The Fur Trade: Through the Eye of the Artist

Some 100 images are displayed at the North West Company Fur Post Visitors Center, helping to bring the story of the fur trade to life. Among the principal artists whose works are featured are:

LISA FIFIELD: A renowned artist of Native American and German descent, Lisa Fifield's paintings in watercolor and other media are represented in national and international galleries around the world. Fifield grew up in Washington state and San Jose, California, before moving to Minnesota as a teenager, where she attended the Atelier LeSuer School of Art. Native American beliefs regarding man's relationships with animals and the earth serve as catalysts for her work. Fifield is enrolled as a member of the Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin in the Black Bear Clan.

CARL GAWBOY: Born in Ely, Minnesota, and Ojibwe by heritage, Carl Gawboy is an accomplished artist and retired professor of American Indian Studies at the College of St. Scholastica, Duluth, Minnesota. Gawboy has had a lifelong interest in exploring the connections between ancient pictographs and traditional Native American understandings of astronomy and the constellations.

DAVID GEISTER: David Geister celebrates his love of American history in a broad spectrum of works: oil on canvas, pen and ink drawings, watercolor sketches and miniature sculptures in resin, clay and pewter. His appreciation for the drama of American history and his desire to convey it through art were inspired by a childhood spent on the Mississippi River in Prescott, Wis., where he filled his free time reading Mark Twain and Bruce Catton. Later, Geister spent four years in the United States Marine Corp. He has served as a costumed living history interpreter at Historic Fort Snelling in Minnesota. In addition, he portrayed frontier army officer and artist Seth Eastman in the award-winning Twin Cities Public Television documentary, "Seth Eastman: Painting the Dakota."

CORNELIUS KRIEGHOFF: Acclaimed as Canada's most famous artist of the 19th century, Cornelius Krieghoff is best known for his affectionate depictions of everyday life among the habitants and First Nations residents of what is now Quebec. Born in Amsterdam in 1815, Krieghoff immigrated to North America about 1835. He settled in Montreal in 1840 and, for most of the next 20 years, painted the new world around him, producing about 2,000 lively and engaging scenes.

TRUMAN LOWE: Sculptor Truman Lowe has exhibited at major Native and non-Native venues nationally and internationally. These include the Heard Museum in Phoenix, the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indian and Western Art in Indianapolis, the National Gallery of Art in Ottawa, Ontario, the Denver Art Museum and the White House Sculpture Garden. Lowe has taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for over 25 years. Over the years, he has served in an advisory capacity to The Detroit Institute of Art, Cincinnati Academy of Art, the South Dakota Arts Council and others. Using wood as a primary material, Lowe creates sculptures that reference the myths and stories of his Ho-Chunk heritage. Based on the Woodlands landscape, his work explores the patterns of nature as they respond to generations of human intervention. Lowe's recent work demonstrates a heightened sensitivity to the natural environment and a deepening sense of place.