Visual Arts

Mirage

Artist: Lisa Bergh

Lisa Bergh’s artistic practice blurs the boundaries between textile art, painting, and drawing. Vinyl fabric is stretched, cut, mended, constructed, and suspended to perform as surface, projection, and form. By intertwining the language of cartography and materiality, the sculptures and tapestries in this exhibit build a story of shifting realities and internal geography. Grids unravel, borders bleed, and coordinates become unreadable. Color is a deceptive compass as light is reflected and refracted, while saturated and veiled hues suggest presence and absence. Vehicles for emotional and perceptional distortions, the artworks are fabricated encounters suggesting and challenging time and place. The translucency and movement echo the elusive and subjective qualities of a mirage.

Lisa Bergh lives in New London, MN. In addition to her studio practice, she is an advocate for the rural arts and culture movement and serves as an Art Instructor for Ridgewater College.

This activity is made possible by a grant from the Southwest Minnesota Arts Council with funds appropriated by the McKnight Foundation.

The Nature of Wholeness

Artist: Laura Ruprecht

In The Nature of Wholeness, Laura Ruprecht uses hand-cut stained-glass mosaics to explore the fragility, resilience, and evolving rhythms of life. Each piece reflects her deep connection to nature and the human experience, where brokenness and healing coexist. Through luminous surfaces and fractured forms, she invites viewers to find beauty in imperfection and meaning in the act of becoming whole.

Laura Ruprecht is a fiscal year 2025 recipient of a Creative Individuals grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board.  This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature, and by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Fishing Buddies

Mike Helke, Peter Jadoonath, Tom Jaszczak, and Joe Singewald celebrate a friendship that began with clay and strengthened through competitive wiffleball games and, at times, fishing.

All four potters reside in Minnesota and have more than 80 combined years of experience. They maintain home studios in Cold Spring (Joe), Shafer (Peter and Tom), and Stillwater (Mike), and create work distinct to the individual maker with a common focus on utilitarian wares. However, at times, each potter can stretch the parameters of functional tableware with sculptural vessels.

Altered State: Painting Myanmar in a Time of Reform

At the start of the 2010s, the country of Myanmar embarked on a transition, moving away from half a century of rigid military rule. Across all walks of life, ordinary people stepped up to claim rights and freedoms made freshly available to them. In parallel, waves of intolerance swept and scarred a society with scant experience of navigating diversity and difference, and eventually xenophobic nationalism came to occupy a prominent place on the political agenda. In early 2021, a coup d’état brutally curtailed the experiment with democratic reform and sank the country back into a heavily censored state.

This exhibition showcases a donation of 31 works by 21 artists to the College of Saint Benedict from Ian Holliday, the curator of the Thukhuma Collection. Thukhuma means art or culture in Pali, the liturgical language of Myanmar’s dominant Theravada Buddhist tradition. It also connotes uniqueness. The Thukhuma Collection is made up of over 1000 works by 130 artists. The collection showcases a small selection of art made during the short-lived decade of reform. The collection aims to showcase the talents of Myanmar’s artists and bring understanding to a little-known country.

Totemic

Artist: Nicole Havekost

Totemic is an exhibition of large-scale sculpture by Nicole Havekost. The exhibition will include the artist’s early hand-stitched wool felt figurative forms, as well as more recent monumental mixed-media wool felt totem-like forms.

Nicole Havekost is a fiscal year 2025 recipient of a Creative Individuals grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and culture heritage fund.

@Art: All Student Juried Exhibition

A celebration of the creativity and innovative spirit of the CSB+SJU student body, this juried exhibit features artwork in a range of styles and mediums. Every student enrolled, living on campus or overseas, will be eligible to submit two pieces of artwork. Artworks created in past college art classes, whether one is an art major or not, are strongly encouraged.

Cash prizes will be awarded for 1^st – $250, 2^nd – $150, 3^rd – $75 place, along with a people’s choice – $50.

This year’s guest judge will be Chris Zlatic.

• Website: lastwordtattoo.com
• Instagram: @zlaticink 

Many Lines, Many Bricks

Artist: Isaiah Okongo

Isaiah Okongo is a visually impaired sketch artist who mainly creates downtown scenery throughout Minnesota in pen, ink, pencil, and watercolor. He began working on his downtown series in 2020 to explore places he is familiar with, but also to capture details in his work that he cannot see without a magnifier or zoomed-in photograph. This process of drawing downtown scenes in more detail than he can see in real life is a way of understanding the world, while also being relatable to the people who live and work in the areas he has drawn. In addition to drawing downtown scenes, Isaiah also made a Year in Review, a Photoshop Ghost Series, a Window Series, and the occasional drawing of a nature scene. Recently, he started the process of creating more accessible pieces that visually impaired individuals, who are generally excluded from the visual art world, can enjoy through texture.

