IN THE ATRIUM
CHARVIS HARRELL
Charell Harvis paints works that display the beauty of overlooked aspects of life, reflecting upon prominent individuals and circumstances within the realm of black history. He strives to inspire people to challenge their way of thinking and grow their understanding of the world.
On “The Kings of Cool”
It started with my sons. They would show me their history books and I would skim through them, and I would see how very little information they had about black people and the African American experience in America. It made me want to show them, in a different way, who we were. When young black men are shown who they are in America by TV, music, and popular culture, it can be detrimental to their health and to their success. I wanted to make sure I showed them black men who worked hard and contributed toward society. This show is called “The Kings of Cool” and it’s a tribute to the dignified, debonaire, and hard-working men who weren’t scared to get dirty and who invented wonderful things for the betterment of us all.
IN THE RESTAURANT
STERLING RATHSACK
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
A Midwesterner by birth, Sterling Rathsack grew up in a military family, traveled extensively as a boy, and joined the United States Air Force at the age of eighteen. After spending seven years abroad in military service, he returned to Wisconsin, studied psychology, and pursued various related employment before completing BFA and MA degrees at the University of Wisconsin-Superior.
For more than forty years Sterling worked in the same Superior, Wisconsin studio producing a series of narrative paintings in oil and sculptural works in various mediums. Exhibitions regionally and abroad have included comprehensive, autobiographical collections of two-dimensional work and mixed-media sculpture.
He is represented in a number of Midwestern museum collections, has paintings and sculptures in permanent collections in Japan and Sweden, and has created commissioned public sculptures for Canal Park, Duluth, MN and Gooseberry Falls State Park on Lake Superior’s north shore. Additional public artworks include murals and wood sculptures for the Minnesota DNR at Tower and a bronze memorial to Jack Briggs at Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College, Cloquet, Minnesota.
Sterling has taught sculpture, drawing and design at the University of Wisconsin-Superior, design at the University of Minnesota, Duluth and drawing at the College of St. Scholastica, Duluth. In 2023, after eighteen years of teaching art full time at Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College he retired and continues to reside in Superior, Wisconsin.