October 5th – 27th
Opening reception, Saturday October 5th , 7pm – 10pm
Forms In Play by Betsy Alwin
My work manifests in a zeal for structural and material investigations that reflect thoughts about beauty, strength and durability. The works in this exhibition are a collection of stand-alone ceramic sculptures and mixed-media compositions combining porcelain lace, flocked rebar, wood and other cast elements. New slip-cast lace forms are derived from the body and architecture, connecting references to the figure with those of the built environment. As bodily forms reflect structural elements, architectural elements reflexively suggest the corporeal body. This
reflexive relationship contemplates the desire to be and build in a world that presents us with endless obstacles, contradictions and limitations. By transforming such mundane materials as rebar and foam, rigidity, weight and stability are called into question. Rebar becomes fuzzy and limp while lace supports seemingly heavy materials. Known properties are seemingly overcome and new ones invented. These new sculptures playfully present compositions that evoke the precarity of life and the propensity for perseverance.
Betsy Alwin received a BFA from Minnesota State University, Mankato and an MFA from Illinois State University. She attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2001. She has exhibited her work nationally and internationally, including exhibitions at the Berkshire Botanical Gardens (Mass MoCA), the National Botanic Gardens in Washington D.C., The University of Washington, Tacoma, AIR Gallery, New York, and No Globe Exhibition Space, Brooklyn, NY. Public commissions include a permanent sculpture in Tokyo, Japan. Recent exhibition venues include De Chiara Projects, Stone Ridge NY; Kolman and Pryor Gallery, Minneapolis, MN, the Waiting Room Gallery at Gallery 71, Edina, MN, the Marian Art Gallery, Milwaukee, WI, and Rubine Red Gallery in Palm Springs, CA. She was awarded a 2017 Artist Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. Alwin’s work is concurrently on exhibition at the Phipps Center for the Arts, Hudson, WI, Rosalux Gallery, Minneapolis, MN and the Morrison Gallery, UofM Morris this Fall.
Forms In Play By David Malcolm Scott
I’m primarily a painter, I started out doing acrylic landscapes but switched to watercolors for the most part while in graduate school. Recently I’ve been painting abstracts on paper, this was a recent decision after years of doing paintings and scrolls that were a mixture of landscape, city-scape, and abstraction.
My technique is instinctual for the most part, to try to listen to the painting, to shut off the verbal circus in my head. With this group of watercolors there were seldom any preliminary sketches or studies. I usually start from a rough image or idea, lay down a line or shape or color then it’s reaction time. My Mantra has been not to ponder but react...react to what’s happening on the paper....don’t think too much but move, make a decision - GO!
The paintings for this show are investigations of the space contained within the paper and as abstracts they are open for interpretation. As the artist I used my visual skills and background to create a composition that works, then it’s all up to the viewer.
David Malcolm Scott started his college education in history and political science at Kent State In Ohio before changing to architecture. From Kent State he transferred to the University of Minnesota where he finished his Bachelor of Architecture degree.
Painting became one of his passions while at the “U” and he began exhibiting his art shortly after graduating. When AnArch, the design studio he co-founded, broke up he left architecture behind to pursue his art and went back to school, earning his MFA from Minneapolis College of Art & Design.
David has been a member of Rosalux Gallery for over 10 years and is also represented by Carneal Simmons Contemporary Art in Dallas. Besides Rosalux he has exhibited at Gallery 360, Circa, Nina Bliese and other venues in the Twin Cities as well as Icosa and Scott+Cooner in Austin Texas, The Plains Art Museum in Fargo North Dakota, and the National Gallery of Scotland. He has been awarded multiple artist residences by both The Anderson Center and the Ernest Oberholtzer Foundation.
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