Exhibit to feature artwork by the late Bob Plageman

Artwork by the late Bob Plageman, formerly of Maurice, will be on display Sept. 3–25 in Northwestern College’s Te Paske Gallery. An opening reception with Plageman’s widow, Anne, and stepson Gabe is scheduled for Friday, Sept. 5, at 7 p.m.

Born and raised in Sioux Falls, Plageman enrolled at the University of South Dakota after serving in Vietnam. While at USD, he studied Native American history, which greatly influenced his artwork.

His exhibition at Northwestern will include a number of large oil paintings, which combine Native American imagery with a high sense of design. Also in the display are a selection of metal sculptures, woodwork, a rawhide box, and a peace pipe carved out of red pipestone. His mastery of colored pencils found expression in illustrations that decorated a calendar journal. All 12 months of that calendar will be included in the show.

Plageman taught a year at Sioux Empire College, a now-closed community college in Hawarden, after graduating from USD in 1979 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. He also worked for K-Products in that community, sewing caps. When the owner saw a mural he painted, Plageman was moved to the company’s art department in Orange City, where he worked as a graphic designer from 1984 until his health forced him to resign in 1994. Plageman died two years later due to complications from diabetes.

The Te Paske Gallery is located in Northwestern’s Korver Visual Arts Center on Highway 10 at 214 8th St. SW in Orange City. Gallery hours are 8 a.m. to midnight Monday through Saturday and 1 p.m. to midnight Sunday.