zoe cinel - Walk With Us: International Juried Exhibition

Curators: John Schuerman and Zoe Cinel

Walk With Us is an international, walking-based art exhibition in which fifteen artists share their discoveries and artistic extrapolations from the social, physical, and psychic landscapes they explored while walking. This exhibition is presented in the non-gallery spaces (hallways, elevators, alcoves, etc.) of the Art Center to reflect both the wandering, wayfinding, and exploratory nature of walking-based art, and the shifting terrain covered by the artists.

Curatorial Statement

Walking possesses an attractive duality. It is a multi-sensory experience that unites us with our physical environment, and it opens space for personal reflection, day-dreaming, and other forms of creative thought. Together, these two phenomena breed opportunities for discovery, both great and small. While German philosopher Nietzsche formulated his core ideas while walking, any of us might notice a remarkable pattern in tree bark. In effect, walking enables (but does not require) us to become extra-perceptive observers of the world around us and/or of our own thinking and feeling.

In this exhibit fifteen artists share their discoveries and artistic extrapolations from the social, physical, and psychic landscapes they explored while walking. As you peruse the exhibition spaces you might consider the artwork through this social/physical/psychic lens: is there a social dimension to this project? What was discovered about the physical territory? Was there a ‘state of mind’ the artist was after?

In some of the artwork, walking is like a paintbrush -just a tool used to create artwork. But in many cases the walk itself is integral to the art form and is crucially present. Let’s be clear though, not every walk is art. Art can be many things, but it requires artistic intention and alteration that raise questions and/or associations for an audience. The Walk With Us artists have mined the spirit of walking to create perceptive takes on reality. You will find cairns made of pollution, a fine art book of detritus imagery from long, boring walks, walking social experiments, and installations documenting spaces lost but for memory.

We chose to present this exhibition in the non-gallery spaces (hallways, elevators, alcoves, etc.) of the Art Center to reflect both the wandering, wayfinding, and exploratory nature of walking-based art, and the shifting terrain covered by the artists. There are artworks on all three floors of the Art Center. Please use the provided map to locate each artwork. When you finish your tour of the show we encourage you to wander outside to consider the ideas that arise for your own creative time.

Enjoy your walk.

Awardees: Olle Helin, $500, Nicholas Bauch, $300, Yumi Roth, $200.

John Schuerman is an environmental artist and independent curator. His artwork reflects his deep interest in nature both human and nonhuman. His aesthetic style and social consciousness formed as he grew up on a dairy farm in southern Wisconsin. His primary art practices are Walking and Drawing, which he uses to examine his community’s physical and psychic landscapes. As a curator he’s produced over 30 exhibitions across the Midwest on topics that address current concerns in our collective psyche.

Yiannia Pappas and Jess Witte

Sage Dawson and Abbey Paccia

Abbey Paccia

Sage Dawson and Abbey Paccia

Sage Dawson

Presley Martin, Cairn #3

Presley Martin, Cairn #1

Presley Martin, Cairn #2

Alonso Pantoja

Nicholas Bauch

Olle Helin, Colour Charts

Anastasia Polychronidou

Ben Moren

Yumi Roth, Meta Mapa

Ellen Mueller

Sarah Nassif

Meaghan Marshpine

Modelab, Ghost Walker

Documentation by Kali Morrison

Programs related to the exhibition

Virtual Panel Discussion with "Walk With Us" Artists

Enjoy this recording of a virtual panel discussion with the international artists participating in the exhibition "Walk With Us" on December 4th at 11.30am, CT. Artists Anastasia Polychronidou (Greece), Modelab (Mexico), Olle Helin (Sweden), Yiannis Pappas (Germany) share about their artistic process and their relationship with the art of walking.

Virtual Book Club: Unstillness by John Schuerman

Unstillness is a book by artist John Schuerman of quiet walks through the chaotic year from spring of 2020 to spring of 2021. As we were changing for better and worse, Schuerman walked, observed, and reported back. Unstillness is a reflective chronicle of self in society and nature, through drawings, photos, and text. The book documents 22 walks that examine the social upheavals in Minneapolis (and beyond), the loss of socialization caused by the pandemic, the effects of experiencing nature from within the grid of the Twin Cities, and the author’s individual life in relation to these vast domains. These are walks of reckoning and as such provide few answers, but rather bring us face to face with the possibilities for progress, stasis, or collective failure on deep issues such as climate change, racism, the pandemic, and fascism on the rise.

Walk With An Artist: The Heron’s Hunt by Jessalyn Finch

Mayo Park East, Thursday, August 25th, 7:00 – 8:30 PM

Walk with Jessalyn Finch to follow the great blue heron as it stalks the river’s fish and the fish dance to evade the heron. These living sculptures will roam the park along Bear Creek as the artist takes you through the creative process and story behind this immersive performance.About the artist:Jessalyn Finch has been a visual artist off and on starting in 2009. She received a B.S. in Fine Art and Eastern Philosophy from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse focused on Printmaking and Figure Drawing. After graduation in 2012, she decided not to pursue art professionally until 2018, when she was awarded a SEMAC Emerging Artist grant for her collection “Shadow Form: The Human Body’s Secret Life.”She is currently an Artist Member at Threshold arts where she sells prints, woodcuts, and postcards. She continues her multi-disciplinary approach to explore crossing mediums, performance, surrealism, fashion, and the human condition, at her home studio in Rochester, MN.