Anna Biedenbender
Anna Leigh Biedenbender is a visual artist, classically trained so- prano, speaker, and ministry coordinator who has worked with vari- ous galleries, mentor programs, and arts organizations. Anna’s stu- dio practice and personal ministry focus on the human condition, empathy, and vulnerability. She holds an MFA in visual art with an emphasis in painting and drawing from the Minneapolis College of Art & Design. Anna currently teaches middle school art and serves as an admissions counselor at St. Croix Lutheran Academy in West St. Paul, and she maintains a studio space in NE Minneapolis Arts District’s Northrup King Building. Her award-winning paintings have been exhibited throughout the Midwest.
GOING TO SMASH
This body of work uses deconstructed/reconstructed churches as metaphors to contemplate our present challenges. The suffering induced by the pandemic, growing distrust of science and societal institutions, challenging questions of race and justice, tribal loyalties that sometimes obscure truth, a distressed and changing climate—all of these and more are signs of the systemic societal deconstruction that is also infiltrating the Christian church. As many Christian communities seem to be “going to smash” (Bonhoeffer), all people of faith are called to rediscover the foundation of truth and rethink their purpose: loving and serving others in an uneasy world.
Artist’s statement:
I am interested in the human condition. Specifically, I question one’s ability to be vulnerable and empathetic with others. In my work I dissolve figure/ground relationships into compositions of gestural line and mark. These compositions have tensions between figuration and abstraction, and fluctuate between the ephemeral and the concrete.
I work from multiple sources – referencing photographs, direct observation, and other renderings. I combine and translate this information through painting and drawing. This process is part depiction, part improvisation, and part alteration, so the work hovers between clarity and obscurity. Through this process, I am able to reflect on the intersections of personal identity, sanctuary, and relationship.