On view November 5, 2022–January 7, 2023
MCBA Main Gallery
Opening reception friday, november 11; 6–8pm
Free and open to the public
Celebrate the newest exhibition of the MCBA/Jerome Foundation Book Arts Residency Series! Experience the exciting new work of our most recent recipients: printmaker Nicole Soley; artist, writer, and educator Brooks Turner; and artist and designer Leah Willemin.
We invite the public to tour the exhibition during our open hours, Tuesday–Saturday, 10am–5pm and Thursdays until 7pm.
NICOLE SOLEY
Nicole Soley is a Minnesota-based printmaker. Since receiving her Bachelors of Science in Art Education from Minnesota State University, Mankato with a concentration in printmaking in 2017, she has begun her career as an artist and art educator in the suburban metro area. Soley has maintained an active studio practice at Highpoint Center for Printmaking since 2017. Her artwork has been featured in exhibitions nationally and internationally including Highpoint’s Outstanding Affiliates Exhibition, Bankside Gallery’s The Masters Screen and Stone, and the Atlanta Print Biennial, to name a few. Her experiences in art making have illuminated printmaking as a space of empowerment.
Soley utilizes contemporary and traditional printmaking processes to create dynamic, multi-process prints. By creating cut out, printed, paper objects, she synthesizes lived experience and research. Through layering many forms of printmaking and experimenting with paper colors, inks, and three-dimensional formats, viewers interact directly with the artwork, interpreting both personal narrative as well as cultural critiques. Her artwork emboldens the viewer to explore printmaking as a liberating story-telling medium; through the expression of personal narrative in a book arts format, we reach closer toward universal liberation.
Read her artist statement here.
BROOKS TURNER
Brooks Turner is an artist, writer, and educator based in Minneapolis. Through diverse methodologies that include archival research, collage, digital drawing, and installation, Turner engages the history of fascism in Minnesota as a synecdoche for understanding and challenging the aesthetics of US History and the imperialist ideologies it enshrines. Recent solo exhibitions include Legends and Myths of Ancient Minnesota at the Weisman Art Museum, Uncanny Familiarities of Scenes and People at St. Cloud State University, and Order and Discipline at Ridgewater College. His work has been supported by the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Minnesota Humanities Center, Rimon: The Minnesota Jewish Federation, the Minnesota State Inter-Faculty Organization, and the Jerome Foundation. He is the author of A Guide to Charles Ray Sleeping Mime as well as numerous essays published by HAIRandNAILS, Art Papers, and MnArtists. Turner received a BA from Amherst College and MFA from the University of California, Los Angeles. He is currently Chair of Visual Art at St. Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists and a lecturer at both St. Cloud State University and the University of Minnesota.
Read his artist statement here.
LEAH WILLEMIN
Leah Willemin is a St. Paul-based artist and designer working with craft, technology, and performance. She makes projects that explore the interaction between large-scale systems and individual experience. Leah is interested in tool-making, material histories, and teaching. Her work has been exhibited at MCBA, Northfield Arts Guild, and the University of Aalto, and has been acquired by the Minnesota Historical Society. She is a previous MCBA intern, and currently teaches at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. She previously taught at Parsons School of Design, where she received her MFA. For her Jerome fellowship, Leah will explore how the format of the book can present nuanced interactions of personal ecological experience and climate data.
Read her artist statement here.
ABOUT THE JEROME FOUNDATION
Since 1985, the Jerome Foundation has helped emerging artists push the boundaries of contemporary book arts by supporting the creation of new work. Through these fellowship and mentorship opportunities, Minnesota artists of diverse disciplines have created book arts projects that challenge and redefine conventional notions of book form and content.
