Inspired by Rockwell Kent, a twentieth-century printmaker and painter who traveled and documented the barren wilderness of Alaska and Greenland in the 1920s, Dorlac, too, seeks to paint the world’s most remote and isolated places. His current body of work emerged from his residency in Upernavik. The artist’s interest in the island’s geology greatly influenced his work, which is comprised of both plein air watercolor paintings and monotypes of the islands, fjords, glaciers and icebergs in the region. Using bold brushstrokes and a cool, earthy, muted palette of dusty blues, soft lavenders and yellowing grays, Dorlac conveys the volatile climate and ethereal landscape of Greenland, as well its formidable, yet vulnerable icefjords. The artist explains:
“Upernavik (which means “Springtime Place” in Greenlandic) is a hunting and fishing settlement of 1,129 inhabitants on a small island in a vast archipelago on the northwestern coast of Greenland. My motivation for seeking an opportunity to paint in Greenland came from my study of the island’s geology, my longtime interest in the work of Rockwell Kent, and my concern for the effects of global warming on the arctic.”
The work in this exhibition was supported in part by a grant from the Southwest Minnesota Arts and Humanities Council. The artist will be present at the opening reception Friday, October 19th from 5-8 pm. This opening reception and exhibition run concurrently with Continuing, an exhibition of new paintings by Anne DeCoster in the main gallery.
