The premise of From<To is hinged upon exhibitions in both Winnipeg (Plug In ICA) and MCAD (Minneapolis College of Art and Design). The selected artists hail from Winnipeg, Fargo and Minneapolis/St.Paul and represent the (loosely based) population ratio existing between the cities: four from Winnipeg, one from Fargo and eight from Minneapolis/St.Paul. The inspiration behind the premise of From<To involves a search for possibilities that lie somewhere between distance and place, connecting things left in-between that are as unquestionably metaphorical as they are concrete. The premise also investigates contiguity in distances in artmaking processes and content – ideas such as from/to, me/ you, urban/ rural, Provincial/ State. From<To delves into art’s ability to wrestle with the constant flux in geographic (global) issues. The exhibition includes the assertion of selves being difficult to disentangle from a sense of place.

Distance implicates a notion of (an) origin, or more precisely, a starting point in which from which things emerge. As an emerging anybody in the artworld (or anywhere) certain connotations and perceptions exist. Are they the same from country to country? Various models of emerging imply trajectories… further suggesting that art and artmaking are in a constant state of emerging or evolving. From <To challenges the perceptions that surround the term emerging. The phrase itself carries a certain wanted or unwanted baggage and often involves an artist’s age, maturity (as an artist) and possibly reflects the level of confidence within the individual. Oxford English Dictionary defines emerging as 1. to rise from an obscure or inferior condition 2. to come to being through evolution.

From<To presupposes that being with in a continuous state of emerging is of greater importance than deliberations on from whence you came (albeit arguable). It simply suggests that, in artmaking, the act of emerging may have more to do with reflecting on the merit of an idea, experiencing the take off on the latest model of 747, maneuvering an old John Deere tractor or simply deliberating on one’s circumstance. Moving from one place to another requires a traversing and most often ends up being utilitarian in nature. Covering large expansions that lie between uncertain points necessarily involves both invention and technology, regardless of how modest or how remarkable. Together bridge distances in order to close vast gaps, if only to close the expansions between both idea and situation.

From<To courts the idea that artists make artworks from a contiguous state of emerging or becoming. The exhibition is comprised of artists from selected Midwest geographies and seemingly are emerging through something and headed somewhere. From<To is an exhibition that is as much about regional relativism as it is about individual relativism.

Doug Lewis, Curator

From Me > To You.  Here and There. - Ihor Holubizky on From<To at Plug In ICA (2004)

Review - From<To @ Plug In ICA (Uptown magazine - 2004)

Review - From<To @ Plug In ICA (Canadian Art magazine - 2004)

Press Release - From<To @ MCAD Gallery - April 4, 2005 (PDF)