North Dakota Museum of Art

Helgi Þorgils Friðjónsson, Icelandic Dog, Horse and Fish,2002-04, 13 x 13 feet. Oil on canvas

Below: Guðjón Ketilsson, Shell, 2008, 7 x 11 x 1 feet, two shelves plus objects carvedfrom wood, plaster, sugar cubes, medium-density fiberboard and paper.

into the tuSSoCK: Contemporary art from iCeland

opening June 22, 5:30 pm, followed at 7 pm by the inaguralperformance of the 2010 Summer Concerts in the Garden series.

Four artists are flying in from Iceland to attend opening events. Theexhibition, which continues through August 15, was organized by theNorth Dakota Museum of Art in collaboration with the North DakotaCouncil on the Arts; The Icelandic Foreign Ministry, and the participatingIcelandic artists.

Co-curated by artist Helgi Þorgils Friðjónsson and Museum DirectorLaurel Reuter, Into the Tussock is an exhibition of contemporaryIcelandic art based in making, constructing, storytelling, andmythmaking. In the last decades of the 19th century, twenty-five percentof Iceland’s population immigrated to a region overlapping NorthDakota, Manitoba, and Minnesota. Whereas both minimalism andlandscape are strong forces in contemporary Icelandic art—the fantastic,object based art in the show has been chosen to resonate with thedescendants of early settlers.

Artists include painters Birgir Snæbjörn Birgisson and Helgi ÞorgilsFriðjónsson; Helgi Hjaltalín Eyjólfsson and Guðjón Ketilsson, bothsculptors in wood; video artist and photographer Olöf Nordal; soundaritst Finnbogi Pétursson; and sculptor Katrín Sigurðardóttir. SnæbjörnBirgisson, Hjaltalín Eyjólfsson, Nordal, and Þorgils Friðjónsson will travelfrom Iceland to North Dakota for the opening.

The exhibition will premier at the North Dakota Museum of Art and thentravel to four sites in North Dakota through the Museum’s Rural ArtsInitiative beginning with and in collaboration with the North DakotaCouncil on the Arts. In addition to the North Dakota tour, it will beoffered to one Minnesota venue and one in Canada, preferably Manitoba,

the home of great numbers of Icelandic Canadians.

Helgi Hjaltalín Eyjólfsson, Favorable Circumstances.Size variable. Pictured: 11 x 23 feet. Installation objects also vary.

All artist’s works are titled “Favorable Circumstances” based upon his reading of Darwin’s Origin of the Species. Every

circumstance is someone or something’s favorable circumstance. Images are of exhibition at Kunsthalle Bremerhaven in 2007.

Exhibi t ion Closes June 13

Shared hiStorieS

Keith BerenS, Carol hepper, and tim SChouten

Exhibition continues through June 13, 2010

opening event in museum’s new commissioning initiative to examinecontemporary life on north dakota’s american indian reservations,territory shared by native americans, hispanics, americans of europeanand african descent, mixed Bloods, and the rare asian.

The artists in Shared Histories come from diverse but overlappingcultures. Carol Hepper, who grew up on the Standing Rock SiouxReservation that bridges North and South Dakota, is of non-Indianlineage. She, however, has been a New York artist for the last threedecades. Canadian Keith Berens is an “urban Native” of Indian descentwho grew up in Winnipeg and has traveled much of Europe and NorthAmerica. He draws his greatest influence from early American abstractartists. Tim Schouten was born in Winnipeg, resided on the Canadian EastCoast for years, and then returned to make his home north of the citynear Lake Winnipeg.

Yet all make art deeply based in the history, culture, landscape ormaterials of Native people. All three also make art that grows out ofmainstream Western art. They share contrasting ethnic and art historybackgrounds out of which come surprising bodies of work that relate tothe past and that challenge Northern Plains stereotypes. For example,through his art non-Indian Tim Schouten has spent years tracing thehistory of the treaties between Native peoples and the Canadiangovernment. Schouten depicts what is often perceived as Aboriginalhistory when in fact those events are shared. Berens, an aboriginal artist,breaks the bounds of traditionally perceived Aboriginal styles ofexpression to create his own powerful abstractions drawn from the historyof place. Hepper claims her own shared history through her materialsand forms that are endemic to both Indian and non-Indian life on thehigh plains.

