Virtual Connections: Together From a Distance by Everyone
Soo Visual Arts Center Online Programming Platform, started in March of 2020...
Upcoming and Recorded Live Events:
Do it Yourself/Hang in there Baby by Trina Fernandez: This is a recorded conversation between Trina, her mom and Andy Sturdevant from November 13, 2021:
This was a conversation about Trina Fernandez’s new humorous cook/photo book, Do It Yourself/Hang In There Baby. Writer and artist Andy Sturdevant moderated a conversation between Trina and her mother concerning the food that reflects their loneliness and depression.
The book is based on her mother’s collaged cookbook from the early 1980’s, Trina compares her life to her mother’s, and the dreams lost through the improvised meals of their reality. Complete with oversaturated photos resembling those of Good Housekeeping’s past, this artist book is sure to make you laugh, cry, and inspire you for upcoming holiday meals. Each book includes a pull out poster.
Trina Fernandez is an installation artist, photographer, and book maker using nostalgia, humor, and artifice as an entry point to discussing the yucky feelings we don’t like to talk about. Birchwood Palace Industries: Birchwood Palace Industries, L.L.C. is a publisher of artist books, zines, and other small-run printed novelties. It is a project of writer and artist Andy Sturdevant, and is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Audio Recording with exhibition walk through of artist Anika Schneider and curator Esther Callahan in conversation on May 11th.
Anika Schneider received her MFA from Minneapolis College of Art and Design. For her undergraduate studies, she received a Bachelors of Science with a double major in Environmental Studies and Studio Art from Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, PA. Anika’s work has been exhibited nationally at galleries such as Rosalux Gallery, Gallery B St Paul, Circle Gallery, Visarts, Dumbarton Concert Gallery, and Glen Echo Park Partnership for Arts and Culture. Anika has also participated in residencies in Wolfsville, Nova Scotia and Solomons Island, Maryland. She was awarded a Windgate University Fellowship and the Gettysburg College Provost Grant. Recently she completed her first public mural for the City of Brooklyn Center and MN Metro Transit. Anika currently lives and works in Minneapolis where she enjoys giving a home to second hand furniture and hiking with her dog Wolly.
Esther Callahan is an Independent Curator, Chief Creative Officer for Arts and Recreation, and the 2021 Critic-in-Residence for the Great Meadows Foundation. As an advocate for systemic change and equity in the Minnesota arts sector with roots in academic degrees in Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies, and Social Justice Leadership from the University of Minnesota, she has been able to collaborate with social justice organizations, diverse artists, and work collaboratively to create space for public art. She builds her curatorial practice around the intersections of race, feminism and social practice, with her most recent exhibit "Stand Up Prints" at Highpoint Center for Printmaking showcasing contemporary printmaking as a tool to amplify people and communities who demand racial and social justice.
A Conversation with artist Johanna Winters and curator Nicole Soukup recorded on May 4th...
Join the Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87986459413
Meeting ID: 879 8645 9413
Johanna Winters is a puppeteer and printmaker based in Kansas City, MO. She received her MFA from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, and has been awarded residencies at the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław, Poland, Guttenberg Arts, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Vermont Studio Center, ACRE, the Elizabeth Murray Artist Residency, and Yaddo. She was the 2018-19 Printmaking Artist in Resident at the Lawrence Arts Center. Prior to her artistic pursuits, Winters competed on an Olympic-development cross country ski team based in the Upper Midwest. Winters' recent work has been exhibited and performed nationally, including at the Open Eye Figure Theatre in Minneapolis, and Plug Projects in Kansas City, MO. She currently teaches at the Kansas City Art Institute.
Nicole Soukup joined Mia as a research assistant for the Departments of Contemporary Art and Photography/New Media in 2010. In 2017, she was named an Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art and the Minnesota Artist Exhibition Project Coordinator. During her time at Mia, Nicole has assisted with numerous exhibitions, including “More Real? Art in the Age of Truthiness,” “The Sports Show MN,” and “Sacred.” From 2015–2016, she served as the interim coordinator for the MAEP, overseeing 10 exhibitions. Building on her interests in intersectional feminism and social practice, she curated and helped organize the “Guerrilla Girls’ Twin Cities Takeover” at multiple arts venues in 2016. After graduating from the University of Minnesota—Morris, Nicole earned an MA from the University of Florida, focusing her thesis research on the role of photography and film in American Modernism.
Previous Studio Visits and Talks
Click on the images below for more information and a link to the recorded studio visits.
A conversation between artist Yijia Li and curator Pujan Gandhi
Finding the Patterns: A Conversation Between Rachel Breen and Christina Schmid
They shared stories about their trip to Dakar, Senegal during their collaborative studio session at Galerie Sobo Bade during GAP (Global Arts Project) VII residency in January 2019, and how this experience influenced their practice. The video is recorded from a live Zoom conversation on June 10th.
