FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                        PRESS RELEASE

January 2, 2007

Contact:          Theresa Downing

651-266-1034

tdowning@mmaa.org

The Minnesota Museum of American Art presents

Environments of Invention

Exhibition dates: January 20 through March 25, 2007

St. Paul, MN–The Minnesota Museum of American Art is pleased to announce the opening of its new exhibition, Environments of Invention, presenting contemporary installation, sculpture, ceramics and paintings by six regional artists who assimilate and fabricate aspects of nature, man-made structures and imaginary systems.

This exhibition is comprised of 16 works of art including five installations, eight pieces of sculpture (four of which are ceramic) and three large-scale watercolors on cardboard. The Minnesota artists included in this exhibition are as follows: Holly Anderson Jorde of Duluth, David Lefkowitz of Northfield, Cherith Lundin of St. Paul, Liz Miller of Good Thunder, Erika Olson of Minneapolis, and Margaret Pezalla-Granlund of Minneapolis.

The artists featured in this exhibition are seeking to understand the complexities of the world we live in as we perceive it and as it exists. The artists purport that our direct sensory perception of the environment may not be as ‘natural’ as we tend to assume. It is profoundly influenced and complicated by systems and structures that humans construct to make sense of it and to survive in it.

                                                            --MORE--

Many of the works in Environments of Invention examine aspects of the natural environment. Lefkowitz has created two tree stumps and a sapling from cardboard and plywood, and Anderson Jorde has sculpted a ceramic lotus series with four individual pieces emulating the four seasons. Pezalla-Granlund floats large white Bristol Board icebergs from the ceiling, and Olson has constructed commercial felt sculptures of a woodland scene with toadstools and a Bower-bird inspired grotto. Lundin has transformed a mattress with rumpled sheets into a graphite drawing directly on the gallery wall that suggests a mountainous landscape.

Other works in the exhibition echo and call into question man-made structures. Inspired by the sculptural quality of real-life skateboard parks, Pezalla-Granlund has created a miniature modular skatepark of Bristol Board and metallic tape measuring approximately 6 by 9 feet with individual elements up to 30 inches tall. Lefkowitz has flattened and combined cardboard boxes as the ground for his large-scale paintings of autonomous three-dimensional architectural structures that upon examination reveal themselves to be scenes of stacked cardboard boxes and not buildings at all.

Formed from influences of computer game design, weather chart symbols, and her notion as a child of what it meant when a computer system ‘crashed’, Miller presents an imaginary world in saccharin-colored felt, Mylar and other media installed on the gallery wall with elements that merge and morph, and attack and invade, not unlike systems in human experience.

Artists in the Exhibition:

Holly Anderson Jorde

David Lefkowitz

Cherith Lundin

Erika Olson

Liz Miller

Margaret Pezalla-Granlund

Opening Party

Saturday, January 20, 2007

7-10pm

$10/$5 MMAA Members

Music, food and drinks!

Become a new member the night of the opening and receive 2 complimentary tickets to the party!

                                                            --MORE--

NEXT EXHIBITION:

Sound in Art/Art in Sound

April 14-July 1, 2007

An exhibition of sound art pieces and art which incorporates sound as a critical element to the work as a whole. More details to come.

ABOUT MMAA

Experience and explore the energy and depth of American visual culture at the Minnesota Museum of American Art in downtown St. Paul. MMAA's Riverfront Gallery at Kellogg Boulevard and Market Street is a place for the traditional and the unconventional. At MMAA the diversity of art and artists—past, present, and emerging—is revealed through visual and performing arts. For more information call 651-266-1030 or visit www.mmaa.org.

Hours:

Tuesday 11am-4pm

Wednesday 11am-4pm

Thursday 11am-8pm

Friday 11am-4pm

Saturday 11am-4pm

Sunday 1-5pm

Closed Monday and Major Holidays

Admission: FREE

For more information:

www.mmaa.org

651-266-1030

####