The idea of the exhibition originated with Canadian curator, Pat Bovey,who included Schouten in her original two-person exhibition under thesame title at the Buhler Gallery at Winnipeg’s St. Boniface GeneralHospital. NDMOA Curator Laurel Reuter, who grew up on Spirit LakeReservation where her family homesteaded, has long wanted to examinethe mixed culture of today’s reservations and this seemed like an idealbeginning. Keith Berens and Carol Hepper round out this first NorthDakota exhibition.

Above left: Carol Hepper, Vertical Chamber,1984. Animal bones, wood and rawhide.

Right, Keith Berens, White Shell 3, 2009. Encaustic on panel.

Below: Tim Schouten, Road (Treaty 5), 1997.Oil, sand, soil, and rust on canvas.

June 2010

Upcoming Classes and Events

Summer art CampS

The week-long Summer Art Camps filled quickly.Camps are supported by enrollment fees and

Shirley Bostrom, Art Grabowsky, Steve Augustin,Katherine Campbell, Jeff and Tami Carmichael,

Sheila Dalgliesh, Dorothy Dillard, DiannePaulsen, Donovan Widmer, Kim Wilson, Alerus

Financial, Grand Forks Park District Ulland Grant,River City Jewelers and Mike and Tammy Zhorela,

Sam’s Club, Sanders 1907, Toasted Frog, XcelEnergy, Zorrel’s Jewelers, University of North

Dakota Department of Art and Design and UND’sSummer Program Events Council.

Summer art ClaSSeS in the muSeum

Call for prices and availability, 701-777-4195

JuneWatercolors: Artist, Jessica Mongeon, adultsTuesdays, June 8, 15, 22, 29, from 6 – 8 pm

Painting / Design: Artist, Jessica Christy, children Saturdays, June 5, 12, 19, 26, from 9 – 11 am

Printing: Artist, Jessica Christy, childrenSaturdays, June 5, 12, 19, 26,

from 11:30 -1:30 pm

JulyJewelry: Artists, Nancy Greenwood,

and Tessa Hiney, adultsTuesdays, July 6, 13, 20, 27, from 6 – 8 pm

Miniature Books: Artist, Mollie Douthi, childrenSaturdays, July 10, 17, 24, 31, from 9 – 11 am

augustClay and Sculpture: Artist, Memo Guardia, adults

Tuesdays, August 3, 10, 17, 24, from 6 – 8 pm

Drawing and Painting: Artist, Mollie Douthit,children

Saturdays, August 7,14, 21, 28, from 9 – 11 am

Museum Hours; 9 - 5 weekdays1 - 5 Saturday and Sunday

No admission charge261 Centennial Drive Stop 7305

Grand Forks, North Dakota701.777.4195

www.ndmoa.com

Specimen Peony Garden in Full Bloom

fantaStiC — With a venGenCe

opens in the museum Galleries august 24Fantastic, the next Rural Arts Initiative exhibition begins its tour at thePekin Community Center October 18 and continue for a month. TheSeal with Straw painting is a wry comment on Iceland’s stringent “protectthe seals” laws. Finally even the seal isn’t allowed into the water butmust drink with a straw. All of the paintings will ask the viewer to createthe narrative from seemingly unrelated elements in the painting.Argentinian photographer Res creates what looks like a historicalpainting but La Dama (The Lady) is cradling a pig’s head. Imagine thestory a child will attach to that painting. To learn to imagine is one ofthe great gifts we can give children.

Summer ConCertS in the Garden

underwritten by Summit Brewing Co.Sponsors: Canad inn and hB Sound and lightSupporters: el roco Bottle Shop Bar and Grill and rite Spot liquor, inc.

