Justin Sorensen: Long Minnesota Goodbye
August 26 - October 24, 2026
Artist Reception & Talk
Saturday, October 24, 1:00 PM
Gallery Hours:
M-Th 4:30 - 7:30 PM
F/S 1:00 - 4:00 PM
*Closed during university breaks and holidays
Exhibition Statement:
This exhibition takes as its point of departure the cultural ritual commonly known as the
"Long Minnesota Goodbye." Part social custom and part performance, this ritual is a
prolonged process of attempting to leave while continuing to remain. It unfolds through a
series of departures rather than a single farewell.
For this installation, I distribute different ways of saying goodbye throughout Victorian
House Gallery at varying scales. By dispersing these farewells throughout the house, this
ritual is transformed into an extended spatial experience. As visitors move from room to
room, each goodbye becomes the beginning of another, creating a conceptual loop in
which ending and continuation become increasingly difficult to distinguish.
Before leaving the gallery, visitors are invited to take a postcard containing a web link.
Entering the address in your browser extends the ritual into the digital realm, where it
moves beyond the physical boundaries of the exhibition and prolongs the process even
further.
Bio:
Justin Sorensen is an artist whose work explores time, religion, technology, and
literature. Working across multiple mediums and visual traditions, Sorensen’s work
ranges from durationally driven drawing projects to intuitive investigations that are
grounded in sculpture, performance, and installation.
Sorensen received his BFA from Kutztown University (Kutztown, PA) and his MFA from
the Rhode Island School of Design (Providence, RI). His work has been featured in
exhibitions at David Krut Projects (New York, NY), Wesley Theological Seminary
(Washington DC), North Dakota Museum of Art (Grand Forks, ND), the Granoff Center
(Providence, RI), Beeler Gallery (Columbus, OH), Space Place (Nizhny Tagil, Russia), and
Urban Shaman (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada), among others. In 2018, he received a
fellowship from the Nagel Institute at Calvin University, allowing him to study art and
religion in Beijing, Nanjing, and Shanghai. He was recently awarded an Individual
Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council.
Originally from the Pennsylvania Rust Belt, Sorensen has lived in Rhode Island, Iowa,
North Dakota, before moving to Ohio in 2016. He is currently Associate Professor of Art
at Mount Vernon Nazarene University in Mount Vernon, Ohio. When he’s not in the
studio, he enjoys spending time with his wife and three daughters.
*for more artist information please www.justinsorensen.us
