In the Inez Greenberg Gallery at the Artistry in the Bloomington Center for the Arts in Bloomington, Minnesota, on view through October 9, 2015, “It’s Personal” is an exhibition with works by Paula Barkmeier and Nicole Havekost which explore the ideas of identity on personal and universal levels.
Developed over time and for different reasons, each artist has contemplated their artwork as a reflection of themselves, their motherhood, their bodies, and their relationship with others, nature and the world around them.
The creatures that inhabit Barkmeier’s drawings, made primarily of graphite, charcoal and acrylic on frosted mylar, reveal for her a longing for the wild, instinctual and creative creature hidden in us all. “One is invited to question the relationships between these creatures, and how they interact with us in our dreams, psyche, and everyday existence,” said Barkmeier. While they offer her own personal reflection of the primal instincts of conception, birthing and nurturing, Barkmeier also hopes that they tap into a more universal theme of evolution from wild to domestication. The drawings blur the lines between human and animal; a kind of hybrid of both real and imaginary forms.
On the other hand, Nicole Havekost’s three-dimensional doll-like figures morph human-like forms with inanimate objects integral to traditional “women’s work” (i.e. sewing implements and cooking utensils). In creating these dolls, Havekost reveals the interesting relationship of these “tools” and how they become a part of oneself just as a woman’s body is often a tool used in creating and nurturing life. “The act of becoming a mother was an experience of profound undoing and transformation of my body,” said Havekost.
MORE DETAILS: www.artistrymn.org/visual_arts/personal.html.