June 22, 7 pm, the north river ramblers in conjunction with theopening of Into The Tussock: Contemporary Icelandic Art. This local,well-established group is known for their unique folk-bluegrass style.James Feist, Kris Leirfallom, Twiddlin’ Josh Driscoll, Xavier Pastrano, andKaty Diers combine such instruments as acoustic guitar, harmonica,fiddle, mandolin, banjo and didgeridoo into an old-time bluegrass style.

July 6, 6 pm, hoots and hellmouth; opening June panic Philadelphia-based Hoots & Hellmouth creates new music for old souls. Their secondfull-length effort, The Holy Open Secret, MAD Dragon Records(ADA/WEA) continues to blaze a trail forward in the name of progressiverevival. Rob Berliner, Andrew Gray and Sean Hoots return as the coretrio of string slingers and harmonious vocalizers, co-producing incollaboration with Bill Moriarty (Dr. Dog, Man Man) at Philadelphia’sAmerican Diamond Studio.

July 20, 6 pm, alison Scott; opening June panic’s WifeAlison Scott is the strongest new voice to come out of the Minneapolismusic scene in many years. Her soulful, organic sound ignors the “rulesof cool” that limit so much of today’s music. Her band includes platinumand Grammy-winning guitarist Kevin Bowe (Paul Westerberg, Etta James,Jonny Lang), drummer Peter Anderson (Polara, Honeydogs) and bassistSteve Price (Rex Daisy).

august 3, 6 pm, Charlie parr; opening my two toms Charlie Parr grew up in Austin, Minnesota, in a house filled with music.He picked up the guitar around age eight but lessons never held hisinterest. Over the next decade-plus, self-taught Parr continued to honehis style and took up songwriting in earnest. He also earned a degree inphilosophy and became an outreach worker for the homeless, workingfor the Salvation Army in Minneapolis. His life in social services can beheard in his songs.

august 24, 7 pm, post-traumatic funk SyndromeBack for their fourth year! Post Traumatic Funk Syndrome is Fargo’snewest and hottest classic rock / horn band. This twelve-piece group (sixhorns, keyboards, bass, drums, guitar, male and female vocals) performsthe best of classic horn band hits.

Bring a blanket or lawn chairs. Buy your casual supper. Season tickets: $25, $7 at the door. Kids under twelve free. in event of rain, the concerts will be moved into the galleries.

Helgi Þorgils Friðjónsson, Seal with straw, 2004,Oil on canvas, 28.5 x 35.5 inches.

from the direCtor

Thanks to our supporters and members, the Museum came through theeconomic downturn with balanced budgets. Given that the not-for-profitworld takes an extra couple of years to recover after the rest of theeconomy is declared “out of the woods,” we are looking at a challenging2010-2011, again without the grants that sustained the Museum over thelast two decades.

Still, many good things keep happening: Guillermo Guardia, our Artist-in-Residence for the Rural Arts Initiative continues to exhibit his own claysculptures all over the United States. Concurrently, we are booking hisweek-long clay workshops in schools throughout North Dakota.

The fall will bring two solo exhibitions to the Museum, both by artistswho have been working toward these exhibitions for years: John Snyderwith new paintings and sculpture, August 2010. He is followed by LenaMcGrath Welker in November. She will fill the whole Museum with newinstallations in her Navigation Series.

Eliot Glassheim’s book of China poems with images by Dyan Rey will beoff the press by fall. And I have begun work on Xu Bing’s authorizedbiography with the intial research funded by New Media of Shanghai.

Laurel Reuter

XCel enerGy foundation fundS mayville

Student art eXperienCe

The North Dakota Museum of Art in cooperation with the NorthernLights Art Gallery, Rainbow Garden, Mayville Public Schools, andsurrounding community schools including Portland, Hatton, Buxton,Larimore, Thompson, and Reynolds is offering a summer art camp, June7-11, at May-Port High School to introduce students to a sculptureexperience with ceramic artist Guillermo (Memo) Guardia.public presentation at Garden art party in mayville’s Rainbow Gardenin Mayville, Saturday, June 19, 2 to 3:30 pm. Everyone welcome.

Res (Constanza Piaggio), La Dama, 2006,Lambda print, 46 x 48 inches.

