2010/11 McKnight Visual Artists Fellowship Exhibition
July 8 - August 19, 2011

Minneapolis-The Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) and the McKnight Foundation are pleased to present new work by the 2010/11 recipients of the McKnight Artist Fellowships for Visual Artists: Matthew Bakkom, Cameron Keith Gainer, Aaron Spangler, and Andréa Stanislav.

The exhibition opens Friday, July 8, with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. A catalog with text by Dan Byers, associate curator of contemporary art at the Carnegie Museum of Art, accompanies the exhibition and will be available at the opening. The four McKnight fellows will discuss their work on Thursday, July 14, at 6:30 p.m., with moderator Bartholomew Ryan, assistant curator, Walker Art Center. The exhibition will be on view through Friday, August 19, in the MCAD Gallery.

Matthew Bakkom's interest in re-presenting specific collections and archives has taken a more linguistic turn with his recent project that involves the language phenomena of anagrams. By carefully selecting words and designing their form to accentuate the verbal and physical play of individual letters, Bakkom re-defines them visually and metaphorically for the viewer. In their presentation in the MCAD Gallery, his visual word play extends to the gallery space itself, where an enclosed atrium light well humorously enacts Hustling/Sunlight.

Cameron Keith Gainer's multifaceted projects seem to begin and end with wonder. Regardless of the medium and despite the artist's own intense research into the subject matter, his visually stunning work retains an aura of magic and unknowability. This is true of Luna del Mar, Gainer's 16mm film project (presented in digital form at MCAD) set in a bioluminescent bay off the coast of Puerto Rico. It is, in the artist's words, "a filmic representation of deep space created by choreographing millions of single-cell organisms through the movement of an Olympic synchronized swimmer named Luna del Mar."

Aaron Spangler, who is best known for his large-scale basswood sculptures, also makes wax crayon rubbings from wood panels. The figural and ornamental motifs of his hand-carved surfaces become a fragmented tangle of lines and color as the artist selectively pushes the wax medium onto and into the linen support. For the fellowship exhibition Spangler will present a large-scale, 18-foot-long rubbing, whose complexity is matched only by its psychic intensity.

Andréa Stanislav's complex installation at MCAD will bring together many of the forms and processes she has worked with in the past. In Half a Generation, three-channel video filmed in Dubai of the Burj Khalifa (the tallest building in the world) and of the highly marginalized work camps will surround a large sculpture. The vertically oriented, inverted sculpture, referencing an upside-down Burj Khalifa, spans three gallery floors and hangs over a mirror-surfaced granite rock.

ABOUT THE MCKNIGHT ARTIST FELLOWSHIPS
The McKnight Artist Fellowship program is one of the oldest and largest of its kind in the country. Established in 1981, the fellowship program provides annual, unrestricted cash awards to outstanding mid-career Minnesota artists in twelve areas, totaling nearly $1 million each year. Arts organizations oversee the administration of the fellowships and structure their own programs to respond to the unique opportunities and challenges of different creative disciplines.

The McKnight Artist Fellowships for Visual Artists is recognized as one of the most prestigious foundation-based grant opportunities in the state. The fellowship provides four recipients with $25,000 stipends, public recognition, professional encouragement, and a catalog and exhibition at the MCAD Gallery. During its existence, the program has influenced the careers of more than 150 artists. Their work, in turn, has contributed to the creative vitality of the region. The fellowships are funded by a generous grant from the McKnight Foundation and administered by the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.

ABOUT THE MCKNIGHT FOUNDATION
The McKnight Foundation seeks to improve the quality of life for present and future generations through grant making, coalition building and encouragement of strategic policy reform. Founded in 1953 and endowed by William and Maude McKnight, the Minnesota-based Foundation granted about $97 million in 2010.

ABOUT THE MINNEAPOLIS COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN
Recognized nationally and internationally for its innovative and interdisciplinary approaches to visual arts education, the Minneapolis College of Art and Design is home to nearly 800 students pursuing Bachelor of Fine Arts, Bachelor of Science and Master of Fine Arts degrees. The college's website is www.mcad.edu.

Mixed Media