MacRostie Art Center is pleased to announce the first exhibitions of its 2021 season. For the month of January, the MacRostie Gallery will feature “Interior Intimacies,” a series of paintings by Kandace Creel Falcón. The Minnesota Gallery will display a showcase of work by the 2020 Old Central School Artists in Residence. The public is invited to experience the new exhibitions opening January 1 either through the MAC’s website or in person at MacRostie Art Center in downtown Grand Rapids during the MAC’s regular business hours. January exhibits at MacRostie Art Center are sponsored by the MacRostie Art Center Board of Directors.
MACROSTIE GALLERY | INTERIOR INTIMACIES | Kandace Creel Falcón
In “Interior Intimacies,” interdisciplinary feminist scholar, writer, and visual artist Kandace Creel Falcón engages the themes of home and belonging through a series of mixed-media paintings. With a focus on interior spaces shaped by exterior forces, they explore the gendered expectations of private and public spheres. The paintings are created on large canvases, and Falcón intentionally incorporates fabric to challenge the hierarchies of art forms.
The large, square images of scenes from the artist’s home draw connections to the curated images of a social media feed.
“I am deeply invested in understanding my relationship to place,” says Creel Falcón. “Here it manifests in the context of the home in which I live in rural Minnesota. Cleared of the messy reality of a space lived-in, the series also encourages a reflection on our relationship to things and the images we craft based on our material possessions.”
Kandace Creel Falcón, Ph.D. is an interdisciplinary feminist scholar, writer, and visual artist. Their life’s passion grounds the power of narrative for social transformation. As a Xicanx femme feminist, Creel Falcón engages the power of aesthetics and the need to disrupt conventional Western beauty norms. Their academic pursuits have sought to better understand power through an interest in popular culture, the written word, and the circulation of images. Drawn to mixed-media methods of painting, fabric arts, and writing, Creel Falcón brings together various mediums to make sense of the world around them, as she lives and works in rural Erhard, MN.
MINNESOTA GALLERY | Artist Residency Showcase
The Grand Rapids Arts and Culture Commission’s artist residency program is now in its eighth year. It creates opportunities for the community to interact with artists through a public studio space on the third floor of Old Central School. To-date, thirty different artists have participated in this program. In this exhibition, 2020 Artists in Residence Abbey Blake and Kirsten Forsgaard will show a collection of works created during their 6-month residency.
Kirsten Forsgaard is a self-taught artist working in a variety of mediums. She recently moved back to the Grand Rapids area after a career in healthcare. Learning new techniques and honing skills in painting, printmaking, digital photography, paper sculpture, and illustration are what keep fresh ideas flowing for Forsgaard. A selection of linoleum block prints and acrylic paintings are including in the exhibition.
Abbey Blake is a multi-media artist and art instructor at Itasca Community College. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, Blake has an MFA in printmaking with minors in sculpture and ceramics from the University of Iowa. Her current body of work reflects her ongoing research surrounding place, land-use, borders, and boundaries. The collection of cast, sewn, and woven pieces exhibited are part of Blake’s exploration of landscapes and resources and how they relate to disconnections and connections of place.
VISITING THE MAC | Winter Hours
MacRostie Art Center is open Wednesday – Saturday, 10 am – 4 pm or by appointment. The MAC is also pleased to offer the opportunity to view all its exhibits and shop online at macrostieartcenter.org.