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‘Found Fictions’ mixes the human body and art

New exhibit showcases the many sides of the human body in print art

Submitted Photo One piece on display at Flat Tail Press Gallery was created by Susanna Crum. The piece is titled “Capriccio III: No Place, Our Place” and is a cyanotype with screen print made in 2018.

For millennia, artists have been inspired by the beauty of the human body. It can be both beautiful and mysterious but also funny and awkward. It is this mystifiying diversity of the human body that printmaker Rudy Salgado presents in his artwork.

Salgado, along with his wife and fellow printmaker Susanna Crum, will showcase their work in their joint exhibition titled “Found Fictions,” a sharing of fine art prints at Minot State University’s Flat Tail Press Gallery.

“Since my early childhood, I have been interested in the ways our bodies function,” comments Salgado. “The most memorable times in my life are instances of bodily failure, and their influence on social interactions. Though these experiences are embarrassing, we all have at least one legendary story of physical malfunction to share, and feel the simultaneous urge to conceal it and explain it.”

Like a healthy mix of antique anatomical renderings, industrial plumbing and Mad magazine, Salgado’s quirky images of generic (and specific) human organs align into compositions that solicit a smile.

In “Found Fictions,” the familiar imagery and processes of the past reemerge with unexpected alterations and thoughtful configurations. Using traditional methods from the 19th century (like cyanotype photography and stone lithography), Salgado and Crum provoke the viewer to question authority and take things less seriously. Each artist maintains a unique vision in the work while still having similarities to piece together.

Examining and exploiting the authority of the historical cartographer, Susanna Crum’s prints present questions on place, land ownership, and political boundaries. After deconstructing maps and globes, Crum graphically reassembles planet Earth without regard to national or state borders. Like the official voice of the architect’s blueprint, Crum’s maps emerge in the classic cyanotype, imbued with a new authority, suggestive to the imagination. As the prints draw in the eye, with the deep, rich blue, they quiet the mind for reflection on how and why humans have made boundaries.

In addition to their personal art careers, Salgado and Crum also run a community print studio, “Calliope Arts,” in Louisville, Ky. As guests of Minot State’s Flat Tail Press, the team will share their printmaking expertise with students.

The Minot community will have two opportunities to interact with the artists at a special live print-making event and then at the “Found Fictions” reception.

On Friday March 1, the couple will offer a short lecture before the “Found Fictions” reception.

The live printing will be on Thursday, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. in the Northwest Arts Center. Salgado and Crum will make prints live for guests to have the opportunity to receive an original, hand-inked print design. Live music and free food will also be available. This event will be a part of the “How the Beaver Got its Flat Tail: Five Years of Flat Tail Press” exhibition.

Salgado and Crumm will give a short lecture before their opening reception on Friday in Aleshire Theater starting at 12 p.m. The “Found Fictions” reception will will follow at 12:30 p.m. in the Flat Tail Press Gallery, located on the second floor landing off the Student Center

All events are hosted on the Minot State University campus and are free and open to the public.

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