Senior Thesis Exhibition

Artists: Jonathan Andersen, Henry Ascheman, Jersey Burke, Elliott Johnson, Joshua Johnston, Colin Klein, Colin Middlekauff, Allison Muonio, Lily Weitzel 

This exhibition is the culmination of each art major’s growth and focus while studying at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University. Students from both campuses will prepare and present a collective art exhibition of diverse study and materials. Art works will be shown at the Alice R Rogers and Target Galleries located in the St. John’s Art Building.

Alice R Rogers and Target Galleries Hours:
Tuesday – Thursday: 2 – 8 p.m.
Friday and Saturday: 2 – 6 p.m.

See You One Last Time

Artists: Alias Bachmeier, Margaret Barrett, Rachel Eiden, Rita Ganley, Olivia Henson, Chang Liu, Megan Novak, Alina Schillo, Gabriella Ward, Chenxu Yu

See You One Last Time is an exhibition of work from the ten current senior art majors at the College of Saint Benedict + Saint John’s University. The work presented in the show is the culmination of the skills developed during their time spent studying art at CSB + SJU. The exhibition brings together the various interests of its artists and explores themes such as self-identity, process, control, everyday life, and community. The themes are explored through several mediums, including painting, drawing, printmaking, ceramics, sculpture, photography, and film. The distinct individual bodies of work featured in See You One Last Time highlights the diversity of experiences and passions of the 2024-2025 cohort of senior art majors. The exhibition represents the last few things that each artist wants to share before closing this chapter of their lives. 

Naturally Curious: An exploration of nature, death, and sustainability

Artist: Kelly Meyer

There is no question I dread more than, “What kind of art do you make?”. Frankly, it makes me reluctant to tell people I am an artist. It’s not that I don’t enjoy talking about my work- I do, but it often feels like such a convoluted answer that will take me the better part of 30 minutes to answer. But alas, here we are, you and me. In respect for your time, I think the most concise way to describe what I create is by saying that my artwork is grounded in curiosity. Bear with me on this. They say hindsight is 20/20; for this reason, I feel I can safely say every piece I have made over the last decade has started with this one thing- Curiosity. I seem to have it in unlimited supply.

While planning my last body of work, I was plagued by the question, “How do I keep the integrity of my work but pick up the pace?”. It is very hard to be filled with ideas and yet move at a snail’s pace. I searched for a way to merge my painterly self with my love of embroidery. Curiosity led me to the process of eco-printing. Like all new things, I jumped in headfirst learning to manipulate chemicals and plants to create beautiful imprints on fabric. My art no longer began in my studio but started upon waking and stepping outside. “How else can I use plants to create my own dyes?”. “How can I make my practice more sustainable?”. Again, curiosity.

It’s been a few years since I was foraging in a nearby wood and came upon a fawn all curled up, holding completely still to remain undetected in the short underbrush. It took me several seconds to realize that it wasn’t holding still but was actually dead. Despite the fact it was no longer living, I still wanted to scoop it up and bring it home to protect it. This image has sat with me all this time. Curiosity started gnawing at me, “Why does a butterfly lose its sense of awe when it dies? Why does death turn the beautiful into the offensive?” When I examine these questions deeper, I wonder at the fact that we feel that very same repulsion after the human body takes its last breath, almost as if death itself were contagious. Perhaps this is because our body is but a shell to hold our spirit; once lifeless it is useless, in all practicality rubbish, and so we react as such. Curiosity asked “Does turning these things into ‘art’ reclaim its nobility? Is finding beauty in these things morbid or wrong?”

Suddenly, the wonder of cicada molts, snake sheds, and abandoned hornet nests piqued my curiosity. Found bugs, feathers, and the occasional animal bones have now found their way into my work. Where others see death and decay, I see beauty and a need to preserve. It is not uncommon to come home to a collection of beautiful sphinx moths and other bugs that neighbors have found or to receive a text informing of a new snake shed ready for pick up. Curiosity asks, “Why do I feel guilty at letting a cucumber I grew over months wilt on the counter? Can I make my own ‘compost papyrus’ and if so, could I embroider it?”. There was only one way to find out.

Deeper yet, I think about how my God has specifically engineered Beauty and designed a cycle that returns things to the earth- a cycle which is beautiful. We are also made this way beautiful and yet destined to return to the earth. Curiosity continues to ask, “What is my part in this? Does this work honor or dishonor His work?” I’m not sure I can answer that just yet, so I will keep on following my curiosity.

Remembering Robert Mattson: Paintings and Prints

This exhibition features a small selection of the work by artistic giant Robert Mattson, who created paintings and prints throughout four decades of his life.

In addition to his prolific skills as a painter and printmaker, Robert also touched the lives of thousands of students during his 28-year teaching career at Ridgewater College in Willmar, Minnesota.

Robert passed away on May 15th, 2024. Robert’s wife, Marjorie Nilssen, has curated this exhibition of large-scale paintings and prints to share his mastery.

Robert exhibited at the Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Walker Art Museum in the 1960s. Robert also showed his work in NYC and across the Midwest throughout his artistic career.

“I believe that paintings and the aesthetic experiences we have as a result of our encounters with them ought to be beautiful I believe that paintings ought to fill us with a sense of awe and mystery”  – Robert Mattson, 2010