Fogelberg and Red Wing Artists

This gallery shows the work of three award-winning, up-and-coming clay artists, and just how diverse the medium can be. Mike Helke, who received the 2006 Red Wing Collectors Society Foundation Award given to a young pottery artist each year, is driven by usefulness and current events. His works, usually practical items such as lidded jars and mugs, are often masterfully decorated with line drawings. Also displayed will be the works of the 2008 Fogelberg Fellowship winners Kathy Mommsen and Donna Flanery. Mommsen, who says she likes to work very quickly, focuses on pottery sparked by movement and the human figure. On sabbatical from teaching pottery at Hopkins High School, a post she's held for nine years, Mommsen works from a nude model to incorporate motion and elements of the human form into her sweeping and curvy works. She has also studied maiolica, a tin-glazed pottery method, in Italy. Flanery, an artist-in-residence at the Archie Bray Foundation in Montana, cites cartoon characters and childhood as her main inspirations. Her bowls and plates frequently use bright colors and roundly drawn animals to give a playful aesthetic to dishes that look equally good mounted on display or serving a child's lunch.
Jan. 11-Feb. 24, 2008