Mayumi Amada and Marlena Myles Digital Showcase

Mayumi Amada and Marlena Myles Digital Showcase

A digital exhibit to showcase work by Mayumi Amada and Marlena Myles for the Hennepin County Government Center

Forecast Public Art and the Hennepin County Multicultural Arts Committee announce an online gallery exhibit showcasing dual presentations by Twin Cities based artists Mayumi Amada and Marlena Myles. The online platform will replace a previously planned gallery exhibition at the Hennepin County Government Center due to Covid-19 closings. The exhibit will be available online beginning December 1, 2020.

This exhibition showcases two artists who explore cultural heritage and through different materials—  represent their sense of place, identity and home. The juxtaposition of personal  perspectives in their artwork creates an open middle ground to consider commonalities. The artists both present complex ideas and themes, but do so in a way that invites audiences in, with relatable materials and storytelling.

Mayumi Amada begins her artist statement: “I am Japanese -- my cultural heritage informs my work. Living away from my home country and looking at it from a distance, I find many valuable characteristics in Japanese culture: in the ways of thinking, in the sense of value, and also in the arts, design, and in architecture.”

Similarly, Marlena Myles’ begins: “I am a Native American (Dakota, Mohegan, Muscogee) digital artist located on my traditional homelands here in St Paul, Minnesota. I use my art to celebrate the language and culture of my Dakota people, as well as help the public understand and relate to the significance of our oral traditions, history and representation through Native Art.”

Visitors to the online exhibit will be invited to view works and read more about both artist’s process and practice. To immerse audiences in their work more fully, Mayumi Amada and Marlena Myles have created interactive hand-on elements that visitors can engage with at home.

Accompanying the artist’s work in the online gallery are accessible video workshops. Each artist provides a tutorial that utilizes paper and other materials found at home. The online gallery includes downloadable templates and coloring pages to accompany the artist tutorial.

The online gallery can be accessed at: https://bit.ly/HCGexhib2020

About Mayumi Amada:
Mayumi Amada is Minneapolis based artist who emigrated from Japan in 1998. She earned an MFA from the University of Minnesota. She is interested in ancestry, the circular nature of life cycles, and the environment. Mayumi Amada’s Japanese cultural heritage is interwoven to the work she creates. Reflecting on it from the United states, she explores how reusable materials and recycling echo concepts from Buddhism and Zen philosophies. Through repeated stitches and patterns, Mayumi explores the repetition of generations using traditional techniques and their iconography handed down through lace-work and dollies.

About Marlena Myles:
Marlena Myles is a self-taught Native American (Spirit Lake Dakota, Mohegan, Muscogee) artist located in St Paul, Minnesota. She has gained recognition as being one of the few Dakota women creating digital art including fabric patterns, animations and illustrations to bring modernity to indigenous history, languages and oral traditions. Growing up on her traditional Dakota homelands here in the Twin Cities, she enjoys using her artwork to teach Minnesotans of all backgrounds the indigenous history of this place we call home.

About the Exhibition
This exhibition and corresponding events are supported by the Hennepin County Multicultural Arts Committee (MCAC). MCAC was created by the County Board in 1995 as part of the organization’s response to the Minneapolis Initiative Against Racism. MCAC sponsors art displays, performances, discussions and exhibits representing Hennepin County’s diverse cultural canvas.

For this exhibition and corresponding events, MCAC is receiving support from Forecast Public Art, a non-profit arts organization that activates people, networks and proven practices to advance the transformational power of arts in public life. The exhibit is sponsored by Hennepin County Communications.
 

Image Credit: Marlena Myles, Wakíŋyaŋ, Dakota Thunder Spirit, 2019, vector illustration


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