RIVER TO INFINITY-THE VANISHING POINTS: LANDSCAPES BY ANDREA STANISLAV

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LYNETTE NYMAN, MINNEAPOLIS INSTITUTE OF ARTS, (612) 870-3173; LNYMAN@ARTSMIA.ORG
ANNE-MARIE WAGENER, MINNEAPOLIS INSTITUTE OF ARTS, (612) 870-3280; AWAGENER@ARTSMIA.ORG

Print-quality Images Available Online: http://www.artsmia.org/press

RIVER TO INFINITY–THE VANISHING POINTS:
LANDSCAPES BY ANDRÉA STANISLAV

JANUARY 25—MARCH 16, 2008

Minneapolis, November 29, 2007– Twin Cities artist Andréa Stanislav addresses the contemporary effects of the 19th century belief of Manifest Destiny, environmental values, and the vanishing natural world in an exhibition opening January 25 at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. In River to Infinity-The Vanishing Points Stanislav creates a twenty-first century landscape through a series of reflective, mirrored landscape installations in which she both celebrates and questions contemporary experience. The exhibition is organized by the Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program (MAEP), an artists-run curatorial department at the MIA.

River to Infinity is an entirely reflective landscape created primarily out of mirrors. The multimedia installation includes video images of mirrored obelisks, which Stanislav created and previously set in the Great Salt Flats of Utah. Projected at both ends of the “river,” the videos keep the gallery space in constant motion. Visitors can enter an interactive environment saturated with reflections, sounds, and images–an experience made profoundly physical through perceptual manipulation. Stanislav describes her installations as “metaphysical journeys into contemporary science and culture, executed with both humor and a glam-rock aesthetic.”

River to Infinity is an end-stage celebration of the excesses of Western culture, in which Stanislav interprets the past, present, and future. In the adjacent gallery, photographs by Edward S. Curtis of Native Americans are transformed from their sepia tones into Warhol-like “ghost” portraits, printed on reflective surfaces. According to Stanislav, these images “formally re-contextualize Curtis’s subjects as celebrity icons, and comment ironically on their status as both the artifacts of Manifest Destiny and a reminder of an authentic culture that was its victim.” The mirrored river creates a never-ending vanishing point, suggesting the West is no longer enough.

One of the influences on Stanislav’s artwork is her experience working on Matthew Barney’s film Cremaster 3. Since 1990, her sculptures and multimedia installations have been exhibited locally and internationally, including site-specific installations at Franconia Sculpture Park, in Shafer, Minnesota; Wonkwang University, in Iksan, Korea; and Indiana University, in Bloomington, Indiana. Stanislav has a master of fine arts degree from Alfred University and a bachelor of fine arts degree from Art Institute of Chicago, she is currently an assistant professor of sculpture at the University of Minnesota.

An opening reception for this exhibition will be held Thursday, January 24, at 7 P.M. Stanislav will give an artist talk on Thursday, January 31, at 7 P.M. A Critics’ trialogue with Christopher Atkins will be presented on Thursday, February 21, 7 p.m. All events are free.

The Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program (MAEP) is made possible by a generous grant from the Jerome Foundation.
About the Minneapolis Institute of Art
The Minneapolis Institute of Art (MIA), home to one of the finest encyclopedic art collections in the country, houses more than 80,000 works of art representing 5,000 years of world history. Highlights of the permanent collection include European masterworks by Rembrandt, Poussin, and van Gogh; modern and contemporary painting and sculpture by Picasso, Matisse, Mondrian, Stella, and Close; as well as internationally significant collections of prints and drawings, decorative arts, Modernist design, photographs, and Asian, African, and Native American art. General admission is always free. Some special exhibitions have a nominal admission fee. Museum hours: Sunday, 11 A.M.-5 P.M.; Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, 10 A.M.-5 P.M.; Thursday, 10 A.M.-9 P.M.; Monday closed. For more information, call (612) 870-3131 or visit www.artsmia.org.
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