New artwork by Monica Rudquist and Juliane Shibata • Now thru November 30, 2017
The Inver Hills Art Gallery is exhibiting The Space Between, which features new artwork by Monica Rudquist and Juliane Shibata now until Thursday, November 30, 2017. The gallery hosted an opening reception, Tuesday afternoon, November 7. Monica and Juliane were on hand to answer questions about their work.
“Juliane’s ceramic installation features real carnations that will slowly wilt to reveal a secret message,” said Erin Goedtel, the gallery’s curator and coordinator. “Progress photos will be posted to the Inver Hills Art Gallery Facebook page over the course of November.”
The gallery is located in the Fine Arts building on the main Inver Grove Heights campus of Inver Hills Community College.
Monica Rudquist
Artist statement
I am a potter at heart. I make work that bridges the space between function and sculpture. Everything I make begins with the wheel-thrown object. Bowls and cylinders, ordinary objects that most people use everyday. It is the familiar object and it’s potential to communicate a new way of experiencing the world that intrigues me.
I love forming a piece of wet clay on the wheel and I am compelled to create forms that retain the fluidity of clay and the gesture of my hand. I am curious about how far I can push the clay. I test its limits by cutting and recombining thrown forms. I am interested in creating new combinations and juxtapositions that raise questions and develop new perspectives. These “conversations” between familiarity and new perspectives have led to my recent installation work using multiples.
Artist bio
Monica Rudquist is a clay artist based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She works primarily with porcelain to create playful thrown and altered functional objects and wall installations.
Her work has been exhibited widely over the past 25 years in solo and group exhibitions as well as at many art fairs across the Midwest. Most recently, she completed a year-long project, INCONTEXT, funded by a Minnesota State Arts Board grant to create a 24-foot-long wall installation.
Monica’s work can be found in various galleries across the country including Santa Fe Clay, Northern Clay Center, Grand Hand, the Weisman Art Museum and the Guthrie Theater store. Her work can also be found in numerous private and corporate collections, including the Minnesota Historical Society, the McKnight Foundation and St. Paul Companies.
Monica grew up in the Twin Cities. She studied at Macalester College with Gail Kristensen and Ron Gallas. She received her M.F.A. from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, where she studied with Jun Kaneko.
After returning to the Twin Cities, Monica became a member of WARM gallery and a founding member of the Northern Clay Center. She is currently a member of Minnesota Women Ceramic Artists and NCECA.
Monica has spent the last 25 years working as both a studio artist and teacher. One of her projects was at Seward Montessori, where over a three-year period, she led 700 K–8 grade students in making and installing a tile mural representing the “Time Line of Life”, one of the core parts of the Montessori curriculum. She currently teaches at St. Catherine University, where she works side by side with her students.
Learn more about Monica.
Visit Monica Rudquist: Clay Artist.
Juliane Shibata
Artist statement
My botanical installations reflect on relationships between humans and the natural world. Flowers and plants have a defined lifespan—they grow, bloom, fade and decompose. Ceramics are durable—they can last millennia. I am interested in the contrast between the transience of nature and the relative stability of fired ceramics, in beauty that can be both ephemeral and enduring.
In using both real and porcelain carnations in this installation, I allude to the past, the flower’s origin, and the passage of time. Ars longa, vita brevis translates from Latin as “Art is long, life is brief.” As the real carnations in this piece begin to wilt, they become distinguishable from their porcelain counterparts, and the message of vita brevis is revealed. White carnations symbolize purity, love and luck; as the flowers age, their expressive power, along with their beauty, fade. The porcelain remains.
Artist bio
Juliane received her M.F.A. in Ceramics from Bowling Green State University, having previously graduated from Carleton College with a B.A. in Studio Art. She was selected as a 2016 Emerging Artist by Ceramics Monthly and has been an artist in residence at the Appalachian Center for Craft in Tennessee and The Pottery Workshop in Jingdezhen, China. Juliane co-curated (Michi)—Distinctive Paths, Shared Affinity: An Exhibition of Japanese American Ceramic Artists, which traveled across the U.S. in 2016. She received a 2014 Artist Initiative grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board and her work belongs to the permanent collection of Northern Arizona University’s Art Museum and the Brown-Forman Collection.
This fall, her work is included in exhibitions at the Perlman Teaching Museum at Carleton College, Veronique Wantz Gallery, Raymond Avenue Gallery, Inver Hills Community College, and KOBO Gallery in Seattle. Juliane looks forward to having work displayed at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design in January 2018.
Learn more about Juliane:
Visit Juliane Shibata: Ceramic Artist.
WHAT
The Space BetweenWHO
Monica Rudquist & Juliane ShibataWHEN
Now till Thursday, November 30, 2017WHERE
Inver Hills Art GalleryInver Hills Community College
2500 East 80th Street
Inver Grove Heights, MN 55076
To learn more about Monica Rudquist and Juliane Shibata and The Space Between at the Inver Hills Art Gallery, contact:
Erin Goedtel
Gallery Curator and Coordinator
651-450-3101
