Beacons of Hope exhibition opening at Concordia University-St. Paul

Solo exhibition by Anne Labovitz

NORTHERN, MINNESOTA  ~~~~~~  September 16, 2021  (LSNews)  I am pleased to announce the opening of my latest exhibition, Beacons of Hope curated by Dr. Megan Arney Johnston at Concordia University-St. Paul.  The site-specific works center on the conceptual and gestural elements of hope.
 

Beacons of Hope opens Thursday, September 16th from 5-7pm with an artist talk at 5:30.  Please join me.  If you're unable to attend, the artist talk will be recorded and shared at a later date, and the works will be on view through October 13th.

In Beacons of Hope Labovitz presents sculpture, installation, and participatory works that center on the conceptual and gestural elements of hope. Instead of considering these responses as altruistic, we could see them as expressions of humanity’s entanglement with the notion of hope and its generative promises for the future. The concept of hope is not ephemeral or whimsical, nor pedantic or simple, but a considered and serious response to the contemporary condition. Hope facilitates human and creative agency. Labovitz asks the viewer to engage and reimagine — through hope.
In addition to the exhibition of sculptures and installations created specifically for Concordia Art Gallery, Labovitz also worked with students as an artist-in-residence. Part of this response is co-creation with others, as we hope for our future. Together Labovitz and students created just some of the 6” by 6” squares in the exhibit. Others will be created as part of an on-going exhibition engagement. The small paintings represent the audience and Labovitz’s connection. We welcome everyone into the exhibition through this co-creation participation within the gallery. Hopefully, when viewing the work, gallery-goers can see themselves as part of a larger, holistic community at Concordia University, St. Paul and beyond.

Anne Labovitz (b. Duluth) lives and works in St. Paul, MN. Recent projects include two permanent public mosaic artworks at the MSP Airport, February 2021 as well as 122 Conversations currently installed in MSP airport Terminal 2 from 2019 – 2023; an artist-in-residency at Concordia University, St. Paul; Turn Up the Turn Out — a cohort of 22 artists dedicated to the promotion of voting and voting registration in Minnesota (2020); an outdoor fence installationin Berlin, Germany (2021); a public art commission at the Redleaf Center For Family Healing, a site- specific participatory work (2021); the I Love You Institute, a community-based art project supported by a Springboard for the Arts community grant (2020); Artist in Residence with exhibition at Art In Motion, in Holdingford, MN (2020 – 2021) and Response, a solo show at Burnet Fine Art. Her current long-term social practice project is the I Love You Institute, an artist-led site-specific project urgently working with communities to address today’s world creatively. It combines art-making, social justice, radical kindness, and relational listening to normalize, saying “I Love You” as an alternative to division and conflict. Lavovitz is presenting her I Love You Institute as part of her artist-in-residency at Festival Unbound, Bethlehem, PA in Fall 2021.

Her upcoming projects include solo shows atthe Minnesota Marine Art Museum, Winona (Fall 2022) and Rochester Art Center (Spring 2023). Notable exhibitions include University of Raparin, Rania, Iraqi Kurdistan; Växjö Kunsthall, Växjö, Sweden; Petrozavodsk City Exhibition Hall, Petrozavodsk, Russia; Isumi City Hall, Isumi City, Japan; Thunder Bay Art Gallery, Thunder Bay, Canada; Tweed Museum, Duluth, MN; Athenaeum in La Jolla, CA; Crary Art Gallery, Warren, PA; Burnet Gallery, Le Méridien Chambers in Minneapolis; Talgut die Schönen, in Kunste, Germany; Chapman Art Center at Cazenovia College, Cazenovia, New York; to name a few. Labovitz’s artwork can be found in the many local, national, and international public and private collections.

Anne Labovitz – Artist Statement

In conjunction with the exhibition at Concordia, I have been working with Concordia students to create Hope Wall I and II in the gallery as part of my artist-in-residence.

There is a publication with an essay by Dr. Megan Arney Johnston, and images will be available at the opening

Northern Minnesota
Duluth, St. Louis County, Lake County, Two Harbors, Silver Bay, Cook County, Grand Marais, Grand Portage, Minneapolis, St Paul, Minnesota 

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