Summer exhibits in the Northwest Art Center galleries at Minot State University feature mixed media, sculpture, and photography by Wendy Kimble and ceramics by Emilie Marquardt.  

Kimble’s exhibit, “Modern Venus,” July 12 through August 10 in the Gordon B. Olson Library Gallery, explores society’s evolving expectations of the female form “from the voluptuous 24,000 BCE Venus of Willendorf to society’s expectations of the modern day ideal body type.” Kimble, an adjunct art instructor at Minot State University, said her exhibit focuses on “the acceptance of ourselves, and teaching our daughters that the true beauty is within us.”

“Hollow Innocence,” Marquardt’s display of scores of empty ceramic vessels, opens July 22 in the Hartnett Hall Gallery with a public reception from 5 to 7 p.m. Marquardt’s installation seeks to raise awareness of hunger among school age children in the Minot area. The exhibit runs through August 12.

“Each vessel represents a student in the Minot Public School system who is supported by Souris Valley United Way through their Backpack Buddy Program,” said Marquardt. Four Minot elementary schools, Sunnyside, McKinley, Roosevelt, and Washington, participate in the program. Each week, volunteers coordinate the purchase of food and transport it to the schools. Teachers place bags of food into certain backpacks at the end of the day on Fridays to provide meals for children who might not otherwise have substantial meals over the weekend. Visitors to the exhibit may make a $10 donation to the program in exchange for one of the vessels.

Marquardt graduated from MSU in May 2016 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Art Education and a concentration in Special Education. She will teach art at Glenburn Public School this fall.

Both exhibits are free and open to the public. The Hartnett gallery is open 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, and the library gallery is open during regular library hours.

These programs are funded in part by a grant from the North Dakota Council on the Arts, which receives funding from the state legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts.