At left, Warflower-Roll n' Rip, 1997, by Jerry Rudquist; acrylic on canvas, 40 x 30". At right, Murmuration (detail), 2024, by Monica Rudquist, MFA; ceramic installation, 9 x 102.
West and East Galleries
Exhibition Dates and Events:
February 1March 16, 2025
Opening Reception: Saturday, February 1, 57 p.m.
Artist Talk: Wednesday, March 5, 6:30 p.m.
Screening + Panel Discussion The Painted Eye: March 12, 6:30 p.m.
Join the gallery for a screening of , a short film by Mike Hazard that documents Jerry Rudquists painting process. Following the five-minute film, Monica Rudquist, Sally Johnson (senior consultant for and former director of Groveland Gallery), and Mary Abbe (former art critic for the Star Tribune) will be in discussion about Jerry Rudquists career and legacy.
For more information about the exhibition, visit . All events are free and open to the public. For ASL interpretation or other accommodations, please contact nmwatson@stkate.edu at least one week in advance.
Monica Rudquist, MFA (Photo by Rebecca Zenefski Slater 10)
is pleased to present an upcoming exhibition by St. 做厙輦⑹ associate professor and Minnesota ceramic artist Monica Rudquist, MFA, which features paintings by her late father, Jerry Rudquist (19342001). A member of the Northern Clay Center, Rudquist has taught art classes at St. Kates since 2008 and is now co-president of Minnesota Women Ceramic Artists. For several years she has coordinated , in which students create clay bowls to raise funds for food insecurity in the Twin Cities.
In her exhibition Reflections and Conversations, Rudquist is both artist and curator, assembling a show highlighting the visual connections between her clay work and her dads mark making. At the same time, Rudquist is contemplating her recent sabbatical, as well as her upcoming retirement from teaching and her return to full-time studio practice. This transition in Rudquists life led her to revisit the art and archive of her father Jerry, who modeled life as a teaching artist. In addition to an active studio practice, he taught painting at Macalester College for 45 years. Noting compositional resemblances in their work, Rudquist writes:
... I discovered a series of conversations between our artworks. Similarities, or moments of alignment, in the ways we approach form and space; our tendency to work within a series, utilizing abstraction and surface texture.
For this exhibition, Rudquist will debut an immersive sculpture titled Murmuration. Installed on all four walls of the west gallery, the piece interacts with two of Jerrys painting series Must We Always Expect War and Warflowers. Taken together, these artworks heighten the dialogue between two-dimensional and three-dimensional abstract forms, transforming the space into a collaborative art installation. The east gallery will highlight Rudquists functional work and wall installations paired with Jerrys Head and Figure, Gemini and Window paintings. These vignettes emphasize the formal dialogue Rudquist sees between their work, inviting viewers to witness the harmony in the lines, structures and shapes of the artworks.
Accompanying student-curated exhibition
Heads: Reintroducing the Work of Jerry Rudquist, will also be on view in the Second Floor Gallery. St. Kates student and curator Sophia Gibson 25 explains her intent:
Heads expands on the themes explored in Reflections and Conversations, and shifts focus from Rudquists abstract compositions to his representational depictions of the human head. ... In addition to the display and discussion of Rudquists portraits, Heads includes archival materials from the artists studio and content from oral history interviews with his daughters. Gibson's exhibition explores the similarities and differences in Jerrys head studies and self-portraits.
Rudquist and Gibson will be present at the opening reception on Saturday, February 1, 57 p.m. For more information, visit .