Art Hounds: Judy Ofronio’s organic sculptures

From MPR News, Art Hounds are members of the Minnesota arts community who look beyond their own work to highlight what’s exciting in local art. Their recommendations are lightly edited from the audio heard in the player above.  

Want to be an Art Hound? Submit here. 

Winona wonders

Stephanie Lynn Rogers is the executive and artistic director of Anderson Center at Tower View in Red Wing, and a visual artist in her own right. Amid preparations for this weekend’s Red Wing Studio Tour, she pointed listeners to Winona to see Judy Ofronio’s exhibition “Deep Dive” at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum.  

Stephanie says: It’s an absolute must-see. Judy has had a phenomenal impact on Minnesota’s arts community over the past 50 years, and she’s one of the artists I respect most in our state.

She’s reinvented and reinvigorated her artistic style multiple times over a storied career, which takes guts and vision. This exhibition is not a retrospective, but it is definitely a very broad survey of the last two decades, going from colorful mosaic works from the early 2000s, through works that Judy made out of bones and bone castings that were more monochromatic in the 2010’s.

And in the last two years, her work has exploded back into this colorful three-dimensional collage that is one of her most known styles. 

I’m also really excited about the Minnesota Marine Art Museum in general. They’ve been through a leadership and programming transition in the past few years, and they’re really hitting their stride with top notch exhibitions. I also think they do family-friendly museum experiences better than any other museum I’ve seen that isn’t focused just on kids. 

For me, the expansion of their rotating exhibition program has changed MMAM from “must see when in Winona” to “Must plan to visit Winona so I make sure I see these shows.”

 — Stephanie Lynn Rogers

 Energetic ecosystems

Visual artist Pete Driessen of Minneapolis recently traveled north to Park Rapids to see the new exhibits at the Nemeth Art Center, which he recommends.

The two solo shows each take a look at the natural world. Wayne Gudmundson’s exhibit “What Stillness Has to Offer” encompasses large-scale photographic prints that zoom in close on forest scenes. Gudmundson is a retired art professor from Moorhead State University. Madeleine Bialke’s exhibit “The Long View” consists of landscape paintings. Both exhibits run through Sept. 28. 

Pete says of Madeleine Bialke’s work: The vibrant acrylic works, recently created during her residency at the Nemeth, are highly energetic and expressive works, with brilliant use of color.

Her works have a unique idiosyncratic style, visually embracing the natural beauty within the gentle shapeshifting that occurs in our local ecosystems and environments.

Of particular interest to me as a viewer is how Madeleine captures the transitional glowing light qualities of sunrises, sunsets, moonscapes and how that light filters through flower petals, long grasses, tree leaves, or branches in a dense forest.

Whether it’s a becoming pinecone, wiggly birch or pine branch, the tipped Big Dipper, or night lights in cottage windows on side of lake, the body of work electrifies our innate and subtle connections with rural bucolic countryside.

— Pete Driessen

Shakespeare squashed

Theater artist Stephanie Kahle saw Jackdonkey Productions’ staging of “The Complete Works of Shakespeare (abridged)” when it was at the Phoenix Theater in Minneapolis, and she thought it was hilarious.

The show now heads to Stillwater, presented by the Zephyr Theater, July 25-27. The performance is at the Washington County Historic Courthouse at 7 p.m. 

Billed as London’s longest-running comedy, the high-energy show features three actors attempting to squash all of Shakespeare’s works into two hours. 

Stephanie says: It is so fun. It has three really talented actors who are very smart in their playfulness and very committed to the silliness of the show, and is just a treat to see new and young artists taking new approaches to the classic arts.

And I think that Zach Christensen, the director, has also given a lot of freedom to modernize and make it local and fresh, so not only is it really fun as a script, but I think their interpretation is also really fun.  

Not only is it completely local talent who are amazing actors, but they take a lot of of modern social media trends. For example, they have an entire bit featuring chamoy pickles [referencing a TikTok trend.]

— Stephanie Kahle