Art Seminar: Blair Treuer

Textile Artist and Storyteller Blair Treuer will be presenting in the Art Seminar series at Minot State University’s Memorial Hall, Room 114 at 12:00 pm on Friday, November 4. Treuer is currently exhibiting her solo exhibition, ‘Portraits: An Identity Exploration,’ at the Northwest Arts Center at Minot State University.

Blair Treuer is a self-taught textile artist who was introduced to the medium via blanket making for her children’s traditional Ojibwe ceremonies. Usually quilted blankets serve as spiritual offerings for the ceremony, but Treuer wasn’t satisfied with the square or geometric patterning of typical quilts. A creative person, she instead decided to use a kaleidoscope of thread and an abundant amount of irregularly shaped, colorful fabric to construct personalized blankets representing each child’s Ojibwe name. She does not call herself a quilter though. Treuer emphasizes that master quilters are adept at complex patterning and producing a variety of complicated sewing techniques. Her own process is simpler in technique; connecting two pieces of fabric with thread.

She does, however, describe herself as “a textile artist who ‘paints’ with fabric and ‘draws’ with thread.” Her artistic process usually begins with images imbued with guised meanings that come to her like dreams. She then approaches each image like a painter, placing and tacking down tiny pieces of fabric onto a large blank sheet of fabric, like one would place a paint stroke onto canvas. Once the composition is complete, Treuer then sews all the pieces together. Each piece is then mounted to semi-flexible, shapeable wire sheeting, providing each piece with structure and movement. The finished amorphous, flowing image then reveals its meanings to the artist…or not.

“Often the meaning comes in waves or layers over time and sometimes this revelation can take months. And like the interpretation of a dream [,] you may have insights into the meaning that either are, or are for the time being, lost on me”

Treuer has exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the US, Alberta, Western Europe, and Turkey. Recent exhibitions include “Rebellion” Invitational at Gallery Azur, Madrid, Spain; “Boom” Focus Art Fair Invitational, Carrousel de Louvre, Paris, France; and “The Other Art Fair Los Angeles,” Baker Hanger, Santa Monica, CA. Her work has received a number of awards and recognitions and she was also a recipient of a 2022 McKnight Fellowship in Fiber Arts from the Textile Center in Minnesota.

For more about Treuer and her work go to https://www.blairtreuer.com/.

Arts Seminar presentations offer students and the public the opportunity to learn about the work, lives and experiences of guest artists visiting Minot State University. Co-hosted by the Minot State University Art Department, this event is free and open to the public. We invite you to attend! Masks are not required, but individuals who are not fully vaccinated or deemed vulnerable are encouraged to continue to wear masks.

Memorial Hall is located on the Minot State University Campus. The presentation will also be streamed live on the Northwest Arts Center’s Facebook page.

This program is 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.