In the Gallery October 13 – November 14, 2026
NEW YORK MILLS, MN, October 9, 2026— The New York Mills Regional Cultural Center will bring together the work of Fargo, North Dakota artists Kara Jelinek and Tobias Zikmund in Pinprick: Kara Jelinek + Tobias Zikmund, on view October 13 through November 14, 2026. The exhibition features new and recent work spanning tufted textiles, painting, sewing, sculpture, and objects, highlighting two artists who use unconventional approaches to explore connections between material, place, memory, and the natural world.
Zikmund has a history with New York Mills Regional Cultural Center, having participated as an Artist in Residence through the Center’s Arts Retreat program in November 2025. His work has also been featured in New York Mills through Cloud Coverage, a temporary public art installation of five large, quilt-inspired banners displayed at public locations throughout the community in August and September 2026. Pinprick marks his return to the Cultural Center with a new body of work that further expands his exploration of textiles and other materials.
Jelinek and Zikmund share an interest in transforming familiar materials and processes into unexpected forms. Jelinek works primarily with tufting, creating both rectangular and sculptural textile objects. Zikmund, whose practice has traditionally centered on painting and landscape, has recently expanded into sewing, low-relief sculpture, photography, and other media.
Jelinek, a Nebraska-born textile artist, taught herself to tuft in 2021 and has since developed Soft Spot, a creative project centered on rugs and sculptural textiles. Her practice explores the relationship between physical and emotional softness, function and durability, and the ways she connects her identity to the natural world, memories both lived and passed down, and objects of devotion. For Pinprick, Jelinek will present a selection of tufted works in both shaped and rectangular forms.
Zikmund is a painter and public artist who grew up on a pig farm near Pisek, North Dakota, and studied painting and art history at Minnesota State University Moorhead. His work often examines the agricultural landscape of northeast North Dakota through satellite imagery, drawing attention to the scale of human intervention and to spaces where the landscape resists imposed order.
For Pinprick, Zikmund is debuting new work that expands his practice into sewing and other forms. His contribution is expected to include an 8-by-8-foot quilt top, three 1-by-8-foot quilt-like banners, and approximately six to eight paintings, sculptures, and objects.
Together, Jelinek and Zikmund offer distinct but complementary approaches to the ways materials can carry ideas about place, memory, identity, and the natural world.
Gallery Reception
A public gallery reception will be held Saturday, November 7, from 4:00–6:00 p.m. at New York Mills Regional Cultural Center. Light refreshments will be served. The reception is open to all and free to attend.
Pinprick: Kara Jelinek + Tobias Zikmund will be on view October 13 through November 14, 2026, at New York Mills Regional Cultural Center.
New York Mills Regional Cultural Center (NYMRCC)
24 Main Avenue North
New York Mills, Minnesota 56567
The NYMRCC gallery is always free to see thanks to the generous support of our members and donors.
For more information, visit the New York Mills Regional Cultural Center website or call 218-385-3339.
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About the Cultural Center
The New York Mills Regional Cultural Center is a rural hub for creativity, community vitality, and lifelong learning in the arts. The Center offers visitors intimate opportunities to encounter art and artists in its 80-seat concert listening room, visual art gallery in a historic building, gift shop featuring local artists, artist residency program, sculpture park, and a variety of opportunities to learn, grow, and thrive. Since its incorporation in 1990, the Cultural Center has been passionate about connecting people to artists and rich cultural experiences in rural Minnesota, celebrating the local and being a window to the world. For more information, call 218-385-3339, or visit kulcher.org.