PHARMACOPEIA - Friday, September 30th 6PM-MIDNIGHT

This Friday, the Future Presence Gallery is proud to present the collected work of a true Minneapolis talent in PHARMACOPEIA: A Solo Exhibit by Bryant Locher.

The title of the show is a reference to the artists past and influences, particularly those coming from his artist mother and doctor father. Bryant's work, although unintentionally and perhaps even indirectly, is a metaphor for contemporary art today. Half fine art, half design influenced where incredibly labor-intensive paintings of bright and unusual color pallete will be shown next to light and installation pieces created for live shows of the musicians that Locher has collaborated with over the years.

This wide-spread use of talents seems quite typical of the new Minneapolis aesthetic. In addition to founding and running the Future Presence Gallery, Locher has worked as a lighting and set designer for numerous plays and music performances, was a featured toy design artist at Tomodachi, designs flyers for nationally touring bands, created video work for MPLS.TV and the Soap Factory, and has exhibited his fine art at several local galleries including Spot Art and Gallery13. With such a broad range of talents and interests, PHARMACOPEIA will surely dazzle and stun the senses, and further blur the already static lines between art and design.

Expect to hear sounds from musical collaborators of Lochers', as well as refreshments from our friends at Pabst Blue Ribbon and Peace Coffee. Hope to see you there.

Nathaniel

'It's Been Awhile' An Explanation and Information on upcoming FUTURE PRESENCE GALLERY events

Hello all.  If you have stopped by The Future Presence Gallery's blogspot here you will have noticed that has not been updated since the day before our exhibition of IMPERMANENT PUBLIC, which was all the way back in July.  Here's why:

- IMPERMANENT PUBLIC - The New & Evolving Street Art exceeded ALL of our expectations. More than 500 people came to our one-night only event, crowding and warming the gallery on one of the warmest of Minneapolis summer nights. The response was incredibly positive, and all the artist's work collected looked amazing. Writers, graf artists, friends, entire families, neighbors, old couples, dogs, cats, press and it seemed like everyone who know everyone stopped in and showed their appreciation for this new form of public expression. As a curator, I was entirely blown away and incredibly moved by the interest, ideas exchanged and the number of people who notice and care about the amazing art happening in this city.

The show was so well attended and drew such a great response that there was an unexpected result: we actually got several warnings from other gallery owners, art organizers and in the know people that we were officially on police radar and needed to keep a lower profile lest we be subject to fire code violations, not having proper crowd permits or liquor busts. To avoid this unwanted attention, our next exhibit, our namesake group  show, FUTURE PRESENCE 3, was a rather quiet affair. The exhibition featured a mix of a dozen Minneapolis-based established and relatively emerging artists, and was a beautiful showing of contemporary work from a rising group of artists.  The fourth installment of the series, FUTURE PRESENCE 4, will reunite the almost 40 artists who have participated in all of the group shows together, making special room for collaborations and installations from artists who met and started working with each other after exhibiting together at Future Presence shows.

- Before that, gallery co-founder Bryant Locher will gather a prodigious and varied body of work for a solo exhibition, PHARMACOPEIA.  Since moving to Minneapolis several years ago, Locher has creates colorful geometric abstract paintings in addition to lightshows and productions for local luminaries ranging from Gayngs, Solid Gold, Lookbook and the Pines. PHARMACOPEIA opens September 30th at 6PM.

IMPERMANENT PUBLIC IS TOMORROW NIGHT, Friday July 29th 5-11

It seems impossible but the day is almost here, IMPERMANENT PUBLIC is tomorrow night at The FUTURE PRESENCE Gallery. I am going to give directions one more time (The Future Presence Gallery is located at 1126 2nd Street NE, Minneapolis MN 55413 in the Northeast Arts District) and then get back to work fixing up the place for your arrival.

Look forward to seeing work by locals HOTTEA, Jenny Moxley, Phil Jones, Light The Underground, myself, Andrew Casey and work by not so local Sean Martindale, Gregos, Edina Tokodi & Lee Walton.  There will be music, refreshments and the best mix of installation and documented street art that Minneapolis has seen in far too long.  We hope to see you all there!

Nathaniel


Here is a preview video and some links of what's to come:
Local News Team Stopping by the Gallery
Star Tribune's Vita.mn Recommends You Stop By
MPLS.TV sees some HOTTEA

Momentary Performance by Lee Walton, Tuesday 7PM on 2013 Hennepin Ave

It is my immense joy to reveal the location and time of the first collaboration between The FUTURE PRESENCE Gallery and Lee Walton. On Tuesday, July 26th, there will be a Momentary Performance staged at 2013 Hennepin Avenue South, between our friends at Shameless Inc. and Liquor Lyles. This is the first of two performances with Walton, the second of which will be at the opening night of IMPERMANENT PUBLIC, this Friday, July 29th.

