsessive collector for decades, amassing vast stores of tiny, sparkly objects that she re-cycles into fantastic works of assemblage. For the ReInventors, Elftmann presents two groups of sculpture: in her uniquely designed “tube art paintings” she captures a dizzying array of multiple objects, presenting a playful and painterly meditation on color and pattern. In her most recent free-standing works, Elftmann encrusts cement animal lawn ornaments with literally hundreds of objects, massing each surface with pop culture debris of similar palette. In “White Hose”, “Yellow Dog” “Purple Rooster” Elftmann calls attention to what is already here, expressing an eco-imperative with flourish. As a contemporary alchemist, Elftmann turns the mundane into the precious, giving us a significant chance to remember and to reconsider what was earlier made and caste away.

As a self-proclaimed object builder Dean Lucker has been most influenced by 15th and 16th century Northern European wood carving traditions. For years he has been recognized for carved and automated sculptures featuring the poetic interaction of a Lucker-like man with other natural beings like trees, flowers and the moon. The dynamic exchange that occurred in these sculptures often yielded a fortune or message about memory or loss. In his new series of “log men” (men who are logs/logs who are men) Lucker collapses the exchange by carving fully integrated trans-species beings that remain completely still. Strangely timeless and in a clear state of decline, Lucker’s log people seem perplexed about their new purpose in a world without hierarchy. Despite their confusion Lucker’s log people appear to have evolved beyond what is human. “We are as common as those things around us” says Lucker. Perhaps the spiritual oneness of the log people is one key to remembering our planetary identity on Earth.

Artist Jim Proctor acknowledges nature as his primary source and guide, crediting the world of plants for everything that he knows about making sculpture. “I am conscious that I am a symmetrical being and I feel a real affinity for the materials that I work with”, says Proctor. He is known for his work to remove invasive species and for diminutive sculptures made entirely from acorns, winged seeds, burrs, stems and fibers—all materials collected, deconstructed and recombined by the artist. Proctor’s new hybrids are surprising real, challenging our understanding and knowledge about native and non-native species. Installed in exquisite shadow boxes of Proctor’s design, his sculptures recall the zeal for collecting scientific specimens in centuries gone by. But Proctor’s intention is not to horde freakish specimens but rather to witness and honor aesthetic intelligence of nature’s design. “It is important that we can see the world around us and increasingly urgent that humans can identify and appreciate the other species on our planet” says the artist.

As a material based sculptor, David Wyrick navigates a wide range of territories from geology, modernist formalism, post-modern critique and the time honored crafts such as cabinet making and stone carving. Compressing knowledge and skill from all of these fields, Wyrick typically selects some aspect of function as a launching point for each work that he creates. In his latest series “hole diggers” Wyrick appropriates and de-purposes rusty garden shovels by whittling and re-turning their handles. Through his structural and decorative intervention, Wyrick releases the shovel from its labor, simultaneously re-commissioning it as a totemic or iconic power object. In this, Wyrick moves beyond any simple statement of irony, holding a new space for the humble work done by shovels of all time. In a mysterious stand-alone untitled work Wyrick presents a granite boulder impaled with an ornately turned cane of wood. Wyrick refers lightly to Steve Martin but one can not help but to recall the sword in the stone. Like Arthur, Wyrick seems to make the impossible come true.

I Love YOUR Dog new work by Brian Frink

2011-10-15T07:05:00.001-07:00

Maiden Rock, WI - Swan Song Contemporary Arts presents “I Love YOUR Dog” featuring new paintings and drawings of companion animals and flowers by artist Brian Frink. Opening with a reception for the artist on Saturday, October 15 from 4:00 to 6:00 P.M., the exhibition will be on view at Swan Song Gallery (W3557 Main Street Maiden Rock, Wisconsin) through November 20 during public hours: Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 10-5:00 and by appointment. For more information, contact Swan Song gallery director Cynde Randall at 612-250-9222 or cynderandall@centurytel.net.

