Grand Forks, ND – The North Dakota Museum of Art is pleased to announce the opening of its latest exhibition, Return. Roberta Paul, a career survey highlighting the notable career of UND graduate, Roberta Paul. Join us on Thursday, July 31 for the opening reception. Paul will be present to speak at the opening. We will also welcome artists to speak from the two current exhibitions in the mezzanine gallery: Tree-Lined Avenues, photographs by Wayne Gudmundson and Moving Tradition into the Future, showcasing nine contemporary Native American artists.

The gallery talks and reception, including hors d'oeuvres and beverages, are free and open to the public. Parking is available, at no charge, in front of the Museum located on the University of North Dakota campus. 

Roberta Paul received her MFA in 1981 from the University of North Dakota and spent her formative years in Grand Forks. The artist currently resides in the Boston area, and the North Dakota Museum of Art exhibition represents a “return” of the artist to celebrate her long career. Paul has exhibited nationally and internationally, and her works are in the collections of several museums, corporations, and private individuals.

Her keen eye and incisive use of line capture a range of subjects from people, animals, as well as inanimate objects, all with the same invigorating energy. Her artwork spans several media from drawing, painting, performance, and installation; these works range in scale from the intimate to the monumental. The artist is deeply invested in the bonds we form with other people and how these connections and experiences “define who we are and who we will become. In that process, we may find meaning, beauty, and truth. My art always starts from the personal and tries to reach for the more universal.”

Paul recalls, “When I attended graduate school at UND I did drawings and made prints (woodcuts and lithographs) of my friends, colleagues and professors and anyone else I found fascinating. I once had a professor tell me that UND hadn’t influenced me at all. She made work of the grain silos and the stark landscapes of the region (they were beautiful silkscreens). For me though the people in North Dakota were my landscapes.”

Rather than a sweeping year-by-year survey of the artist’s vast output, selected pieces from several bodies of work are highlighted in this exhibition. On the walls near the reception desk are intricately drawn portraits that invite close viewing, some of these portraits were made during her time in Grand Forks including the portrait of our founding director Laurel Reuter. The exhibition begins with a visual preface: A 1975 print titled Girl in Bathing Suit, a self-portrait made when Paul was a first-year student. Already in this early work, we can see the artist’s strong sense of pattern and penetrating line that characterizes her work.

Return. Roberta Paul will be on display through October 26, 2025.

The North Dakota Museum of Art is located at 261 Centennial Drive on the campus of the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks. Exhibition hours are weekdays, 9 am - 5 pm and weekends, 1 - 5 pm. Admission to the Museum is free of charge, donations welcome. For more information, 701-777-4195 or ndmoa@ndmoa.com. Visit ndmoa.com to discover more about Museum exhibitions, Cafe, programs, concerts, and events, and membership opportunities.