One and Three Sculptures

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
KATAYOUN AMJADI is an Iranian-born, Minneapolis-based artist, educator, and independent curator. In her work, she often considers the sociopolitical systems that shape our perceptions of Self and Other, such as language, religion, gender, politics, and nationalist ideologies. She blurs these boundaries and creates an off-balance, hybrid style, slightly acerbic and a little bit tongue-in-cheek. Her art probes the relationship between past and present, tradition and modernity, and individual versus collective identity, and simultaneously seeks to spur discussion about our place in the temporal arc and the interwoven roots of our histories. Amjadi holds an MFA in ceramics and sculpture from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and has been the recipient of 20/21 MCAD-Jerome Emerging Artist Fellowship. Her performative installation work will be part of a group exhibition titled Underneath Everything: Humility and Grandeur in Contemporary Ceramics at the Des Moines Art Center from June 2–September 10, 2023.

NATHANAEL FLINK is an artist based in Minnesota. He earned a BFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 1994. Flink has been the recipient of the Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship and the Knight Foundation Arts Challenge Grant. He has exhibited his work in solo exhibitions in South Korea and Minnesota and group exhibitions in New York, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Vermont. His work is held in private collections in North America and Asia.

KARA JELINEK is a self-taught artist based in Fargo, ND. Combining illustration and yarn, she creates hand tufted floor and wall rugs. Through her work, Jelinek seeks to initiate contemplation circulating around softness and brutality, functionality and impracticality, as well as balance between traditional and modern values. Jelinek is currently working towards coalescing her interest in textiles, illustration, and sculptural works for her creative endeavor, Soft Spot.

JANET LOBBERECHT is an artist working in Minneapolis, MN. Primarily, her work sits somewhere between painting and drawing. The complex precariousness of our world and envisioning lost futures are what she thinks of most when working. Janet holds an MFA in Transdisciplinary Design from Parsons/The New School for Design, where she focused on systems and urban ecologies. She has received a Minnesota Artist Initiative Grant, the McKnight Visual Arts Fellowship and the Jerome Emerging Artist Fellowship.

JOE SMITH (b. 1970) received his MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1998 and has been the recipient of several grants and fellowships, including The McKnight Fellowship for Visual Artists, the Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant, and The Jerome Travel Grant. Smith's abstractions and still-lifes explore the impact of weight and gesture as a means to open up psychological spaces. Each element in his work is charged with restraining and driving forces that reveal the gaps between the physical, mental, and the metaphysical. Smith has exhibited in numerous venues, including Midway Contemporary Art; the FRONT International Triennial curated by Michelle Grabner in Cleveland, OH; David Petersen Gallery in the Twin Cities, and The Suburban and Julius Caesar in Chicago. He currently lives and works in Minneapolis.