January 16 – April 6, 2024
2023 McKnight Fiber Artist Fellowship Exhibition
Opening reception: Tuesday, January 30, 5 – 6 pm
Open Work, Marjorie Fedyszyn
Joan Mondale Gallery
There has been a dramatic shift in my being. Open Work emerges from a place of resolve and acceptance, a place so new and unfamiliar its true meaning has yet to reveal itself. For years my focus turned toward human experiences such as loss, mental illness, and abuse as they pertain to my life experience. It wasn’t until I began processing personal traumas through my art that I was able to reach the deepest residual pain of my past and discharge it through my hands. I find the physical and meditative act of making art an emotional release. However, the burden of heavy past themes held my attention. Recently new feelings and emotions are emerging. Having alleviated much of the burden of my trauma, I now have the capacity for happier thoughts.
The nine months spent wrangling rope and forming paper in the studio creating elements for Open Work was joyful and gratifying. This new work comes from a place of lightness and ease. I sense a new foundation or inner structure, a sense of secure and confident stability within me unlike anything I have experienced. I interpret this work as a new beginning, the precipice of a unique time.
Textile Center has been a generous place of nurturing acceptance from my inception as a fiber artist over a decade ago. Hundreds of people have helped to make me a better artist, educator, and person over the years. I am grateful for the remarkable amount of love and support I experience each time I enter the building. Thank you all, past, present, and future for your unfaltering benevolence. It has been a pivotal year in my career thanks to the McKnight Foundation. I am grateful for the extraordinary gift of experience through workshops, travel, conferences, and unrestricted time in the studio over the fellowship year. Of course I could not have accomplished a fraction of this work without the steady encouragement and care of my friends and family. Many heartfelt thanks to you all.
Blanket Teachings, Delina White
Mary Giles Gallery
+ Mini runway show during Great Northern/Art Speaks presentation- January 30, 6:30 pm
Delina White is a Native apparel designer, beadwork artist, and enrolled member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. Grounded in the traditional designs of the Great Lakes Woodland Anishinaabeg, her artist-designed fabrics utilize contemporary materials in her wearable works. As an intergenerational, cultural knowledge keeper, White communicates the values and beliefs of the original people of the Great Lakes Woodlands as passed from her grandmother and her grandmother before her, using apparel as a catalyst to wider approaches of learning, research, and creative exploration with her community. She has produced and participated in numerous fashion shows including Northern Lights: A Native Nation Fashion Night in Minneapolis, the SW Association of Indian Arts fashion shows, and Walker Art Center’s 2Spirit Fashion Show. White was recognized as one of six Star Tribune 2019 Artists of the Year for her work with Hearts of Our People, Minneapolis Institute of Arts’ landmark exhibition, and was named a 2020 Artist in Business Leadership Fellow by the First Peoples Fund. She has also been recipient of a Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship and a US Artists Fellowship in Traditional Arts.
Founded on the belief that Minnesota thrives when its artists and culture bearers thrive, the McKnight Foundation’s arts and culture program is one of the oldest and largest of its kind in the country. Support for individual working Minnesota artists and culture bearers has been a cornerstone of the program since it began in 1982. The McKnight Artist & Culture Bearer Fellowships Program provides annual, unrestricted cash awards to outstanding mid-career Minnesota artists in 15 different creative disciplines. Program partner organizations administer the fellowships and structure them to respond to the unique challenges of different disciplines. Currently, the foundation contributes about $2.8 million per year to its statewide fellowships. For more information, visit mcknight.org/artistfellowships.
