CHROMATIC DIALOGUE
Kathleen Kvern
Dodie Logue
Opening Reception: Friday, August 18th from 6-8pm. Free and open to the public.
Artist Talk: Tuesday, September 12th from 6:30-7:30pm. Free and open to the public.
Artist Statements
Kathleen Kvern: I am a Minneapolis based artist working in the ancient medium of encaustic. My paintings, often done in series, are an exploration of navigating my internal geography and mapping meaningful connections with others and the world. I work in encaustic for its translucency, luminosity, malleability, and durability. Altered by fire, both in form and texture, encaustic is the perfect medium to explore the layered meanings of personal narrative, the concept of transformation, and to convey the complexity of the natural world. The process of encaustic painting is meditative. Layering and scraping away, revealing what has come before and building back in a repetitive manner. Altered by bearing traces of its earlier form, the finished paintings are palimpsests of my successive creation.
Dodie Logue: In my abstract paintings I use strong color and patterns that originate from my daily life. I am greatly influenced by nature and textiles, but anything I encounter may inform my work. I collaborate with the materials, a particular season, a mood, a world event. The concept of Yin and Yang—a balance between two opposites—helps me make sense of the disarray and energy of our world. By bringing this idea to my work, I simplify and use opposing forces to construct my pieces; I especially think of the encounter between the organic and the geometric, and micro/macro. I use traditional materials, oil or acrylic paint on canvas. With these I try to straddle control and spontaneity, using a variety of techniques like painting with a huge brush, or left-handed, or pouring the paint. This helps me to let go and to allow the process to unfold and lead; an initial impulse may be a starting point that fades as the work develops.
Artist Biographies
Kathleen Kvern / kathleenkvern.com / @km_kvern is an abstract painter based in Minneapolis. She works primarily in encaustic and mixed media creating multi- layered paintings inspired by the beauty of the natural world. Her work has been juried into exhibitions at The Phipps Center for the Arts, Nicolet College Art Gallery, Tubac Center of the Arts, Northfield Art Gallery, Bloomington Center for the Arts, Gallery 360, and at the Minnesota State Fair Fine Art Exhibition among others. She has been commissioned to create public art for the Minneapolis International Airport and St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Brainerd and teaches encaustic workshops at the Chicago Avenue Fire Arts Center in Minneapolis. Her work has been featured in Wax Fusion, a digital publication of International Encaustic Artists (IEA) and she was the recipient of the 2019 Emerging Artists Grant award from IEA. Kathleen is currently the Senior Vice President of Advancement at Artspace, a national non-profit developer of affordable space for artists based in Minneapolis. She has a history of working on behalf of artists for over three decades at diverse organizations including martists.org at the Walker Art Center and consulting for the Loring Park Art Festival and the Madeline Island School of the Arts in Bayfield, WI.
Dodie Logue is a painter based in Delano, MN, where she has a studio in an old Dairy barn. She received a BA from the University of Minnesota, and an MFA at Bard College. Logue has received grants from the MN Arts Board as well as the Central MN Arts Board, and she exhibits regionally and nationally. Recent exhibitions include a solo 2023 exhibition at the Tettegouche Visitor Center, and a solo exhibition in 2022 at One Division Art Gallery in Buffalo, MN. She has been included in many group shows including at Veronique Wantz Gallery, 360 Gallery, The Bell Museum of Natural History, and at the Minnetonka Center for the Arts. During the pandemic she had installations in the Healing Arts Programs at four Regional Hospitals, and in 2023 one of her paintings was selected for purchase by the new Vision Northland Hospital in Duluth, MN. In 2013 she and her sister published a book “TREES” which included her drawings and her sister Mary Logue’s poems, and they are currently working on a second book.