Exhibit season opens at ArtStart
Rhinelander ArtStart will open the 2017 season March 16, with exhibitions featuring works by surrealist painter Sofia Arnold and fabric art works by Phyllis Fredendall. The exhibitions will run through May 13.
An opening artist reception, featuring an artist talk by Fredendall, will formally open the season March 18. The reception from 5-7 p.m. includes complimentary appetizers and a cash bar. Admission is free.
The Paintings of Sofia Arnold will feature all-new works by the Tennessee-based artist as the bulk of her work was destroyed in a studio fire last fall. Her work is described as “fantastical” and autobiographical of her personal high and low points over the past few years.
“I work quickly and automatically with a wet-on-wet technique in order to loosen and blur the normal boundary between figures and their environments,” she said.
A native of rural southwestern Wisconsin, Arnold studied painting at the University of Wisconsin-Madison under Fred Stonehouse and T.L. Solien.
Fredendall’s exhibit, Mapping Memory, features works in wool and silk felting. She resides in Hancock, Mich., where she is professor of Fiber and Fashion Design at Finlandia University’s International School of Art and Design. Many of her current works are inspired by the Quincy Mine whose shafts run nearly two miles under her home.
“The unique properties of wool have kept my attention since I learned hands-on felt-making techniques years ago in Finland,” Arnold said, “But it was on Isle Royale when I realized that I could use this great medium to chart the paths of humans and animals that so fascinated me.”
Rhinelander ArtStart is located at 68 S. Stevens St. in downtown Rhinelander. Gallery hours are Thursday through Saturday from 11a.m. to 5 p.m. Information on this and other ArtStart programs is available at ArtStartRhinelander.org.
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