SooVAC + MCAD MFA:
An Exhibition in Honor of Suzy Greenberg

FEATURING WORK BY: Jonathan Aller, Hallie Bahn, Sishir Bommakanti, Rachel Bonebright, Jodie Burke, María José Castillo, Zoe Cinel, Heather Lamanno, Jordan Moen, Grace Olson, Aries Qian, Anika Schneider, Alanna Stapleton, Yuta Uchida, Wenjin Yao, and Shun Yong

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Jurors: Betsy Carpenter and Dan Ibarra

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This is the second biennial that Soo Visual Arts Center is hosting of selected works from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design MFA Program, an exhibition honoring Suzy Greenberg and her commitment in supporting the Master of Fine Arts program at MCAD.

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SooVAC founder, Suzy Greenberg, herself an alumna of the program, began featuring MCAD MFA candidates annually when she opened SooVAC in 2001. We are pleased to continue Suzy's tradition of working with students, presenting them with the opportunity to present their work in a professional exhibition space and gain experience to prepare them for their careers outside of school.

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“Paramount to all of Suzy Greenberg's work is people. Lifesize, real people. When Suzy opened the doors to SooVac in 2001 she knew that she wanted a place where artists could experiment, take risks, get experience. She was one step ahead. Always. Someone would show at SooVac and the next thing you knew they were winning awards and popping up in reviews everywhere. The list of artists she worked with is a massive array of talent in all media, and an amazing group of people. Suzy’s talent, lay not only in her eye, which was impeccable, but she saw in artists things they did not yet see themselves.” -Andrea Carlson and Tamatha Perlman

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This year, MCAD MFA candidates were invited to submit artwork for consideration. Jurors Betsy Carpenter and Dan Ibarra selected 16 artists for the exhibition.

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Betsy Carpenter
Betsy Carpenter is an independent curator, writer, and educator. Ms. Carpenter was a curator of visual arts at the Walker Art Center from 2001-2015. Prior to the Walker, in 1997-98, she served on the curatorial team responsible for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum exhibition, Robert Rauschenberg: A Retrospective. In 2001, as guest curator in the Department of Prints and Drawings, she curated Jim Dine Prints: 1985 - 2000 at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts for which she also wrote and edited a catalogue raisonné of Dine’s graphic work from that period. Her work has appeared in numerous exhibition catalogues and Art in Print.

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Ms. Carpenter currently serves as Lecturer in the Department of Art at the University of Minnesota where she teaches art theory. She is also leading the curatorial team for the research and installation of the reopening exhibition at the Minnesota Museum of American Art in 2019, as well as curating the 53rd National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) Annual Exhibition at the Katherine E. Nash Gallery in the Regis Center for Art on the campus of the University of Minnesota.

Ms. Carpenter holds a B.A. in English from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, an M.A. in Art History from the University of Minnesota, and an M.Phil. in Art History from the City University of New York Graduate Center (CUNY).

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Dan Ibarra
Dan Ibarra is a Minneapolis-based designer, educator, and artist. From 1999 through 2016 he was the co-founder of Aesthetic Apparatus — a commercial art and printmaking studio that played an integral role in the American poster art revival. One night he slept on Shepard Fairey’s floor.

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His disciplines include (in order of expertise): graphic design, branding, printmaking, education, type design, writing, lecturing/public speaking. His design work has been recognized by Communication Arts, Creative Review, CMYK, How, Print, STEP, Rolling Stone, Nylon, ReadyMade Magazine, and been included in numerous design, art, and print anthologies. He has lectured and exhibited internationally.

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Past clients and partners have included The Criterion Collection, Benefit Cosmetics, Blue Q, Esquire Magazine, The Jim Flora Estate, Metro Chicago, The New Yorker, Pizzeria Lola, Speedball Art Products, Stella Artois, Andrews & Dunham, Art Crank, The Beez Kneez, Surly Brewing Company, Target, Two Bettys Green Cleaning, Urban Outfitters, and Walker Art Center.

He has taught graphic design and printmaking at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and Augsburg College, as well as founded his own in-studio art school intervention practice, Schoolhaus.

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The son of an anthropologist and a schoolteacher, he was born in Wisconsin and is currently a proud husband and father in Minneapolis, MN.