Cameron Booth (1892-1980), Toilers, c. 1925, oil on canvas board, 18 x 24 inches, gift of the Reverend Richard L. Hillstrom
The start of the new school year means the opening of fall exhibits at the Hillstrom Museum of Art and the Schaefer Art Gallery at Gustavus Adolphus College. Both spaces have new shows opening September 10.
Hillstrom Museum of Art
Tony Martin, Assembly, 2015, oil on canvas, 26 x 30 inches
10 AM, Zero One, and Other Settings: Paintings by Tony Martin and FOCUS IN/ON: Cameron Booth’s Toilers will be the featured exhibits at the Hillstrom Museum of Art September 10 through November 4. The opening reception from 7–9 p.m. on September 17 features an artist talk by Tony Martin, giving community members the chance to hear more about the works from the artist himself.
Martin is a multimedia artist based out of Brooklyn whose work has incorporated sound, light and motion in new ways, but a large focus of his work over the years has been painting. A musician at a young age with a background in classical guitar and jazz bass, Martin’s art has always been influenced by music. His belief that the outer observed world could be merged with one’s own inner quest in life through art is much of what drives his work.
Martin’s pieces have been included in exhibits worldwide including Paris, Shanghai, Seoul, The Hague, Brussels, and Lisbon. In the United States, Martin’s works have been shown at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and the Brooklyn Museum of Art.
Cameron Booth was primarily a Minnesota-based artist with deep roots including high school in Moorhead and teaching stints at the University of Minnesota and Minneapolis School of Art. Booth also spent time living with the Ojibwe community in northern Minnesota. In his work Toilers, the “FOCUS IN/ON” piece of the exhibit, he depicts raspberry farmers working in the fields in Hopkins, Minn. The multi-disciplinary essay accompanying the piece is co-written by Director of the Hillstrom Museum of Art Don Myers ’83 and Associate Professor of Geology and Environmental Studies Laura Triplett and ties the work to this year’s Nobel Conference theme, “Living Soil: A Universe Underfoot.”
Schaefer Art Gallery
Installation detail from What to Do When Lost in the Woods, 27 min looped video, 55″ monitor on pedestal, painted branches, sculptural element (branches) 11’x 6’x 5’, 2016
What to Do When Lost in the Woods by artist Melissa Borman opens in the Schaefer Art Gallery with an artist talk and opening reception from 4–6 p.m. on September 19. Borman created the work in this exhibit following an injury six years ago that greatly impacted her mobility for nearly one year.
Each piece in this multimedia exhibit is based off of a forest service text advising lost hikers on what to do if they become lost in the woods. As she dug deeper into the concept of becoming lost, the feeling resonated with Borman as she worked through her injury toward healing. “My temporary immobility joined with the idea of being lost in the woods to become a metaphor for the mind, and I began to question how a person thinks their way out of problems,” she says.
Borman is Minneapolis-based photographer and installation artist whose work has been displayed around the world including at the Regional Cultural Center (Co. Donegal, Ireland), Filter Space (Chicago) and Griffin Museum (Boston). In addition, she received a Metropolitan Regional Arts Council Grant and Rochester Art Center’s Jerome Emerging Artist Award.
The exhibit includes several different multi-media elements including video, photography, and sculpture, and is on display through November 1. The Schaefer Art Gallery is open every day from 8 a.m.–10 p.m. in the Schaefer Fine Arts Center–Art Wing.