‘Love Song in the Chaos’ opens at Art Project 605 in Detroit Lakes – Detroit Lakes Tribune

DETROIT LAKES – Although she has exhibited her artwork a few times in the past, Lake Park artist Jennie Ward had to be talked into her latest exhibit, “Love Song in the Chaos,” which opened Thursday, July 11, at Art Project 605 in Detroit Lakes.

“Ellen (Moses, co-owner of Art Project 605) found me on Instagram and contacted me,” Ward recalled. “She asked if I wanted to chat with her about my work.”

During that first encounter, Moses asked me if I would be interested in exhibiting (at her gallery), Ward continued. “She built me ​​up and encouraged me… pushed me to make more artwork for the exhibition.”

Consequently, several of the pieces on the wall of Art Project 605 are marked “2024,” even though several of them date from 2020 and earlier.

In a press release announcing the opening of the exhibition, Moses described Ward’s work as abstract, noting that her paintings “culminate in the surrounding landscape of field, lake and sky.”

“No space is forgotten on Ward’s canvases,” the description continued. “Painted black lines mark areas that are energetically charged with bright colors applied with expressive brushwork. Some of the compositions are two-dimensional, flattened yet recognizable landscapes, while others draw the eye into three-dimensional spaces. These new paintings are evocative and open to interpretation, leaving space for the viewer to wonder and respond based on their own ideas and experiences.”

Vicki Gerdes / Detroit Lakes Tribune

The collection, on display at the gallery through Friday, August 2, includes both oil paintings and charcoal drawings, which are Ward’s preferred media. She said she began drawing and painting when she was about five years old.

“I started copying (pictures from) books and encyclopedias about wildlife to our babysitter, Morny,” she said. “I would draw for her every morning and she would make cookies and coffee. That’s how it started. I loved how I felt (making art) and how people reacted to it.”

Ward, whose maiden name is Bowers, graduated from Detroit Lakes High School in 1994 and went on to study at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, where she received a Miles and Shirley Freeman full scholarship. She is also the recipient of the Gamblin Paint Award, and her paintings have been exhibited everywhere from the Minneapolis Skyway to the State Capitol in St. Paul, as well as at the Ecce Gallery in Fargo.

She was an artist-in-residence at the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, Vermont, and her work was featured in the June/July 2020 issue of Design and Living magazine. A large-scale painting she created, titled “Coming Home,” is at the Center for Special Surgery in West Fargo, North Dakota.

Ward now lives on a farm in rural Lake Park with her husband Chris – an art teacher – and their two children.

Vicki Gerdes / Detroit Lakes Tribune

Art Project 605 was founded by Moses and his partner Lori O’Dea with the mission to “promote regional contemporary art and provide a space for visitors to discover new representations of their surroundings and community.” It is located, as the name suggests, at 605 Washington Ave., Detroit Lakes.

The gallery is open to the public every Tuesday through Friday from 10am to 6pm and Saturdays from 11am to 2pm. The exhibition is free to visit, but many of the paintings are available for purchase. For more information, visit the website at emceramics.studio/art-project-605.