Guess Ready Review
New Work by Kate Casanova and
the Guess Ready Review Collaborative

Public Reception: Saturday, March 8, 2014

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA-Last summer, Minneapolis artist, Kate Casanova, City Pages' "2012 Artist of the Year," and 9 artists, musicians and writers, ventured to Mallard Island near Rainy Lake, Minnesota for a week-long residency. Guess Ready Review is an exhibition of new work, inspired by the island, created by Casanova and the collaborative, which also calls itself Guess Ready Review.

The exhibition opens March 1 at the Kolman & Pryor Gallery, which was named one of City Pages Top 10 Galleries in the Twin Cities in 2013. The gallery will have an opening reception from 7-10 p.m., Saturday, March 8. During the opening reception, Rogue Valley member and singer/songwriter/composer, Chris Koza, and musician/composer, Will Hutchinson, both members of Guess Ready Review, will perform. The exhibit runs through Saturday, April 12, 2014.

On Friday evening, March 28, 7-9 p.m., the Kolman & Pryor Gallery will present a free public conversation between Dr. Christina Schmid, Assistant Professor of Art, University of Minnesota and the Guess Ready Review Collaborattiave. Dr. Schmid and the Collaborative will explore members' artistic processes and practice and the impact of the residency on members' work both individually and collectively.

Mallard Island was formerly home to Ernest Oberholtzer, intellectual, artist, explorer and environmentalist. The island now hosts artist residencies. Casanova successfully, applied for a residency, proposing our group as a young nature-centric group of makers and thinkers, she says. In August 2013, Casanova, Chris Koza, Christopher Atkins, Laura Bigger, John Fleischer, Will Hutchinson, John Kim, Ben Moren, Stefanie Motta and Daniel Dean traveled to Mallard Island.

During their stay the group learned that in 1912 Oberholtzer wanted to explore an unmapped northern territory, but knew he needed a guide and companion. He sent a telegram to his good Ojibwe friend, Billy Magee, asking Magee to join him on the 2,000-mile expedition. Magees response was Guess ready, go end earth. Casanovas group adopted the name Guess Ready Review to symbolize their collective quest into a creative frontier on the Minnesota-Canadian border.

We collectively felt that Magees statement was ambiguous, Casanova says, a commitment to go, but with some reluctance. That, of course, mirrors the creative process, which often requires a leap into the void. But taking that leap with others makes the journey all the more possible and rewarding.

Casanova, whom City Pages called fearless, enterprising, grew up on Rainy Lake. Her upbringing in the starkly beautiful and remote northern Minnesota, she says, had a profound influence on my art making, which heavily references the natural world. Mallard Island also has a mythological status in my family history, she adds, as her mother, a childrens book author, has traveled there with a group for the past 20 years. Im learning about my own history through this place and how my identity has been shaped by it.

Casanova chose to have the show at Kolman & Pryor because of the diverse range of work shown in this beautiful space, and Anita and Patricks ongoing support of that work. We think the work in Guess Ready Review will compliment the gallerys evolving aesthetic. Work in the exhibition includes video, sculpture, photography with sound, and a listening station. Casanovas contribution, created in collaboration with Daniel Dean and Ben Moren, is Green Screen, a live projection that investigates ideas about reality, simulacra and what is natural.

For a preview of Guess Ready Review, please contact Anita Sue Kolman at anita@kolmanpryorgallery.com or 612-385-4239.

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Guess Ready Review runs Saturday, March 1, 2014 through Saturday, April 12, 2014.

Public Reception: Saturday, March 8, 2014, 7-10 p.m.

Christina Schmid and Guess Ready Review: A Conversation: Friday, March 28, 2014, 7-9 p.m.

The Kolman & Pryor Gallery is located in Studio 395, Northrop King Building at 1500 Jackson Street NE, Minneapolis, MN 55413.

For more information, please call: 612-385-4239, email: anita@kolmanpryorgallery.com or visit: www.kolmanpryorgallery.com