Exhibition Dates: April 2 – May 7, 2010
Opening Reception: First Friday Gallery Walk, April 2, 6-10pm
 
James Henkel’s exhibition, STACKS & SPILLS, presents three distinct series by the Minnesota-based photographer. Through his work, Henkel’s goal is to change how we perceive and understand everyday objects, such as vessels and books. In Henkel’s Spills series, the artist utilizes salt, sugar, wine, water, and milk as a drawing material to represent the “spills.” Sometimes Henkel’s images include a vessel; at other times, simply the spilled contents suggesting the vessel. In his Water Bowls series, Henkel once again utilizes the vessel form. Water-filled bowls are filled with “nature,” through captured reflections of sky, clouds, tree branches, and leaves. In his Stacks series, Henkel focuses much of his attention on the written word and books – vessels of knowledge, perhaps. Using a band saw to cut the books into parts, Henkel balances the isolated fragments of title, image, and color, one on top of another. The works suggest new readings of familiar objects.
  
Henkel has exhibited his photographs in over one hundred national and international venues, including St.. Petersburg, Russia; Teheran Museum of Contemporary Art, Iran; Anji, China; The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), CA; the Pace MacGill Gallery, NY; and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, MN. His work is in many collections including, SFMOMA, The Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Walker Art Center. Henkel has been the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Bush Foundation, McKnight Foundation, and the Minnesota State Arts Board. The artist currently lives in Minneapolis, MN where he teaches at the University of Minnesota. He works out of studios in both Minneapolis and Penland, NC.