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Home ― News ― Dana Sikkila is new artist featured in First Bank and Trust Art Gallery

Dana Sikkila is featured in first bank and trust gallery

March 26, 2019

 

Dana Sikkila’s exhibition “Popsicle” is on display in the First Bank and Trust Art Gallery at Dakota State University April 2 to April 22.

Sikkila, based in Mankato, Minn., is executive director of the 410 Project Community Art Space, creator of Project Bike, and studio art and education adjunct professor at Minnesota State University Mankato.

“My work displays through visual repetition the obsessive relationship between a woman and her favorite things,” Sikkila shares in her artist statement. “Objects and animals provide companionship, creating coves of comfort and ease, interacting in unconventional situations built inside the white-walled space.”

Sikkila uses printmaking and large-scale installation to confront viewers with the obsessive nature. She will be installing the exhibition on March 31 and April 1.

During the reception for “Popsicle” on Tuesday, April 2, Sikkila will also screen a documentary filmed on “Project Bike” her state-wide bicycle tour in Minnesota that features stops at visual artists’ studios.

In 2015 Sikkila created “Project Bike,” describing on her Facebook page the mission “to showcase that art and artists are truly part of our chemistry as individuals, as communities, and as a state.”

Each summer since 2015 Sikkila has traveled all over the state of Minnesota meeting with artists and collecting pieces of their work that will later be displayed at 410 Project in Mankato. To get the works home safely they are wrapped in bubble wrap, water resistant plastic, cardboard, tape, and tarps to survive the variety of weather conditions she will encounter.

Each year of “Project Bike” has included an accompanying documentary featuring the artists and their work and Sikkila’s time on the trail toting on her bike trailer a growing collection of art along the way.

The reception Tuesday, April 2 will run from 5 to 7 p.m. and is open to the public. The installation will be available for viewing through Monday, April 22.