Groveland Gallery is honored to present an exhibition of photographs by Petronella Ytsma. This posthumous exhibition pays tribute to Nell, her forty-year career as an artist, and her lifetime of supporting art and artists.

Petronella Ytsma, born in Haarlem, Netherlands, died in 2022 in St Paul, Minnesota. Nell’s work has been exhibited widely throughout the Midwest, including exhibits at St Catherine University, Dubuque Museum of Art, WARM Gallery Mentor Program, and University of Wisconsin in La Crosse. Nell also worked and exhibited in Europe, Indonesia, and Vietnam. She taught art at several colleges and universities, including Gustavus Adolphus College and the University of Wisconsin in River Falls. She and her work were the subject of a 2012 episode of TPT’s Minnesota Originals. The program focused on her Legacy Series which illuminated the multi-generational effects of Agent Orange and Dioxin used during the Vietnam War. Of her own work Nell wrote:

“My work is concerned with social justice and ecological issues from an artistic perspective. Primarily through the lens of my Hasselblad, which allows the ‘unhurried visit’, I explore remnants and legacy, memory and mirror, and reflect on the civil contracts inherent between image maker, giver and viewer.”

Included in this exhibition will be gelatin silver prints from her Botanicals/Murnam series as well as work from several other series. Known for her exquisite and poetic black and white photos, Nell was a mentor, collaborator, teacher, and colleague of many in the regional art community. Fellow artists invited to this exhibition are: