Nemeth Art Center Artist Reception – Jesse Dermody & Daniel Kerkhoff

Celebrate the work of Jesse Dermody and Daniel Kerkhoff at a special reception honoring their latest collections, Dermody’s The Deep Dream of Roots and Kerkhoff’s The Least Among Us. Enjoy an evening of art, conversation, and refreshments as the artists shares insights into their creative process and inspiration.

Jesse Dermody is a multi-disciplinary artist based in rural northern Minnesota. A sculptor, poet, and musician, Dermody sees his three creative pursuits as the roots of a single tree–with sonic, lyric, and sculptural branches. His large, dynamic sculptures are composed of driftwood, roots, barn boards, stones, animal bones, and other found objects that he collects on his daily hikes near his home north of Duluth. Inspired by these collected treasures from the woods, he assembles them into mystical, emotional creature-forms that straddle internal and external worlds. Dermody had a solo exhibition at Macrostie Art Center in Grand Rapids in 2021 and tours extensively with his brother, Ryan, and their band The Brothers Burn Mountain.

Daniel Kerkhoff is a Minneapolis and Mankato-based artist whose practice includes painting, drawing, mixed media, collage, sculpture, photography, and social practice. He studied at the Art Students League of New York, as well as with instructors in San Francisco, Japan, Italy, and Ghana. Since 2009, he has been creating his own residencies, as artist-in-community, in Ghana, Ecuador, and Vietnam, where he exhibits and curates, provides materials for libraries, makes art with children, and documents their shared experiences in creating, witnessing, and connecting.