Artist Emmett Ramstad

Emmett Ramstad– Artist Statement

I like sausages.

My favorite butcher shop employs young men, eager faces bristled faces white aprons. Rows of flesh shiny and partitioned, sold by the pound with printed stickers. Everything is bright.

Part of the art is the trip to the shop.

I bring back white bundles of sausage casings, hotdogs, chicken skin. Labeled. They sit in the fridge, they are opened, crinkly. The hotdogs are sewn with lace, canned, filmed. I stuff the casings with lace and pearls and dry them as a link, hung high like flower garlands. The chicken skin, well, that is still in process.

It wasn’t always about meat. I have made translucent flax paper that looks like skin, or thick sheets of handmade paper that looks like leather. But it has always been about bodies: my body, queer bodies. The way bodies are lovely and repulsive. How bodies change through time or defy classification.

Then there is reading. Queer theory, feminist theory, science theory. The dirty bodies of Jean Genet. The brevity of Eileen Myles. These things feed back into a process.

Monochrome is pleasing, as are dangling threads.

Resume

Education

2007 MFA, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minneapolis, MN

2001 BA, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH

Exhibitions

Solo

2007 Becoming, Femina Potens Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2005 Drains, Jon Sims Center for Performing Arts, San Francisco, CA

Group

2009 Threaded, MCLA Gallery 51, North Adams, MA
2009 Threads, SOMARTS Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2009 Defying Gravities, Fresh Meat in the Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2009 Cynosure, The Spare Room Project Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2009 Queer Craft, L.A Gay & Lesbian Center, Los Angeles, CA
2008 Queerity, Million Fishes Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2008 Makul (Reasonable), Hafriyat Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey
2007 MFA Thesis Exhibition, SooVac Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
2007 Made at MCAD, MCAD Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
2006 Deviant Bodies 2.0, CEPA Gallery, Buffalo, NY
2006 Vice and Virtue, Concourse Gallery MCAD, Minneapolis, MN
2006 Gender/Identity, ALL Gallery, New Haven, CT
2006 Engendered Species, The Advocate Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2006 Made at MCAD, MCAD Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
2006 Pohoshow, Shoebox Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
2005 Fresh Meat in the Gallery, ODC Theater Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2005 Drains, Femina Potens Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2004 Parts, New College Cultural Center Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2004 Fresh Meat in the Gallery, ODC Theater Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2004 Reversing Vandalism, San Francisco Library, San Francisco, CA
2004 Strap ‘Em Down: The World of Drag Kings, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
2002 Hot Pink, Lesbian and Gay Historical Center, San Francisco, CA
2001 Surrender Your Gender, Intermedia Arts, Minneapolis, MN
2001 Book Artists’, Oberlin College Art Library, Oberlin, OH

Professional Experience

2009 Residency, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
2009 Residency, Kampnagle, Hamburg, Germany
Residency, MANCC, Tallahassee, FL
2008 Panelist, “Scars as Metaphor” TranSomapolitics Conference, Vancouver, BC
2008 Co-curator and Coordinator, Fresh Meat in the Gallery, LGBT Center, San Francisco, CA
2008 Panelist, “Scars as Metaphor” BioCultures Conference, Chicago, IL
2004 Curator, Parts, New College Culture Center, San Francisco, CA

Collections

Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, MN



	Emmett Ramstad– Artist Statement I like sausages. My favorite butcher shop employs young men, eager faces bristled faces white aprons. Rows of flesh shiny and partitioned, sold by the pound with printed stickers. Everything is bright. Part of the art is the trip to the shop. I bring back white bundles of sausage casings, hotdogs, chicken skin. Labeled. They sit in the fridge, they are opened, crinkly. The hotdogs are sewn with lace, canned, filmed. I stuff the casings with lace and pearls and dry them as a link, hung high like flower garlands. The chicken skin, well, that is still in process. It wasn’t always about meat. I have made translucent flax paper that looks like skin, or thick sheets of handmade paper that looks like leather. But it has always been about bodies: my body, queer bodies. The way bodies are lovely and repulsive. How bodies change through time or defy classification. Then there is reading. Queer theory, feminist theory, science theory. The dirty bodies of Jean Genet. The brevity of Eileen Myles. These things feed back into a process. Monochrome is pleasing, as are dangling threads. Resume Education 2007 MFA, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minneapolis, MN 2001 BA, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH Exhibitions Solo 2007 Becoming, Femina Potens Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2005 Drains, Jon Sims Center for Performing Arts, San Francisco, CA Group 2009 Threaded, MCLA Gallery 51, North Adams, MA 2009 Threads, SOMARTS Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2009 Defying Gravities, Fresh Meat in the Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2009 Cynosure, The Spare Room Project Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2009 Queer Craft, L.A Gay & Lesbian Center, Los Angeles, CA 2008 Queerity, Million Fishes Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2008 Makul (Reasonable), Hafriyat Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey 2007 MFA Thesis Exhibition, SooVac Gallery, Minneapolis, MN 2007 Made at MCAD, MCAD Gallery, Minneapolis, MN 2006 Deviant Bodies 2.0, CEPA Gallery, Buffalo, NY 2006 Vice and Virtue, Concourse Gallery MCAD, Minneapolis, MN 2006 Gender/Identity, ALL Gallery, New Haven, CT 2006 Engendered Species, The Advocate Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2006 Made at MCAD, MCAD Gallery, Minneapolis, MN 2006 Pohoshow, Shoebox Gallery, Minneapolis, MN 2005 Fresh Meat in the Gallery, ODC Theater Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2005 Drains, Femina Potens Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2004 Parts, New College Cultural Center Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2004 Fresh Meat in the Gallery, ODC Theater Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2004 Reversing Vandalism, San Francisco Library, San Francisco, CA 2004 Strap ‘Em Down: The World of Drag Kings, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA 2002 Hot Pink, Lesbian and Gay Historical Center, San Francisco, CA 2001 Surrender Your Gender, Intermedia Arts, Minneapolis, MN 2001 Book Artists’, Oberlin College Art Library, Oberlin, OH Professional Experience 2009 Residency, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN 2009 Residency, Kampnagle, Hamburg, Germany Residency, MANCC, Tallahassee, FL 2008 Panelist, “Scars as Metaphor” TranSomapolitics Conference, Vancouver, BC 2008 Co-curator and Coordinator, Fresh Meat in the Gallery, LGBT Center, San Francisco, CA 2008 Panelist, “Scars as Metaphor” BioCultures Conference, Chicago, IL 2004 Curator, Parts, New College Culture Center, San Francisco, CA Collections Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, MN





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