The natural world rarely appears so ethereal as it does in the mixed-media artwork of Barbara Harman. In her most recent series “By Water,” the silhouetted tree trunks, branches, leaves, and canoes meld into one another. Without any weighty, illusionistic space to ground us, our eyes skate along the surface, moving quietly, undulating like the little ripples that appear and disappear in Harman’s work one stitch at a time. The artist’s unique combinations of materials, which can include acrylic painting, stenciling, embroidery, trapunto, printmaking, and paper, draws attention to the physicality of her work. But Harman understands her work to be as much about the metaphorical as the physical. Her series is not only about water, but also “is about journeys. It is about regular journeys—moving from one place to another—and metaphorical journeys—moving from one kind of life to another, one way of looking at things to another, one age to another, one role to another.”

Harman’s own life journey has included a long association with the Women’s Art Registry of Minnesota (WARM), where she recently stepped down as president but continues as a mentor. She is also the founder of Paperworks, a company that developed out of the numerous book art, painting, and printmaking workshops she teaches. Harman exhibits regionally in solo, two-person and group exhibitions and in 2006 she received a VSA Arts Fellowship. Harman’s work is also in numerous collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, England.

All events are free and open to the public.

Christensen Center Art Gallery
22nd Ave. at 7 ½ Street
Minneapolis, MN 55454
612-330-1524

Gallery Hours:
Monday – Friday, 8 a.m. – 8 p.m.
Saturday & Sunday, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.

www.augsburg.edu/galleries
www.barbaraharman.com

Image caption: Flood, 2007, acrylic painting on pfd fabric with stencils and hand-cut stamps, embroidery in silk and metallic threads, 15” x 15”