tail of the ouroboros

April 24 – May 12, 2012.  Gallery hours are 11 am to 7 pm, Tuesday through Saturday.  Free and open to the public.

Public Reception for the Artists:  Friday, April 27, 6 to 8 pm.

Katherine E. Nash Gallery, Regis Center for Art, University of Minnesota.  405 21st Avenue South, Minneapolis.  Parking available nearby at the 21st Avenue ramp, hourly or event rates apply (MAP)

Artist's Links: 

Benjamin Davis Brockman

Yousif Del Valle

David Brian Dobbs

Elisa Berry Fonseca

Avigail Manneberg

GiGi Mullins-Schrof

For an official Press Release, see here.

Benjamin Davis Brockman, It Sang (Tang Sula), Copper Plate Intaglio, 15x19 in, 2011

STATEMENT: Images of Chernobyl today are a haunting testament to the fragile balance between man and the natural world. Towers, which once exemplified the height mankind’s assumed dominion of his Earth, now cast shadows on abandoned homes and buildings for great expanses, now known as The Zone of Exclusion.  Nurseries and orphanages overflow with tragically mutated and ill children throughout Ukraine, while the forests there are abundant with other forms of life. Only now, 25 years later, can we begin to grasp the gravity of our calamity, while rodents thrive in the dark spots we will no longer claim.

2.Yousif Del Valle, Ultramafic (1 of 33),  Cast Iron, 1' x 10'' x 1,' 2010

STATEMENT: Environments seen through a television screen extend the duration of time and space that is being displaced before the viewer. Although an individual may be standing in a space similar to one that is being observed, the images received can warp their sense of reality. By challenging an audience in front of an object with a fictional past or presenting them a space that might seem real but then changes, the audience draws closer to the state of mind that inherently led to the creation of that space.

3.David Brian Dobbs, "I'm Singing in the Rain," Gene Kelly, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmCpOKtN8ME&list=HL1323758315&feature=mh_lolz, Oil on Canvas, 90" W X 56" H, 2011

STATEMENT: I appropriate images that emerge at random while watching films and videos on the Internet.  When I watch online, and the video pauses for no apparent reason, I capture the image and catalogue it.  I focus on the distortions that appear in the images from the translation of film into digital media, allowing the painting to become a series of patterns.  The images I select to paint are from films or videos that have undergone a process of what I call cultural entropy, in that the core concept or story of the film or video has been reinterpreted and/or re-imagined to a simpler state and is an example of culture moving towards a point of equilibrium.   

Elisa Berry Fonseca, Falling Gems, Mixed Media, Dimensions Variable, 2011 

STATEMENT: I am motivated by a desire to encounter the infinite and ineffable within the world of finite materiality. Aware that foolish things confound the wise, I approach my materials with a childlike sense of play. Whether those materials are found in everyday life or are traditional artists’ materials, my practice consists of their accumulation, transformation and animation. Found metal takes on new life as three-dimensional drawings in space and bits of fabric, papier-maché, rocks, beads and glitter float precariously, adding up to an assemblage that traverses the walls, the gallery and the boundaries between two and three dimensions.

Avigail Manneberg, impact #1, Gesso and Sunflower on Canvas, 4'x7', 2011

BIO: I seek to understand life events through my art, and in this work in particular I am recalling and expressing one of perhaps life’s greatest creative act, that of generating another human being with no barriers nor boundaries. I explore ideas on the themes of painting, the feminine body, homeland, and immigration. I question and explore the ripple effect of identity in regard to culture and background. The folding and tearing, revealing and hiding is of basic essence of this work. 

GiGi Mullins-Schrof, From "Hinderlands", Composite Media, 4”x8”, 2011

BIO: I have a deep interest in how our experience of reality is a malleable construction of sensory data, memories, imagination, emotions. My current installation work, “Perchance,” explores the alternate realities of the subconscious that lie below the threshold of language and public identity, manifesting as a dream-like theatrical “set.” The set presents a location where someone has been or something has happened, and time exists as a place where the moment perpetually becomes. Stepping into the set allows for an encounter that is personal to the individual viewer, yet is also shared on a transcendent level with the artist.

Tail of the Ouroboros: Master of Fine Art Creative Thesis Exhibition

Please see our Facebook Page, as well as our Event Website.

What:  Group exhibition of six artists about to complete the Master of Fine Arts degree in the Department of Art at the University of Minnesota.

Exhibition Dates: April 24 – May 12, 2012.  Gallery hours are 11 am to 7 pm, Tuesday through Saturday.

Public Reception for the Artists:  Friday, April 27, 6 to 8 pm.

