In a new exhibit created especially for Plains Art Museum, Minnesota-based, international artist, Anne Labovitz, examines the complex and vital connection between creativity and well-being.
Convergence: Health & Creativity runs Nov. 16, 2024 through July 13, 2025. An opening reception will be held Sat., Nov. 16, from 6 to 9 pm with remarks by the artist at 7 pm. This event is free and open to the public.
The two-way interconnection between art and well-being has fascinated Labovitz for many years, and for her show at the Plains Art Museum she engaged with members of the Fargo-Moorhead health care community to create works that reflect what that looks like at the local level.
In addition to drawing upon her years of research, over a period of five months the artist conducted more than 40 interviews with local health care professionals and administrators. Labovitz then channeled their responses into her art through
a process she calls interpretive listening using abstracted text, mark making and informed color selection.
“This exhibition is an experiment in how color, light and atmosphere can provide a path to well-being and even spark joy,” explains Labovitz. “I wanted to examine how creativity, and self- expression are connected to health and happiness, and create a sense
of visual optimisim.”
Anne Labovitz, Will to Meaning, 2023, 40 x 5 x 32 feet, Acrylic on Tyvek® with grommets, Commission, Rochester Art Center.
Convergence: Art and Health explores this
connection of well-being and art via more than a
dozen new paintings, sculptures, and public participatory works.
A highlight of the exhibition is The Human Condition, a large sculpture that will hang from the museum’s Ruth and Seymour Landfield Atrium ceiling in huge, sweeping accordion folds. Created from 300 linear feet of Tyvek®, the piece is painted on both sides in a saturated palette of blue and purple – colors that reflect the artist’s interpretation of her interviews with members of the local community.