Brian Frink’s most recent paintings and drawings—on view in “I Love YOUR Dog”—make a radical departure from his long-time signature style. For nearly three decades Frink was known for creating large-scale biomorphic abstractions that bridged modernist and post-modernist ideas about making paintings. His blown out, gestural compositions were grounded in the tenants of abstract expressionism, while his playful iconographic style made an irreverent critique of the same. Like many artists of his time, Frink felt compelled to view the past through a lens of irony.

All of this changed quite suddenly and unexpectedly in 2009, when Frink’s daughter implored him to make a portrait of her father-in-law’s dog, Sadie. As a “serious” contemporary artist Frink resisted the idea but ultimately conceded her request, never knowing that by undertaking the task he would reinvent himself as an artist. Working from a photograph, Frink applied nuanced contiguous passages of paint to illuminate the form that had occupied the spirit his in-law’s beloved pet. Through this process Frink found that he became quite weightless and everything that he had previously believed about making art floated away. His epiphany was quite simply this: he loved making this painting. At first he thought that he wouldn’t tell anybody. Then, that he schemed to continue making pet portraits in secret. Ultimately he had to face the fact that his consciousness as an artist had shifted.

Since early 2009, Frink has focused exclusively on painting empathetic portraits of companion animals and lyrical drawings of flowers and plants. “I Love YOUR Dog” testifies to his meditation on sentient beings and the relationships that they sustain. Through this work Frink is most concerned with engagement and the possibilities that exist when separation is vanquished. Indeed his soulful paintings challenge the cynicism of contemporary culture, releasing Frink from the theoretical constraints of post-modern art. We love there creatures and they love us. Frinks cat’s and dogs look us straight in the eye as if to hold us accountable for our stewardship. And what about the rest? If we submit to the trans-species gaze these potential surrogates remind us of our symbiosis with all other species—something that, in truth, holds life together on the planet Earth.

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Brian Frink earned his MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has exhibited his work extensively and is represented in numerous private and public collections. Frink has received many grants and awards acknowledging the excellence of his work from foundations and governments agencies including the National Endowment for the Arts, the McKnight Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board and the Jerome Foundation. Frink is the founder of two facebook artist engagement groups: Rural America Contemporary Art and I Love YOUR Cat, I Love YOUR Dog and serves as a Professor painting and drawing Minnesota State University, Mankato. He and his wife Wilber are the renovators and creative proprietors of rural Mankato’s Poor Farm, a gallery and studio complex presenting an ongoing schedule of exhibitions and cultural events (see www.poorfarmart.com ).

Spirit Animal New Work by Don Gahr Opening August 20

2011-08-13T08:21:00.000-07:00

Maiden Rock- Swan Song Contemporary Arts presents “Animal Spirit” featuring new and recent works by Wisconsin sculptor/painter Don Gahr. Opening with a reception for the artist on Saturday, August 20 from 4:00 to 6:00 P.M., the exhibition will be on view at Swan Song Gallery (W3557 Main Street Maiden Rock, Wisconsin) through October 2 during public hours: Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 10-5:00 and by appointment. For more information, contact Swan Song gallery director Cynde Randall at 612-250-9222 or cynderandall@centurytel.net.

“Animal Spirit” presents a wonderful array of colorful carved and painted animal sculptures by visionary Wisconsin artist, Don Gahr who has, for more than three decades, delighted young and old audiences alike. His exhibition at Swan Song features the artist’s most recent cast of characters including a leaping lizard, a big blue whale, a running horse, a leaping deer, a stalking fox, school of salmon, a black swan, a begging deer, and elegant birds among myriad others.

Through his process Gahr captures what is quintessentially “fox” or “bird” in found pieces of wood—carving and painting each to reveal a unique poise, humor or grace. Gahr fuses three artistic sensibilities—the playfulness of folk art, the essential rigor of modernism, and the spiritual intention of aboriginal quest—to manifest his signature style. Both childlike and sophisticated Gahr’s work reveals an eclectic range of artistic influences including modernist sculpture, 20^th century painting, magic realism, Etruscan sculpture, the mapping of Australian dreamtime and the spirited works of Eskimo, Native American, African and Oceanic traditions.

