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Author: Isa Gagarin Isa Gagarin

Isa Gagarin (b. 1986, Guam, USA) is a visual artist raised in Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi and based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, whose work focuses on site-responsive installation and mixed media works on paper. In her works on paper, Gagarin uses color and texture to create compositions that allude to elements of islands and ocean such as water, waves, dappled light and the moon. Her installations explore similar themes while responding to the unique characteristics of light and architecture on site, generating questions about the legacies that inform one’s orientation to the environment. Gagarin’s work raises these questions in relation to her experience of longing for a meaningful sense of ancestral origin and belonging in Guam and the Philippines. She received an MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2018, and earned her BFA in Painting from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 2008. Gagarin currently teaches at the University of Minnesota.

Zoom screenshot with two people smiling.
1Isa Gagarin and Emmett Ramstad in conversation.
Visual Art
9-29-2023

Lunch Break

Isa Gagarin, Emmett Ramstad
Black and white drawing of a face, torn out and placed on white paper reading: "Art is a process of trial and error."
1At the end of every semester, my students tear up one of their "failed" drawings and paste them on a poster with advice for future students. Photo: Isa Gagarin.
Visual Art
9-6-2023

Make Some Scribbles and Hope for the Best: Reflections on Ungrading

Isa Gagarin
Protesters carrying signs outside of stone building.
1Minnesota Federation of Teachers on strike. Photo: Tamara Turner.
Design Literature Moving Image Performing Arts Visual Art
7-21-2023

An Uncertain Syllabus for Art Education

Brooks Turner, Isa Gagarin, Emmett Ramstad, Livia Disney, Luci Aslakson, Audrey Wilson
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