Exhibition Celebration: Kristin Quinn at the Figge Art Museum -- September 25.
Thursday, September 25, 6 p.m.
Figge Art Museum, 225 West Second Street, Davenport IA
On September 25, art lovers are invited to Davenport's Figge Art Museum to hear artist Kristin Quinn reflect on the works in her exhibit Luminous Flux Paintings from the Watershed, with Figge Co-Senior Curator Joshua Johnson leading the conversation on this arresting collection designed to capture the sensation of the memory of a place – its mood, its texture, its atmosphere – through imagery and abstraction.
Local artist and St. Ambrose University professor Quinn's latest exhibit boasts a new body of work inspired by her life along the Mississippi Flyway and her recent travels to the Great Lakes, the Upper Peninsula, northern Wisconsin, and the North Shore of Minnesota. Quinn’s paintings immerse viewers in a luminous, otherworldly landscape of bogs, marshes, rivers, lakes, and endless floating spaces. Viewers are subsequently invited to step into a realm without solid footing, where the landscape pulses with the rhythm of nature, endlessly composing and decomposing around them.
As the artist states at KristinQuinn.net, "My painting process is energized and transformed by study of the natural world. Exploring new ecosystems in uncommon environments is valuable visual and conceptual research. In the past three years I have had the opportunity to travel north to the Great Lakes of Superior and Michigan, the Upper Peninsula, Northern Wisconsin and the north shore of Minnesota. The landscape was exotic to me with its many rivers, bogs, preserves, fens, falls and lakes.
"These diverse waterways have been a large source of inspiration for my most recent work. The driftless landscapes, endless floating spaces, waterfalls with phosphorescent mists have entered my paintings and have become metaphors for our current pandemic era. The knotted, painted combinations force a continual shift of attention among the many levels. I compare this to a single moment in landscape and the competing levels of activity. It's the density of this kind of experience that continues to raise questions and excite me as a painter."
In her Figge exhibition, Quinn asks, “How can you capture the feeling of a place, including its mood, texture, and atmosphere, through painting?” She explores this idea through layered colors and textures that reflect not only what she sees, but also what she remembers and feels.
“It's an honor to exhibit at the Figge,” said Quinn. “It feels like the work is coming home to our museum framed by the Mississippi. Much of the inspiration comes from exploring the watershed from the Quad Cities to the Canadian border. I've tried to capture a sense of flux in the paintings as if they were ebbing and flowing, falling and rising. Reminiscent of being within a single moment in a landscape with competing levels of attention, changing light, movement, and shifting weather. This Luminous Flux continues to excite me as a painter.”
Quinn has been an important part of the Quad Cities’ arts community for decades, both as an artist and as a professor of painting and drawing at St. Ambrose University. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally, yet it continues to reflect her deep ties to the Midwest landscape.
“Kristin’s paintings capture the nebulous, ethereal qualities of the natural world through a vibrant, saturated palette,” said Figge Co-Senior Curator Joshua Johnson. “They spark curiosity, evoking both a sense of familiarity and the mystery of the unknown. We’re thrilled to share her vision with our visitors, and to continue our goal of highlighting the work of outstanding regional artists."
The exhibition celebration with Kristin Quinn takes place on September 25, with the Figge bar open and food available at 5 p.m., and the artist talk led by the Figge's Joshua Johnson stars at 6 p.m. Kristin Quinn: Luminous Flux Paintings from the Watershed itself will be on view in the Gildehaus Gallery through December 28, participation in the Thursday-evening program is free, and more information is available by calling (563)326-7804 and visiting FiggeArtMuseum.org.
