Last week we beat the heat at Drawing Club with a surprisingly great turnout, a dancing cat cameo, and plenty of water…er, make that beer. This week we’re ready to do it again with the help of local artist hosts John Fleischer, Ruben Nusz, Pam Valfer, and Allen Brewer.
If you don’t know what Drawing Club is by now, well, I’ll just assume you’ve been out of the country or living under a rock all summer and give you the quick run-down: Drawing Club takes place every Thursday of summer from 4 – 8 pm at the picnic tables on Walker Open Field. We make collaborative drawings, so that means you can either start a piece and leave it behind for others to finish, or choose to add on to one of the many of works in progress already started. Basically what’s made at Drawing Club, stays at Drawing Club. Local artists and the public (all levels of art experience welcome) are invited to participate in this communal social practice of art-making.
Take a moment to get to know this week’s special guest local artists and then come on down to the field on Thursday to draw with us!
John Fleischer studied art and educational psychology at the University of Minnesota. His work explores themes such as transformation, impermanence and regeneration, intermediate and transitional states, cycles, and ritual. John has exhibited locally, nationally, and internationally. Recent exhibitions include: ∆ (Air Sweet Air); ALLMOST (Rochester Art Center); A Theory of Values (Soap Factory); and Latent Pattern (Dog + Pony Projects). Upcoming exhibitions include: When Does Something Become Something Else? (Walker Art Center); and Field Trip! (Silverwood Park). John currently lives and works in Minneapolis.
Ruben Nusz is a Twin Cities-based artist with a Summa Cum Laude degree from the University of Minnesota. A painter of considerable depth and restraint, Nusz constructs analytic frameworks that he intentionally undermines, drawing attention to the malleable nature of reality. He has exhibited in many Minnesota venues and his work included in the Walker’s Lifelike exhibition will travel to New Orleans, San Diego and Texas. Nusz’s works are included in the permanent collections of the Minnesota Museum of American Art and the Walker Art Center Library, as well as numerous private collections.
Pam Valfer has exhibited at many national and international venues. Selected exhibitions include: EVA International Biennal of Visual Arts (Ireland), Space Shower Gallery (Japan), Dante’s Upstairs (Australia), CUBE Center for the Urban Built Environment (England), GrayDuck Gallery (Austin, TX) and Art of This! (Minneapolis, MN). She has received both a Minnesota State Arts Board – Artist Initiative Grant and Bush Education Grant, and is included in the Drawing Center’s (NY) curated Artist Registry. Pamela received her BFA from Minneapolis College Art and Design and her MFA from the University of Minnesota. She is cuurently teaching at Minneapolis College of Art and Design and College of Visual Arts.
Allen Brewer is an artist/illustrator/professor living and working in St. Paul. His recent leanings as an artist have been that of truth and purity of perception. This investigation of form, verity, and accuracy has made Brewer more aware of infinitesimal structures that are crucial to thingness. Past exhibitions include “If Not it, Then What” (Burnet gallery), “Alternate Futures” (Soo VAC), “COMMON PLACE” (EVA international biennial Ireland), and will be exhibiting at the MIA’s MAEP gallery April ’13.
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