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ArtWise Gallery Exhibition

"Take a Walk with Me"
featuring photography by Michael Bogert
and

"Words and Clay"
featuring ceramics by Mary Bauer

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May 12-June 24, 2022

ArtWise Gallery
Center Court--Columbia Mall
Grand Forks, ND 

Gallery hours are:
Tuesdays - Fridays 1 to 6
and Saturday  June 4   12 - 4

        Saturday  June 18   12 - 4

Opening Reception to meet the artists

Thursday, May 12

5:00 - 7:00 p.m. 

ArtWise Gallery

Artists' Statements

Words and Clay

… is a reflection on and celebration of having lived and living, with references to childhood and the various life stages one experiences. It is a nod to how language shapes my life, and what I hope to be an intriguing interplay between language and art. While the female sculptures here enact a concept, some of the functional pottery literally has words written into the clay.

 

Since I’m a retired English teacher turned ceramics dabbler, I have always thought work with words or clay seems ironically similar—both flexible, creative, moveable. Even after words are printed, and clay fired and fixed—both are still open to a host of “readings.”

 

The processes of writing and creating with clay also seem parallel to me, since both are about thinking, drafting, developing, revising and editing. Importantly, it’s discovery as I work— that mind/hand collaboration—writing or shaping, looking back and forward simultaneously.

 

My clay work is concept driven, word-connected, and also highly influenced by the world/culture in which we are immersed. My sculptures of women have always and continue to represent females situated in and navigating a complex world. Several of the pieces here represent many different life stages, and since they were created in the past two years—a time of isolation and worry, responses to present goings on can be apparent. 

 

Quirky, strange, eclectic, whimsical— language is what we have to describe, interpret, understand. Can clay function in those ways too?

 

Mary Bauer

2022

Take a Walk with Me...

...a collection of Michael Bogert’s photos featuring both rural and urban themes—photographs captured in North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, New Mexico, Michigan, and Minnesota. He hopes you will enjoy a journey with him through his photographs, which look at both simplicities and complexities of American landscapes—all with their own beauty.

 

Michael Bogert is a freelance photographer whose first interest in photography started in the mid 1970s, after taking a course at Grand Forks Central High School. Although he stepped away from it for many years, he never lost interest and as technology developed, he now enjoys the digital age of photography.

Most of his work is capturing the outdoors—the setting sun , the moon, the stars, and the American landscape, as well as, birds, animals—and occasionally people. He is in his element sleuthing the countryside, seeking portraits of nature, but he also finds great interest in urban settings.

 

You can see his work featured on the web site www.unheralded.fish , a site that features a group of collaborators who all passed through the doors of the Grand Forks Herald at some time during their careers. His work can also be seen at https://michaelbogertphotography.com, as well as his facebook page: Michael Bogert Photography. 

ArtWise Opening
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