Frank Gaard, Satanic Housekeeping.
Acrylic on canvas, ceramic, string, paper, bell, safety pin, found paper, ink on paper.
T.B. Walker Acquisition Fund, 2010
Image courtesy of Walker Art Center

A solo exhibition featuring the work of artist Frank Gaard will open at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, January 26th, 2012. The artist, a resident of Minneapolis since 1969, has been painting for four decades and part of the Walker Art Center permanent collection since the mid 1970’s.  The exhibit Frank Gaard: Poison & Candy, will be the artists first comprehensive survey and remain on view until May 6th, 2012 in the museums Burnet Gallery. Curated by Elizabeth Carpenter, the exhibition will present many of Gaard’s paintings and works on paper from the zine Art Police, which he published from 1974-1994.

Frank Gaard, Pony Painting.
Acrylic, compact discs, vinyl records, ink on paper, paper string tag on canvas.
T.B. Walker Acquisition Fund, 2010
Image courtesy of Walker Art Center
At first a bit garish and hard to swallow, Frank Gaard’s paintings are bright and ripe with content ranging from lovely little pony heads to penises. He has focused on portraiture and a pop-inspired painting style for years bordering on comic book inspiration and likening to Andy Warhol, Philip Guston and even Alex Katz.  Most recently he has been working collaboratively with his wife Pamela who has been the subject of many of his works. Juxtaposing personal, political and relational aesthetics, Gaard makes work that is consistently quite obsessive. His figures are often products of repetition and float in an environment of color shapes within two-dimensional space. Even if brightly colored, the work is often darkly humorous.  Extended noses often resemble a facial phallic symbol and flesh, translated into CMYK, whether intentional or not somehow eliminates race. Born in Chicago, 1944 he taught Fine Art as a Professor at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design from 1969-1987 even if he often tends to poke fun at academia and the school of critical theory within the context of his artwork.  As an artist and many other professions, if you are going to make fun, better to do it from the inside looking out.
 Frank Gaard, Untitled, 1977. Oil on canvas.
Gift of the Associates of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, 1993
Image courtesy of Walker Art Center
Frank Gaard: Poison & Candy looks as if it will be a delightful romp through the colorful mind of an artist, who will probably be smiling broadly at you as you giggle along with him.  Humor, even if tongue-in-cheek, reveals itself in the contemporary art world in various facets. Kudos to the Walker and curator Elizabeth Carpenter for bringing this artist to the attention of the local community where he continues to leave an indelible mark and to a global audience, many of whom will now be familiar with an artist, who for most, is still relatively unknown.
Frank Gaard, Bust of St. Frank Smoking.
Oil, acrylic, paper, plastic, color photograph on canvas mounted to wood.
T.B. Walker Acquisition Fund, 2010
Image courtesy of Walker Art Center
More soon!

xo