Where: Katherine E. Nash Gallery, Regis Center for Art, University of Minnesota.  405 21st Avenue South, Minneapolis.  Parking available nearby at the 21st Avenue ramp, hourly or event rates apply (MAP).

Cost:  All events at the Regis Center for Art are free and open to the public.

Artists Included in the Exhibition:  Benjamin Davis Brockman, Yousif Del Valle, David Brian Dobbs, Elisa Berry Fonseca, Avigail Manneberg, GiGi Mullins-Schrof

Exhibition Description:  The Katherine E. Nash Gallery presents Tail of the Ouroboros, a group exhibition of six artists about to complete the Master of Fine Arts degree in the Department of Art at the University of Minnesota. The artworks are made in a diverse range of media including installation, mixed media, painting, printmaking, and sculpture. Benjamin Davis Brockman is a printmaker whose finely detailed images tell a story of loss and decay. His vision is fixed on the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, which forever changed the ecosystem of the Ukraine, the people, and creatures that remain. Yousif Del Valle makes sculptural objects and environments that engage the viewer’s experience of space, time and perception. David Brian Dobbs mines the Internet for distortions in digital imagery, and focusing our attention with the medium of painting investigates cultural shifts. Elisa Berry Fonseca uses a wide variety of materials, including insignificant everyday objects, to ask large questions about the relationships of materials and meaning. Avigail Manneberg takes a physical approach to artmaking -- folding, tearing, concealing and revealing – to find the connections between life and art for herself and the viewer. GiGi Mullins-Schrof works in variety of media, including installation, which allows her to engage the subconscious as territory for exploration and imagination.

Press Images: Download at http://art.umn.edu/press/ or call 612-625-8096.  Also visit the tail of the ouroboros web page.

01-Benjamin Davis Brockman, It Sang (Tunguska), copper plate intaglio, 15” x 19,” 2011.

02-Yousif Del Valle, Ultramafic (1 of 33), cast iron, 1' x 10'' x 1,' 2010.

03-David Brian Dobbs, "I'm Singing in the Rain," Gene Kelly; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmCpOKtN8ME&list=HL1323758315&feature=mh_lolz, oil on canvas, 90" x 56," 2011.

04-Elisa Berry Fonseca, Falling Gems, Mixed Media, Dimensions Variable, 2011.

05-Avigail Manneberg, impact #1, Gesso and Sunflower on Canvas, 48” x 84,” 2011.

06-GiGi Mullins-Schrof, from Hinderlands, Composite Media, 4” x 8,” 2011.

Artist Biographies:

Benjamin Davis Brockman:  As a boy, Benjamin’s interest in storytelling was kindled while watching his parents work in theatrical shops in Idaho and Oklahoma. Raised in the arts, he went on to study art and drama in school.  He discovered a passion for printmaking while attending Oklahoma State, where he earned his BFA.  Benjamin also studied film production and theory, and hungrily tries to bridge the gap between his passions for film and fine art.  He is a hopeless cinephile, prolific blogger, and Arts editor of The Fiddleback literary journal. He is currently drawing a very large Rabbit.

Yousif Del Valle was born in El Paso, TX in 1985. El Paso borders what today is known as the most violent city in the world; Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. After high school, Yousif accepted a swimming scholarship to Texas Christian University; where he studied sculpture under the tutelage of Professor Cameron Schoepp. In 2008 Yousif received his BFA then moved to Minneapolis in 2009 to pursue his MFA at the University of Minnesota.

David Brian Dobbs was born in La Crosse, Wisconsin, USA, Earth on September 4th, 1975.  He has been living and working in Minneapolis, Minnesota for the past fifteen years where he is continually pestering everyone he meets with the question, “Why?”  He has traveled around the world and still has not found the answer to this question that has plagued him for his entire life.  If you know the answer, please contact him immediately.

Elisa Berry Fonseca grew up in Minneapolis, MN. She graduated in 2005 from Macalester College where she studied studio art and religious studies. She went on to pursue a master of arts from Yale Divinity School, concentrating on the relationship between theology, religious practice and art’s history and criticism. Subsequently she taught courses at Pratt Institute and the University of New Haven and has enjoyed presenting a number of academic papers in which she has examined the intersection of theology, philosophy and art criticism. Elisa and has exhibited her work throughout the Midwest and East Coast.

Avigail Manneberg is a Minneapolis-based artist who grew up in Israel, where she received her B. Design from the Bezalel Art Academy in Jerusalem. Avigail lived in Berlin in 2009 with a DAAD Fellowship where she worked at the University of the Arts (UdK) in ceramics and video art. She has exhibited in the USA and internationally, including in Finland, Berlin, Cyprus, Beijing, and Israel. She works in varied media, such as drawing, painting, video, sound and fabric art. In addition to her MFA, Avigail is working on a minor in Museum Studies and was the recipient of 2010-11 Sheehy Internship at the Weisman Art Museum.

