Regional artists to host Saturday show in Fargo

Three artists with Jamestown and Valley City, N.D., connections will have their work featured in a show beginning next week in Fargo.

“Prairie Trifecta: Part Deux” will feature the work of Jessica Christy, Sabrina Hornung and Molly McLain from Nov. 10 to 30 at DK Custom Framing at Gallery 14, 14 Roberts St., Fargo. An exhibition opening will run from 5 to 8 p.m. Nov. 10. There is no admission charge.

Hornung is originally from Jamestown, Christy is the education coordinator at the Arts Center and McLain is the artist-in-residence at the Arts Center. The three artists connected at Valley City Junior High and later reunited through regional art events.

Christy explores how the digital world contributes to the dialogue of cultural appropriation. A series of mixed media feathers are accessioned separately, each representative of an aspect of this conversation. The interactive work provokes viewers to observe the aesthetic of the bright, pop-art based feathers, then read the accompanying story.

Christy is a native North Dakotan; born to two artists on the Sanger Art Farm, located at the northern edge of the Sheyenne River valley. She received her Bachelor of Arts from Valley City State University, and her Master of Fine Arts from the University of North Dakota. She has shown her work extensively both regionally and nationally. She is also working as an artist in her small studio in Valley City.

Hornung is currently residing in Fargo. She attended Minnesota State University Moorhead in pursuit of photography and plans to go back to school eventually. Hornung is currently active in many artistic endeavors throughout prairie; including founding the state’s first modern burlesque troop: BadWeather Burlesque.

Hornung’s North Dakota roots play a role in her artwork, her pieces are regional, and serve as an ode to the North Dakota prairie. Her mixed media transparencies utilize her photography background by providing a background for the collages she builds on top of them. She then makes a transparency of the image and paints on it with acrylic and spray paint.

McLain questions the role of industry on the prairie ecosystem. With this body of work, she plays with subtleties and her ties to a feeling of home and pride of place.

McLain graduated from Valley City State University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art in 2005. She draws inspiration from a sense of connection to nature in the art and music she makes. McLain performs and exhibits her art throughout North Dakota and Minnesota, and over the last two years has worked on large scale public mosaic installations in the Phillips-Powderhorn neighborhoods in Minneapolis and in downtown St. Paul, Minn.

Tags: diversions, arts