Todd Severson, Artist

Showing in the Lynnhurst Gallery March 2 to April 27, 2008

            The Lynnhurst UCC Music and Arts Board is proud to present artist Todd Severson. Todd is a painter and ceramic artist who uses a variety of techniques and mediums. He has shown his work in galleries and museums in Germany and locally at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Minnesota Museum of Art and other galleries. In his paintings, he creates relatively small format portraits loosely based on actual portraiture using vivid color and a variety of painterly brush technique. Todd has created large installations using thematic collections of his portraits as the conceptual focal point.

            Todd’s recent work consists of multiple panels with layers of thick paint. He then carves into the surface of the panels using a chainsaw to expose the many layers of color, creating images or abstract forms. Todd will be showing his latest work for the first time at the Lynnhurst Art Gallery. The exhibit will run from March 2 to April 27, 2008.

Exhibit Statement:

            The first question is often “Why a chainsaw?”  Little to do with the content of the work, it has become an unusual icebreaker.  Although I have always been interested in the delicate balance between control and spontaneity, too much emphasis on technique can become a distraction.  A long time ago in Nova Scotia I drew with an eight-foot long section of steel rod through wet paint and clay slips.  More recently, I’ve been experimenting with, of all things, a chainsaw.  Having worked for many years in ceramics taught me a lot about surfaces, their relationship to form, and the artist’s desire or ability to control the process.  It may not be the only way to achieve the amazing three-dimensional line created, but I feel pretty good about the results.

            In this exhibition is a revamped version of the very first work where I tried the chainsaw, an homage-style portrait composition of so-called Outsider Artists.  The more recent abstract paintings are products of the developed idea, which can be best described as cutting into many layers of applied paint, carefully.  There is a certain type of person who always asks me what kind of chainsaw I use, oddly asking how big it is.  When I tell them it is a Mercedes, they are suddenly quiet, often the opposite of an icebreaker.

Biography:             A painter and ceramic-sculptor originally from Minneapolis, I lived and worked eight of the last fifteen years in Hamburg, Germany, three years in Houston TX, and one year in London; all after finishing graduate school in Baton Rouge, La.  In 2003, I returned from Germany back to Minneapolis.  Upcoming Minneapolis exhibition at Flanders Contemporary in September 2008

Contact Information:

For more information contact Todd Severson at:
            Tel. 612 822 4162
            Email: todd_severson@msn.com
            See www.mnartists.org for more information.

The exhibit will run from March 2 to April 27, 2008.  Lynnhurst Congregational UCC Church, 4501 Colfax Ave S, Minneapolis.  Office hours: Tuesday – Friday 9 a.m. – 2 p.m.  Please contact us with any questions: 612-827-6157.

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