Carl Oltvedt: A Quiet Life: Echoes of the Natural World | On view in the Main Gallery from 21 November 2025 - 11 January 2026

Member Preview
          6:30 to 8 p.m. Friday 21 November 2025
Public Opening
          1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Saturday 22 November 2025
               Oltvedt Gallery Talk at 2 p.m.             

Oltvedt's suggested reading for A Quiet Life. Order them through The Rourke's lobby shop here. 
  • The Comfort of Crows by Margaret Renkl
  • Birds of the Shore by Jennifer Ackerman
  • My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
  • The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben
Picture
Carl Oltdvedt, gouache, " Goldfinch," 2025 From the Karen Reid Collection
          Carl Oltvedt works full-time as an artist in a variety of painting and drawing media. He retired in May of 2015 from Minnesota State University Moorhead, where he was a Professor in the School of Visual Arts. He has exhibited his work in three prior solo exhibitions at The Rourke Art Gallery + Museum, as well as in several of the annual Midwestern Invitational Exhibitions of Fine Art hosted there. He has been represented by Groveland Gallery in Minneapolis since 1978.
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          His paintings and drawings are included in numerous public, corporate, and private collections, including The Rourke Art Gallery + Museum, the Plains Art Museum, the North Dakota Museum of Art, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and the Minnesota Museum of American Art. He has completed commissions for corporations and private collectors including the Cargill Corporation, Securian Corporation, and the Laske family.  He was a recipient of Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grants in 2014 and 1991, and a Lake Region Arts Council/McKnight Artist Fellowship in 2002.
Artist Statement
I am delighted to have been working with The Rourke Art Gallery + Museum for so many years, during which, I have found constant support for my creative ideas and the work I produce. My interests have directed me to a variety of subjects throughout my career, including landscape, still life, the figure and, during the past several years, birds. Most recently, I have focused on a variety of herons, as well as blackbirds, gulls, geese, swans, and, most recently, sandhill cranes. I enjoy working directly from the subject when possible, but I might also work from drawing or painting studies completed on location, followed by additional work in the studio using my photographic documentation of the subject(s). This process may take days, weeks, months, or longer to work through. In the end, I strive to instill a sense of presence and mystery in my work.

​--Carl Oltvedt, 2025
Picture
Carl Oltvedt, pastel & charcoal, "Watchful," 2022
Picture
Carl Oltvedt, pastel & charcoal, "Sentinel of Mantrap Lake," 2024
Selected Exhibitions
2024    A Closer Look, exhibition with Cindy Koopman, Groveland Gallery
2021    Amaryllis to Zinnia, exhibition with Jill Michell, Groveland Gallery
2020    Alight & Aloft: Avian Observations, Groveland Gallery
2019    Northern Light, group exhibition, Groveland Gallery
2018    Sense of Place, group exhibition, Groveland Gallery
    Sky, Land, Water, group exhibition, Groveland Gallery
2017    Plein Air Invitational, group exhibition, Groveland Gallery
    Leaning into the Light, exhibition with Barbara Mcllrath, Groveland Gallery
2016    Sea to Sea, group exhibition, Groveland Gallery
2015    A Delicate Balance, solo exhibition, Groveland Annex
2014    Water’s Edge, group exhibition, Groveland Gallery
2013    Observations, solo exhibition, Rourke Art Museum 
2011    Joyce Lyon and Carl Oltvedt: Presence, Groveland Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
    The Raging Red and the Mighty Mississippi, Minnesota Marine Art                                 Museum, Winona, MN
2007    A Journey on Common Ground, group exhibition, Plains Art Museum
2003    A Direct Response, solo exhibition, Rourke Art Museum
2000    Midwestern Invitational, Rourke Art Museum, Moorhead, MN (awarded Best of Show)
1995    Men and Women, Plains Art Museum, Fargo, ND
1994    Still Life, North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks, ND
1990    The Figure in American Art, Minnesota Museum of American Art, St. Paul, MN

Collections
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, North Dakota Museum of Art, The Rourke Art Gallery + Museum, Honolulu Academy of Art, Plains Art Museum, Association of American Colleges and Universities, Minnesota Historical Society, US Bank, Wells Fargo Bank, 3M, Piper Jaffray and Hopwood, Faegre & Benson, Alma College, Securian, IBM, Best & Flanagan, Marquette Bank, Resource Bank & Trust, Cargill, Travelers Express, Alexander Grant & Co., Arthur Anderson, Microsoft, Hospital Corporation of America
Exhibitions and operations are supported in part by the generous support of the following regional, state, and local entities:
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
Operation support is provided in part by
​the FM Area Foundation.
This activity is funded by The Arts Partnership,
with support from the Cities of Fargo, Moorhead and West Fargo.
The Rourke Art Gallery + Museum
521 Main Avenue
​Moorhead, MN 56560
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Tel. 218.236.8861
© 2021 The Rourke Art Gallery + Museum