Through his new work Gahr helps us to see that magic happens when we see the world with innocent perception. “You can never make anything weirder than nature,” says Gahr. Appreciating the freedom that this affords him, Gahr encourages us to have fun with his exhibit and invites us to witness our own wonderment of the universe.

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Don Gahr studied painting and sculpture at the University of Minnesota, The Portland Museum Arts School, the Minneapolis College of Art (now the Minneapolis College of Art and Design) and the University of Washington in Seattle. Gahr has exhibited extensively and is represented in numerous private and public collections. He lives and works in Springbrook, Wisconsin.

Plein Aire 21

2010-10-04T13:25:00.000-07:00

Swan Song Gallery presents

2010-05-12T12:37:00.000-07:00

Jim Proctor: Botanical Fiction 2 May 1- June 6, 2010
With a reception for the artist Sat May 8, 2:00-5:00

Maiden Rock, Wisconsin - Swan Song Contemporary Arts presents the first special exhibition of its 2010 season in Botanical Fiction 2, featuring new plant-based constructions by sculptor, Jim Proctor. On view from May 1- June 6, the exhibition opens Saturday, May 8, with a reception for the artist from 2:00-5:00, featuring live music by the Ukeladies. Botanical Fiction 2 is open during Swan Song’s regular hours, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 10:00-5:00.
Jim Proctor came initially to the question of nature as a painter seeking to represent the landscape. For more than a decade, he has worked as a sculptor, making art from the natural components of the landscape itself. Today, Proctor is recognized as an advocate for biodiversity and a public artist addressing the challenge of invasive species to the urban and rural landscape. He is best known for his early advocacy of buckthorn removal and for several large temporary public art installations featuring 5-20 foot tall dandelion-like structures made entirely of buckthorn, the invasive shrub. Proctor was recently named a Volunteer of the Year by the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board for his leadership in invasive species removal at Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden.
For his exhibition at Swan Song, the artists presents a series of diminutive sculptures made entirely from plant material—acorns, winged seeds, plant fibers, thorns and stems—all materials collected, deconstructed and recombined by the artist. Proctor’s impeccable re-construction yields biomorphic sculptures that appear to have grown of their own accord. Some he endows with elements suggesting hair, teeth or nails; emulating the future animal that the plant will sustain and the fundamental interdependency of flora and fauna.
To capture our audience, Proctor installs each tiny sculpture in a specially designed glass covered case, recalling the “cabinet of curiosities” made popular by collectors, biologists and artists of earlier centuries. Proctor’s intention is not to isolate or hold hostage exotic specimens, but to draw the viewer’s attention back to the beauty and synergy of the organic world.
He acknowledges nature as his primary source and guide: “I feel a real affinity for the materials that I work with. Most of what I know about sculpture comes through my study of plant form,” he says. “It is increasingly urgent that humans can identify with the other species on our planet” he concludes.
Ultimately, Proctor seeks to address our dislocation from nature. In this he is aligned with contemporary artists and scientists who advocate for a re-engagement with the aesthetic of the biosphere.

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Swan Song Contemporary Arts is an ecoarts gallery on the Mississippi flyway presenting special exhibitions of contemporary art related to our appreciation for and relationship to the planet Earth. Swan Song also features an ongoing array of works by artists of regional and national reputation, including Judy Onofrio, Jennifer davis, Wayne Potratz, Amy Rice, Jeremy Lund, Dale Vanden Houten, John Pearson, Amy Sabrina, Kelly Connole, among others. The gallery is founded and directed by artist Cynde Randall, who also serves as artistic director of the Minneapolis-based non-profit called Bird x Bird (www.birdxbird.org <http://www.birdxbird.org/> ), an artist collective devoted to the stewardship of avian species and the ecoliteracy of human beings. Swan Song Contemporary Arts is located on the Great River Road, the east side of Lake Pepin, in Maiden Rock, Wisconsin, just 1 hour southeast of the Twin Cities. Gallery hours are Friday thru Sunday from 10:00-5:00, May through January; and weekends during March and April. Swan Song’s special exhibits rotate every 5 weeks, from May through January. For more information call Swan Song gallery director Cynde Randall at (612) 250-9222 or email at cynderandall@centurytel.net

2009-12-15T15:08:00.000-08:00

Cynde Randall The Swan in the Moon

Opening Reception, Saturday, December 19

December 19-January 23 2010
Reception for the artist from 1:00 – 4:00

Swan Song Contemporary Arts presents its seventh special exhibit of the 2009 season in The Swan in the Moon featuring drawings and paintings by Maiden Rock artist Cynde Randall. The exhibition opens The Swan in the Moon is on view during regular gallery hours: Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 – 5:00 thru December; Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 – 5:00 thru January and by appointment.

