A vicious beast? A gentle giant? Or is it an animal at all? Decide for yourself when you see “Delicate Beasts” an exhibition of new work by Christy Puetz & Ingrid Restemayer.
Dedicated to the use of methods and materials traditionally associated with craft, artists Christy Puetz and Ingrid Restemayer explore the boundaries and reconceive how craft materials are seen in the fine art world.
Christy Puetz’s recent sculptures are beautifully grotesque little creatures. Holding poses that seem frozen in time, each piece is covered with combinations of glass beads, felted wool, dried paint slabs, silk cocoons and other found elements. The materials and exaggerated body parts cause the animals to appear in a state of transformation, or shedding. Because of the “true to life” scale and the colorful, delicately beaded surfaces viewers are drawn in for a closer look.
Ingrid Restemayer’s latest works include gentle etchings of beastly animals like buffalo, elephants and octopi collaged and hand-embroidered. The etchings themselves are intimate studies of individual animals’ expressions and organic movements captured in a still, illustrated moment of individual personality. The images are small. Their size dictated by the etched substrate – discarded retail gift cards. Pairing the tiny portraits with spans of running stitches or French knots also brings each one of these studies to a place of gentle meditation.
This inaugural opening of “Delicate Beasts” takes place at the Northrup King Building in the heart of the vibrant Northeast Minneapolis Arts District.
