Campus Galleries Showcases Local, UWS Alums, and Student Artwork

There’s a lot of activity happening in the galleries at Holden Fine Arts. HFA has two galleries located on the east and west wings on the 2nd floor. Near the main hall lies the KRUK Gallery, which currently has a series of paintings by local artist Scott Murphy in his exhibit titled “Night Drive.” Near Lot 7, the Project Gallery is smaller and is currently filled with mixed media artwork from two University of Wisconsin-Superior graduates.

KRUK Gallery

Until Nov. 9, a series of 33 artworks by Proctor Artist Scott Murphy is available at the KRUK Gallery. The exhibit, titled “Night Drive” takes a fantastical, surrealist look at our imagination and reality.

“When you’re on the road you see stuff,” said Murphy. “This one time – I swear to god – I saw a hyena with the spots, the teeth, with the rich mane over by Proctor coming into work early in the morning. There’s these weird things that happen when you’re out on the road that makes you think that you don’t know everything.”

In 2017, Murphy retired and soon after experienced a bad car accident which left him in a coma for a week and stuck upwards to a month in a hospital.

“I remembered those hallucinations. They stuck with me,” Murphy recalled. “When they finally let me home I started painting again.”
Murphy says that his artwork blends the ideas that stuck with him from those hallucinations into telling stories. Much like his one piece titled, “Going to California”, Murphy explained that the girlfriend is leaving behind her past but those ideas are still present with her. “You can make some really big decisions in a casual way on a night drive,” said Murphy.

Before his accident in 2017, Murphy was a commercial and sign painter. He’s known for painting the spine of a book mural that sits outside of the Duluth Public Library. “Night Drive” is open between Sept. 21 and Nov. 9 with artworks for sale directly from Murphy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Project Gallery
Two University of Wisconsin-Superior graduates have a combined exhibit currently on display in the Project Gallery. The mixed-media exhibit focuses on collage and found objects to create their art.

A series of 18 mixed-media photographs of “Bride & Groom” detailed UWS graduate Gary Swanson’s admiration of his grandmother, who raised eight children after being evicted from her home in 1932. In an artist state, Swanson wrote about how his grandmother had to make ends meet while living in an abandoned tar-paper shack in the woods of Bennet, Wis.

“In place of a groom you see a tool,” said Anne Dugan, curator and professor in the Visual Arts Department at UWS. “Which you can take that however you want, there is an innuendo there. Because these are photos of brides from the 30s and 40s when opportunities for women were more restricted, the relationship for women to domesticity was different than it is now. I think he explores that with using vice grips or pliers to be placed next to the bride.”

Dugan said that she originally approached Swanson for an exhibit. Swanson’s work in the gallery focused on strong women, which he suggested his cousin and UWS graduate Lou Ann Peterson-Noltner to collaborate. In an artist statement Swanson wrote, “This exhibition is dedicated to strong women. I am thrilled to be sharing this space with my cousin, Lou Ann.”

“The exhibition is dedicated to strong women and women who figured out how to make their own unique path in the world,” said Dugan. “Older women are often erased from our society so it’s nice to have her work here.”

The wooden dolls and 3-dimensional paintings from Peterson shows her connection to her and Swanson’s shared family history. One painting titled “Lake Life” shows a fishing hut, colorfully made from wood. “Like the mystery of a poem that speaks of fundamental human concerns, art-making is my vehicle for sharing – straight from my heart – something that is real to me.” The artist talk is set for Nov. 8 at 1 p.m. in the Project Gallery with a gallery celebration on Nov. 16. Bride & Groom / Paper & Wood is set to close in the Project Gallery on Nov. 20.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Student Exhibition
After the closure of “Night Drive” University of Wisconsin-Superior students have the chance to submit their own work to be featured in the KRUK Gallery. Along the week of Nov. 9, students who have taken an art class can drop off works at the visual arts office in HFAC 3103.

“We’re going to showcase work from students who have taken art classes at UWS,” said Anne Dugan. “This doesn’t have to be studio art majors, it can be anyone who have taken an art class to submit work to be juried.”

Student works will be reviewed by two jurors before being greenlit for the gallery exhibit. Duluth-based artists Warrior Printress will be reviewing artwork on Nov. 14. The student exhibition will be unveiled on Nov. 16.