Graven Image

November 5, 2026 – January 18, 2027 

Graven Image features the work of artist Aaron Spangler who has garnered regional and national recognition for championing and critiquing the ethos of rural life. Born and raised in Park Rapids, Minnesota much of Spangler’s work showcased in the exhibition was conceived and executed from his studio set deep in the Minnesota woods near his hometown. Graven Image will highlight the sculptor’s versatility by including his large-scale woodblock prints, his monumental tapestries produced in collaboration with weaver Bruce Engebretson, as well as his freestanding carved and painted wood sculptures and bas-relief tableaux. The works on view celebrate Spangler’s role as the consummate craftsman and engaged collaborator. In addition to partnering with weaver Engebretson on weavings such as Hell Awaits (2025), the artist has worked closely with Cole Rogers and his team at the Highpoint Center for Printmaking in Minneapolis to produce ambitiously scaled and technically challenging woodblock prints including Fence Lines (2014) and Separatist (2014).

Opening Reception: Thursday, November 5, 4:30 – 6:30 pm
Beginning at 5 pm, artist, Aaron Spangler will speak about his work.

The gallery talk and reception, including hors d’oeuvres and beverages, are free and open to the public. Parking is available, at no charge, in front of the Museum.

Curator Tours: Friday, November 20, 12 pm and Sunday, November 22, 2 pm.

In preparing for this solo exhibition, Spangler was inspired by the chapel-like architectural features of the North Dakota Museum of Art as well as the ethereal light filtering into the high-ceilinged gallery space. The artist’s large cross-shaped work Solid Gold Jet Fighter (2024) will span the Museum’s 20-foot arched window thereby reinforcing this association. Yet as a sculptor, the architectural features of the Museum also called to his mind something decidedly secular: the vast salon spaces of the 19th century that populated their floors with free-standing sculptures greeting (or confronting) viewers as they enter the cavernous space. Similarly, Graven Image will present works that command a distinctive presence yet also appeal to our sense of craft with their varied textures and patterns rendered by hand. Above all, Spangler’s works invite connection to viewers on a visceral level, an experience which cannot be replicated on a screen or through digital imagery.

Religious themes and symbols from taboos, myths, and even fringe beliefs have frequently factored into Spangler’s reflections about rural society in 21st century America. While often provocative and inflected through dark humor, the artist stops short of issuing judgment or ridicule. In a published interview, he expresses the full range of complexities and contradictions woven into daily life that fuel his artwork from “rural chaos, high anxiety, political outrage, nature’s beauty and bounty, stoicism, severe religion, wellness and spiritual bliss.” To tap into this range of human experience, Spangler has been known to cite the opening lines of popular folk songs for the titles of select art works as well as some of his exhibitions. Yet this time around, his self-chosen title Graven Image cuts to the chase to evoke the raw physicality and visual power embedded in art objects. Images can seduce, excite, or even frighten a viewer which is why they have been subject to censorship and restriction throughout human history. The expression Graven Image knowingly references lines from the Old Testament: “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image;” furthermore, one of the Ten Commandments issues a warning about “bowing down” or “serving” a graven image. The attraction of the seductively powerful yet forbidden object is reinforced by his sculpture Idol (2013). Resembling the shape of a dense armchair or woodstove, the work is covered with expressive carving revealing potent glyphs and symbols that resist deciphering. Yet the materiality and mass of this sculpture commands space and presence. Some observers have compared this work to a West African boli, a sacred object of great power that is charged with spiritual energy. Viewers may not entirely know what this idol means, but they cannot deny its power.

Above and beyond the biblical associations invoked by the phrase Graven Image, Spangler’s exhibition also embraces the idea that his works are in fact carved and sculpted—graven. Using chisels, mallets, rotary tools, he yields an impressive range of mark making on basswood from a local sawmill. The original woodblock for Separatist, which is almost a sculpture onto itself, will provide insight to the physicality of the carving process and pay tribute to the basswood substrate as well as the old-school craftsmanship that went into its making. In preparing his woodblocks, Spangler pounded gravel into their surfaces and supplemented his chisel marks with a chain saw and a glass grinder to enhance the expressive power of the print.

Graven Image will feature works from different moments in Spangler’s career, beginning with an early piece from the Museum’s permanent collection titled Hometown Blues (2000) which will serve as a preface to Graven Image. This work is paired with a work from the same time period and like Hometown Blues, is carved maple flooring sourced from a bowling alley and painted in vivid colors. These early works are followed by examples of his more monochromatic carved and painted wood sculptures including the aforementioned Solid Gold Jet Fighter (2024) supplemented by additional free-standing sculptures including recent works produced for this exhibition as well as expressive bas-reliefs such as Skeleton Key (2025). A compelling work titled Smudge (2011) acknowledges Spangler’s fascination with time-honored processes. In this case, he has produced a rubbing of original carved woodblocks with wax crayons. Also known as frottage, this technique dates to Ancient China and was frequently used during the Middle Ages to record bronze plaques from churches as well as portraits from tombs before it was reintroduced to the artworld by Surrealist artist Max Ernst. Similarly, the weavings including Hell Awaits (2025) and Armistice in Blue (2026) are all hand-woven translations of Spangler’s designs utilizing handspun and dyed yarn.

About the artist

Born in 1971 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Spangler attended the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, where he obtained a BFA degree. In 1999 he moved to New York and made a name for himself within the contemporary art world for his giving voice to rural themes. After ten years in New York, Spangler and his wife, chef and author Amy Thielen, a Park Rapids native, moved back to their home town. Spangler regularly visits the Two Inlets sawmill, where he worked throwing slabs in his early twenties and learned about wood. It is here where he regularly sources his basswood.

Spangler has received grants from the Joan Mitchell Foundation (2014), McKnight Foundation (2009), Minnesota State Arts Board (1998), and Jerome Foundation (1997). In 2022, he was awarded the Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation Minnesota Art Prize. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including solo exhibitions in New York, Los Angles, and Berlin. His work belongs to many public and private collections, including The Whitney Museum of American Art, the Hammer Museum, the Rubell Family Collection, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, among others. In 2017, Spangler’s first large-scale bronze sculpture, Bog Walker, was commissioned by the Walker Art Center for the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. For the last fifteen years, Spangler has advised and curated exhibitions for the Nemeth Art Center, a contemporary art center housed in the historic Hubbard County courthouse.