UP NEXT!

We are starting to take down the truly amazing exhibitions “Systematics” and “Alternative Futures”. But very soon two new exhibitions will be opening Saturday, November 13…and they are both must-sees!!!

David Bowen will be creating an interactive installation, “soft chaos”, fly-piloted blimps will roam the gallery. And then our first teen artist in residence, Sarah Nakano, will exhibit her work in a solo exhibition, “Half Awake”, in the front gallery, Soo Local. This exhibition will include a variety of different work...including film and installation. More updates to come as they begin to install the show. For now here are a couple images of what will be waiting for you from each of the artists...

David Bowen's soft chaos:

Sarah Nakano's Half Awake:

One More Week!

This is the last week I will be sharing the gallery with two amazing shows, "Alternative Futures" and "Systematics". Be sure not to miss seeing them in person and to help entice you I put together a few photos.








But remember nothing is better than the real thing! Thanks so much to Allen Brewer, Liz Miller, R. Justin Stewart and Pamela Valfer for putting together such thought provoking and beautiful work for the exhibitions.

Guest Blogger Vanesa Windschitl

Fall is finally upon us and while the trees are shedding their leaves, something has grown in our garden over night. Working alongside Vertigo Press and All Along Press, artist and printmaker Lisa Bulawsky has planted part of her most recent work in front of SooVac.

“We Belong To This Band” is a public print project honoring famed past and present artists and printmakers by means of tare-off portraits submitted by artists participating in the project. Bulawsky is currently one of the featured artists for the Mid America Print Council’s 2010 Biennial Conference taking place in Minneapolis/St.Paul this weekend.

Stop by SooVac and pick up a portrait of your favorite artist and, if you haven’t yet, check out our current shows "Systematics", featuring work by Liz Miller and J. Justin Stewart, and "Alternative Futures" by Allen Brewer and Pamela Valfer before they come down on October 31st.

All About You...next up Liz Miller!

Liz Miller:

1. What is your first art related childhood memory?

My first art-related childhood memory is of sitting at the kitchen table drawing on big sheets of computer paper. Both my parents are computer programmers, and in those days computers took up entire rooms...and relied on big sheets of paper! My mom would bring home all of the scrap paper and my sisters and I would use it to make art. There was never a set goal, just the freedom to create. I would draw for hours and hours. And, because the paper was all connected together, we could create huge panoramic drawings.

2. As an artist, who is your biggest influence?

My biggest influences are people who have pushed the boundaries between painting and sculpture. As a young student, I was particularly impressed by Jessica Stockholder and Polly Apfelbaum. They were using the language of painting in a sculptural and materially innovative way. And I've been really influenced by my husband, David Hamlow, who is also an artist. We share a studio. His work is very different from mine, but watching his process has made me question my own process and see things in new ways.

3. What did you listen to in the studio while creating this show?

Everything from Loretta Lynn to The National to Jay-Z to Car Talk.

4. Name three unexpected items one would find in your studio.

1) Wrist braces (to keep me in fine cutting form) 2) A winter jacket (our studio gets really cold...even in the summer) 3) Teeny tiny drawings (my work is not always large-scale!)

5. What is your least favorite famous work of art?

Dali's The Persistence of Memory

6. What art do you have hanging on your walls?

Our house is 100 years old and we love antiquing. We have lots of great antique/vintage florals and images of courtship. Their simplicity....and sometimes awkwardness...is appealing to me, and they fit the house. We also have quite a few treasured works by our talented friends.

7. What are you working on now?

I'm working on several large projects that continue to integrate motifs from pattern, ornament, and decoration and splice them with weapon-related imagery. I'm also trying to keep up the momentum with my works on paper--I've really enjoyed devoting additional time to that part of my practice.

8. What will the title of your retrospective at MOMA be?

Rock, Felt, Scissors

Thanks Liz!
For more on Systematics, now exhibiting Liz's work visit HERE
For more on Liz Miller visit HERE

All About You...Soo Artist Questionnaire Part 3

Pamela Valfer:

1. What is your first art related childhood memory?
2 memories
1) My parent's coffee table book of Norman Rockwell's work - I would seriously stare at it for hours.
2) My mom bringing me to the MIA when we moved to Minnesota when I was 7 and sitting me down in front of Rembrant's Lucretia painting and telling me the story behind it. Intense.

2. As an artist, who is your biggest influence?
They are many and varied and always changing.
Mike Kelley
Tom Friedman
Joseph Beuys
Maurizio Cattelan

3. What did you listen to in the studio while creating this show?
It varies - everything from classical to Radio K to my CD collection, which I have about worn out.

4. Name three unexpected items one would find in your studio.
1. A picture of a baby monkey clinging to a fake mother monkey made of wire with a milk bottle attached to it
2. Corn cob holders
3. Slides of the moon

5. What is your least favorite famous work of art?
Anything from Matthew Barney

6. What art do you have hanging on your walls?
Not my art - mostly taxidermy - and vintage paintings of landscapes and portraits purchased at estate sales

7. What are you working on now?
I am currently experimenting with putting Hummel sculptures in clay.

8. What will the title of your retrospective at MOMA be?
Posthumous

Thanks Pamela!
For more on Alternative Futures, now exhibiting Pamela's work visit HERE
For more on Pamela Valfer visit HERE

All About You...Soo Artist Questionnaire Part 2

Allen Brewer:
1. What is your first art related childhood memory? seeing the Gustave Courbet exhibit at the MIA with my dad and asking him (confused) what the painting "the Origin of the World" was. He blushed. Commercially speaking, my first art sale was to the mailman. It was a portrait of Garfield.

2. As an artist, who is your biggest influence? the purity and truth of Naive/Folk Art, and my own doubt.

3. What did you listen to in the studio while creating this show? My Bloody Valentine, Bonny "Prince" Billy, Low, Sun Kil Moon, Beat Happening, Neil Young.

4. Name three unexpected items one would find in your studio. (1)an 1869 Swedish Bible, (2)a Richard Simmons workout book, (3)all my childhood sketchbooks/yearbooks.

5. What is your least favorite famous work of art?
the Mona Lisa....I've seen it, its overrated.

6. What art do you have hanging on your walls?
Old hunting lodge paintings, annon. turn of the century portraits, good friend's mini collections.

7. What are you working on now?
drawing and painting with my eyes closed.

8. What will the title of your retrospective at MOMA be?
The Future Doesn't Exist.

Thanks Allen!
For more on Alternative Futures, now exhibiting Allen's work visit HERE
For more on Allen Brewer visit HERE