The New York Mills Regional Cultural Center's December 2021 Gallery Show is “Notes from New York Mills,” by Artist Brett Lysne. The show includes two bodies of work: "Notes from New York Mills," created during Lysne's artist residency at the cultural center's 2014 Arts Retreat, and "North Dakota State Maps," created between 2012-2014.
Lysne is a visual artist who works in drawing, printmaking, artist books and digital media. Raised in Crookston, Minnesota, he attended the University of Minnesota in Morris and received a master of fine arts degree from Washington State University. He currently teaches printmaking and drawing at Minnesota State University in Moorhead. He was an artist-in-residence in New York Mills for two months in the winter of 2014.
“Notes from New York Mills” is a series of ephemeral mixed media drawings layered on white ink that's screen-printed on tan paper. During his time in New York Mills, Lysne researched local history and geography, took notes of conversations he had with locals over card games or coffee, studied maps of the region and made sketches based on the array of community gatherings he attended. He then recreated the most striking stories and images into a series of finished drawings.
The "North Dakota State Maps” drawing series began as a reconsideration of familiar territory. The first images in the series, completed in the summer of 2012, combined pen, graphite and other drawing materials on paper to create fields of linked text in the shape of North Dakota.
The exhibit is on display Dec. 1–31. The cultural center gallery is free to see and open to all. For more information, call 218-385-3339, email info@kulcher.org, or visit www.kulcher.org .
