Chronicles of the Chronic is a group exhibition that celebrates the creativity and resilience of the chronically ill community by featuring regional, national and international artists whose artistic practice reflects holistically upon the experience of living with a chronic health condition. Eight of the thirteen artists were invited by Rochester Art Center’s Curator Zoe Cinel, and the remaining five were selected through a juried process from a pool of eighty-one applicants. The jury was composed of a diverse group of artists, curators and healthcare professionals, including  Alison Berglom Johnson (independent artist and disability advocate), Keisha Williams (MCAD Gallery Director and Curator), Victor Montori M.D. (founder of Patient Revolution and author of Why We Revolt) and Rochester Art Center Curator Zoe Cinel. 

In Zumbro Bend: Three Desiring Bodies, Minneapolis based visual artist Pete Driessen installs three separate site-specific works, each a different abstracted fork in the river ecosystem. Titled after the South Fork Zumbro River that winds around the Rochester Art Center, the artist illuminates meandering sociopolitical variants on the river as creative life force, terrain erosion and deposition, land extraction and water channeling. 

Presented by Southeast Service Cooperative, the Rochester Art Center, and 35 area school districts, the annual Southeast Minnesota High School Art Show returns for its 12th year. Works by rural Southeast Minnesota area students will be on display for the public to view free of charge.

Ageless Art showcases the creativity of students in Rochester Public Schools. Artwork on view will represent students ranging from Kindergarten to 12th grade and include various mediums including painting, digital arts and photography. Rochester Art Center has a 75-year history of supporting youth in the pursuit of creativity. We are proud to dedicate an entire gallery to Ageless Art, recognizing the artistic achievements of students.

Like a little Tlaquepaque vase or Como Jarrito de Tlaquepaque is a solo exhibition of soft sculpture and mixed media installation by Mexican artist Ivonne Yáñez. The title alludes to the popular expression “Es tan frágil como un jarrito de Tlaquepaque” which in Spanish refers to an overly sensitive or emotionally weak person. Yáñez takes this reference and applies it to the fragility of the clay used to create vases. While clay is fragile, Yáñez’s sculptures are soft and made out of pink quilted fabric: the material transforms this object into a body that will never break.

Mn Mosaic Guild Artists: Sushila Anderson, Rachel Arntson, Rebecca Campbell, Debra DSouza, Kristin Dieng, Kelly Holzer, Bernadette Janisch, Jeff Janisch, Laura Lee, Amy Leyden, Shakuntala Maheshwari, Susan Mathis, Maureen Rath, Lisa Van Wyk & Shawn Wiski

The Rochester Art Center presents a solo exhibition of monumental sculptures and multimedia installations by Rochester-based artist Nicole Havekost. The fabric sculptures resembling giant, uniquely-proportioned women figures - the artist colloquially refers to them as “ladies” - were originally created for Chthonic, her solo exhibition in the U.S. Bank Gallery at the Minneapolis Institute of Art in 2020. For Matriarchate, Havekost has designed new figures that will be built during the opening reception and completed during the length of the exhibition. This is a unique opportunity for our audience to directly engage with the artistic process of Havekost and have a glance at the invisible labor that is needed to create a large-scale sculpture.

‘जत्रा’ (pronounced ja-tra) is a Marathi word for a town/village fair. A place where people and vendors come from near and far to be enchanted by an old, familiar charm: puppet shows, Death Valley, cotton candy, shimmery fabric blouses, fake gold jewelry, plastic toys, steel utensils, the smell of roasted peanuts and popcorn, on a wide expanse of land. Above all the Giant Wheel, the star attraction seen looming even from a distance, and guides those who are lost. For the Art Center, Ganu created a multimedia, immersive installation of the liminal space that is a ‘जत्रा’ at night.

A Lapse into the Ephemeral is a group exhibition of storytelling and new media featuring artworks from artists/artistic collectives working internationally with 3D scanning technologies to preserve the ephemeral.

Curated by Zoe Cinel

Participating artists:
Benjamin Busch (Germany) and Sadia Sharmin (Bangladesh/Sweden)
Formafantasma (Italy/Netherlands)
Clement Valla (USA)
Oddviz (Turkey)
shrin anlen (USA)

In a new exhibit created especially for the Rochester Art Center, Minnesota-based, international artist, Anne Labovitz, examines the innumerable ways art and creativity benefit both community and the individual. "The Nexus of Well-Being and Art" explores the connection of well-being and art expressed through painting, sculpture, installation, and public participatory work.