John Niemi hopes to provide landscapes and nature-inspired art that transports the viewer’s imagination as the featured artist at Pine Center for the Arts this August.
His show “Horizons, Landscapes, Butterflies” features abstracts that celebrate the colors, patterns and sheer wonder of nature.
Niemi, a native son of the Iron Range, created art from middle school all the way through college, where he majored in graphic design and photography. In 1999, his avocation took on a new life as he discovered artistic possibilities –painting with his mouse.
“I create digital images on the computer either from a blank screen or a digital image. Using a digital photograph as a palette, without regard for the actual image, I manipulate the pixels captured in the original photograph. Then the digital file becomes a limited-edition print on paper or metal,” he explained.
“My images represent the expanse and wonder of the world around us, without the clutter of manmade objects,” Niemi said. “I hope an image will capture one’s imagination: ‘Is this an interesting place or a forbidding space? Have I been there before? Or do I want to go there?’ My images are a promise of a brighter world or the threat of a lost world. What has been said is that we don’t appreciate what we appreciate until it’s gone.”
The public is invited to view the exhibit and find themselves lost in “Horizons, Landscapes, Butterflies” throughout the month of August. The exhibit opens 4-7 pm on Friday, August 6 at the Pine Center for the Arts, located 265 5th Street SE. Regular gallery hours are 3-5 pm on Thursdays, 4-6 pm on Fridays and 10 am-12 pm on Saturdays and 4-6 pm.
Activities at the Pine Center for the Arts are made possible by the voters of Minnesota through an operating grant from the East Central Regional Arts Council thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund.
