Unseen: Women in Art-- Women Abstractionists
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Unseen is a five-week studio workshop series exploring the lives, methods, and significance of women artists who made some of the most powerful and innovative work in American art history — and were systematically overlooked, dismissed, or forgotten anyway. Each week centers on a different artist or group, asking not just what they made, but why they made it, how they made it, and why it still matters.
This is not an art history lecture. It is a making experience. Participants spend each session in conversation with one artist's life and work, then create their own original piece in response — using materials and approaches inspired by that week's artist. No prior art experience is required. What's required is curiosity, a willingness to try, and an interest in the question at the heart of every session: whose work gets remembered, and why?
Presented by Heijeu Arts. Led by teaching artist and researcher Heidi Jeub, whose graduate work at the University of Minnesota examined the systemic barriers that keep artists from rural and underrepresented communities out of the historical record.
November — Four Women in the Room Where It HappenedAbstract Art: Krasner, Thomas, Frankenthaler, Mitchell
Abstract Expressionism is one of the most celebrated movements in American art history. When people name its artists they almost always name men. These four women were not on the sidelines — they were co-creators of the movement, and in some cases more technically innovative than the men who got the credit.
We look at all four together: what connected them, what made each distinct, and what it meant to paint joy, emotion, and pure color in an era that preferred to spotlight their male peers.
Studio: Participants create an abstract color study responding to a personal emotion or memory — not illustrating it, but expressing it through color relationships, mark quality, and composition. Inspired by Thomas's mosaic rings, Frankenthaler's poured washes, Mitchell's gestural memory, and Krasner's bold reinvention.
Discussion: What does it feel like to make something purely expressive — with no subject, no story, just feeling translated into color and mark? What did these women understand about paint that their contemporaries didn't want to acknowledge?
This is not an art history lecture. It is a making experience. Participants spend each session in conversation with one artist's life and work, then create their own original piece in response — using materials and approaches inspired by that week's artist. No prior art experience is required. What's required is curiosity, a willingness to try, and an interest in the question at the heart of every session: whose work gets remembered, and why?
Presented by Heijeu Arts. Led by teaching artist and researcher Heidi Jeub, whose graduate work at the University of Minnesota examined the systemic barriers that keep artists from rural and underrepresented communities out of the historical record.
November — Four Women in the Room Where It HappenedAbstract Art: Krasner, Thomas, Frankenthaler, Mitchell
Abstract Expressionism is one of the most celebrated movements in American art history. When people name its artists they almost always name men. These four women were not on the sidelines — they were co-creators of the movement, and in some cases more technically innovative than the men who got the credit.
We look at all four together: what connected them, what made each distinct, and what it meant to paint joy, emotion, and pure color in an era that preferred to spotlight their male peers.
Studio: Participants create an abstract color study responding to a personal emotion or memory — not illustrating it, but expressing it through color relationships, mark quality, and composition. Inspired by Thomas's mosaic rings, Frankenthaler's poured washes, Mitchell's gestural memory, and Krasner's bold reinvention.
Discussion: What does it feel like to make something purely expressive — with no subject, no story, just feeling translated into color and mark? What did these women understand about paint that their contemporaries didn't want to acknowledge?
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Where is it happening?
11 7th Ave N, Suite 200, Saint Cloud, MN, United States, Minnesota 56303
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.
Host or PublisherHeijeu Arts
