Don Holzschuh, Louisa Matthiasdottir, Hugh Margerum

Flanders Contemporary Art is pleased to announce the opening of new exhibitions in July, collectively exemplifying the distinct styles and conceptions of three pre-eminent contemporary painters. Art works from Louisa Matthiasdottir, Hugh Margerum, and Don Holzschuh will be displayed in separate gallery spaces. The exhibition will include representations of several genres, including landscapes, still-lifes, and abstracts.

Twin Cities artist Don Holzschuh's formidable reputation as a location painter stems in large part from a defiantly grounded and honest approach to art, and the process of creating art. Often completed in a single session, Holzschuh's spontaneous paintings are readily available to the viewer; the images do not contain thinly veiled agendas or pretentious ironies. Instead, Holzschuh's aesthetic functions at an unabashedly basic and sincere level, providing ample doses of that element of the art viewing experience that is often lost in the contemporary fray: the potential for escape into a beautiful place. Holzschuh is proud that his paintings "look good on walls." And therein lies the profound legitimacy of the artist's devotion, the remarkable integrity of his work.

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IOver the course of her career as a painter of landscapes, still-lifes, and portraits, Louisa Matthiasdottir evolved into one of the brightest artistic lights of the American post-war period. Born in Iceland in 1917, Matthiasdottir's intrepid use of ravishing palettes and sharp geometry enabled her to convey themes of deep implication and immense scope, from the intimacy of maternal relationships to the yearnings for socio-political independence that plagued her native land. Matthiasdottir's work far transcends, however, any geographical or historical application; for the raw beauty and striking individuality of their realist form, these landscapes and portraits have lost nothing of the luster of their original innovation. They are as timeless and universally compelling today as they were prior to Matthiasdottir's death in 2000.

Inherent to the composition of Hugh Margerum's abstracts is a parallel between the artistic expressions of painting and poetry; gestural brushstrokes serve as allusions to the basic elements of the physical world: earth, sky and water. .

Ultimately, the body of work tracks the rhythmic interaction of natural forces in congruence with perceptible patterns of human existence. The paintings seek to effect a reconciliation of contradictory aspects of the human psyche by conveying what Margerum considers a "more primitive side, where the sensual, the intuitive, the emotional aspects of ourselves interact at least as equals with intellect."

The opening reception for these three artists is on Friday, July 12 from 6-9 PM. The exhibitions run through August 24, 2002. Flanders Contemporary Art is located at 400 North First Avenue, first floor in the Wyman Building. Gallery hours are 10 to 5 Tuesday through Saturday, and by appointment. FFI: Contact Doug Flanders or Tasha Kubesh at 612-344-1700 or by email at <art@flanders-art.com>.