Minnesota Marine Art Museum

Karen Savage-Blue is an Anishinaabe artist and member of the Fond du Lac Band of Ojibwe living and working on the Fond du Lac Reservation near Cloquet, MN. Her paintings explore themes of internal reflection, identifying with nature, and exposing transitions from human to natural forms. Her work can be dreamlike and surreal, and she depicts nature in its raw form, creating a platform where thoughts and emotions overcome the tendency to decipher meaning.

Nick Wroblewski is an award-winning woodcut printmaker based out of Duluth, MN. On exhibit are his recent large, colorful, handcrafted prints celebrating nature and the rugged beauty of Lake Superior's North Shore. His printmaking is traditional, technical, and precise, but he leaves room for creativity and spontaneity during the process. Nick's multicolored prints have a style reminiscent of and influenced by 19th century Japanese master printmakers, yet are uniquely his own

Explore the shoppe at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum (MMAM), and meet Minnesota Impressionist painter and author, Kami Mendlik. Mendlik will be giving a short presentation of her recently published book, Color Relativity – Creating the Illusion of Light with Paint, followed by a book signing in the atrium of MMAM. Mendlik has become one of today’s most sought-after impressionist painters, and painting instructors; her unique strategy creates the illusion of light and form through color relativity with a simple…

The event will begin by gathering in the atrium at MMAM and meeting Eileen Moeller. The group will then a take a short inspirational tour of the museum (identifying a couple of signature pieces to spark conversation, chosen by your artist guide), and continue with a meet-up in the Oberton Education Room for inspiring conversation that ranges from anything from technique, to who’s making what, to sales strategies, and other opportunities.

Flora: Keinen Imao, features a collection of historic ukiyo-e, woodblock prints, focused on the printmaking tradition of kacho-e, or bird and flower pictures, from Japanese artist, Keinen Imao. He is best known for Bird and Flower Albums by Keinen (Keinen Kacho Gafu, 1891), a set of 4 volumes with 40 prints each, one of which will be featured in the exhibition. Image Credit: Keinen Imao (1845-1923), Ryukyu Flycatchers and Holly, from the series Keinen's Flower-and-Bird Painting Manual (Keinen Kacho Gafu),…

The exhibition features original illustrations from three book projects; Mary Casanova’s Wake Up Island (University of Minnesota Press) and Hush, Hush, Forest (University of Minnesota Press) as illustrated by printmaker Nick Wroblewski, and World of Wonder: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments (Milkweed Editions) written by Aimee Nezhukumatathil and illustrated by Fumi Nakamura. Selections from all three books will be accompanied by wood carvings from the Minnesota Marine Art Museum’s collection of Leo and Mariylyn Smith folk…

Fragments of this living earth will feature work that spans disciplines of printmaking, textiles, and poetry, asserting the critical interconnectedness of human and ecological wellbeing and embodying a mindset of reverence and kinship with land. This exhibition will include a new presentation of Hanesworth’s signature series, Medicine Kin, a body of work that engages concepts of ecological entanglement and more-than-human kinship through a focus on herbal medicine, a discipline which considers the well-being of our bodies in a way that…

Hosono’s work brings intuition, delicacy and an intuitive touch to her intricate floral creations etched in chalky white clay.  Inspired by internationally lauded Wedgwood’s Jasperware, pioneered by Josiah Wedgwood over 200 years ago, in which thin ceramic reliefs or ‘sprigs’ were applied as surface decoration to a piece, Hosono details the veins of a leaf branch and how its edges are shaped to create a poetics in ceramics only her Japanese heritage and mastery of English ceramic tradition can offer. …

Minneapolis, Minnesota artist Liz Sexton creates sculptures that blur the line between the animal kingdom and human life. Working with paper mâché, a medium she prefers for its versatility and accessibility, Sexton creates large masks of fish, birds, and mammals that are meant to be worn. Accompanying these works are photographs and video depicting humans wearing these masks in natural, as well as urban, environments. The works often feature fauna that are facing threat, such as marine life, and sheds…

Courtney Mattison creates intricate and large-scale ceramic sculptural works that visualize climate change through the fragile beauty of marine life. Her sculptures inspired by coral reefs depict the delicate beauty found beneath the sea and highlight biodiversity impacted by human activity. After studying marine biology and ceramic sculpture in college and graduate school, Mattison dedicated her career to creating art that calls attention to threats facing the ocean. Image courtesy of Arthur Evans, Tang Museum.

A survey of art across time and cultures that explores our relationship with the world that lives below the surface, and our desire to understand it.