Star Tribune
Friday October 3, 1997

College Galleries Showcase Latest Trends
by Mary Abbe

The annual exhibition by the winners of the Jerome Foundation grants is always an occasion for local trend spotting and this years poetic show at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design through Oct. 29 is no exception.

Five Jerome Artists
To their credit all five of this years Jerome winners avoid the conventional avant-garde attitudes and themes that have preoccupied artists for much of the past decade. THere is no overt political or environmental posturing here, no sexual ambivalence or gender bending, no overbuilt installation and no half mastered technologies. These are not fifth generation immigrants discovering their roots, and none of the art is electrified.
So what’s left?

Introspective, poetic and conceptually quirky, this art slides right through the safety net of avant-garde irony and detachment. It’s not without roots and antecedents, but the artists have chosen their ancestors thoughtfully and honestly.
There's something naked, innocent, and genuine that makes this show especially refreshing. These are mostly young artists (ages 26 to 37) and their earnestness is so candid it’s almost painful. Using the simplest of material and tools- lumber, cameras, plaster- they have made guiless objects and images that resonate with enigmatic poetry.

An immense , windowless tower of rough wood dominates the gallery. The latest in a series of primitive constructions that Michael Rathbun has exhibited around the Twin Cities, the tower is marked by his typically naive surrealism. Recalling corncribs, coal mining and fairy tale towers, the structure is filled with huge inarticulate symbols- a rude wooden boat frame attached to a kind of screw joint and a paddle. Like Rathbun's previous work, the tower aches for interpretation but defies coherent reading....

Learn more about this sculpture.