Here are the postcard and poster (below) for the About Face show that is coming up this Saturday at the Stevens Square Center for the Arts.

I’m pretty excited for the reception, it sounds like all the artists are in attendance. I helped out J.M. Culver with some of the installation process and got a sneak peek at majority of the work. There’s a nice variety in the media and approaches from the artwork involved.

Also this is the last week to see my other work at the Spyhouse Coffee shop (on Nicollet) . There wasn’t any official reception for the show, but I kept dropping off a ton of business cards. I take that as a sign that it generated interest, unless people just like my business card design (It’s pretty dang snazzy). That show ends on Saturday.

If you’re in the Minneapolis area, drop by Spyhouse coffee shop this week and then come by the opening reception at SSCA on Saturday!

Image © Kurt Hippauf

Official Press Release:

ABOUT FACE: An Exploration of Identity and the Human Experience

ABOUT FACE is juried and curated by SSCA Exhibitions Coordinator and artist J. M. Culver.

When: SEPTEMBER 11 – OCTOBER 10

Where: SSCA GALLERY

Opening Reception
Saturday, September 11, 7-10pm

Live music by DEDMONDSON

The human face is so central to how we view other people, whether meeting someone for the first
time or scrutinizing an old friend’s reaction, that imagining a world without addressing the familiar
set of features on the front of our head seems unthinkable.  The mood, confidence, innocence,
beauty, honesty, brutality and sadness of a person are so often indicated (sometimes falsely) by
their face.  Even as social media evolves to replace encounters with clicks, replication and broad-
cast of faces remains essential to the way we want to connect with others.

It is with these considerations in mind that ABOUT FACE at SSCA Gallery features artists employ-
ing traditional and experimental means in communicating their own unique expressions of the
human face, including painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, sculpture and mixed media.

Highlights of the exhibition include Megan Frauenhoffer’s darkly beautiful mixed media prints, which suggest transformational narratives and move with skillful, selective illustrative detail. Weaving myth and memory, and exuding a curious emotional tension, her work invites a close look here.

Cult Status Gallery owner and painter Erin Sayers showcases work from her distinctly graphic series of pop icons; and the surreal, abstracted human archetypes of John Vasiliou round out this assembly of talented visual artists.

Artists Involved:

Nate Courteau
J.M. Culver
Megan Frauenhoffer
Louisa Greenstock
Kurt Hippauf
Nathan Lewis
Erin Sayer
John Vasiliou
Amzie Wendt

“Master of Fine Art candidates Thomas Boyer, Galen David, Megan Frauenhoffer, Graham Judd, and Levi Murphy will be exhibiting their work in the inaugural show in Gallery 148 from January 20th to the 29th.  This, an exhibition of current MFA work, marks the first showcase, in recent memory, of MFA opus done at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. This show was organized to bring awareness to MCAD’s MFA program to both the undergraduates and patrons alike through the aid of a public and professional space that is Gallery 148.”

I spent yesterday setting up for the school exhibition. Tomorrow is the reception, along with two or three other school sponsored shows.

Here’s photos of setting up and a sample of the work being exhibited:

Galen David’s paintings, mostly installed.

Levi Murphy’s furniture, installed.

A sample of Thomas Boyer’s photographs.

Graham Judd’s woodblock prints. Printmakers! Yay!

I put three of the collage/prints I made last semester. I’m itching to make new art. I’ve grown tired of constantly displaying/photographing this body of work. I want new prints to show! Hopefully this weekend will be the start of that.

“Munch’s style is thrilling because it is so economical. Nothing is overdone. Every stroke of the brush aims right to the heart of the matter, even as it carefully measures every size, space, color and tone. As he paints a feeling instead of a scene, his work anticipates the following sixty years of modern painting and print-making.” ( Chris Miller- NewCity Art- website, Review: Becoming Edvard Munch/Art Institute of Chicago)

“In these paintings Munch struggled to render his own emotional and psychological traumas, including the deaths of his mother and older sister, as well as his doomed first real love affair, into universal images that resonated with the outside world. By so doing, he said, he hoped to ‘understand the meaning of life’ and to help others gain similar insights.” (NYTimes.com Art Review | Edvard Munch, “Munch Was More Than a Scream,”By GRACE GLUECK website Published: February 17, 2006)

I saw this last print, The Kiss, recently in the drawings and prints collection at the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts. I think it captures the “economy” of mark making that the first quote was describing. I kind of wish I could do the same myself, but it’s hard to not go overboard with carving in printmaking and drawing. The first two prints I saw in the Edvard Munch exhibition in Chicago. I enjoy his varied prints and experimentation. In my opinion, I think they surpass majority of his painted work.

-Megan