OCTOBER 2 - NOVEMBER 3 IN GALLERY II

AMANDA EL-DWEEK

in GALLERY II

“Garage Sale” seems like a weird title for an art show, does it not?

When I was in art school at the University of North Dakota, there was varying advice about how to curate one’s art show, specifically one’s B.F.A. Show, which was a student’s “final” in Visual Arts. One professor had a rather inimitable way of describing what not to do: “Don’t make it look like you’re having a garage sale.”

And by that he meant, do not have a hodge-podge of different styles, themes, or mediums. It should be somewhat homogenized; it should be cohesive since it’s the final summation of your work for the past four (or so) years, the pinnacle of your area of study. It should not look like ten people and their ten different styles came together to sell their possessions.

“Don’t make it look like you’re having a garage sale.”

That’s been rattling around in my mind for the last 20+ years. I understood what they meant, and I still think it is good advice. It informed my own B.F.A. show, meaning, I did the opposite of that advice.

My argument for this is: I was a kid at that time, and I spent my years there figuring out what I liked, what worked, what clicked, and what I was not good at. Meanwhile, I was making my way in the world; I was aging, learning, working, and figuring things out. So I never really had one theme. I had many.

Now that I am older, I have realized that I kind of am ten different people with ten different styles. I have many interests and I do not want to choose just one.

I want to have a garage sale. 

OCTOBER 2 - NOVEMBER 3 IN GALLERY I

ARVIN DAVIS, JR

in GALLERY I

Arvin Davis Jr. uses bright colors, strong brush strokes, detailed line work, and splatters, WHICHEVER technique is required to obtain work with a strong compositional and chromatic rigor; it’s a contained chaos. he is a multifaceted illustrator and fine artist. He'll collaborate with his kids, ANother artist, or work alone.  Suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, art allows him to process the emotions, traumas, and self-created pressures, thus becoming a real therapeutic path aimed at understanding himself and his feelings. Self-taught  in mixed media: watercolors, inks, graphite, fluid acrylics, and standard acrylics. 

SEPTEMBER 5 - 29 IN BOTH GALLERIES

nd HUMAN RIGHTS ARTS FESTIVAL

in BOTH GALLERIES

The North Dakota Human Rights Film and Arts Festival’s mission is to educate, engage, and facilitate discussion around local and worldwide human rights topics. The festival was founded and is managed by The Human Family, a non-partisan 501(c)(3) based in North Dakota founded to change our communities through art.

The North Dakota Human Rights Film and Arts Festival returns for 2023. The festival opened in January 2023 in Fargo, North Dakota, at the Plains Art Museum and concludes in January 2024 in Jamestown, North Dakota, at The Arts Center. The statewide festival features a traveling art exhibition and film festival. A full calendar of events is available online. Each artist explores human rights, civil rights, or social justice issues through their respective mediums.

The 2023 North Dakota Human Rights Film and Arts Festival is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. The festival’s public art project is supported by the Arts Midwest GIG Fund, a program of Arts Midwest that is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional contributions from the North Dakota Council on the Arts.

Institutonal support of The Human Family is provided in part by a grant from the North Dakota Council on the Arts, which receives funding from the state legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts, and The Arts Partnership, with support from the cities of Fargo, Moorhead, and West Fargo.

JULY 31 - SEPTEMBER 1 IN GALLERY I

Photo by Sabrina Ramey

SABRINA RAMEY

in Gallery I

MADE OF PRAIRIE

Sabrina has lived in North Dakota since she was 19 and loves exploring county backroads and prairie trails with her dogs. She enjoys matching old maps with current landmarks and researching older buildings that are still standing out on the prairie. Occasionally she can even talk her husband or son into coming along with her; they are always supportive of her passion in many other ways. The guys accept endless deliveries of large canvases in the mail and tolerate stacks of canvases and equipment in the dining room without complaint.

Sabrina’s photos have been used for a variety of projects like book covers, calendars, post cards, Christmas ornaments and even a few embroidery patterns, but she likes displaying her favorite images on large format canvases or acrylic the most. You can see a little more of her work on her Made of Prairie Facebook page.