Our Favorite Tribal Color Historians Pop Up in Lake of the Isles

It’s been over three years since Tynan Kerr and Andrew Mazorol won the Jerome Fellowship for Emerging Artists, three years since they threw up a tribal, pscyho-geometric mural on the side of the 331 Club, and three years since the collaborative art duo breathed drippy, rave-y, pastel life into the then-sleepy world of local painting.

What have the boys been up to since then? That’s a good question. The Jerome’s been passed on to several other art worthies, the 331 has a new (less cool) mural, and aside from sneaking some work into a Midway Contemporary Art fundraiser in 2011, local art types haven’t seen much of AMTK at all.

But the pair raises its head this weekend, anchoring a group show at Bockley Gallery. Entitled “Edge of Camp,” the show takes its inspiration from a Kerr/Mazorol, depicting frontier and aboriginal types gathered around a fire. Like most of AMTK’s paintings, this one is drawn from historical portraits, images of personalities both monumental and forgotten. They render their scenes in thick pastels and flattened perspective, often disguising the players in painted masks. The technique robs the original portrait of its historical reverence, infusing it instead with a sort of tribal mysticism. We like to call it voodoo vandalism.

Joining Kerr and Mazorol are quilted wall hangings by Lindsay Rhyner, Korla Luckerworth’s ceramic wall reliefs depicting common architectural structures, and assemblages constructed from natural objects such as seeds or acorns by Jim Proctor. The work all hews to the theme of personal narrative and storytelling.

Edge of Camp
Opening reception Friday, January 18
6–9 p.m.
Bockley Gallery, 2123 W. 21st St., Mpls.
bockleygallery.com

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