FERGUS FALLS, Minnesota – Ambiguity is a common theme in the work of Battle Lake artist Kristi Kuder, and her latest exhibition, opening Jan. 9 at the Waage Gallery on M State’s Fergus Falls campus, explores it continue with this topic.
The exhibition is titled “Delicious Ambiguity,” which Kuder says was inspired by a phrase by the late comedian Gilda Radner: “I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned the hard way that some poems don’t rhyme and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle or end. Life is about not knowing, needing to change, seizing the moment and making the most of it, not knowing what will happen next. Delicious ambiguity.”
Primarily a print, fiber and wire artist, Kuder uses a variety of materials to express how ambiguity shapes people’s lives. For her wire sculptures, she treats wire mesh like fabric and wire like thread to sew, knit and felt various shapes – sometimes using eyebrow tweezers to deconstruct the wire mesh thread by thread.
Delicious Ambiguity features several of Kuder’s wire sculptures, along with some of her paintings, about a dozen cyanotype prints, and a series of encaustic monoprints. The exhibition can be seen until February 28th.
“My interest as a maker focuses on the ambiguous aspects of our daily lives,” says Kuder. “In a world where boundaries are blurred, facts are distorted, and presence and absence are intertwined, I am compelled to explore the emotional core of this meaning.”
“Lately,” she adds, “I’ve been looking at ambiguity through the lens of ambiguous loss; a grief that occurs when both the presence and absence of a loved one coexist. Conditions like mental illness, immigration, war, divorce, Alzheimer’s and the pandemic are difficult to understand and have become ubiquitous and very relevant.”
Kuder’s work has been featured in over 50 solo and group exhibitions regionally, nationally and internationally and has been included in several publications including Surface Design Journal, Southwest Journal and others. She holds a bachelor’s degree in art education from Minnesota State University at Moorhead and is a graduate of the Women’s Art Institute at St. Catherine University.
A full-time artist, she maintains her studio near her home on Otter Tail Lake and is known locally not only for her artistic talents but also for her active involvement in local and national arts organizations. Kuder currently serves as Chairman of the Art of the Lakes Board of Directors and has also served as a grant panelist for the Minnesota State Arts Board. She was a featured artist at the Minnesota State Fair Studio in 2019 and has led occasional retreats and intensive workshops on making art in recent years.
She is a McKnight Fellow of the Lake Region Arts Council and a two-time recipient of an Artist Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board.
For more information about Kuder, visit their website kskuder.com.
An artist reception with Kuder will be held Thursday, January 26 from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. at Legacy Hall on the M State Fergus Falls campus. Free and open to all, it will be a co-reception with Ashley Kunz, the artist behind a separate exhibition also opening on campus January 9 at the Charles Beck Gallery.
Both the Charles Beck and Libra galleries are free and open to the public Monday through Friday from 8am to 5pm.
A member of the Minnesota system of colleges and universities, M State offers credit courses in over 70 career and liberal arts programs to more than 7,000 students each year online and at its Detroit Lakes, Fergus Falls, Moorhead and Wadena campuses. Through partnerships with communities, the college also offers staff development services and other engaging training programs.
Press release and photo provided by Minnesota State Community and Technical College
