About

Artist Statement

A seal swims to the shore of Iceland and sheds her sealskin. Emerging from the sea in human form, a Nordic apparition of Venus on the Half Shell, the selkie arrests the attention of a fisherman who proceeds to steal her protective sealskin in order to marry her. A few years and kids later, the selkie longs for her watery home.

As a human, the mythic selkie lives a life constructed by culture, and as a seal, she delves into mysterious waters. The skin is the threshold between knowing and unknowing—the positive and the negative of human experience. After I heard the story of the selkie in Iceland, my artwork began to question the function of thresholds, symbols of all that we are not experiencing given the limits of our body and mind. What is just beyond our reach?

Our perception fundamentally constructs our notion of reality and informs how we engage with the world, and technology is rapidly changing what and how we perceive. With the increase in consumption within the virtual environment and the growth of technology shaping and manipulating our personal “mediaspheres,” awareness of its construction, potential, and fault line is more urgent than ever. By manipulating the borders between constructed knowledge and wild unknowns, my artwork acknowledges that what lies outside experience distorts its very center. My inquires are made possible through the use of photography, film and digital video, sound, interactive programming, computer modeling, sculpture, and installation. It is through the use of technology that I am able to extend my senses beyond their natural capacity to hear the sounds of glacial “dead ice” melting, see infrasonic sound waves traveling through water, or imagine and create the layering of slowly decaying sound waves building as I move about the day in my apartment. All of these experiences dismiss the void between objects in space. I find new possibilities of connection to the environment around me, deepening awareness of my constructed reality, and strengthening my relationship and responsibility to place and community.

Bio

Kelsey Bosch is an interdisciplinary artist primarily working in media and installation. She received an MFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 2016 and a BFA from the University of Minnesota, Department of Art in 2009. Kelsey currently teaches media art and filmmaking at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, St. Cloud State University, and St. Olaf College. Previously, she worked in the Moving Image department at the Walker Art Center. She has exhibited media and installation work at the Hirshhorn Museum, Weisman Art Museum, and Franconia Sculpture Park among other venues, and was an Art(ists) on the Verge 8 fellow.

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EDUCATION
2016
MFA, Minneapolis College of Art and Design (Media Art/Sculpture)

2011
Certificate, College of Continuing Education, University of Minnesota (Business Writing)

2009
BFA, Department of Art, University of Minnesota (Painting/Media Art)

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Solo Exhibitions

2020
Loring Park Soundscape, Loring Park Community Building, Minneapolis, MN (cancelled due to COVID19)

2019
Loring Park Artist-in-Residence exhibition, Loring Park Community Building, Minneapolis, MN

Performances

2020
Sonic Salon, Minneapolis, MN
Nada, Cargo Studios, Minneapolis, MN (cancelled due to COVID19)

Group Exhibitions

2022
MCAD Faculty Biennial, MCAD Gallery, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minneapolis, MN
Trust _____, Sound Scene Festival, D.C. Listening Lounge and Smithsonian Hirshhorn, Smithsonian Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.
All Souls Night: Pop Up Cinema, Bunnell Street Arts Center, Homer, AK
Wits End, 811 Glenwood Ave, Minneapolis, MN

2021
Franconia 5 Minute Film Fest, Franconia Sculpture Park, Shafer, MN
Emerge, Sound Scene Festival, D.C. Listening Lounge and Smithsonian Hirshhorn, Washington, D.C.
Many Waters: A Minnesota Biennial, Minnesota Museum of American Art, St. Paul, MN

2020
Distant Sounds: Collective Participatory Sound Artwork in the Time of COVID–19, Olio Projects
Unrequited Leisure, Nashville, TN (cancelled due to COVID19)

2019
MCAD MFA Alumni Exhibition, Minneapolis College of Art and Design MFA Gallery, Minneapolis, MN

2018
MCAD Faculty Biennial, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minneapolis, MN
Vanishing Ice, Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, MN
Nes Alumni 10 Year Exhibition, Nes Artist Residency, Skagaströnd, Iceland

