Megan Vossler, Platoon, 2006. Graphite on matboard. 32 x 40".

Minneapolis Institute of Arts
2400 Third Avenue South
Minneapolis, Minnesota
612-870-3131
War Mediated
I Will Follow You Into the Dark
August 31-October 28, 2007

Four Minnesota artists explore the representation of war in two new exhibitions: War Mediated and I Will Follow You into the Dark. They feature new and recent work by Camille Gage, Megan Rye, Justin Newhall, and Megan Vossler. By transforming media images or documenting historical re-enactments, these artists reconsider the images of war we encounter each day through print, online, and broadcast media. The speed with which we receive war images can desensitize us and create a distance from the subject. In these exhibitions, artists turn visual images into meditations on war and prompt us to examine our relationship to it.

War Mediated, features work by three artists looking at correlations among patriotism, fear, and the filters through which war images are delivered. Drawing inspiration from Goya’s Disasters of War and the U.S. Army Web site, Vossler’s graphite drawings focus on the aftermath of war — the period of displacement when refugees flee their homelands. Vossler’s nameless figures file through ambiguous geographies, leaving the viewer to contemplate the universality of these scenes. Vossler is a 2007 recipient of the McKnight Artist Fellowship and a 2005 winner of the Jerome Foundation fellowship. Gage pays homage to fallen soldiers in War Redacted, a series of U.S. government photographs upon which she has painted. Obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, the images are of military casualties from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan arriving at Delaware’s Dover Air Force Base in flag-covered caskets. Gage blacks out areas of the photos, mirroring censoring techniques used by the government before releasing sensitive documents. Gage’s awards include the FORECAST Public Artworks grant and the Intermedia Arts grant. Newhall’s large, color photographs examine America’s need to shape and connect to the past. His latest series, Axis and Allies, explores the culture and practice of World War II battle reenactments. Newhall teaches photography at University of Minnesota and College of Visual Arts in St. Paul. His awards include fellowships from the McKnight Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, and Minnesota State Arts Board. Images from his project Historical Marker: Photographs Along the Lewis and Clark Trail were recently published by Aperture, in conjunction with the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago.

I Will Follow You into the Dark, features work by Megan Rye. Offering a backseat view of the Iraq war, Rye’s large-scale paintings trace her brother’s experience as a U.S. Marine in Iraq, where he supervised the regional detention facility in Fallujah and transported Iraqi detainees within the Sunni Triangle. Rye’s source materials are drawn primarily from more than 2000 photographs her brother took during his tour of duty. She uses these photos to create paintings mixing abstraction and realism, revealing a personal viewpoint of the daily life of a soldier at war. Many of the paintings depict routine military operations, but the first-person perspective and desert lighting merge beauty with the ominous threat of the unknown. Rye is a 2005 recipient of the Jerome Foundation fellowship and a two-time winner of the Minnesota State Arts Board’s artist initiative grant.

Camille Gage, Untitled, from War, Redacted series, detail, 2005. Acrylic on digital fine art print. 20 x 28".