Exhibit Notes

The second exhibition in Augsburg College's summer emerging artist series opens Friday, June 11 in the Gage Family Art Gallery. Natasha Dikareva's evocative sculpture installation, "Searching for Beginnings," will be on view until Friday, July 9.

Dikareva recently completed her MFA degree in sculpture at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. She received her BFA in 1985 from the Kiev Fine Arts College in Kiev, Ukraine, and pursued advanced work in ceramics and art history at the Muhina Fine Arts Institute in St. Petersberg, Russia. Over the past ten years Dikareva has participated in solo and group exhibitions both in the United States and abroad, and has been selected for several artist residencies and scholarships.

Dikareva's sculptural work transforms clay and metal into totems of the imagination. Her columns, cages, eggs, and human forms are simultaneously recognizable and ambiguous. What appear to be abraded, corroded surfaces bear the passage of time and refute it as well. The multivalent forms bespeak the beginnings of Western civilization—its ancient sites, its mythology, its cross-cultural influences—and address our contemporary attempts to reclaim a spiritual center in the past. "I try to challenge the viewer’s perception and create a sense of mystery," Dikareva explains, "so when the viewer walks into the space he is immersed into a myriad of metaphorical possibilities."

The opening reception for Dikareva's exhibition is Friday, June 11, from 5-7 p.m. in the Gage Family Art Gallery, located on the second floor of Lindell Library on the Augsburg College campus.