2017
Art(ists) on the Verge 8, Katherine E. Nash Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
What I Think About, Katherine E. Nash Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
C.A.V.E. Film Festival, Bryant Lake Bowl Theater, Minneapolis, MN

2016
Reverb, TEDxMinneapolis, MacPhail Center for Music, Minneapolis, MN
Chronos, Cellular Cinema 16, Bryant Lake Bowl, Minneapolis, MN
Movies at WAM, Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
MCAD MFA Thesis, MCAD MFA Gallery, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minneapolis, MN
Soo VAC + MCAD MFA: An Exhibition in Honor of Suzy Greenberg, Soo Visual Arts Center, Minneapolis, MN
The River: Memory and Metaphor on the Mississippi, Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Minneapolis, MN
Borderlines, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minneapolis, MN
Art Shanty Projects, White Bear Lake, MN

2015
Waabizipinikaan-Ziibi (WZFR) Screening at Lily Spring Farms, Sommerset, WI
Meeting Waters, Whittier Gallery, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minneapolis, MN
Sound/Fun/Fury, Northern Spark Festival, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minneapolis, MN
Hallways, Casket Art Building, Minneapolis, MN
One Two Three, Emeritus Gallery, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minneapolis, MN

2014
Untitled 11, Soo Visual Arts Center, Minneapolis, MN
Chrysalis Stage, Whittier Gallery, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minneapolis, MN

2013
Regis 10th Anniversary—current staff, Regis West Gallery, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
Nes Open Studio, Skagaströnd, Iceland
Minnesota Grown, Sinclair Gallery, Coe College, Cedar Rapids, IA
Now What Now, 801 Gallery Boiler Room, Minneapolis, MN

2012
(Very) Recent Work, NYCAMS, New York, NY
Wanderlust, Quarter Gallery, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN

2011
RESOURCE • RETURN • RECYCLE, Wilson Library, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
Fear Itself, Altered Esthetics, Minneapolis, MN
Billboard Art Project, Duluth, MN and Chicago, IL

2010
Foot in the Door 4, Minnesota Artist Exhibition Program (MAEP), Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN
5th Annual Expressions of the Feminine Psyche, Van Brabson Gallery, Minneapolis, MN

2009
Tabula Rasa, Form+Content Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
4th Annual Expressions of the Feminine Psyche, Van Brabson Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
BFA Show, Quarter Gallery, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN

Awards and Grants
Commission, Vanishing Ice, Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, MN—2018
Fellowship, Artist on the Verge 8, Northern Lights MN, Minneapolis, MN—2017
Commission, Art Shanty Projects, White Bear Lake, MN—2016
MFA Trustees Scholarship, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minneapolis, MN—   2014-2016
Planning and Research Grant, Forecast Public Art, Saint Paul, MN—2010
Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) Scholarship, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN—2009

Residencies
Loring Park Artist-in-Residence, Minneapolis, MN–2019
Waabizipinikaan-Ziibi (WZFR), Sommerset, WI—2015
Nes Residency, Skagaströnd, Iceland—2013 

Publications
Walker Reader Author Page
Conversation on “पौर्णिमा : Gazing Into The Full Moon Night” by Roshan Ganu at SooVAC, Art Sprawl, edited by Ellen Mueller–2022
Skagaströnd Review (work printed in publication), Nes Residency, Skagaströnd, Iceland—2016
Public Art Review (work reviewed in “Art Shanties on Ice,” Issue 54), Forecast Public Art, Minneapolis, MN—2016

Teaching
Visiting Assistant Professor (Foundation New Media, Digital Filmmaking, Graphic Design), St. Olaf College–Fall 2020-present
Adjunct Faculty (Media I and Intro to Filmmaking), Minneapolis College of Art and Design–Fall 2018-present
Visiting Faculty (Narrative Digital Filmmaking), St. Cloud State University, Fall 2022

Curation
Wonder Women Fashion Show, Katherine E. Nash Gallery, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN—2015
Red Barn Film Fest, Glenwood City, WI—2014
Regis 10th Anniversary, Current Staff, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN—2013
Tales from the North, Quarter Gallery, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN—2013