GiGi Mullins-Schrof is a Minneapolis-based filmmaker, writer, and multimedia artist. She is only the second woman since the silent film era to direct a feature-length Western. Her films have screened at festivals and exhibits internationally, and her film work for The Guthrie Theater is archived at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. She is a published writer, a member of the Screen Actors Guild, and a Board Member with Pangea World Theater.

Artist Statements:

Benjamin Brockman:  Images of Chernobyl today are a haunting testament to the fragile balance between man and the natural world. Towers, which once exemplified the height of mankind’s assumed dominion of his Earth, now cast shadows on abandoned homes and buildings for great expanses, now known as The Zone of Exclusion.  Nurseries and orphanages overflow with tragically mutated and ill children throughout Ukraine, while the forests there are abundant with other forms of life.  Only now, 25 years later, can we begin to grasp the gravity of our calamity, while rodents thrive in the dark spots we will no longer claim.

Yousif Del Valle: Environments seen through a television screen extend the duration of time and space that is being displaced before the viewer. Although an individual may be standing in a space similar to one that is being observed, the images received can warp their sense of reality. By challenging an audience in front of an object with a fictional past or presenting them a space that might seem real but then changes, the audience draws closer to the state of mind inherent that led to the creation of a space.

David Brian Dobbs: I appropriate images that emerge at random while watching films and videos on the Internet.  When I watch online, and the video pauses for no apparent reason, I capture the image and catalogue it.  I focus on the distortions that appear in the images from the translation of film into digital media, allowing the painting to become a series of patterns.  The images I select to paint are from films or videos that have undergone a process of what I call cultural entropy, in that the core concept or story of the film or video has been reinterpreted and/or re-imagined to a simpler state and is an example of culture moving towards a point of equilibrium.  

Elisa Berry Fonseca:  I am motivated by a desire to encounter the infinite and ineffable within the world of finite materiality. Aware that foolish things confound the wise, I approach my materials with a childlike sense of play. Whether those materials are found in everyday life or are traditional artists’ materials, my practice consists of their accumulation, transformation and animation. Found metal takes on new life as three-dimensional drawings in space and bits of fabric, papier-maché, rocks, beads and glitter float precariously, adding up to an assemblage that traverses the walls, the gallery and the boundaries between two and three dimensions.

Avigail Manneberg:  I seek to understand life events through my art, and in this work in particular I am recalling and expressing one of perhaps life’s greatest creative acts, that of generating another human being with no barriers nor boundaries. I explore ideas on the themes of painting, the feminine body, homeland, and immigration. I question and explore the ripple effect of identity in regard to culture and background. The folding and tearing, revealing and hiding is of basic essence of this work.

GiGi Mullins-Schrof:  I have a deep interest in how our experience of reality is a malleable construction of sensory data, memories, imagination, and emotions. My current installation work, “Perchance,” explores the alternate realities of the subconscious that lie below the threshold of language and public identity, manifesting as a dream-like theatrical “set.” The set presents a location where someone has been or something has happened, and time exists as a place where the moment perpetually becomes. Stepping into the set allows for an encounter that is personal to the individual viewer, yet is also shared on a transcendent level with the artist.

Katherine E. Nash Gallery Mission:

Mission: The Katherine E. Nash Gallery is a research laboratory for the practice and interpretation of the visual arts. Vision: We believe the visual arts have the capacity to interpret, critique and expand on all of human experience. Our engagement with the visual arts helps us to discover who we are and understand our relationships to each other and society. The Katherine E. Nash Gallery will be a center of discourse on the practice of visual art and its relationship to culture and community -- a place where we examine our assumptions about the past and suggest possibilities for the future. The Nash Gallery will play an indispensible role in the educational development of students, faculty, staff and the community. http://nash.umn.edu/

Department of Art Mission:

The Department of Art provides an introduction to the practice of art for all students as well as immersive training for emerging artists.  We promote creative expression and conceptual development through a broad range of art disciplines and practices. Initial experiences emphasizing traditional methods are supplemented at intermediate and advanced levels by experimental processes. We offer courses in painting and drawing, photography, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics and experimental media (EMA). Students pursue their work in our state of the art facilities, mentored by our faculty, all artists recognized in their fields. http://www.art.umn.edu/ 

We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time. - T. S. Eliot, The Little Gidding. British (US-born) critic, dramatist & poet (1888 - 1965).