Artist Statement

Pamela Gaard is a Minneapolis-based artist working in acrylic collage with paint, found paper and repurposed textiles. Her practice centers on portraiture and abstraction — layering memory, material and lived experience — exploring identity and resilience, what endures and what is mended.

Drawn to materials that carry history — discarded textiles, and everyday ephemera — she builds figures that are both tender and tenacious. Each work becomes an act of mending, honoring personal histories and the quiet strength found in imperfection.

Through painting and collage, Gaard considers how we assemble ourselves from fragments, and how care and attention can transform what is overlooked into something whole.