NAG Member show at St. Olaf
October 8, 2007
Art Guild member and local visual artist Riki Kölbl Nelson would like to inform the NAG community of the current three-person show she is participating in at St. Olaf. (The following description was written by fellow exhibiting artist Doug Bratland):
As a Minnesotan of mostly Norwegian descent, I’m not
altogether comfortable with self-promotion. Which is
why it’s taken me until now to write a story about the
three-person art show that’s on exhibit at St. Olaf
until Saturday. [Note: We've just been informed this
show will be extended until Thanksgiving.]
My twin brother, Don, and I and our friend Riki Kölbl
Nelson all graduated as art majors from St. Olaf in
1987. Riki, the one actual “working artist” among us,
organized an exhibition to concur with the celebration
of our 20th reunion, which was last weekend.
Read on for an illustrated description of the show….
Riki Kölbl Nelson is a poet and painter who has
exhibited her work locally, nationally and
internationally during the decades she’s lived in
Northfield. Her works are the most diverse of the
three exhibitors, featuring pieces mainly inspired by
St. Olaf’s memorial chime tower and wind turbine. Riki
is an Austrian native who worked on her undergraduate
art degree while her son was in high school. She has
additional degrees in English literature and an MFA in
painting.
Don Bratland’s work is a series of 26 black & white
photographs—each representing one letter of the
alphabet—depicting scenes from the landscape of his
rural life. He lives on a hobby farm in Nerstrand with
his family, a bunch of horses, a few cats, a dog, and
lots of breathing space. Don is co-owner of Holmes
Design in downtown Northfield and the art director of
the St. Olaf Magazine, but this is the first exhibition
of his photography since 1987.
In my own works I utilized various materials to
explore a single theme: rocks. Varying from real to
realistic to surrealistic, my pieces mix photographs
with sculptures rendered in clay, papier mache, wool
and packing tape. This is also my first full art
exhibition since college, but I’ve been making visual
art off and on since moving to Northfield in 2002. My
normal gig is working on websites, both as a long-time
volunteer with Northfield.org and as a recent addition
to Carleton’s web services group.
If you decide to stop up on campus to check out the
show, don’t get discouraged when you have trouble
finding the exhibition space. It’s not in the art
building, but in the student center, Buntrock Commons.
Head for the back wall and look for a pair of closed
doors to the left, near the cash machines; the show
hangs in the hallway leading to the telecom office.
You can email me [Doug Bratland -- dbratland(at)gmail.(dot)com]
for more detailed directions or additional information.
