Art-A-Whirl (AAW), sponsored by the Northeast Minneapolis Arts Association (NEMAA), is the largest open studio tour in the country. Once again, many WARM artists are participating in this opportunity for you to tour artists studios and galleries and to purchase original artwork. AAW is free and open to the public.

We have compiled a list of participating WARM member artists, where you’ll find them, and a link to each artist’s website. Please support the work of NEMAA and WARM by visiting WARM members during Art-A-Whirl.

Artist Studio Hours

Friday, May 18, 5:00pm – 10:00pm

Saturday, May 19, Noon – 8:00pm

Sunday, May 20, Noon – 5:00pm

For a complete listing of NEMAA artists, visit the NEMAA website.

Opening Reception

Friday, March 16, 6-9pm

Free and open to the public

The Minnesota Women’s Building Partnership and WARM are pleased to invite you to an exhibition of works by WARM members Emily Gray Koehler and Laura Pereira.

From Emily Gray Koehler

After earning a B.F.A. in printmaking from Grand Valley State University, my work has largely focused on humanity’s place in the environment. Seeking to develop a dialogue between the viewer and the natural world, I investigate the places I call home: North Woods and Great Plains, Farm and City, Michigan and Minnesota.

To see more of Emily’s work, visit her website and Facebook artist page.

From Laura Pereira

I grew up amidst the hustle and bustle of Chicago and spent summers in the quiet of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  Drawing from these disparate environments, my work explores conceptions of what is natural.  Philosophical questions propel much of my art, particularly Thoreau’s ideas about the role of imagination in experience.

To see more of Laura’s work, visit her website and mnartists.org page.

To make an appointment to view the show outside of the reception hours, please call 612-567-9276 or email info@thewarm.org.

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Image: (l) Backswimmer, Laura Pereira, Encaustic and oil on paper, 2011; and (r) Zeal, Emily Gray Koehler, Color-reduction woodcut on paper, 2011.

Marcia Soderman, WARM mentor and artist, is currently exhibiting a series of 13 paintings at Coloplast, curated by Bonnie Sather. The paintings are installed to create a progression from intensely-emotional works, through joyous images about experiencing Iguacú Falls, Argentina, to lighter toned paintings, evoking peace and serenity.

Exhibit dates: Feb. 1 – March 23, 2012.

Marcia describes how The Iguaçu Falls series came about:

“The Iguaçu Falls series is a response to a most beautiful place, the widest series of waterfalls in the world, with the thunderous roar of the falls, and prismatic rainbows in the mist everywhere you look. The paintings are, at once, about my sheer joy in being there; the sound of the constant roar; and also about the waterfall’s being reduced by two-thirds due to severe drought in Brazil in 2008. Fortunately, environmentalists could then go down into river basin to collect the trash tourists had thrown in the river, (thus the red ‘detritus’). Ironically, recent flooding has restored the water level. The water in the river basin is a bright red-orange due to iron, but it seems like ‘fire-water’ to me. And finally, it all culminates in a white mist.”

On right: images of Marcia Soderman’s exhibit at Coloplast.

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Marcia Soderman serves as a WARM board member and has been a WARM Mentor since 2008. Her work has been published in several art books, including International Contemporary Artists, Vol. 2, and Studio Visit, Vol. 9, and, by invitation, the cover and featured artist, of Exploring TOSCA, a Twin Cities arts magazine, Summer issue, 2011. You can see more of Marcia’s artwork by visiting her website.