Today we’d like to introduce you to Anne Labovitz.
Hi Anne, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Thank you very much for chatting with me and for sharing my story. I am a contemporary artist dedicated to making artworks that are urgent, participatory, and unrepentantly beautiful. I make artwork that aims to challenge isolation, loneliness, and disconnection by activating color and light in large-scale work. I start with an idea that then informs the materiality and creation. Dialogue, engagement, and participatory works co-exist in the gallery with my paintings and sculpture. For me, color is energy, a life force. Using color and dialogue, I create experimental, site-specific work (painting, sculpture and installation) designed to engage a visceral and emotional place to viewers.
I love people and strive to make artworks that inspire and delight.
I received a BA, Art & Psychology, Minor: Art Education & Art History from Hamline University (1989) and an MFA from Transart Institute (Berlin, Germany, NYC)(2017). I am currently an adjunct professor teaching professional practice and an MFA mentor at Minneapolis College of Art & Design (2020-present) and am a long-time Walker Art Center Board member.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Experiencing challenges as a teen, the only place I felt calm and comfortable was sitting on the shore of Lake Superior. The lake has always provided awe, wonder and comfort for me. My grandmother Ella Labovitz’s studio was on the shore of Lake Superior. I used to try to sit still as she painted my portrait, one of my fondest childhood memories.
After my grandmother died, I moved off the grid in New Mexico for 7 years, examining, contemplating and working in the studio. I expanded my practice into portraiture and landscapes of the Sangre de Cristo mountains. For the first year after my grandmother died, I exclusively created a series “My Dead Grandmother”. This period of isolation and intense studio practice was followed by another very different yet influential phase in my life that has shaped who I am as an artist. I lived and worked in Switzerland and Germany and began a family. I rekindled my love for the expressionists and went to every museum and gallery I could.
My grandmother, Martin Buber, my mentor Harold, my family, and finally, graduate school all contributed to my shift to social practice. As part of this process, I began making large-scale works, fragmenting them and offering as a gift to the participating individuals. The concept of exchange and recognition for each person’s involvement is important to me.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
From 2013-2019 I project managed and created a six-year international touring exhibition, 122 Conversations: Person to Person, Art Beyond Borders. 122 Conversations traveled to Rania, Iraqi Kurdistan, Växjö, Sweden, Petrozavodsk, Russia, Isumi City Japan, Thunder Bay, Canada, and Duluth, MN. 122 Conversations represents a pivotal moment in my career. This colossal undertaking was led by myself in collaboration with Sister Cities International and the Tweed Museum of Art. The artwork in the exhibition represents six years of planning and creating and 60 Skype or in person interviews involving ten residents from each of the five sister cities, including the mayor of each city. In all, 2500 volunteers co-created and made this project a success. The large scale paintings created by me in my studio were inspired by the spirited interview exchanges. Each of the artworks depicts an interpretative vision of the conversations that include faces, words, and descriptions of the experiences that relate to the individuals involved.
In 2018, I launched the I Love You Institute, which is an artist-led, site-specific initiative urgently working with communities to creatively address today’s world. We combine art making, social justice, radical kindness, and relational listening to normalize saying “I Love You” as an alternative to division and conflict.
Currently, fifty scrolls from 122 Conversations can be seen at Minneapolis St Paul International Airport Humphrey Terminal pre-security.
Happy Travels and Bon Voyage are two original mosaic artworks commissioned and acquired by MAC and displayed at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Based on the conceptual idea of travel, particularly in the tenuous time of COVID, the aim of the work was to saturate the traveler’s field of vision with color and texture, evoking sharing wishes for safe and happy travels. The rich, bold Venetian Smalti glass mosaics were carefully crafted and placed by Italian experts. Happy Travels and Bon Voyage mosaics are permanently installed at Minneapolis St Paul International Airport, Terminal 1 departure hall pre-security.
Water Stories, currently at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum (until January 22, 2023) is about a recurring theme for me–bodies of water as meditative and essential, offering urgent restorative qualities that provide respite, refuge, and regeneration. The works in this exhibition examine water in different visual manifestations–highlighting its powerful and mesmerizing presence. The exhibition includes paintings, artist’s books, an immersive room installation with audio, and a public participatory section. These works are based on the ideas and emotive qualities of color and water.
My upcoming solo show at Rochester Art Center (Feburary 18- July 30, 2023) focuses on the intersection of health and art. Working with communities and health organizations, this exhibition will engage in broad and deep conversations about why art is vital to our mental and physical well-being.
This year I undertook “Vision and Values,” an engagement and co-creating project with Mayo Clinic’s Program in Professionalism and Values and the Dolores Jean Lavins Center for Humanities in Medicine for staff. Based on the co-creations, I was commissioned to create two new artworks for Mayo Clinic’s permanent collection. I will be one of the speakers and a facilitator at the Mayo Clinic 2023 Conference on Brain Health and Dementia – Paths to Emotional Wellness. This special conference provides attendees the opportunity to explore emotional wellness for oneself and the knowledge to positively impact wellness for those living with dementia. A collaborative art piece will be unveiled that will reflect the voices and hearts of conference attendees.
I have a thriving studio practice in St. Paul with both individuals and companies requesting commissions
You can see my work at the following venues:
- Water Stories: Minnesota Marine Art Museum, Winona, MN (until January 22, 2023)
- Burnet Fine Art & Advising, Wayzata, MN
- Happy Travels and Bon Voyage, Minneapolis St Paul International Airport Terminal one departures level mosaics. (pre security)
- 122 Conversations: Person to Person, Art Beyond Borders, Minneapolis St Paul International Airport Humphrey Terminal (pre security)
- The Nexus of Well Being and Art, Rochester Art Center, Rochester, MN February 18 – July 30, 2023
- Mayo Clinic 2023 Conference on Brain Health and Dementia – Paths to Emotional Wellness. Art project and breakout sessions, March 25, 2023
- Anne Labovitz Solo Exhibition, Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, La Jolla, CA November 18th – Dec 30 2023
My artwork is in public and private collections, including Minneapolis/St Paul Airport Collection; Frederick R Weisman Art Museum; Minnesota Museum of American Art; The Tweed Museum of Art; The Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, La Jolla; Minnesota Historical Society; International Gallery of Portrait, Bosnia-Herzegovina; Växjö Kommun, Sweden; Isumi City Offices, Japan; University of Raparin, Rania Iraqi Kurdistan; and City of Petrozavodsk, Russia.
What was your favorite childhood memory?
A driving force in my practice is Martin Buber’s theory of I Thou. As a child, my grandmother, artist Ella Labovitz painted my portrait while I tried to sit still. Later, painting together she would read poetry aloud and discuss Buber’s Theory of seeing people one human at a time. During my college years as an art student, I met my long-term mentor, friend and artist, Dr. Harold Robinson Adams. A great inspiration for my work, he encouraged me to create a serious rigorous studio practice and to try any ideas that come up in the studio.
Contact Info:
- Website: Labovitz.com, ILOVYOUINSTITUTE.com, 122conversations.com
- Instagram: @annelabovitz
- Facebook: @annelabovitzart
- Twitter: @annelabovitz
- Youtube: Anne Labovitz
Image Credits
Image #1 Water, SunSet Memories, 2022 Acrylic on Tyvek with wooden frame and wire, 12’ x 24’ x 10’ Photo by Bailey Tillman
Image #2 Installation, 122 Conversations at Minneapolis St Paul International Airport Terminal 2, 2022 Image by David Sherman