Upcoming Classes and Events

Summer art CampS

The week-long Summer Art Camps filled quickly.Camps are supported by enrollment fees and

Shirley Bostrom, Art Grabowsky, Steve Augustin,Katherine Campbell, Jeff and Tami Carmichael,

Sheila Dalgliesh, Dorothy Dillard, DiannePaulsen, Donovan Widmer, Kim Wilson, Alerus

Financial, Grand Forks Park District Ulland Grant,River City Jewelers and Mike and Tammy Zhorela,

Sam’s Club, Sanders 1907, Toasted Frog, XcelEnergy, Zorrel’s Jewelers, University of North

Dakota Department of Art and Design and UND’sSummer Program Events Council.

Summer art ClaSSeS in the muSeum

Call for prices and availability, 701-777-4195

JuneWatercolors: Artist, Jessica Mongeon, adultsTuesdays, June 8, 15, 22, 29, from 6 – 8 pm

Painting / Design: Artist, Jessica Christy, children Saturdays, June 5, 12, 19, 26, from 9 – 11 am

Printing: Artist, Jessica Christy, childrenSaturdays, June 5, 12, 19, 26,

from 11:30 -1:30 pm

JulyJewelry: Artists, Nancy Greenwood,

and Tessa Hiney, adultsTuesdays, July 6, 13, 20, 27, from 6 – 8 pm

Miniature Books: Artist, Mollie Douthi, childrenSaturdays, July 10, 17, 24, 31, from 9 – 11 am

augustClay and Sculpture: Artist, Memo Guardia, adults

Tuesdays, August 3, 10, 17, 24, from 6 – 8 pm

Drawing and Painting: Artist, Mollie Douthit,children

Saturdays, August 7,14, 21, 28, from 9 – 11 am

Museum Hours; 9 - 5 weekdays1 - 5 Saturday and Sunday

No admission charge261 Centennial Drive Stop 7305

Grand Forks, North Dakota701.777.4195

www.ndmoa.com

Specimen Peony Garden in Full Bloom

fantaStiC — With a venGenCe

opens in the museum Galleries august 24Fantastic, the next Rural Arts Initiative exhibition begins its tour at thePekin Community Center October 18 and continue for a month. TheSeal with Straw painting is a wry comment on Iceland’s stringent “protectthe seals” laws. Finally even the seal isn’t allowed into the water butmust drink with a straw. All of the paintings will ask the viewer to createthe narrative from seemingly unrelated elements in the painting.Argentinian photographer Res creates what looks like a historicalpainting but La Dama (The Lady) is cradling a pig’s head. Imagine thestory a child will attach to that painting. To learn to imagine is one ofthe great gifts we can give children.

Summer ConCertS in the Garden

underwritten by Summit Brewing Co.Sponsors: Canad inn and hB Sound and lightSupporters: el roco Bottle Shop Bar and Grill and rite Spot liquor, inc.

June 22, 7 pm, the north river ramblers in conjunction with theopening of Into The Tussock: Contemporary Icelandic Art. This local,well-established group is known for their unique folk-bluegrass style.James Feist, Kris Leirfallom, Twiddlin’ Josh Driscoll, Xavier Pastrano, andKaty Diers combine such instruments as acoustic guitar, harmonica,fiddle, mandolin, banjo and didgeridoo into an old-time bluegrass style.

July 6, 6 pm, hoots and hellmouth; opening June panic Philadelphia-based Hoots & Hellmouth creates new music for old souls. Their secondfull-length effort, The Holy Open Secret, MAD Dragon Records(ADA/WEA) continues to blaze a trail forward in the name of progressiverevival. Rob Berliner, Andrew Gray and Sean Hoots return as the coretrio of string slingers and harmonious vocalizers, co-producing incollaboration with Bill Moriarty (Dr. Dog, Man Man) at Philadelphia’sAmerican Diamond Studio.

