Reception Announced to Kick-Off Not Far from the Tree Exhibition

News

Bay College announces the opening reception, artist talk and demonstration for the exhibition, Not far from the Tree, by artist Julie Renee Benda. Please join us in the Besse Gallery on Thursday, September 20 at 2 p.m.

Julie Renee Benda is originally from the Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan. She earned her BA in both printmaking and biological studies at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point in 2011, and her MFA at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 2016. Using text, image and sculpture she works on projects that interact with and narrate shifting boundaries of land, water, people and plants. Currently, she lives and works in Minneapolis, MN.

Artist Statement: Influenced by my childhood in the rural Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan, a landscape still dominated by forest, I draw from a vocabulary of plants and trees to highlight parallels I see between nature and culture. Using text, image, and visual metaphor I prod at the similarities and tensions between humans and the natural resources that sustain them, often returning to themes of dislocation, changes in habitat and power imbalances that shape access to land.

The exhibition of her work can be viewed from August 27 - October 25, 2018 and the Opening Reception, Artist Talk and demonstration is Thursday, September 20, 2018 at 2 p.m. in the Besse Gallery.