RELIEF: Three fresh approaches to building surface

An exhibition of new paintings by Minneapolis artists Kim Benson, Rachel Collier, and Sheila Wagner.

H+N have long had their eyes on the work by these Minneapolis painters. They give the three distinct gallery spaces — front room, back room, basement — over to the artists. Each artist claims their own turf, yet their paintings are close enough to feel the bounce and tension between their unique materials, sensibilities, practices.

Kim Benson’s oil paintings on canvas marry her interests in 17th Century Dutch still life, decay (compost, erosion), and lace floral patterns. Rachel Collier’s work aims at classic “struggles” of abstraction: the flatness of paint, the fetishization of the grid, the hand at work and its blatant removal, striving “to achieve trompe l’oiel without really trying”. Sheila Wagner brings new paintings with complex textures, the dense surfaces built up with cardboard and spackling paste along with paint and oil pastel.

Cover Image: Kim Benson