90º South: Chris Willcox

Chris Willcox, who teaches painting at Macalester College in St. Paul, first became interested in the history of Antarctica after reading about the Antarctic Treaty of 1961, in which the continent was set aside as a scientific preserve. Inspired by Herbert Ponting’s documentary photographs that he took during Robert Falcon Scott’s 1910-13 expedition, Willcox creates painterly pastiches that capture the beautifully bleak frozen landscape. She also includes some fascinating psychological group portraits of these Heroic Age explorers.

Download the exhibition brochure of Chris Willcox’s 90º degrees (pdf)

Standards: Mark Ostapchuk

Ostapchuk, an adjunct lecturer at the University of Minnesota, has been making large, abstract oil paintings for many years. He combines a frenetic color palette with controlled compositions, thin glazes with textured and burnished layers of paint. Ostapchuk calls this new suite of paintings Standards, in order to link his project as a painter to his knowledge of music, especially jazz. The paintings repeat tones and add improvisational flourishes.

Download the exhibition brochure of Mark Ostapchuk’s Standards (pdf)

Generous support for the Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program is provided by The McKnight Foundation and Jerome Foundation.