OTHER FRONTIERS

- Curated by Mary Maxon / The Dahl Art Center, 2011 - 

The Movable Salon and Other Frontiers takes a closer look at images and ideas that frame her upbringing in South Dakota. The exhibition was thought as a continued exploration of Strandell’s ongoing theme, east meets west. The scope of Strandell's work is a melange of European Chinoiserie, Modernist Architecture, and imprints of nature. This show also includes references to her family's childhood stories of the Dakota Frontier as homesteaders north of the Badlands, with additional works inspired by the transition in sensibility, in landscape and signage, between East River and West River South Dakota. This is a poignant transition from the eastern lakeland prairies to the rugged elevation of the Black Hills. 

Strandell’s work is a celebration of high and low art influences, seen through the vernacular of postcard collections, road side attractions, hydro-electric dams, as well as the porcelain plates her maternal grandmother painted. She funnels these disparate parts into a cacophony of works and media that look beyond the measure of time into an allegoric visual template.