McKnight Discussion Series: Kaamil A. Haider, Keren Kroul, Mark Ostapchuk
The Minneapolis College of Art and Design is pleased to present the McKnight Discussion Series, featuring Adriel Luis, curator and artist, in conversation with McKnight 2023 fellows Kaamil A. Haider, Keren Kroul, and Mark Ostapchuk. This event is free, but ticketed. All are invited to attend; tickets available February 27.
This program pairs a visiting critic with three McKnight Visual Artist Fellows and offers attendees an opportunity to learn more about the fellowship recipients as well as how their work intersects with broader contemporary art ideas and concerns. This event is generously supported by the McKnight Foundation.
The discussion series is co-presented with the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Fellowships are generously funded by the McKnight Foundation and administered by the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Adriel Luis is a community organizer, artist, writer, and curator who believes that collective liberation can happen in poetic ways. His life’s work is focused on the mutual thriving of artistic integrity and social vigilance. He is a part of the iLL-Literacy arts collective, which creates music and media to strengthen Black and Asian coalitions, and is creative director of Bombshelltoe, a collaborative of artists and leaders from frontline communities responding to nuclear histories. Luis is the Curator of Digital and Emerging Practice at the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center. His ancestors are rooted in Toisan, China, and migrated through Hong Kong, Mexico, and the United States. He was born on Ohlone land. Luis has curated projects in a range of venues including several museums across the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.; MoMA and Pearl River Mart in New York City; Queensland Art Gallery in Brisbane, Australia; Silo Park in Auckland, Aotearoa; Atom Bar in Buenos Aires, Argentina; and an abandoned Foodland in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. His writing has appeared in Poetry Magazine, the Asian American Literary Review, and Smithsonian Magazine. He has spoken at the Tate Modern, Yale University, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the China Academy of Fine Arts. His performance venues include the Brooklyn Academy of Music, SXSW, the John F. Kennedy Center, and the American University of Paris. He has a degree from UC Davis in Community and Regional Development and a minor in Asian American Studies. His latest collection of poetry, DADRIEL (2024), is a reflection on his first years of fatherhood.
Kaamil A. Haider is a visual artist, graphic designer, archivist, and public historian. Through his practices, he researches the nuanced relationships between objects, shared meanings, and the heritage of contemporary Somali art, with a particular focus on language and memory. Haider incorporates diverse cultural, archival and oral references in his work. He is the co-founder, co-director, and archivist of Soomaal House of Art, an artists-run organization and collective in Minneapolis. Haider holds a Master’s in Heritage Studies & Public History and BFA in graphic design from College of Design, University of Minnesota. He is the recipient of many prestigious awards, fellowships, and grants, and currently teaches at the Department of Art and Design at Augsburg University.
Keren Kroul creates large-scale watercolor paintings and installations. Examining identity through time, memory, and place, the pieces are fantastical landscapes of the mind. Born in Haifa, Israel, to an Argentinean father and Israeli mother, Kroul grew up in Mexico City, Mexico, and San José, Costa Rica. An artist and educator, she teaches painting, drawing, art history, and design at the high school and college level. Kroul exhibits nationally and has received support from state and private foundations, including the Minnesota State Arts Board, the McKnight Foundation, and the Jerome Foundation. Her work has been featured on television in MN Original (TPT-Twin Cities PBS), and in print publications including Paint Lab, Color Lab, Tangled Art, and New American Paintings. Kroul holds a BA in fine arts from Brandeis University and an MFA in painting from Parsons School of Design.
Mark Ostapchuk is a visual artist who makes paintings and drawings with various mediums. His images play with lush color schemes, quirky shapes, and obsessive patterns. The paintings’ iterations meander and travel through a determined layering, sanding, and rebuilding of opaque and translucent surfaces. Within the shapes and patterns are spaces, suggesting characters in situations and places. Ostapchuk lives in Saint Paul and works from a Minneapolis studio. He received his MFA in drawing and painting from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Exhibits include Aura of Hoffman, University of Minnesota Gallery (now Weisman Art Museum); 8 McKnight Artists, Minneapolis College of Art and Design Gallery; Painting at the Nash, Katherine Nash Gallery, Minneapolis; Mankato State University Art Gallery, Mankato, Minnesota; Necessary Differences 2, Soap Factory, Minneapolis; Veiled Travelers and Perceptions of Jazz, Phipps Center for the Arts, Hudson, Wisconsin; Standards, Minneapolis Institute of Art. Ostapchuk is represented by and has curated exhibitions at Form + Content Gallery, Minneapolis. His paintings are in Hennepin Healthcare Visual Arts Collection, Minneapolis, and Fairview Ridges Hospital, Burnsville, Minnesota. Awards include a previous McKnight Foundation Artist Fellowship.