About
Megan Frauenhoffer/Megan Frau
pronounced like this: Frow-in-hof-er
Bio:
I am a printmaking artist originating from St. Louis, Missouri. In May 2010, I completed the Master’s in Printmaking at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, where the thesis work explored the unconscious by blending memory with appropriations of fairy tale and myth. The art draws from personal experiences as an identical twin and a love of stories from all origins.
To date, my career highlights include MCAD MFA exhibitions at the Burnet Gallery and The Soap Factory in Minneapolis, all-female group shows Feminality at Los Angeles’s Hive Gallery and Glass, Cinder and Thorns at 323East in Royal Oak, Michigan, the Multiversal group exhibition featured at Art Basel Miami, becoming Altered Esthetics’ featured artist for March on their 2010 artists calendar, being listed as one of Minneapolis City Page’s 100 Creatives, and invitation to the Dirty Printmakers of America’s States of the State printmaking exchange that made an appearance at the 54th Venice Biennale. As a printmaker, I have been accepted to various printmaking/works-on-paper juried shows including Print U.S.A., Paper in Particular, Los Angeles Printmaking Society and SHY Rabbit Print National. Most recently, my artwork has been appearing in print such as FIND Art Magazine, Beautiful/Decay Book 6, Hive:5 Comics Anthology, and Paper Darts Press’s Get In If You Want to Live.
Artist Statement:
My art explores emotions that hide between reality and the subconscious. I am interested in whether particular emotional moments shape our being or if behavior is hereditary, unable to control or overcome. Growing up as a test subject for a longitudinal twin behavioral study, I am drawn to the discourse of nature vs. nurture in human development.
My prints and drawings chart a narrative of reflection to moments of awkwardness, confusion, anger, grief, or loneliness. These instances of contemplation are infused with fantastical tales culturally embedded from our childhoods such as myths and fables. Within these new phantasms, animals, spirits, doppelgangers, and monsters collide with the heroine, empowering or overwhelming her. The use of folktale allusions connects to wider understanding of struggle and growth as well as reinvent the story’s outcome.
I investigate these notions through a combination of illustrative detailing, emotive marks with printmaking and drawing media. An abstract and dreamlike state is evoked through the distressed surfaces, inkblot atmospheres, and the misprint and layering of uneven flood strokes of silkscreen printing. A sense of unease is hinted in the stuttering lines of the figure’s overall appearance. The prints capitalize on printmaking’s capacity for repetition, repeating similar figures to echo the exploration of self or lack thereof, often drawing from personal experiences of being an identical twin.
The narrative is structured through an intuitive process of printing the image in response to what layer was previously printed on the paper.Within this investigation, there is a subsequent study using imperfect prints, casts offs of an edition, as collage fodder that mutates the heroine into multi-limbed and anthropomorphic monsters. Cutting up and reconfiguring the misprints reveals a darker insight of one’s psyche. These processes reveal unconscious thoughts filter through the conscious mind, invoking subjective interpretations based on shared experiences.
Education:
2010 MFA, Visual Studies- Printmaking and Drawing, Minneapolis College of Art and Design
2007 BFA, Studio Art- Printmaking, Missouri State University
Selected Exhibitions:
2012
Surreal Salon IV, juried by Casey Weldon, Baton Rouge Gallery, Baton Rouge, LA
2011
Multiversal Exhibition 2011, featured artist, hosted during Art Basel Miami, Multiversal Gallery, Miami, FL
Reclaimed Show, curated by Christina and Dennis Jacobs/Perfect Laughter, River’s Edge Gallery, Wyandotte, MI
Urban Roots Exhibition, 323 East Gallery, Royal Oak, MI
Under The Gun, curated by Josh G/Creep Machine, Articulated Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Shared/Space:2, Tarnish & Gold Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
Find Art Across America Tour, FIND Art Magazine, United States
Find Art Across America #SGF, LemonDrop Gallery, Springfield MO
States of the State: A Contemporary Survey of American Printmaking, Exhibited with John Hitchcock’s Epicentro: Re Tracing the Plains at the La Biennale di Venezia 54th International Arts Exhibition, The Dipartimento di Studi Linguistici e Culturali Comparati, University of Ca’ Foscari, Venice
2010
Gallery 148 MFA Show, MCAD Gallery 148, Minneapolis, MN
Foot in the Door 4, Minneapolis Institute of Art Museum, Minneapolis, MN
Gender Show, Altered Esthetics Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
Glass, Cinder & Thorns, 323East Gallery, Royal Oak, MI
MFA Thesis Show, The Soap Factory, Minneapolis, MN
Spyhouse Solo Show, Spyhouse Coffee Shop, Minneapolis, MN
SHY Rabbit Print National 2, Shy Rabbit Contemporary Arts, Pagosa Springs, CO
States of the State: Survey of American Printmaking Exhibition, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK
About Face, Stevens Square Center for the Arts, Minneapolis, MN
2009
Isle of Misfits, Canteen Gallery, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
30th Annual Paper in Particular, Columbia College Missouri, Columbia, MO
Creative Blood, Altered Aesthetics Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
Drive By Press Traveling Exhibition, Drive By Press, North America
Los Angeles Printmaking Society 20th National Exhibition, Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
MCAD 09 Get StARTed, Burnet Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
Print Zero 6 Traveling Exhibition, North America
Feminality Art Exhibition, The Hive Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Multiversal Group Show, American Legion Building, Art Basel at Miami Beach, FL
2008
Print Zero 5 Traveling Exhibition, North America and Naestved, Denmark
Bitter Fruits Show, Altered Esthetics Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
2007
Prints U.S.A, 2007, Springfield Art Museum, Springfield, MO
Bachelor of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition, Butler & Rosenbury Bldg., Springfield, MO
Publications and Bibliography:
2011 Get In If You Want To Live, illustration, Paper Darts Press, Minneapolis, MN
2011 Little Constructs Zine, illustration, Little Constructs, Minneapolis, Mn + London, England
2011 Find Art Magazine, Issue #6, Los Angeles, CA
2011 Beautiful/Decay Book 6: “Future Perfect,” selected artist, Beautiful/Decay, June, Los Angeles, CA
2011 Hive 5: A Somewhat Quarterly Comics Anthology, cover illustration, Grimalkin Press, Minneapolis, MN
2010 Altered Esthetics’ 2010 Featured Artist Calendar, March, Altered Esthetics Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
2010 Brie Hiramine, Creo Magazine, “Nature vs. Nurture” & ”Interview,” Spring 2010 No. 03, pg 56-7 & 60-1
2009 Los Angeles Printmaking Society, 20th Anniversary Exhibition Catalog, Los Angeles, CA
2007 Moon City Review, Volume 8, Number 1 2007, “White Lights,” MSU, Springfield, MO
Awards and Recognitions:
2010 Minneapolis City Pages’ 100 Creatives, Minneapolis, MN
2010 Altered Esthetics Featured Artist Calendar, Altered Esthetics Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
2008-10 MFA Trustee’s Scholarship and MFA Opportunity Grant, MCAD, Minneapolis, MN
2006 Jacqueline Synders Memorial Scholarship, MSU, Springfield, MO
