The pottery of Hudson, Wis., ceramist Zac Spates and Giclee prints of Minneapolis artist Mark Odegard will be on display Aug. 19 to Sept. 23 at Raymond Avenue Gallery, 761 Raymond Ave., St. Anthony Park. An opening reception for the show will be held Friday, Aug. 19, from 6 to 8 p.m.
Spates received his bachelor’s degree in studio arts from St. John’s University, Collegeville, Minn., in 2003. He was an assistant to Richard Bresnahan at St. John’s Pottery for three years, and then was an apprentice at Mark Hewitt Pottery, Pittsboro, N.C., from 2003 to 2006.
Spates says he strives to make simple, well-thrown pottery with complex wood-fired surfaces.
Odegard received a bachelor’s degree in sculpture at the University of Minnesota. He later attended the L.A. Art Center to study design and typography. He volunteered for the Peace Corps in the Fiji Islands, creating museum exhibitions of traditional artifacts. He returned and became head of design at the Science Museum of Minnesota for 20 years.
In the last 15 years he has worked in Asia at the National Science Museum of Thailand, taught art and design at Bemidji University, and worked as a lockman at Lock and Dam No. 1.
For the last 50 years he has kept creative art journals, recording his life in drawings, paintings, and words. This exhibit evokes his time working on the Mississippi River near the Ford Bridge.
