Join Lanesboro Arts in celebrating the opening reception of the “Sanctuary: A Batik View” Exhibition, a solo exhibition featuring Batik landscape paintings. The opening reception will take place at the Lanesboro Arts Gallery on Saturday, October 25th, from 6 – 8 pm with the artists, live music, and refreshments. The exhibition will run from October 25th through December 20th, 2025.
Kim Gordon is a Minneapolis-based oil painter, batik artist, teacher, designer and illustrator. As a lifelong artist, she has long viewed art as a natural extension of thought and feeling, a “meditative process of exploring the natural world”. Her work reflects a deep engagement with the environment, a fascination with the shifting qualities of light, and the tensions between serenity and vitality in the landscape. Gordon draws from plein air immersive painting experience—observing the flutter of birds, the changing light, the rustle of leaves—to craft her own intimate language of mark-making and visual rhythm.
“Sanctuary: A Batik View” is centered around the idea of sanctuary. While sanctuaries can be a physical space, it can also be a state of mind. Gordon reflects on protected landscapes as havens for wildlife, but also as mirrors for our inner lives.
“Studying nature through an artist’s eye, one may find a path inward, a path that leads to solace and perspective,” Gordon said. “That inner sense of sanctuary leads outward again and reconnects us to the natural world.”
Through this series, Gordon invites viewers to consider how sanctuary is not just something to be found but something to be cultivated—within ourselves. Gordon turns to the ancient method of batik—an intricate wax-resist dyeing technique that originated in Indonesia. The process involves layering wax and pigment on cloth, allowing the artist to play with both control and unpredictability. Cracks in the wax create delicate tracings where dye seeps through, while repeated dye baths and removals build a vibrant complexity.
Accessible and free to the public, the Exhibition Gallery is located at 103 Parkway Ave N. in Lanesboro, Minnesota, and is open Tuesday – Saturday, 10 am – 5 pm. The organization provides year-round arts programming and serves as a regional catalyst for artistic excellence and educational development, by providing diverse art experiences for people of all ages. For more information, visit www.lanesboroarts.org.
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.