by Ann Klefstad   June 5, 2002 I’m writing this to introduce myself to you as the new editor of the news and features aspect of this site. When I think of trying to explain what I want to do here, I see in my mind’s eye the Rossmore Building, a studio collective in Lowertown, in St. Paul. That big brick-and-glass edifice is covered in windows, each presenting a different kind of face to the world. The…

by Michael Fallon   May 15, 2002 The artist Gerald Smith is all over the map—both literally and figuratively speaking. He is a curious searcher with eclectic interests who goes to every extreme to seek answers to his questions. Consider two performance pieces, filmed in grainy super-8 and transferred to video projection— (1995), and (1997). In the first, Smith is in the middle of the California desert…

by Marianne Combs   April 22, 2002 Some say already-established artists have it easy in Minnesota. But mid-career artists argue it’s actually much harder for them to make money. They say once they’ve made the rounds to all the major grant providers it becomes very difficult to find new sources of income. Photographer Paul Shambroom studied both at Macalester and the Minneapolis Center for Art and…

Director Cynthia Gehrig has been with the Jerome Foundation in St. Paul for 24 years and as such she’s had her eye on the visual arts for quite a while. Each year she sees more and more grant applicants, all producing quality work, but she doesn’t see new galleries increasing in number at the same rate as the local artists. “I don’t think the gallery scene in the Twin Cities has improved…

by Michael Fallon   March 5, 2002 In the arc of an art movement, there are often two waves of activity. First come the forerunners, whose innovations in thought or technique spur the fledgling movement and change the way we think about art. Then come the endless imitators that water down the movement, often to the point of ruin. According to Erik Farseth, a local artist and historian, the…

by Ann Klefstad   February 8, 2002Tim Kaiser’s work is performance art, sculpture that happens in time, using electronic inventions, text, imagery, sound, actions. Kaiser has become a kind of electronic bard of his region, creating a persona of the artist as a maker of freedom, along with the idea that freedom is something you have to make personally. The history and cultures of this region, lived out…