Artist Talk with Alex Constantine

Name: Artist Talk with Alex Constantine
Start: 2026-06-27T13:00:00-05:00
End: 2026-06-27T14:30:00-05:00
Location: 2665 4th Ave, suites 102, 103, 108 and 201, Anoka, MN, United States, Minnesota 55303

Schedule

Sat Jun 27 2026 at 01:00 pm to 02:30 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

2665 4th Ave, suites 102, 103, 108 and 201, Anoka, MN, United States, Minnesota 55303 | Anoka, MN

Rumriver Art Center Presents a New Art Exhibition Opening in the Jan Johansen Gallery.
Anoka, MN - The Jan Johansen Gallery of Rumriver Art Center is excited to announce the opening of a new art exhibition. Textile artist Alex Constantine presents Washed Up, an evolving exhibition that tracks a journey from the raw beauty of the sea to the "environmental dumping" of the global fashion industry. Through weaving, quilting, block printing, and embroidery, Constantine transforms stubborn, discarded materials into a visceral critique of consumer waste.
The exhibition’s genesis was a single cotton piece woven on a Saori loom, inspired by the aftermath of a storm on the coast of Bali. What began as a meditation on "flotsam and jetsam” - wild seas and tangled nets - has since evolved into a much grimmer, more physical exploration of human impact.
“The initial work was about the ocean’s power,” says Constantine. “But as the project grew, the materials changed. I moved from cotton to the things the water actually returns to us: abandoned fishing lines, sand-clogged polypropylene rope, and the synthetic waste that refuses to break down. The work became less about the beauty of the storm and more about the brutal permanence of our trash.”
Washed Up highlights the grueling physical labor required to confront this waste. Constantine sources materials like weathered rope from the Mississippi River - fibers that arrive in the studio uncooperative, smelling of lake water and packed with sand. The process of untangling, washing, sun-drying and reweaving these stubborn materials serves as a metaphor for the struggle to repair ecosystems buckling under the weight of "fast fashion."
The exhibition will open June 6th and run until July 11th, 2026.
On Saturday, June 6th, from 12 pm - 2 pm, the Jan Johansen Gallery will host an opening for Constantine’s show. On Saturday, June 27th from 1 pm - 2:30 pm the artist will provide an interactive demonstration on how to create fabric patches. All events are open to the public and free to attend.
Rumriver Art Center is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.