March 19, 2021 at 10:46 a.m.
ArtStart unveils spring exhibition: Work of installation artist and printmaker featured now through May 8
ArtStart unveils spring exhibition: Work of installation artist and printmaker featured now through May 8
By Stephanie Kuski-
In addition to the galleries being open by appointment, Nate Sheppard of Nate Sheppard Media created another 360-degree virtual tour that will be available for the public to enjoy on ArtStart's media platforms.
Student artwork from the GFWC Rhinelander Woman's Club Helen Mears art contest will also be displayed from March 20-29 and will be included on the virtual tour. The Woman's Club will also host a virtual artist reception announcing winners of the Helen Mears contest in early April.
Liz Miller, "Acreage (Fort For 2021)"
An installation artist and arts instructor at the Minnesota State University in Mankato, Miller employs non-traditional materials to create a site-specific environment for her installation displayed in ArtStart's spring exhibition.
Her work is made of recycled and found construction materials like snow fencing, rope, gutter guards and nylon mesh. The dynamic piece is draped from the ceiling and hangs down onto the floor, creating a flexible, loose design that works well in the Stevens Street gallery space.
Gallery goers will notice different perspectives of the piece when walking around the perimeter of the exhibition space. Miller utilizes a contrasting color pallet in the materials throughout, but she also situated the piece so that natural light can permeate through porous layers, casting shadows in a way that creates an organic design scattered along the floor and walls at different times of the day.
Miller said her inspiration for the piece came to her as she was cycling the gravel roads near her residence in Good Thunder, Minn., at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic last year.
"During the isolation of the pandemic months, as I cycled the gravel roads of my rural environment, I experienced both a desire to fit into the landscape and a desire to remove myself from it," she explained in her artist bio displayed at the gallery. "I often saw remnants of building projects littered across the roads and in ditches, and I imagined myself sewing my own fort from these elements. 'Acreage (Fort for 2021)' is at once a protective barrier against the rural landscape, a celebration of it and an escapist fantasy of what it would look like if I created my own makeshift environment."
Miller said her installation explores broad ideas of infrastructure through the abstract arrangement of materials. This way, it becomes ironic that she chose flimsy, superficial materials to support her fort; in the same way a snow fence creates a porous, arbitrary barrier on a construction site, the materials she chose play on the idea of creating arbitrary divisions to partition off one's own space from others' - a notion present in many political and societal contexts, but one that particularly hits home as we all continue to navigate the effects of prolonged social disconnection as a result of the ongoing pandemic.
On the other hand, Miller's installation also evokes a much-needed sense of childish imagination. At a time when the world feels full of tension and uncertainty, Miller's work harkens back to childhood days of creating forts as a way to feel safe and protected. This creates a dynamic relationship between the installation and audience in a way that allows each individual to potentially see something different in her work.
Miller added that "Acreage (Fort For 2021)" expands upon ideas first explored in a related work titled "Blind (Fort For 2020)" that was exhibited at the Textile Center in Minneapolis.
Mel Kolstad, "The Post Office - A Love Letter"
A Fond du Lac-based printmaker, collagist, fiber artist and papermaker who also works as a speaker, instructor and arts advocate, Kolstad's multimedia prints are a tribute to her passion for postal ephemera. Her exhibit showcases her love of stamps, letters and all things tiny.
"One of my earliest memories is the Christmas of 1972 - that was the year that my parents gave my sister and me a box of envelopes each, and big purses that they got at a garage sale," Kolstad explained in her artist bio displayed at the gallery. "With these two items, we had everything we needed to play 'post office.' I was four. Flash forward three years, and my gift was my very first stamp collecting outfit. I pored over that collection for hours at a time... I'm sure that at some point some kid told me it wasn't 'cool' to collect stamps, so I set it aside. But it never left me - I got a very sudden urge in 1997 to start it up again, and I've been scouring eBay ever since."
Kolstad said she has made approximately 700 prints in the last three years, but nearly all of the pieces displayed at ArtStart were made specifically for this exhibit (other than a number of the bird prints, which were created for an earlier exhibit).
She said all of her prints come from her personal stamp collection. To make the prints, Kolstad photographs the stamp, then manually etches the design into plexiglass using a tiny drypoint needle. Once she prints the design using her press, she watercolors each design by hand.
Each print is tiny, intricate and vastly different from the next. Kolstad said she makes a point to use cancelled stamps to give the design a timeworn feel. While many designs depict collectible postage stamps, others portray various exotic birds and airmail stamps of foreign countries.
As a collage artist, she also has a number of collage prints displayed, which are situated in the gallery in a way that evokes a sense of progression - from outgoing mail, to collection, sorting, transport and out for delivery. She also has a number of retro mini-sculptures of various U.S. mail memorabilia displayed alongside her prints.
In addition to being an exhibition artist, Kolstad is also an arts instructor who teaches various classes all over the state. As part of the new Garden Series offered at Nicolet College and the Northwoods Community Garden, Kolstad also taught a virtual scratch printmaking class on March 10 to teach local art students her printmaking process at the same time her own art is displayed in ArtStart's galleries.
In addition to this, all of Kolstad's pieces displayed for the spring exhibit are available to purchase with a portion of the proceeds benefiting ArtStart. Kolstad said this was her way of supporting community arts organizations like ArtStart during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"This is just something I want to do for all of our communities," she said. "I am so appreciative of ArtStart for giving me this opportunity... It's been an absolute joy working on it all winter."
Those interested in inquiring further about purchasing her artwork can visit https://www.melkolstad.com.
To view the virtual tour of ArtStart's spring 2021 exhibition, visit https://artstartrhinelander.org. To view the exhibit in-person, call ArtStart at (715) 362-4328 to schedule an appointment now through May 8. Follow ArtStart on Facebook for up-to-date information regarding a virtual artist talk with Miller and Kolstad that will be announced later in April.
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