Main Gallery :Thomas Rose, Photographs and Sculptures

Annex Gallery :Neil Welliver, Prints

Back Gallery :Wade Hoefer, Landscape paintings

Flanders Contemporary Art is very pleased to announce our next three featured exhibitions, all opening with a reception Friday, December 8th from 6-9 p.m. On view will be the recent photographs of Thomas Rose, the prints of Neil Welliver and the paintings of Wade Hoefer.

In our main space we will be exhibiting the recent works of Minneapolis based artist Thomas Rose. Rose who by day is a professor at the University of Minnesota, has created a stunning body of images. Utilizing a digital camera to capture scenes of urban landscape, the images are then saved on a computer, and printed using an electrostatic printing method. The finished e-print is then mounted onto loose canvas. Occasionally he adds line work or mixed media, further adding to the haunting sense of mystery embedded in his images.

Drawing from a background in architecture, his stark images of buildings and structures create dialogues with form and space, and our role as humans in the landscape we surround ourselves in. Rose will also being showing a sampling of his sandblasted granite floor sculptures that when placed throughout the gallery will offer the viewer a unique dialogue between the two mediums.

In our annex space we will be presenting the prints of Neil Welliver. Welliver, has been printing for well over 30 years, and chooses to work with four of the traditional processes-woodcut, screenprinting, lithography and etching. Each method produces a specific graphic quality, which he uses to recreate the Maine landscape, that has been his home for over 25 years. Combining a painterly approach to printing, his images at once can have smooth, dark, rigid lines; soft floating earthy color and organic patterns that work in harmony to breathe life into his prints. His favorite motifs are trees, water (and its reflection), the figure, flora and fauna, which have served him well in the production of close to100 master prints.

In our back gallery, we will be featuring the paintings of Wade Hoefer. This series of work was intensely created after moving with his family from Northern California to the Baix Emporda, a coastal region of Spain, known for its history, culture and beauty. Having worked as a landscape designer, and possessing an extensive knowledge of botany, it would at first seem logical for his works to be heavily realistic, and based from life, this is not the case with Hoefer. Painted completely from memory, the inner image, the luminosos as he states, are meant as windows of inner travel and truth for the viewer. Freed from any references or symbols to man and his influences, he creates a portal for inner discovery. The outer edge of soft veiled imagery, works to create a hazy line between abstraction and reality, and gives the viewer a formal framework for the luminosos. His work is not about documenting and recording, but to step away from tradition, and further create "the alliance between poetry and painting."

The Friday December 8th opening is in conjunction with Kellie Rae Theiss' opening of new landscape paintings by Theresa Handy.

All exhibits run through January 31, 2001.

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. To request further information or visuals, please contact Christopher or Doug at 612-344-1700. or via e-mail at <art@flanders-art.com>.