Works by M State art instructors featured in dual exhibition at the Beck Gallery
Original artwork by M State Visual Arts faculty members John Charles Cox and Lori Charest will be on exhibit in the Charles Beck Gallery, on the college’s Fergus Falls campus, from October 21 through January 10.
Cox will be showing a collection of mixed media drawings and prints that explore social connections, while Charest will be showing a collection of stoneware pottery that highlights her creative experimentations with ceramics.
Charest has been the ceramics instructor at M State since 2003. A graduate of the University of North Dakota, where she studied ceramics and fibers, she and her husband have owned The Potter Daughter pottery store and studio, on Otter Tail Lake, for the past 41 years.
Charest knew from a young age that she was destined to become a potter, when she realized she still enjoyed playing in the mud “long past the age when most people are done making mud pies,” she says. She loves the feel of clay in her hand as she uses her potter’s wheel to form it into something both beautiful and useful.
“Growing up in a very practical, Scandinavian family that encouraged and nurtured creativity, making functional pottery makes sense to me,” Charest writes in her artist statement. “I take great delight in hearing that someone reaches for a mug made by me to start their morning, or that Mom’s sweet potato pie, made in one of my baking pieces, is part of a family’s Thanksgiving tradition.”
Charest is the longtime coordinator of the annual Fergus Falls Empty Bowls event, has been involved in many local art projects at communities and schools, and has exhibited her artwork at her studio, art shows and gallery exhibits around the region.
Cox, a Visual Arts instructor at M State, was born in Duluth and has a Master of Fine Arts in Painting from the University of South Dakota. He has exhibited his work extensively over the past 10 years, participating in over 100 exhibitions across the globe, including shows in New York, Tuscany, Montreal, and cities in Scotland, Spain and Hong Kong, among many others.
In his collection of prints and drawings, “Amass/Sort/Adhere/Sever,” he uses marks, lines, shapes and measurements to create maps of social networks. The collection explores the processes and logistics behind building these networks, as well as people’s innate desire to connect with others.
“We sort family, friends, and acquaintances. We adhere ideologies, views, and labels to our social groups and ourselves. We sever relationships, links, and connections,” Cox writes in his artist statement. “I find something beautiful in the conglomeration and amalgamation of marks, lines, shapes and measurements…to create maps of connections.”
“These maps are ambiguous. They are hybrids. They can be stable or unstable. They are complex,” he adds. “But so are interactions between living beings, because as we evolve, so, too, do our connections… It is my hope that these works promote pause, wonder, and intrigue.”
The dual exhibition is free and open to the public during regular M State Fergus Falls campus hours. For more information about Fine Arts at M State, visit minnesota.edu/fine-arts.
