Outside is artist’s paradise

“Red Dawn” by Lisa Bigalke, reductive relief print.

BLOOMINGTON, MN – (PNAN) –  Featuring the work of Lisa Bigalke in the exhibit, “On the Status of Fields and Rocks” opens Thursday, January 11 through February 25, 2018 in the Atrium Gallery at the Bloomington Center for the Arts.

What began as a journey to become closer to her father, this series of reductive relief linoleum and woodcut prints stems from a trip to places found in her father’s notebooks who passed while on a hunting expedition when she was just a child; thusly, Bigalke’s find of the outdoors is essential to her happiness which makes her feel alive.

Through travelling to these places and being able to document them through photos, drawings and notes, gave her the opportunity to reinterpret and organize her own thoughts and feelings about them. Included in her final works are maps, statistical information and personal letters that merge the actuality of these places and her relationship to them.

The exaggerated, intense color, the abstraction of nature, and the addition of enlarged aspects of the place (fossil/flower/ water), allows for both decorative patterns and visual texture. The overlapping and concentrated use of pattern puts the viewer into the realm of Bigalke’s journey. Those who look once may find just a pretty landscape. Those who allow themselves to get lost in the color and pattern may find the meaning.

About 

Lisa Bigalke a graduate from the University of Wisconsin with a BA in art and from Louisiana State University with a MFA in Studio Art, Lisa Bigalke teaches Art at Carthage College in Kenosha Wisconsin. Her artwork has been exhibited in many regional and national exhibitions. Since 2000, she has exhibited her work in over 14 solo exhibitions and 10 permanent collections including the Douro Portugal and the Leicester Print Workshop’s Small Print International in Leicester England. Bigalke is a 2016 RAM Fellowship recipient. Her 2017 RAM Fellowship exhibition opened Aug 17, 2017 at RAM’s Wustum Museum in Racine, Wisconsin.