Erica Spitzer Rasmussen’s sculptural retrospective and farewell

Banner Image: Partial shot of gallery, left to right: Object of Desire, Red Tape Cape, Famous Last Words, Bound and Tied, and Freedom, Taking Root.

I came to see the opening of a retrospective on American artist Erica Spitzer Rasmussen sculptural work at the Gordon Parks Gallery of Metropolitan State University in Saint Paul. Farewell Tour: Sculptural Work by Erica Spitzer Rasmussen is in part a celebration of Rasmussen’s 29-year tenure at Metro State University, however, the show feels the opposite of nostalgic, it reaffirms and renews any interest in the captivating style of Rasmussen. The exhibition is organized and curated by Rasmussen herself, but does not feel like an insular narrative, others may argue differently. 

Upon entering the exhibition, one is greeted by Red Tape Cape (2020), an imposing mixed media cape displayed on a mannequin torso adjusted to the artist’s height. Rasmussen wore the cape for her last faculty meeting at Metropolitan State University in August 2025 –the days of having to fight the bureaucracy of her professional academic life are declared over. The work defiantly sets the tone for the occasion of the exhibit. 

 

Red Tape Cape, mixed media with commercial paper (tape, paperwork, cotton thread, and a secret note to self), 2020. 

Right across the distance, on the glass wall adjacent to 7th Street East, enjoying some intermittent direct natural light, are perhaps the most seminal and disquieting works in this retrospective. A series of jars containing handmade paper balls with horse hair sealed in gelatin are displayed along the whole extent of the wall. These jars were created by Rasmussen for her MFA thesis exhibition at the University of Minnesota in 1997. This was the year when Rasmussen transitioned from drawing and painting to the medium that would define her career, sculpture. 

Going around one of the movable gallery walls painted in metallic gold (others are painted in tomato red), there is a little metal box seemingly lost in time with a pasted photograph of Rasmussen as a kid containing her first gray hair. The box is part of a small installation titled The Beginning of the End. The photograph was taken by her mother, fiber artist Nancy MacKenzie (1934-2014) when Rasmussen was six years old and lived in South Minneapolis. To me, the box feels equally an object from the past as of from the future, and by the latter I also mean a reminder of our mortality. 

A seed-shaped book titled, Hope, Seeded, made by Rasmussen during the barbaric Operation Metro Surge, represents her coping mechanism in the midst of the wreaking havoc and killing of American citizens. The object label explains Rasmussen’s inspiration for the title, “I couldn’t help thinking about Alicia Gorza’s quote on hope: ‘Hope is not the absence of despair -it is the ability to come back to our purpose, again and again’”. Alicia Gorza was one of the founders of the Black Lives Matter movement. 

 

(Left) The Beginning of the End, mixed media with handmade paper (cotton, acrylics, eggshells, India ink, Plexiglas, grout, and the artist’s first gray hair), 2012. (Right) Hope, Seeded, mixed media with handmade paper (cotton, Elmer’s Glue, acrylics, ink, PVA, and artificial gold leaf), 2026.

 

Perhaps the most poignant and personal work in the exhibit is a 2024 book titled Famous Last Words, made with paper created from Rasmussen’s brother's oncology report. The book includes different quotes from renowned and celebrated individuals from their deathbeds, across the globe, including Oscar Wilde and Leonardo da Vinci. The book concludes by documenting the last words her brother, educator and poet Mark Stevens Spitzer (1965-2023), spoke to her before his passing.

A film about six of Rasmussen's small-scale new books plays on a loop on a computer monitor in the gallery. The film tries to demonstrate how her books are dimensional, kinetic objects. It does that well digitally, although my mind does not want to let go of the old good analog animations. The animation, which also includes sound, is the work of Fauna Rasmussen. 

 

Famous Last Words, mixed media with handmade paper (cotton, gelatin, acrylic ink, Rit dye, Aqua Bronze metallic powder, momigami, PVA, waxed linen thread, book board, and Mark’s oncology report), 2024.

I became aware of Rasmussen’s sculptural work in 2005 on the occasion of a mixed media faculty show at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul. I remember being fascinated and puzzled by what I understood as a fusion of surreal sculpture, fashion, and an unorthodox use of materials with a strong personal narrative. Something haunted me right away -as it does to many people when they see her work for the first time– the simultaneous wit and thrill in the work. I would not meet Rasmussen in person until years later at an opening at the Gordon Parks Gallery. 

In 2012, I asked Rasmussen to lend me one of her new paper garment works to include it in one of my installation displays celebrating local artists at the Saint Paul Art Crawl. For the occasion, she lent me A Portrait of My Father, a small lederhosen she had made out of abaca, flax, various plant fibers gathered from her ancestral land of Vienna, Austria, acrylics, cotton thread and bovine blood. The garment is a deep invocation of her father escaping Nazi Austria and of the anxieties surrounding it all. 

Rasmussen’s Coat of Invocation, 2011, (a garment designed to bring spiritual healing to its wearer) was part of the Minneapolis Institute of Art 2014 Second Global ReMix series titled “Sacred” along with ancient and contemporary international works from Mia’s encyclopedic collection. Another of her jackets, A Coat for Two Occasions, 2013, was designed by herself to be worn at her own funeral and cremation. Her corsets and vestments –taking the connotation of intimate apparel– are luminary examples of complex and unorthodox use of mixed media including camel hair, horse hair, jute, bottle caps, dehydrated fish, waxed linen thread, dehydrated cherry tomatoes, shellac, various metals, and human hair. Another dimension of Rasmussen’s practice is hand papermaking from which she has made small editions of hand-bound books. Her mixed-media sculptural book handcrafted from pieces of old family letters received the 2018 Minnesota Book Artist Award.  

 

Coat of Invocation, 2011. Mixed media with handmade paper (mulberry fibers, commercial envelopes, cotton thread, matte medium, acrylics, Rit® dye, Japanese green tea)

 

Rasmussen’s meticulous sculptural practice spans for nearly three decades, with many international residencies and exhibitions under her belt (Austria, South Korea, Germany, Japan, Italy, and Switzerland to name a few places). This was all achieved by devoting herself to her craft and by spending countless hours in the studio over the years (Rasmussen's rise as an established artist preceded the boom of social media and today’s self-mythologizing obsession of some users on Instagram).

Rasmussen opened the gallery in 2004, but it was not until 2010 that its name changed to the Gordon Parks Gallery after obtaining permission from the Parks Foundation in New York. In the early years, the campus gallery hosted school programs to teach kids photography skills and to learn about Parks' contributions to the American cultural landscape. Today, the gallery supports the arts curriculum and cultural activities of Metropolitan State University and continues preserving the legacy of the 20th century multi-media artist Gordon Parks. Gordon Parks Gallery operates under the direction of Dr. Megan Arney Johnson as of this past January.◼︎ 

Farewell Tour: Sculptural Work by Erica Spitzer Rasmussen will be on view through June 25. Gordon Parks Gallery is located on the first floor of Metro State’s Library and Learning Center, 645 East Seventh Street, at the University’s Saint Paul Campus. Gallery hours are 1 to 7 p.m., Monday through Thursday and Saturday 11am – 5pm.