Slow-stitched Navigation

A Library Gallery exhibition by Malini Basu

We highly recommend making your way to see Malini Basu's exhibition: Slow-stitched Navigation, in the Library Gallery.

Exhibition: Tuesday, February 14–Monday, March 6 Library Gallery @mcad

Introduction to the installation by Malini Basu:

I have never been good at directions—short walks that should be second nature to me could turn into hour-long meanders. When I moved from my home in India to the Twin Cities, I embraced the GPS system on my phone wholeheartedly, enjoying the ease with which I was able to navigate the public transit systems and the city at large. I followed the guiding blue line unquestioningly, trusting that I was being fed the most efficient path. Unsurprisingly, my mindless navigation did not assuage the disconnect I felt towards the cityscape I walked in and land I lived on. In this body of work, I lean into slower modes of traversing the city. I focus on building an observational practice for myself, using objects found on the sidewalks as cues to look up and take note of my surroundings. I gradually build out my own mental map by tying the object to the surrounding intersection, the plants in season around me, the smells, the cracks in the sidewalks, my personal memories in that area. This practice led to tactile explorations of how I can connect my body to my movements through a place. While this project began as a response to navigating Minnesota, I was able to continue this mindful observation while in India this past winter. The works in this show thus reflect walks in both Minneapolis as well as Kolkata.

Recommended library books:

Wanderlust: Actions, Traces, Journeys, 1967-2017, by Rachel Adams, Rebecca Solnit, Lori Waxman, and Jane McFadden

The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography, by Katharine A Harmon and Gayle Clemans

Walking and Mapping: Artists as Cartographers, by Karen O’Rourke

Walking Art Practice: Reflections on Socially Engaged Paths, by Ernesto Pujol

The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats

Fray: Art and Textile Politics, by Julia Bryan-Wilson 

WAYFINDING

A Library Gallery exhibition by Dan McAvey 

Exhibition: On display through Tuesday, November 9

Introduction to the exhibition by Dan McAvey:  I was a sailor, once. 2600 miles at sea. Nautical miles, to be precise. I’ve climbed the foremast, the yardarm. Ridden the widowmaker. I’ve navigated by the stars. And the lighthouses.

Some lighthouses warn of danger. Some just tell you where you’re at. After seeing nothing but water for weeks, a light flashing every ten seconds says you’ll set foot in Bermuda by morning.

Lighthouses make a connection; let you know there are humans out there. Humans that will guide your way. 

Along the Mississippi River, you’ll find beacons in unusual places. At the tops of silos and grain elevators are red lights that tell travelers Turn to starboard. Now. But why is a grain elevator a lighthouse? Why is a lighthouse a flour mill?

The fog of this past year has made finding our way a particular challenge. In the confines of quarantine, it is hard to know when we’ll set foot on land again. Through these paintings, I am exploring the unusual places we can find guidance and connection. In a cold, monochromatic image, a red dot can offer connection.

The two most recent paintings, however—the largest of the set—don’t offer such guideposts. In these works, I’m exploring the space between isolation and connection. And the subtle discontent that’s lurking there.

Reading List:

Lost Twin Cities, by Larry Millett

The vital gesture, Franz Kline : Cincinnati Art Museum, by Harry F. Gaugh, and Franz Kline

Milton Avery : the late paintings, by Robert Carleton Hobbs, and Milton Avery

Mark Twain's Mississippi; a pictorial history of America's greatest river, by Tom H. Watkins, and Mark Twain

I'll meet u there A Library Gallery exhibition by Anda Tanaka and Genie Hien Tran

Exhibition: Saturday, February 12–Monday, March 25 Library Gallery

In their first collaborative exhibition, I’ll meet u there, Genie Hien Tran and Anda Tanaka explore the rich, fun, beautiful, messy, complicated relationship that exists between artist-friends. Genie and Anda met through a shared interest in papermaking during the fall of 2021 and have since grown as both collaborators and friends. This exhibition includes works created through a variety of collaborative methods. In some, the artists worked simultaneously on the same surface. In others, a shared set of parameters set the course for independent work. Given the mixed-media practices of both artists, the featured work is materially complex, including techniques such as papermaking, ink making, drawing, painting, sculpture, and printmaking. Thus, I’ll meet u there is both documentation and commemoration of the connection between Genie, Anda, and the materials they use to communicate.