July 20, 6 pm, alison Scott; opening June panic’s WifeAlison Scott is the strongest new voice to come out of the Minneapolismusic scene in many years. Her soulful, organic sound ignors the “rulesof cool” that limit so much of today’s music. Her band includes platinumand Grammy-winning guitarist Kevin Bowe (Paul Westerberg, Etta James,Jonny Lang), drummer Peter Anderson (Polara, Honeydogs) and bassistSteve Price (Rex Daisy).

august 3, 6 pm, Charlie parr; opening my two toms Charlie Parr grew up in Austin, Minnesota, in a house filled with music.He picked up the guitar around age eight but lessons never held hisinterest. Over the next decade-plus, self-taught Parr continued to honehis style and took up songwriting in earnest. He also earned a degree inphilosophy and became an outreach worker for the homeless, workingfor the Salvation Army in Minneapolis. His life in social services can beheard in his songs.

august 24, 7 pm, post-traumatic funk SyndromeBack for their fourth year! Post Traumatic Funk Syndrome is Fargo’snewest and hottest classic rock / horn band. This twelve-piece group (sixhorns, keyboards, bass, drums, guitar, male and female vocals) performsthe best of classic horn band hits.

Bring a blanket or lawn chairs. Buy your casual supper. Season tickets: $25, $7 at the door. Kids under twelve free. in event of rain, the concerts will be moved into the galleries.

Helgi Þorgils Friðjónsson, Seal with straw, 2004,Oil on canvas, 28.5 x 35.5 inches.

from the direCtor

Thanks to our supporters and members, the Museum came through theeconomic downturn with balanced budgets. Given that the not-for-profitworld takes an extra couple of years to recover after the rest of theeconomy is declared “out of the woods,” we are looking at a challenging2010-2011, again without the grants that sustained the Museum over thelast two decades.

Still, many good things keep happening: Guillermo Guardia, our Artist-in-Residence for the Rural Arts Initiative continues to exhibit his own claysculptures all over the United States. Concurrently, we are booking hisweek-long clay workshops in schools throughout North Dakota.

The fall will bring two solo exhibitions to the Museum, both by artistswho have been working toward these exhibitions for years: John Snyderwith new paintings and sculpture, August 2010. He is followed by LenaMcGrath Welker in November. She will fill the whole Museum with newinstallations in her Navigation Series.

Eliot Glassheim’s book of China poems with images by Dyan Rey will beoff the press by fall. And I have begun work on Xu Bing’s authorizedbiography with the intial research funded by New Media of Shanghai.

Laurel Reuter

XCel enerGy foundation fundS mayville

Student art eXperienCe

The North Dakota Museum of Art in cooperation with the NorthernLights Art Gallery, Rainbow Garden, Mayville Public Schools, andsurrounding community schools including Portland, Hatton, Buxton,Larimore, Thompson, and Reynolds is offering a summer art camp, June7-11, at May-Port High School to introduce students to a sculptureexperience with ceramic artist Guillermo (Memo) Guardia.public presentation at Garden art party in mayville’s Rainbow Gardenin Mayville, Saturday, June 19, 2 to 3:30 pm. Everyone welcome.

Res (Constanza Piaggio), La Dama, 2006,Lambda print, 46 x 48 inches.

North Dakota Museum of Art

Helgi Þorgils Friðjónsson, Icelandic Dog, Horse and Fish,2002-04, 13 x 13 feet. Oil on canvas

Below: Guðjón Ketilsson, Shell, 2008, 7 x 11 x 1 feet, two shelves plus objects carvedfrom wood, plaster, sugar cubes, medium-density fiberboard and paper.

into the tuSSoCK: Contemporary art from iCeland

opening June 22, 5:30 pm, followed at 7 pm by the inaguralperformance of the 2010 Summer Concerts in the Garden series.

Four artists are flying in from Iceland to attend opening events. Theexhibition, which continues through August 15, was organized by theNorth Dakota Museum of Art in collaboration with the North DakotaCouncil on the Arts; The Icelandic Foreign Ministry, and the participatingIcelandic artists.

