Year’s first gallery showing opens on Jan. 12

Published 8:01 am Sunday, January 7, 2018

The year’s first exhibit in the ArtWorks Center Second Floor Gallery is all about seeing everyday sights in new ways.

The show, featuring Julie Fakler and Ian Hanson, opens at 5-7 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 12 with a reception. The public is invited to come view the work, meet the artists and enjoy refreshments at the reception.

Painting by Julie Fakler

Julie Fakler’s exhibit is farm animal portraits, work that was funded by a 2017 grant from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council. A Faribault residents, Fakler has been painting “as long as I can remember.” She works in acrylic on hard board and says “I simply enjoy the movement of the paint and then of course the end product,” Fakler said

Email newsletter signup

Fakler’s vibrant pet and domestic animal paintings have received grant funding from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council in 2011 and 2014. Some of her favorite subjects are cats.

Fakler works in the arts as director of operations at the Paradise Center for the Arts in Faribault. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting and drawing from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD).

Ian Hanson is exhibiting photography including photos from a trip to Tanzania in 2017. As an artist, he is a curious observer, rather than a creator, of images and is drawn to textures, discarded items and “people in their elements.”

Photo by Ian Hanson

A native of Grand Meadow, Hanson began shooting photos for his high school yearbook. During a college semester abroad in Brisbane, Australia in college led Hanson to devote his career to photography.

Hanson’s work has been available on greeting cards in the ArtWorks Center retail area for a couple of years and his fans often note his unique humor.

“My hope is to take viewers on a journey, to bring them closer to places they have never been and make it real,” Hanson said. “Physical distance allows us to forget just how close we are to everyone and everything else on the planet … while we may live very differently, we are more al ike than we realize.

The Fakler-Hanson exhibit will be on display through Feb. 24.

Coming soon at the Paramount Theatre

•Jan. 10: $5 movie, “Citizen Kane,” 7:30 p.m.

•Jan. 17: $5 movie, “Ben-Hur,” 7:30 p.m.