Durades Dialogue: Renée Stout & Hawona Sullivan Janzen

Renée Stout (American, born 1958) uses imagery from African traditions, popular culture, and personal politics to create images and objects in a variety of media. Stout confronts difficult realities in her personal life and attempts to better understand the human condition as well as reflecting on the relationship of African art to her practice. After a 15- 20 minute presentation showing examples of her most recent works, she will be joined by Hawona Sullivan Janzen for a dialogue addressing how this work has been cathartic for her as she ponders and addresses many of the difficult issues facing her community, our nation and the world in general at this time.

Renee Stout received her BFA from Carnegie Mellon University in 1980. Based in Washington, DC, she is the recipient of awards from the Joan Mitchell Foundation, The Pollock-Krasner Foundation and the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation. Stout has shown throughout the U.S. and her work is in several national and international museums.

Hawona Sullivan Janzen is the gallery curator and coordinator for the Witness Creative Writing Program at  the University of Minnesota’s Robert J.Jones Urban Research and Outreach-Engagement Center (UROC). Hawona has coordinated exhibits, creative writing classes, radio programming, and related events involving more than 100 artists and arts organizations on topics ranging from African-American storytelling, the aesthetics of beauty, the Cambodian refugee experience, and the role of collard greens in the “New Nature Manifesto” movement. In addition to her position at UROC, Janzen is a poet and volunteers her time with the African American Leadership Forum as the co-chair for the Ubuntu Council.

Co-presented with Obsidian.

$10, $5 MIA members, free for African Art and Contemporary Art Affinity Group members. To register, call (612) 870-6323 or reserve online.