Andy DuCett

Alumni – 2015

Andy DuCett

andyducett.com

Minneapolis, MN –USA

• MFA: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign – 2006
• BFA: University of Wisconsin: Stout – 2002

Andy DuCett’s art practice employs drawing, collage, sculpture, installation, and object making. Andy’s solo exhibition, ‘why we do this,’ (2012) a loose narrative of installations, performative, and interactive vignettes covering 12,000 sq. ft. at the Soap Factory in Minneapolis, MN was cinematic and epic. Andy has had previous residencies at The Walker Art Center for Flux-Field, Fall 2014; The Bell Museum of Natural History, University of Minnesota, 2014; and Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation, Colorado Springs, CO, 2014. Andy’s drawings have been commissioned by the Walker Art Center and The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and his work has been featured as”Critics Pick-2012” ARTFORUM, ‘Cut & Paste: 21st Century Collage,’ published by Laurence King. Andy has several video interviews for The Huffington Post, and featured as an MNOriginal produced by Twin Cities Public Television in 2010.

Far away places that are closer thank you might think

Ink, pencil, mixed media and colored pencil on paper,
18”x 26”, 2007

… At moments directly interactive, at other times purely spectacle, encompassing poignancy, sentimentality and humor, Why we do this allows visitors to immerse themselves in a series of interlocking and varied vignettes and performances. In experiences both literal and allusive, visitors can challenge a friend to a giant game of Battleship, peruse a thrift store, paddle a canoe through the Boundary Waters, run with the team onto the football field, witness an alien abduction, watch the clouds roll by from the seat of an airplane, or catch a glimpse of a Sasquatch through the window of a log cabin.

DuCett utilizes the visual language of natural history dioramas in his detailed full-size installations, juxtaposing contrasting cultural references throughout the exhibition. While large scale installation is a new direction for the artist, the non- linear arrangement of Why we do this links to DuCett’s established drawing practice in which the viewer’s eye is invited to wander throughout his multi-layered picture plane, playing with both formal dimension and cultural concept. This exhibition has no prescribed path, no single curatorial narrative to follow. The overlapping of a multiplicity of environments mimics the way we all access our memories—hopping from one tangent to the next—as the mundane tasks of the work day allow our minds to wander to fantastic places.”

— Ben Heywood, Former Director of the Soap Factory

This project was the culmination of 3 years of planning and plotting. The gallery was closed for 5 weeks for installation, while 4 interns, a dozen volunteers and the fabulous people at the Soap Factory assisted me in the construction and coordination of this exhibition.

The exhibition was spread out over all 3 of the Soap Factory’s galleries.

Exhibition Photography courtesy of Eric Melzer and The Soap Factory