Gustavus Adolphus College

Daniel Dallmann’s piece “Hat Trick” is one of many paintings on display at the Hillstrom Museum of Art.

The exhibition “Go Figure: Works by Daniel Dallmann and Arnoldus Grüter,” is now on display at Gustavus Adolphus College’s Hillstrom Museum of Art. This exhibition will take place Jan. 23 — Feb. 26.

“The goal of this exhibition is to present two artists with very different approaches who have in common a strong affinity with and reliance on the human figure, especially the nude,” said Donald Myers, Director of the Hillstrom Museum of Art.

In this contemporary art show, one can expect to see acrylic, oil, and mixed media on canvas and linen, as well as a smaller portion of charcoal drawings; all focusing on the human body.

Dallmann, a Philadelphia resident who graduated from St. Cloud State University and now teaches at Tyler School of Art, has exhibited nationwide and has his artwork in places as prestigious as the Art Institute of Chicago and the Yale University Art Museum.

For more than 40 years, he has focused on figurative imagery as the center of his art. His work has been called “realistic” and he admits that it could be viewed as “sur-realism.” The human form is important to Dallmann who said: “We all have many things we love, but usually it is the people, families, friends, and lovers that are the major source of richness and fulfillment in our lives. Making pictures of people provides a link between the only life form that makes art and the only life form that appreciates it. In short, it is us.”

Grüter, now a Mankato resident, is originally from the Netherlands. During his 50 years of involvement with visual arts, he has held a variety of positions, including being an artist-in-residence at Minnesota State University, Mankato. He makes very colorful, decorative art with the use of patterns as well as extended and shaped borders.

Grüter also tends to stylize the human, and especially the female, form and says: “The female form combined with an abundance of decorative detail is intended, besides satisfying my love for the luscious, as a pendant to the ugliness of war and destruction we are experiencing these days.”

The Hillstrom Museum of Art is located on the lower level of the C. Charles Jackson Campus Center and is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and weekends from 1 to 5 p.m. The exhibition is free of charge and is open to the public. For further information, visit www.gustavus.edu/finearts/hillstrom or call the Hillstrom Museum of Art at 507-933-7200.