Art and Geography

Last Friday, September 9th there was another wonderful art opening at Minnesota’s finest art gallery, Groveland . Now in the interest of journalistic ethics –and yes, yes I know this is a blog and there are no journalistic ethics- I must admit to a conflict of interest. Sally Johnson, the brilliant directory of the gallery, is my significant other.
In the current show two very different artists, styles and forms are being exhibited but it is not hard to find a unifying theme. Both artists have a well-developed sense of the earth’ features but opt for playing with and inventing their own geography. Jeanne McGee’s work, which is on display in the gallery’s annex, is strikingly original (one of my measures for genius) and it is stunningly beautiful. She has taken maps, shredded them, woven them back together, and painted imaginary geographic features on these now newly imaginary places. Mark Horton’s show, titled “Metropolis”, has a more traditional feel than McGee’s. His urban geography in oil is intended to evoke a feeling of place rather than document an actual city. His romantic renderings of downtown scenes makes you either proud to be a city dweller or wonder what you are missing that the artist is seeing (another sign of genius).
The show is up ‘til October 14th. Don’t miss it.
ps: I know what you were thinking when you saw the photo above. Yes it also reminded me of the classic novel "Grandpa and the Girls" by that great man of letters, Louis M. Heyward.