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Gorgonica
Pete Driessen
New Works in Process
Art A Whirl 2010
Please be among the first to see Gorgonica/Pete Driessen/New Works in Process as you join us for complimentary refreshments during the 15th Annual NEMAA Art-A-Whirl Open Studio Tour.
The hybridic Gorgonica installation at the Casket Arts Complex studio continues my exploration of the ship form as a metaphorical site of social mystery and political wonder. The French philosopher Michel Foucault commented that “A ship is the ultimate Heterotopia,” and is a theoretical “counter space” where one can question our given culture and predominant conditions. With a juxtaposition of multiple two and three-dimensional vectors, the installation combines lightly textured, medium scale garish colored paintings on unstretched industrial canvas -- with loosely gestured, abstracts on smaller canvas, a fleet of mixed media ship sculptures, fifteen marching soft-water tanks, and a full scale Optimist Dinghy.
The in process ship sails of the Gorgon Fleet will eventually present collaged imagery from 1960’s stag magazines that questions mediated current events within our visual culture, but also combines it with four narrative characters: a wandering neurotic spider creating an inventive web, a serpentine octopus birthing tentacles of gorgons, a beached but hopeful Optimist Dinghy, and an untouchable walled-off bunker. The garage style installation uses the ship structure as a foil and metaphor to help understand our current societal problems and question our present human condition.
Included this year will be special guest photographer and Minneapolis Mosaic winner Sean Smuda exhibiting photographs in our back gallery. In tandem are the release of two new artist statements to the public: An Aesthetic List of 99 Art Critic Beers & Ales with Prices Separated into 3 Categories, and the List of Curating Praxis, Techniques & the General Thoughts That Go Thru a Curators Brain When Preparing, Producing, & Curating the Spatiality of a Prominent Museum Based Exhibition. Also included will be the release of the first limited edition series of Mnartist.org/Minnesota Saints artist baseball cards.
Public Opening: Friday May 14, 6-10pm
Hours: Friday, May 14, 6-10pm; Saturday May 15, 12-8pm; Sunday, May 16, 12-5pm
Where: 681 17th Avenue Northeast, Suite 117, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Directions: Casket Arts is just north of downtown Minneapolis, east of I-94W, west of I-35W, and accessible from the Broadway Avenue, Lowry Avenue, University Avenue, and Central Avenue corridors. Casket Arts is on 17th Avenue Northeast between Madison & Jefferson Streets. On & off site parking is readily available. MTC bus service is one block away. Casket Arts has handicap access via loading dock.
Cost: Free & Open to the Public
For a list of Casket Arts Building Artists/Events/Activities:
For more information on NEMAA Art-A-Whirl:
Above Image: Pete Driessen © 2010, Rage Redue, 8x10 Inches, Digital Image Print, Image in Process. Image from Rage/Magazine for Men, Long Island City, NY: Natlus Inc., Vol. 2, #3, June 1962.