Visual artist and educator Alex M. Petersen is inspired by relationships of technology, gender and sexuality, and environments. With a research based, aesthetically engaged career, he currently balances being a full-time educator with a robust studio practice. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally with a recent solo exhibition at SooVAC in Minneapolis, MN in 2018. In 2019 he was commissioned to create a large-scale painting for Queer Forms at the University of Minnesota.
Drinking Water with Alejandro (Junyao) Zhang from Instagram LIVE, recorded May 6th. Alejandro (Junyao) Zhang is a Chinese interdisciplinary artist who builds the relationship between performance, electronic music, and videos.
Recorded From Instagram Live April 29th. Vitus Shell is a mixed-media collage painter born in Monroe, LA, where he lives and works. He received a BFA from Memphis College of Art in Tennessee, 2000 and an MFA from University of Mississippi, 2008.
Recorded from a Zoom studio visit on April 22nd. Alison Hiltner views herself as a science fiction archeologist exploring the landscapes of video games, films and other related media, sourcing narratives to intertwine with tidbits of scientific reality.
Recorded from Instagram Live on April 15th. Ta-coumba T. Aiken is a public artist and public arts activist. He creates art to help communities find their Visual Voice through collaborative community engagement and creative discovery.
Recorded from Instagram Live on March 24th. Born in Pakistan, Hosain explores unfixed histories, traditions, and constructions of Middle-East geography and his own Muslim identity through painting. Process and material driven, Hosain builds up rich surfaces on canvas creating a tension between recognition and obliteration.
Previous Art Activities and Experiences
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Storm Surge by Megan Vossler is about the literal and metaphorical power of water; specifically, ocean swells, and waves. Vossler explores the power and resilience of both nature and ourselves in this large scale multi panel watercolor.
Zoe Cinel created Symphony for a Walk of 7 to connect to her family in Italy during the pandemic. We all take walks around 7pm and we live 7 hours apart from each other. We walked everyday for 7 days discovering what our passage in space looks like from far away. A sequence of lines and drawing on a map. And then created a score from the lines created in the walks. View the final product at the link.
The Brown Paper Chair started from Today, we become, Prerna's exhibition at SooVAC in October-November 2019, starting with the remnants of that piece to begin anew. A cyclical process of repurposing the drywall used to create the walls in the exhibition, by printing it onto brown paper, and using that brown paper to mold onto plastic monobloc chairs. Success is in the process and the continuation of an idea, pushing past "failures" with even more resolve. The full piece at the link.
When was the last time you showed a little appreciation for the clouds? Sure, you have your problem clouds now and then but most of the time they mind their own business, go with the flow and accept change with grace. No matter who you are or where you live, clouds are usually there. You've got clouds? Me too! - Alyssa Baguss. Everything you need to know about cloud appreciation is at the link.
Instagram LIVE conversation May 13th. Amina Harper is an artist born in Minneapolis, MN where she currently works and resides. She began her career in 2010 and has been developing an extensive exhibition history in the process.
Interview and Workshop Roshan Ganu is a storyteller who chooses 2D and 3D illustration to address the mundane lives we lead. She is an MFA candidate at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (expected 2020) where she was awarded the MFA Trustees Scholarship.
A 3-Minute Solo Performance in 6 Steps by Laurie Van Wieren Laurie Van Wieren is a dance maker, curator and teacher. Her solo and ensemble choreography has been shown in the Twin Cities, nationally, Germany, and Russia.
Everything Cancer is Now Covid, A Comic by Christi Furnas Christi Furnas is a multidisciplinary artist, living with mental illness. As a 2016 recipient of the Artist Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, she began drawing comics related to her experience with schizophrenia.
A Visual Poem by Peng Wu Peng Wu is a design activist and an interdisciplinary artist dedicated to creating socially engaged art in public space. His work combines the power of design thinking with contemporary art strategies to address various urgent social issues including immigration, modern medicine and health, environmental sustainability.
Amy Rice's step by step instructions for all to make flowers with things you find around the house. Rice is a minneapolis-based mixed media artist that has exhibited her work extensively at galleries in the US and beyond.
Interviews
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In 2018 Yael Ben Simon exhibited at SooVAC, Out of My Book. Two years later John Herbert has checked in with her to see what she is working on now. Yael Ben-Simon is an Israeli artist that works and lives in Brooklyn NY. Her works explore the relationship between propaganda, identity, magic and symbol making through painting.
Chris Heidman's exhibition Full Spectrum is postponed. In the meantime, Tiffany Lange sat down with him (from afar) to talk about his art, life and finding the brilliance through the mundane.
Lauren Krukowski's exhibition Full Spectrum is postponed, however you can learn more about her in this Q&A with Tiffany Lange. Lauren Krukowski lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Her work has been recently included in group exhibitions at the International Print Center, New York and Trestle Gallery.
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