Lee Walton once described himself as an Experiential Artist, thus creating the term Experiential Artist. Experientialism is the idea that something must be experienced to be learned, and is then relatable to anyone who has experienced it. Walton’s work often investigates and highlights the brief, everyday aspects of our lives and stages them in a public setting, making the ordinary something more than. His ‘Momentary Performances’ ride a fine line between deep art theory and an appreciation of human nature. Seeing letters promoting FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 6 PM PERSON WEARING A WHITE HAT STOPS TO EAT A PB AND J SANDWICH on a building wall creates a sense of anticipation, even if it would normally be a forgettable event.

“This dissolving of the boundaries between art and life is understandably necessary”, says Walton. The audience becomes part of the performance as they can now see themselves as witnesses and participants, even if they are waiting for a bus or running an errand, “I like when the art bleeds into real life just enough.”

As Experientialism was first described by Linguists George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, “You cannot function within the environment without changing it or being changed.” Through such work, Walton does more than blur the boundaries between art and reality, he makes the rest of our reality art.

Special thanks goes out again to Shameless, Inc Tshirt & Printshop for their support and vision in allowing us to use their walls for this performance. You can view more of Lee Waltons work at his website, http://www.leewalton.com/

Toronto's Sean Martindale in IMPERMANENT PUBLIC

I am not quite sure how to describe how exciting it is to have Sean Martindale involved in IMPERMANENT PUBLIC. A few months ago, when this show was still hatching in my brainpan, I emailed him to express my appreciation for a project he had worked on where he organized a group of artists to creatively fix dilapidated city planters in Toronto. After a brief exchange we decided that his work seemed necessary in the show, as did a collaborative piece designed by Martindale and built by The Future Presence Gallery for Minneapolis. This is almost the art equivalent of Michael Jordan agreeing to be on your pickup basketball team.

For those of you who are not familiar with his work, he has been featured on just about every art/culture/fashion/trend blog ever for his inspired, unique public interventions which often combat advertising and urban grime with greenery. His work blankets not only the internet but also appears on city streets through collaborations with artists worldwide.

Pictured above is one of his more fascinating projects, an example of the Poster Pocket Plants, a collaboration with Eric Cheung . Using wheatpasted and illegal ad posters as material, they cut or extend a rip in the poster, staple it to the side and fill this created pocket with gravel, soil and everything a growing plant needs. It seems so, pardon the expression, natural, to take decomposing matter and make something bloom from it. Practical, beautifying and creative, Sean Martindale is most certainly a key figure in a new international direction for street and public art. 

Nathaniel


IMPERMANENT PUBLIC is Friday, July 29th from 5-11 at the Future Presence Gallery, 1126 2nd St NE, MPLS MN, 55413

IMPERMANENT PUBLIC Artist Profile: Light The Underground

LIGHT THE UNDERGROUND

At only 20 years old, Light The Underground has already created an impressive portfolio of light projects and social experiments. His process includes exploring abandoned buildings, factories, sewers and caves and creating a photograph using slow exposure and lights. “I started out as an urban explorer just taking pictures of the places I went but after a while it was the same old tunnels and same pictures. Then I came across light painting and it started a whole new way to photograph the places I went. I do research and there is a tight knit community of urban explorer who I sometimes go with and find lots of my locations through them.”

He will then frame these pictures and return them to the place where the image was created, thus illuminating this space. Although most of us will never see these works in the habitats they were created, we can imagine the surreal experience of seeing a finely framed print in an abandoned space, almost as a marker of past explorers or a modern cave drawing. It is easy to assume that this illumination is both a literal and figurative one; highlighting economic conditions, unused potential or our throw-away consumerist culture. But when asked of his motivations, Light The Underground responds with youthful charisma, “I like to share my work with others and try to let people see the rare and exotic locations they don't usually get to see, and at the same time getting people to wonder how the photograph got there. I haven't thought much about a larger message”.

Nathaniel

You can of course see more at IMPERMANENT PUBLIC at The Future Presence Gallery July 29th, and at Lighttheunderground.com

HOTTEA's 'WILDLIFE'

Here is a video by Thomas Dunning showing HOTTEA's latest work, well, besides the amazing installation he has upcoming at IMPERMANENT PUBLIC. Check it out, and dont forget to mark your calendars for July 29th, 5PM-11PM

http://vimeo.com/25815512