Uniquely Dark

To kick off programming for 2016, the gallery welcomes a collection of works from Minneapolis-based, veteran artist and iconic figure, Scott Seekins and emerging artist Aleister White. Laced with ancient symbolism and Louisiana Voodoo, Uniquely Dark sets out to showcase the couple’s “darkest” creations, incorporating individual work, new and collaborative pieces. Though an exhibition featuring a real-life romantic pair opening Valentine’s weekend, the artists encourage viewers to contemplate their work as separate entities, including pieces which compliment each other at times, and counter during at others. Their intent is to highlight the dark and unconventional sides to love and art.

Notoriously known throughout Minneapolis by his seasonally adorned black and white suits, (black in the winter; white in the summer), Seekins has established a memorable, albeit elusive persona for himself locally, built both around his aberrant aesthetic and his signature pop culture-influenced artwork, full of comic book style self-portraits and Britney Spears-obsessed paintings, among a variety of other idiosyncratic series. For this exhibit, using mixed media, acrylic and oil-based paints, Seekins employs Sgraffito or a scratch art technique on canvas allowing for a vibrant, layered background to his paintings.

After studying studio painting at the University of Houston, Aleister White was inspired by her time spent in NOLA and cites a deep respect for Yoruban traditions of Vodou and Santeria which she conveys in her drawings. Influenced by Mistress Erzulie-Freda (Haitian Lwa of Love, Passion, Beauty and Prosperity), the occult and animal symbolism, White’s micron and prisma pencil drawings are purposefully caliginous, with vague elements of absurdity and pagan elements hidden within every intricately etched line. Through recurring animal motifs, Seekins and White use symbolism to represent stigmatized aspects of race, religion, war and culture.
 

Opening Valentine’s Day weekend, Saturday, February 13th, with champagne and chocolates,
plus an industrial / dark  wave soundtrack from DJ Juleana Enright.

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Cover Photo Credit: Bethany Birnie