March 31st, 2025
Saint Peter – Greenhouse, a photographic exploration of the human relationship with the natural world by Mankato-based artist Areca Roe, will be on display April 4-May 17 in the main galleries of the Arts Center of Saint Peter.
“My art practice engages with our complex relationship with the natural world—we need it, we revere it, we protect it, and yet we also destroy it,” says Roe, who is an associate professor of photography and video in the Department of Art and Design at Minnesota State University, Mankato, and a member of Rosalux Gallery, an artist collective in Minneapolis. “I’ve been playing with 3D photography to hint at these complex interactions, using the layers of human figures, plants, and floral-patterned fabrics to describe shifting relationships.”
Roe’s work has been featured in several publications and websites, including The New York Times, Lenscratch, Colossal, Slate, Juxtapoz, WIRED, National Geographic, and Fast Company; as well as in print for Der Spiegel Wissen and Le Monde. Roe has received several grants and fellowships supporting her work, including the Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant and the Art(ists) on the Verge Fellowship. Her work recently became part of the permanent collection at the Minnesota Museum of American Art and the Minnesota Historical Society.
Concurrently, Creating Peace, a mixed-media installation by Monticello-based emerging artist Kylee Mack, will be on display in the Minnesota Avenue-facing window gallery.
A reception for both exhibitions will take place on Saturday, April 5, from 3:00-5:00 p.m. The artists will deliver brief remarks at approximately 3:30 p.m. The reception is free and open to the public, and the galleries are wheelchair accessible.