Art Gallery Shows Iron and Stone....Paper and Color Exhibit In the Edge Center

What does the work of two artists using such different media have in common?  Find out at the Bigfork’s Edge Center Gallery in September when the work of both collage artist Karlyn Atkinson Berg and sculptor Al Belleveau fill the Gallery.  The exhibit Iron and Stone//Paper and Color is on display from September 8 until September 24.  The public Opening Reception is Friday, September 9 from 5:00 to 7:00.

Both Berg and Belleveau share a love of the natural environment and use combinations of common materials in seemingly endless ways in their art work.  Karlyn Atkinson Berg’s work uses Paper and Color.  Her two-dimensional collages are created by arranging paper cut from all kinds of printed materials.  The shapes and colors form abstract compositions.

The complex work is sophisticated and requires contemplation to extract Berg’s meaning. Berg graduated from Rhode Island School of Design, continued graduate studies at Pratt University in printmaking, in education at New York University and trained as an actress at the Lee Strasberg Actors studio.

Berg pursued her career as painter and collage artist while working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  She traveled to Minnesota in 1973 to work on Wolf Conservation, an interest that continues today.

While becoming internationally recognized for her work and expertise on wolves, canids, predators and predator control issues, Berg continued to paint and pursue her career as an artist.  Her work in the September exhibit is the type of collage art that she has been successfully shown in galleries around the state.  

Al Belleveau’s materials are more elemental than Berg’s. His work represents the Iron and Stone in the exhibit and is the syntheses of a life long love affair that he has had with two of northern Minnesota's most plentiful resources. He uses rocks and metal in sculptural form to depict humorous life forms, unique functional furniture, art structures and decorating accouterments.

He has been using this process to capture and create with stones for ten years, but he has come to understand its significance more recently. The stone - as recognized by the indigenous peoples - is Grandfather or Spirit and the steel is temporary flesh. Thus through this parallel of steel wrapped stone - flesh wrapped spirit, he is coming to better understand himself and others and how they are related.

 Belleveau’s affinity with Stone Age artists is shown in the sculpture “Hand Painter”, depicting a man reclining in a cave, making an imprint on the wall using a tube of rolled bark or a reed to blow red ocher over his hand to create an imprint.

The exhibit Iron and Stone// Paper and Color is in the Edge Center Gallery, next to the Bigfork School, from September 8 until September 24.   The Opening Reception is Friday, August 5 from 5-7 pm where you can meet the artists and enjoy refreshments while looking at the art.   The Gallery hours are from 10:00-4:00 on Thursday, Fridays, and Saturdays.