Co-curated by artist Helgi Þorgils Friðjónsson and Museum DirectorLaurel Reuter, Into the Tussock is an exhibition of contemporaryIcelandic art based in making, constructing, storytelling, andmythmaking. In the last decades of the 19th century, twenty-five percentof Iceland’s population immigrated to a region overlapping NorthDakota, Manitoba, and Minnesota. Whereas both minimalism andlandscape are strong forces in contemporary Icelandic art—the fantastic,object based art in the show has been chosen to resonate with thedescendants of early settlers.

Artists include painters Birgir Snæbjörn Birgisson and Helgi ÞorgilsFriðjónsson; Helgi Hjaltalín Eyjólfsson and Guðjón Ketilsson, bothsculptors in wood; video artist and photographer Olöf Nordal; soundaritst Finnbogi Pétursson; and sculptor Katrín Sigurðardóttir. SnæbjörnBirgisson, Hjaltalín Eyjólfsson, Nordal, and Þorgils Friðjónsson will travelfrom Iceland to North Dakota for the opening.

The exhibition will premier at the North Dakota Museum of Art and thentravel to four sites in North Dakota through the Museum’s Rural ArtsInitiative beginning with and in collaboration with the North DakotaCouncil on the Arts. In addition to the North Dakota tour, it will beoffered to one Minnesota venue and one in Canada, preferably Manitoba,

the home of great numbers of Icelandic Canadians.

Helgi Hjaltalín Eyjólfsson, Favorable Circumstances.Size variable. Pictured: 11 x 23 feet. Installation objects also vary.

All artist’s works are titled “Favorable Circumstances” based upon his reading of Darwin’s Origin of the Species. Every

circumstance is someone or something’s favorable circumstance. Images are of exhibition at Kunsthalle Bremerhaven in 2007.

Exhibi t ion Closes June 13

Shared hiStorieS

Keith BerenS, Carol hepper, and tim SChouten

Exhibition continues through June 13, 2010

opening event in museum’s new commissioning initiative to examinecontemporary life on north dakota’s american indian reservations,territory shared by native americans, hispanics, americans of europeanand african descent, mixed Bloods, and the rare asian.

The artists in Shared Histories come from diverse but overlappingcultures. Carol Hepper, who grew up on the Standing Rock SiouxReservation that bridges North and South Dakota, is of non-Indianlineage. She, however, has been a New York artist for the last threedecades. Canadian Keith Berens is an “urban Native” of Indian descentwho grew up in Winnipeg and has traveled much of Europe and NorthAmerica. He draws his greatest influence from early American abstractartists. Tim Schouten was born in Winnipeg, resided on the Canadian EastCoast for years, and then returned to make his home north of the citynear Lake Winnipeg.

Yet all make art deeply based in the history, culture, landscape ormaterials of Native people. All three also make art that grows out ofmainstream Western art. They share contrasting ethnic and art historybackgrounds out of which come surprising bodies of work that relate tothe past and that challenge Northern Plains stereotypes. For example,through his art non-Indian Tim Schouten has spent years tracing thehistory of the treaties between Native peoples and the Canadiangovernment. Schouten depicts what is often perceived as Aboriginalhistory when in fact those events are shared. Berens, an aboriginal artist,breaks the bounds of traditionally perceived Aboriginal styles ofexpression to create his own powerful abstractions drawn from the historyof place. Hepper claims her own shared history through her materialsand forms that are endemic to both Indian and non-Indian life on thehigh plains.

The idea of the exhibition originated with Canadian curator, Pat Bovey,who included Schouten in her original two-person exhibition under thesame title at the Buhler Gallery at Winnipeg’s St. Boniface GeneralHospital. NDMOA Curator Laurel Reuter, who grew up on Spirit LakeReservation where her family homesteaded, has long wanted to examinethe mixed culture of today’s reservations and this seemed like an idealbeginning. Keith Berens and Carol Hepper round out this first NorthDakota exhibition.

Above left: Carol Hepper, Vertical Chamber,1984. Animal bones, wood and rawhide.

Right, Keith Berens, White Shell 3, 2009. Encaustic on panel.

Below: Tim Schouten, Road (Treaty 5), 1997.Oil, sand, soil, and rust on canvas.

June 2010