Red Wing – Art and War: A Conversation

Join the Minnesota Humanities Center and Anderson Center for a moderated conversation with artists who either focus on the representation of war and armed conflict in their art, or who have created art that addressed these subjects. Artists will discuss their creative output, what it means to interpret experiences of warfare, what happens in the act of interpretation and artistic creation, and what the viewing public can learn from interaction with and communal discussion of these works.

About the Artists
Mary Horgan is an artist and retired Staff Sergeant (U.S. Army). Among multiple activations, she served in the Iraq War in 2006. Horgan’s art confronts the harsh realities of war and the honorable pursuit of peace for all. Since retiring, art has become her tool for healing, peace, and resistance. Horgan’s work includes the memorial to women Veterans, “You Will Not Erase Us,” commissioned by the City of Ramsey in Minnesota. She also creates a range of two and three-dimensional art pieces that explore themes of conflict, survival, resistance, nature, beauty, and truth-telling.

Besides her artistic work, Horgan is a mother and grandmother, and caretaker of animals and gardens. She is passionate about our nation’s democracy and creates work rooted in justice, resilience, and deep personal truth and recovery.

Justin Newhall is an American artist currently based in Minneapolis. His work has been exhibited at Museum of Contemporary Photography (Chicago), Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), Royal Academy of Arts (London), Galerie Lichtblick (Cologne), Museum of Art at Rhode Island School of Design (Providence), Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, and Jen Bekman Gallery (New York), among others.

Newhall is the recipient of artist fellowships from the McKnight Foundation, Minnesota State Arts Board, and Jerome Foundation. His work is represented in public and private collections, including the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Walker Art Center, and George Eastman House (New York).

Megan Rye is a visual artist and teacher. She was born in Seoul, South Korea in 1975, and currently lives in Minneapolis. Through paintings, drawings, photography, and artists books, Rye uses visual storytelling to explore themes of migration, citizenship, remembrance, war, and democracy. Rye’s first significant body of work, “I Will Follow You Into the Dark,” was a series of paintings based on photographs Rye’s brother took while serving in Iraq. This project debuted at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (2007), and was Rye’s first solo exhibit in New York City at Forum Gallery (2011). The aftermath of the Iraq War continues to reverberate, and the paintings have been studied and exhibited widely, including a recent exhibition at the Kunsthalle Emden (Germany).

Rye’s work has been sustained by significant support from the Bush Foundation, McKnight Foundation, Jerome Foundation, and the Minnesota State Arts Board.

About the Moderator
Monica Moses Haller is an artist whose work spans photography, writing, sound, and focuses on personal details that explore violence and possibilities within social and environmental systems. She has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, McKnight Foundation, Jerome Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts, among others. Moses Haller has exhibited and lectured at locations including Centre Pompidou, Paris; the Leipziger Baumwollspinnerei, Leipzig; and the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Her artist books are collected by intuitions ranging from the Tate Modern, London, to MOMA, New York. Moses Haller works internationally and is based in her hometown of Minneapolis, where she is an associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Department of Art.

This program is presented in partnership with Anderson Center at Tower View, a Red Wing-based arts and humanities organization that celebrates the imagination and support the development of new arts and ideas through residencies, studios, and public engagement.

Registration

This event is free to attend. Registration is encouraged. Light refreshments will be served at the event.

Registration Questions: registrations@mnhum.org

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