Reading List:

Lovingly, Georgia: The Complete Correspondence of Georgia O'Keeffe and Anita Pollitzer, by Georgia O'Keeffe and Anita Pollitzer

Interaction of Color, by Josef Albers

A Lover's Discourse: Fragments, by Roland Barthes

Bluets, by Maggie Nelson

The Parameters of Our Cage, by Chris Fausto Cabrera and Alec Soth

The Complete Book of Papermaking, by Josep Asunción

Make Ink: a Forager's Guide to Natural Inkmaking, by Jason Logan

Vitamin D: New Perspectives in Drawing

The Lost Field Notes of Hester Bird Lowell

A Library Gallery exhibition by Kate Gunther

Exhibition: Monday, August 23–Monday, September 13 Library Gallery

The Lost Field Notes of Hester Bird Lowell, And the Collected Curiosities of Her Disappearance, is a 32 page children’s book, written and illustrated by current MCAD MFA candidate Kate Gunther during her first year in the program. It tells the fictional story of a renowned female paleontologist, her discovery of living Dire Wolves, and her choice to disappear in order to protect the wolves and their natural habitat. Grounded in science and environmental protection, the story unfolds in the pages of a long lost scientific journal, inviting the reader to join Hester in her discovery. The gallery installation showcases the final printed version of the book and the original artwork, in addition to resources and information regarding the process that went into its creation.

Reading List:

Explorers’ Sketchbooks: The Art of Discovery and Adventure, compiled by Huw Lewis-Jones and Kari Herbert

Motel of the Mysteries, by David Macaulay

The Wretched Stone, by Chris Van Allsburg

Dinotopia: A Land Apart From Time, by James Gurney

The Fossil Hunter: Dinosaurs, evolution, and the Woman Whose Discoveries Changed the World, by Shelley Emling

The Dinosaur Heresies: New Theories Unlocking the Mystery of Dinosaurs and Their Extinction, by Robert T. Bakker

Paleoart: Visions of the Prehistoric Past, by Zoe Lescaze

Above the Timberline, by Gregory Manchess

www.kateguntherart.com @kateguntherart

We would like to welcome students, faculty, and staff to see Parker Boisvert's TYPE WRYTE, on display in the Library Gallery.

Exhibition Saturday, February 20–Sunday, March 14 Library Gallery @mcad​

Parker Boisvert's TYPE WRYTE  In a more analog approach to the art of ascii, TYPE WRYTE features the typewriter-based works of Parker Boisvert. Within this contrived intersection of text and illustration, the advantages and quirks of an unconventional medium are elucidated.

Reading List

Type as Art

Gerd Baumann, Pictowords: Semantic Typography (2005)

Barbara Brownie, Type Image (2011)

Steven Heller and Gail Anderson, Type Tells Tales (2017)

Michael Petry, The Word is Art (2018)

Marvin A. Sackner, The Art of Typewriting: 570+ Illustrations (2015)

Other Inspiration

Wieslaw Banach, Zdzislaw Beksinski: Rysunek = Drawing (2019)

Joel-Peter Witkin, Witkin (1995)

Care

A Library Gallery exhibition by Jordyn Brennan

Exhibition:  Monday, April 19–Wednesday, May 12 Library Gallery

Care features women in their everyday work attire as a vehicle to discuss the importance of the mental health of individuals in a community.  Similarly to when you are walking down the street, when looking at these paintings you see only the occupations, the outer shell of an individual.  What you don’t see is who they truly are at their core, what they go through everyday before they walk outside their door, the burdens they face, and the other lives they must provide and care for. The pandemic has shed a light on how fragile life is. This work highlights the need to show compassion and care to the people who occupy public space.

Reading List:

Painting People: Figure Painting Today by Charlotte Mullins

Portraiture by Shearer West

American Realist Painting, 1945-1980 by John L. Ward

The Care Manifesto by The Care Collective

Compassion: A Paradox in Art and Society by Jeroen Boomgaard, Rini Hurkmans, and Judith Westerveld

Library Gallery

Call For Art Fall 2021

We are currently taking Library Gallery exhibition submissions for the Fall 2021 semester.

In the form below, you will find the submission process for exhibiting in the Library Gallery. Please apply! The deadline is Sunday, April 25, 2021.

Click here to fill out the submission form: Library Gallery @MCAD - Call for Art (Fall 2021).

The Library Gallery is a Library staff-run exhibition space available to degree seeking students at MCAD. Please contact the Library ([email protected]) with any questions.

Quarantine Hysteria, an exhibition of the quarantine space's illusion, presents the concept of the impact of COVID-19 on surrounding things, such as mental problems, the uncertainty of virus symptoms, and the distrust of the quarantine space. It focuses on showing people's suspicion and hallucinations about space during isolation by videos from the first perspective. Besides, the music in the videos strengthens the psychological panic through the elusive penetrability of deconstructed electronica style and low-frequency drumbeats from the hardcore-techno music. It changed thinking about the role of space in the mental perspective and art.

*Please bring your own headphones and use your mobile device to scan the QR code to experience the music.

**Please continue to check the COVID-19 page for updates to policies and procedures.