Works by Michaela Chorn and Steph Kunze • Now thru November 27, 2018

Ruminations, works by Michaela Chorn and Steph Kunze, is showing at Gallery 120 in the Fine Arts building on the Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota, campus of Inver Hills Community College now through Tuesday, November 27, 2018.

Ruminations

Works by Michaela Chorn and Steph Kunze

Now through Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Artist’s Talk: Monday, November 26, 2018

Gallery 120

Fine Arts Building
Inver Hills Community College
2500 80th Street East
Inver Grove Heights, MN 55076
General: 651-450-3000
Gallery: 651-450-3101

Ruminations at Gallery 120

Michaela Chorn

Recent Works

My materials are living beings.
Paper steadily breaths as pencil moves on the surface.
Frame stands tall, proudly displaying the fabric’s taught appearance.
Canvas rejects liquid, needing to be wooed by the touch of brush.
Then, it retreats into itself as water absorbs.
Graphite crawls, seeping into the threads of canvas, weeping.
It whispers while crossing over paper, grunting when it breaks through.
Remaining grounded in the moment, I notice these happenings.
In these moments, the materials become an extension of myself.

Michaela Chorn CV

Steph Kunze

Artist Statement

When viewing family photographs from previous generations, I am struck by how much they both reveal and hide about the family they are depicting. They document family members exactly as they appeared in a moment and, yet, only hint at what they were thinking and feeling. When I view photographs of my family, I find I not only view them objectively, but subjectively. I search for meaning in my family members’ body language and the environments they inhabit, trying to see into the hidden part of their lives.
My family photographs are small, most 3 by 3 inch squares, and damaged, having been bent and ripped. Their physical state seems to mimic what they depict: a family whose history has been racked by substance addiction, mental illness, and neglect. Confounded by this troubling history, I seek to reconcile with it by creating hyper realistic pencil drawings of my family members. The drawings, which I create through a combination of referencing my family photographs and using my imagination, act as updated family photographs, each reconfigured to better convey what I believe the hidden part of my family members’ lives was like.

Steph Kunze CV

For more information about Ruminations at Gallery 120, contact:

Joel Starkey
Gallery Curator and Coordinator
651-450-3101