Another Award and some reasonably good press...

I won 3rd Place in the sculpture division of the Wintertide Biennial Exhibition. My piece "Airway to Heaven" was one of 32 pieces of art out of over 400 pieces submitted. I was happy to be in it, but even happier to win an award! I also got mentioned in some press about the show - a rare occasion in the Star Tribune. Here's the link and another for the website The Examiner. Neither is glowing about my work, but it's still good that they mentioned me. One reviewer gave the show 5/5 stars!
So it can't be all bad.

http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/stageandarts/290213861.html
Winter blooms on the Minneapolis gallery scene

Article by: MARY ABBE , Star Tribune
Updated: January 29, 2015 - 12:50 PM

Two galleries try to revitalize the Minneapolis art scene with a biennial and youthful ideas.

All businesses, even art galleries, need a periodic jump-start to get things hopping again. Enter the "Wintertide" biennial at Public Functionary gallery and the "Common Oasis" show at Gamut Gallery. What the shows and their young venues lack in polish, they make up for with moxie and winning charm.

"Wintertide" is bigger, more ambitious and stylishly presented in Public Functionary's handsome warehouse in northeast Minneapolis. It features just 32 pieces — paintings, photos, sculpture and mixed-media compositions — by 32 regional artists, most living in the surrounding neighborhood. They were selected from 479 pieces entered by 180 artists.

The biennial was initiated by the Cedarwoods Foundation, a Minnesota nonprofit, in collaboration with the Northeast Minneapolis Arts Association (NEMAA) and the gallery. The foundation also put up $10,500 in prize money to entice top-quality artists to compete.

The selection ranges from pure abstractions to photo-realist and slightly surrealistic paintings, from landscapes to documentary photos, and from free-form designs to obsessively detailed folk-style sculpture. It resembles a more rigorously edited mix of the best of the State Fair art show. In fact, keen observers will recognize several pieces from the fair and other metro area shows, notably Kyle Fokken's folksy "Airway to Heaven" sculpture, which adds airplane wings to a steepled church, and Dean Lucker's "Moon Hospital," an elaborate mechanical scene — complete with miniature lights and movable parts — in which three gloomy moons are being nursed and repaired in a field hospital.

Wintertide: Biennial Juried Art Exhibit
Rating:
Star
Star
Star
Star
Star

Caveat Emptor... A juried show by it's nature is a subjective grab bag collection of works chosen not as impartially as one might think. This idea is old hat for artists and exhibitors, but it's important to point out for the casual patrons of the arts. The word objectivity is bantered around much too liberally, especially in the juried format, and should be abandoned. The motif of money rears it's head when awarding prizes, and just because something is popular doesn't always mean it's good. A glance at Hollywoods weekend box-office for American Sniper is a testament to this. That being said, the NEMAA Wintertide show at Public Functionary is as good as the juried genre gets.
Wintertide
Erik Ritter
View all 5 photos
Michael Speaker's Trojan Suit
Erik Ritter

Director Tricia Khutorestsky's excellent introduction in the show's catalog displays a deep understanding of a juried show's strengths and weaknesses, stating, "Selected works show us potential in a sampling of art, hand-picked as notable in this moment…" The wall to wall attendees at the Saturday night opening are the product of an art hype machine firing on all cylinders. The inclusion of the high quality, and even more importantly affordable, catalog for visitors was a great choice. Public Functionary has hit it's stride as the place to go and show art in the Twin Cities.

http://www.examiner.com/review/wintertide-walks-the-tightrope-at-public-functionary
Wintertide walks the tightrope at Public Functionary

Walking a tightrope…
A specter of craft and kitsch subtly haunts some of the jurors selections. In the fine arts, kitsch is not always a crime, but still a concern. Dean Lucker's exquisitely detailed kinetic puppetry Moon Hospital is a work of undeniable craftsmanship, but displays an all too familiar children's book mythology. A sprinkling of contemporary pixie dust might release the shackles of victorian automata, and give it the chance to evolve into new areas. Easier said than done.

Airway to Heaven is another solid work from mulit-media artist Kyle Fokken. Anyone familiar with his pieces have come to expect this from Fokken, and this style comes as easy for him as shooting fish in a barrel, maybe to a fault. Again, an object displaying great craftsmanship, but teetering a line of Mad Libs punnery.