Baugnet/Costaglioli Painted Poems

2009-10-31T08:15:00.001-07:00

2009-10-29T08:33:00.000-07:00

Maiden Rock, Wisconsin – Swan Song Contemporary Arts presents its sixth special exhibition of the 2009 season in, Fugitives in the Field, featuring new work by painter, Julie Baugnet, including collaborative work by Baugnet and poet, Felip Costaglioli. Fugitives in the Field opens Sunday, November 8 with a reception for the artists from 1:00-3:00; with a reading, by Costaglioli, at 2:00P.M. The exhibition will be on view during regular gallery hours - Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 to 5:00 – and by appointment.

Fugitives in the Field features small and large scale oil paintings by Julie Baugnet, whose richly layered, figurative abstraction yields luminous fields of color, punctuated with discrete forms and fragments from nature. Birds and insects and plants occupy her compositions; collectively they testify to the beauty and fragility of the natural world.

Baugnet is aligned with the teaching of the great Hans Hoffman, who declared that nature is the source of all inspiration. In a very lush large-scale painting of a giant Hosta, entitled Francis Williams, Baugnet acknowledges the ever present inspiration of her husband, gifted garden designer, Carter Clapsadle. His gardens surround their home, providing Baugnet with a continual source pleasure and subject matter for her work.

Moved by many painters who came before her, Baugnet has been influenced, especially, by Paul Klee, with his floating cosmology of organic forms and Richard Diebenkorn, who fractured the logic of the picture plane; and by her travel to Italy, where she has studied and been inspired by the palette of many Sienese painters.

Often beginning with an underlying grid to map out the composition of her works, Baugnet builds color and imagery by glazing many layers of paint. Her process yields a palpable sense of depth. She locates her subjects across dimensional levels - some float on the surface; others are embedded in a glaze of earthy pigment. Through her unique approach to the picture place, Baugnet creates a poetic sense of space and time; conscious of life and death and the fleeting aspect of the material world.

Three works featured in Fugitives in the Field depict endangered species. In Loggerhead Shrike, Threatened in Minnesota Baugnet paints a magical glow around her lone subject and his perch. He reigns like an emblematic apparition who exists outside of time. The Shrike’s iconic power makes a challenge to our forgetting of species, and holds space for his place, in the future.

In a recent collaboration with poet, Felip Costaglioli, Baugnet presents Herculean Labors: An Aviary (Twelve Snapshots and a Diary) featuring series of twelve small-scale portraits of birds. In each, Baugnet personifies her avian subject, whose portrait is accompanied with poetic text about relationships, by Costaglioli. Aligning each subject with human position or concern, Baugnet and Costaglioli place dramatically different species on an equal par. In this, they assume a holistic understanding of the world where, indeed, all sentient beings are part of one web of consciousness.

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Julie Baugnet received her Master of Fine Arts Degree from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. She has exhibited widely, both regionally and nationally, and is represented in numerous private and public collections, including Walker Art Center’s artist book collection, the Minneapolis college of Art and Design artist book collection, The Anchorage Museum of History and Art, and the University of Minnesota Children’s Hospital. The excellence of Baugnet’s work has been acknowledged through a variety of grants and awards, including a fellowship from the Atlanta Center for the Arts and a Jerome /MCBA Book Arts Fellowship. Baugnet serves as a Full Professor for the Art Department at St. Cloud State University. She lives and works in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Baugnet/Costaglioli Collaborative Work

2009-10-28T08:22:00.000-07:00