This spring we are interviewing some of the generous MFA alumni who donated work to our new MFA 2020 Fund via the MCAD Art Sale. This new fund will support scholarships for future Black, Indigenous, and People of Color MFA students.

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Aaron Olson-Reiners is an artist living and working in Grand Rapids, MN. He explores perception and personal identity through drawing and painting in pursuit of greater personal awareness. Olson-Reiners blends figurative imagery and abstraction in a responsive, improvisational process to better understand himself, his connection to other people, and his social context. Olson-Reiners has received his BA in 2004 from Saint Olaf College and his MFA in 2017 from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. He has exhibited at numerous venues including the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Soap Factory, MCAD Gallery, Flaten Art Museum, Northwest Art Center, MacRostie Art Center, Next Door Gallery, Peach Gallery, Flow Art Space, Whittier Gallery, and Stevens Square Center for the Arts.

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Which year did you graduate and what brought you to MCAD for your MFA? Could you speak a little bit about your background?

I grew up drawing, listening to industrial music, and reading comics in the eastern suburbs of the Twin Cities. I went to St. Olaf College and graduated with a BA in studio art in 2004. After college, I moved to St. Paul and continued my art practice. I graduated from the MFA program in 2017 with an emphasis in painting and drawing. MCAD’s interdisciplinary structure was very appealing. I was dedicated to painting and drawing but knew I wanted to have regular interactions with artists working in other mediums. I liked the idea of partnering with a mentor and was impressed with the diversity and quality of faculty members’ work. The teaching practicum was another big draw (thank you Lynda!). My life had also changed a lot in the ten years between finishing college and applying to MFA programs. I became a husband, a father, and bought a house in St. Paul. MCAD’s proximity allowed me to maintain the community and life my wife and I had built in the Twin Cities.

How did your art change while you were at MCAD?

When I began the program, I was making non-objective drawings and paintings on paper. I valued this work, but knew I wanted to take risks and grow as a painter. During the program, I took a winding journey through different approaches to imagery, process, and content. My path eventually led back to making personal, heavily abstracted paintings but now with a better understanding of what’s really important to me and the social/ historical context of my work. Philip Guston described a similar process when painting: “Where do you put a form? It will move all around, bellow out and shrink, and sometimes it winds up where it was in the first place. But at the end it feels different, and it had to make the voyage.” It’s an idea that sticks with me.

How has your work evolved since your time at MCAD?

Most of the paintings I made in the program came from a very personal, internal headspace. Since then, it’s become more important to me that the work is partly rooted in the external, visible world. No matter how abstract it becomes, I need to know that a kernel of the initial image emerged from observing my surroundings. It feels important that an aspect of the work is connected to something outside of myself. I’ve come to understand abstraction as a way of processing and reconciling my experience of the world.

What is next? Any new projects or jobs that are in the pipeline?

I’m usually hesitant to broadcast my plans because it makes me feel trapped. Often, I will end up doing the opposite of what I said to get free and feel unconstrained again. That said, it’s a pretty safe bet that paint, observation, abstraction, and personal experience will be important elements in what comes next.

You donated work for the MCAD Art Sale to support our MFA 2020 Fund, which benefits future Black, Indigenous, and People of Color MFA students – thank you! What motivated you to contribute to this scholarship effort?

In 2012, I started looking for meaningful ways to support the movement for racial equity. Along the way, I’ve learned that being an effective ally is complicated. It’s easy to inadvertently cause harm. Contributing to the MFA scholarship endowment fund is a way to support positive change within a community I’m already part of. The scholarship program will give more BIPOC artists time, space, and resources to grow their creative work and empower themselves. Hopefully, this will strengthen the MCAD community and help change the structure of the art world.

 

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To make a donation, please follow these directions:

Online –

• go to: https://mcad.edu/about-mcad/support/make-gift
• In the “Designation” section, select “Other”, and in the box that appears, put “MFA 2020 Fund” (This is important– please don’t just select the pre-populated “MCAD Scholarships” option.)
• Complete the online donation form.

By check –

• make the check out to MCAD
• put “MFA 2020 Fund” either in the memo line or enclose a note saying that’s how you’d like the donation to be directed–even a post it note is fine
• Mail to: MCAD Institutional Advancement, 2501 Stevens Ave S, Minneapolis MN 5540

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to Ellen Mueller at emueller@mcad.edu.

 

Photos courtesy of Aaron Olson-Reiners

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For more information:

Aaron Olson-Reiners