“THE STATE FAIR EXPERIENCE”
This exhibition revolves around the Fine Arts at the Minnesota State Fair and the State Fair in general, as experienced by Jim Clark and Deb Zeller. Jim has been superintendent of Fine Arts at the State Fair since 2011 where he created 12:12:12: Twelve Artists, Twelve Hours, Twelve Days. The program is now known as Studio: HERE. Jim filled in for a Studio:HERE artist cancellation in 2021 and Deb was one of the twelve in 2022.
About Deb Zeller:
Deb was the guest artist at the 2022 Minnesota State Fair Studio:HERE in the Fine Arts Building. In her 12 hours demonstrating she created twelve portraits. These included an oil painting of Mrs. Minnesota, Mandy Iverson which took 3 hours. She then moved on to 1/2 hour watercolor or charcoal portraits. These include Craig Flor who is in charge of Grandstand Productions; Dani Vavreck from the MN State Fair Foundation; Mary Chung who is the Executive Director of the Minnesota State Fair Foundation; Paul Quast who is head of MN Wine Country; Renee Alexander who is the new CEO of the MN State Fair; Ron Knafla the chief of police at the State Fair; Rachel Rynda who was the newly crowned Princess Kay of the Milky Way; Ross Wiggins, police officer in charge of the grandstand; Jerry Hammer the “Face of the State Fair”; Tim Streit who delivers beer to 23 different sites across the fairground and Jan Hildebrand who does all the concessions in the grandstand.
In addition to the 12 portraits, which will be presented to each model at the closing reception on Thursday July 27th, Deb will exhibit paintings created from reference photos that she and her husband, Steve, took at the MN State Fair.
Work in process at the 2022 Minnesota State Fair and a collection of other State Fair paintings that will be displayed by Deb:
About Jim Clark:
Jim Clark is a practicing multi-disciplinary visual artist, curator, and art educator. As a visual artist, his experience and body of work includes drawing, painting, sculpture, and illustration. He has exhibited his fine art throughout the region, and won numerous awards including top honors for work in each of those disciplines. His recent exhibitions of personal work include The Once and Never Cowboy, including 30 drawings at the Paul Whitney Larson Gallery, May- August 2019, and Chasing Ruin at Robbin Gallery, June 2022. As a freelance illustrator, he has completed work on multiple comic book projects including Captain Popcorn for the Northern Star Council of Boy Scouts of America, the upcoming premiere issue of Freedom Raiders, Henri L’Ouest, Magician of the West, eight issues of the award winning independent series Colliders. He holds an undergraduate degree in Art from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks and an MFA in Eco-architecture from Vesper College. Additionally, he has completed course work and studio studies in Paris at the Cours de Civilisation Francaise de la Sorbonne and the private atelier, Academie de Port-Royal.
As superintendent of Fine Arts at the Minnesota State Fair since 2011, Jim is responsible for the programming, curation, and staff of the Fine Arts Building. This includes administering the largest juried exhibition in the region. In 2019 he guided the show to a record number of entrants for the fourth year in a row, when over 2700 artists submitted work to the competition. His responsibilities also include hiring and managing a paid seasonal staff of more than thirty people, choosing and hiring 8 art jurors, as well as selecting and contracting 12 invited special exhibition artists. As a curator, he oversees intentional placement and installation of more than 330 works of art in the juried show, and the 12 pieces in the special exhibition. In 2012, he created 12:12:12: Twelve Artists, Twelve Hours, Twelve Days the popular MNSF artist-in- residence program which has become an annual staple, since 2013 under the new name Studio:HERE.
As Visual Arts Manager for the Hopkins Center for the Arts, Jim Clark oversees the gallery exhibitions as well as coordinating the public art programs. This includes an average of 20 gallery exhibitions and 10-12 member artist showcase exhibitions per year, the annual public art program Hopkins ArtStreet, as well as participation in HCA fundraising events. Management of these programs includes assessment, evaluation, and development of procedures, driving the selection process, installing and supervising installation of art, and directing volunteers.
Jim has taught a diverse array of art and art-related subjects with a variety of schools, education programs, and community art centers. This includes the courses Flora, Fauna, Micro-climates and Solar/Lunar Paths as an Assistant Professor at Vesper College & Atelier, with curriculum developed for public artists to better understand site, place-making, and sensitivity to materiality and community culture. Also while at Vesper, Jim developed three semesters of weekly in-studio classes and seminars on poetic translation through design. As an independent teaching artist since 2007, he has taught his own curriculum in Observational Drawing throughout the Twin Cities. This includes consistently filling three sections per session of his long running and popular drawing class with Hopkins Community Education at the Hopkins Center for the Arts. Jim’s other teaching experience includes workshops on comic illustration, production, and independent comic book publishing.
