Join us beginning Saturday, June 5, for a virtual visit with Duluth-based artist & educator and ASF Folk Art Fellow Alison Aune! An American artist inspired by her Scandinavian roots and a professor in the University of MN Duluth Department of Art and Design, Dr. Aune has been interested in the role of pattern in traditional northern cultures for many years. In her work, traditional abstract Scandinavian motifs often appear alongside painted versions of medieval textiles and realist depictions of the natural forms – plants, flowers, and faces – that were the original sources of such motifs.
In this visit, Dr. Aune provides a tour of her studio and shares her inspirations and processes, as she collects traditional designs from historic textiles and domestic artifacts, and re-arranges them into iconic compositions to honor the memory of her maternal Swedish and paternal Norwegian ancestors.
This video will premiere on here on Saturday at 2 PM ET and remain available to stream on the page through June 12.
This event is the sixth in a series of Virtual Studio Tours from Scandinavia House. See the first tour with Pekka and Teija Isorättyä here, the second tour with Camilla Vuorenmaa here, the third tour with Shoplifter/Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir here, the fourth tour with Ida Lorentzen here, and the fifth tour with Heidi Hankaniemi here.
Watch on YouTube:
About the Artist
Alison Aune received her B.F.A. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1984, her M.A. from the University of Minnesota Duluth in 1987, and Ph.D. from Ohio University Athens in 2000. Aune has received numerous grants and awards including the Art Educators of Minnesota Higher Educator of the Year award for 2015-2016, a Fulbright Scholar and Teaching award to Sweden, Grant in Aid grants to conduct a Cross-Cultural Study of the Socio-Aesthetic Goals of Art Education in Scandinavia, an American-Scandinavian Foundation Doctoral Fellowship, and a Jerome Foundation International Artist Travel Grant.
She has exhibited her artwork in over 70 solo and group exhibitions in the U.S, Sweden, Norway and Denmark and she regularly presents guest lectures and workshops internationally, nationally, and regionally.