Minot State University Art Seminar: Erin Wohletz

Artist Erin Wohletz, Americas 2021: Paperworks Best of Show, will be presenting in the Art Seminar series at Minot State University’s Aleshire Theater at 12:00 p.m. on Friday, February 18.

Erin Wohletz is a Knoxville, TN based artist and printmaker whose latest work explores gender identity, queerness and authenticity of self. Wohletz’s exhibition at the Northwest Arts Center entitled ‘Two Friends,’ reads as visual essays about their self-journey to nonbinary queerness. Artworks are paired together as open pages in a personal notebook or journal where Wohletz investigates and argues with themself. The prints are coded with symbols that the artist uses to deceive, or hide information from the viewer. At the end of the journal, Wohletz provides an index that’s used to interpret each symbol. Each print or journal page seeks to approach the artist’s investigation and internal argument from different angles in order to come to a conclusion which takes into account history, memory, risk, deception and feeling.

Wohletz has participated in seventy exhibitions across the United States. They have been an artist in residence at Kala Art Institute in San Francisco and Seacourt Print Workshop in Bangor, Ireland. Their inaugural curatorial exhibition ‘Between Hand and Sky: The Work of Elizabeth Gould’ was on display at the McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture in Knoxville from August through December 2021. Wohletz also runs the website TheFutureIsQueer.com, an online exhibition and index of over one hundred international LGBTQ+ printmakers.

For more about Wohletz and their work go to http://ewohle.otherpeoplespixels.com/home.html.

Art 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.

Aleshire Theater is located in Hartnett Hall on the Minot State University Campus. Seats in the theater will be physically distanced, and masks are required. The event will be live-streamed via Northwest Arts Center social media platforms.

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.