Featuring: Dave Beck, Emily Bennett Beck, Betsy Ruth Byers, Kate Casanova, Kyle Fokken, Kelly Jean Ohl, Patrick K. Pryor, Jodi Reeb, Danny Saathoff, and Karl Unnasch.
The Twin Cities’ brightest artists come together for an unconventional art show to launch the new Kolman & Pryor Gallery
New gallery in Northeast Minneapolis to celebrate its launch with “Juicy Steak Moustache II,” featuring notable new and up-and-coming artists
The Anita Sue Kolman Gallery in the Northrup King Building has been a celebrated gallery for two years, launching and recognizing some of the Twin Cities’ most unique visual artists, including Betsy Ruth Byers, Kelly Jean Ohl, Karl Unnasch, Patrick K. Pryor, Jodi Reeb-Myers, and Kate Casanova, who was featured on the cover of City Pages for the alt-weekly’s Artists of the Year issue.
Now Kolman is joining forces with gallery artist and curator Patrick K. Pryor to reinvent the gallery as the Kolman & Pryor Gallery.
Pryor, an abstract painter, has been curating the unique shows at the gallery for two years, creating shows such as “Fashioned: One Becomes Another,” in 2011, which saw him collaborate with Project Runway designer Christopher Straub to turn his abstract images into fashion pieces that were like mobile three-dimensional sculptures.
“To have a good partnership, you challenge each other,” says Kolman of their unique relationship, in which ideas bounce around and off one another like a pinball machine. Together, the two are like all of the other great pairs in history, finishing each other’s sentences or adding comical trajectories.
For Kolman and Pryor, it’s like two puzzle pieces that make a greater whole. “I think when you have both a combination of artist and art lover, which I am very much, it gives the gallery a different dimension.”
“Juicy Steak Moustache II” opens the new Kolman & Pryor Gallery, on Saturday, March 16, and runs through Saturday, May 11. An opening night party on March 23, from 7 pm till 10 pm, will showcase the unique show and new partnership. Light hors d’oeuvres will be provided by Tryg’s Restaurant of Minneapolis.
“It seemed like the perfect show to open,” Pryor says. “Because we really like to have fun. And this show is all about interactive fun.”
The show will feature engaging and interactive works by Kolman & Pryor Gallery artists Betsy Ruth Byers; Kate Casanova; Kelly Jean Ohl; Patrick K. Pryor, Jodi Reeb, and Karl Unnasch. Also featured will be works by painter, Emily Bennett Beck, who turns pop-culture iconography into often excruciating images; Kyle Fokken, who creates modern toy mash-ups using antique found objects; Danny Saathoff, who creates peculiar mechanical works and timepieces that beg users to slow down; and Dave Beck, whose 3D images are virtual sculptures of both the odd and mundane.
“I don’t want anyone to be afraid to come in here,” says Pryor. “I want it to be a space that reflects our unique artists but also welcomes people to be a part of it. This show really reflects that.”
Each of the pieces—from a flock of butterflies powered by a hand crank to a performance where participants are asked to draw on the gallery walls and kiss the artists—inspire people to think and interact in a unique way.
“Now that Patrick is a partner,” Kolman says, “our shows will develop in new and exciting ways. Everything just feels like it’s really moving forward in exactly the right direction.”
Molly Priesmeyer
Good Work Group