The number 12 is all around us. This artist explores the mystic numeral

The number 12 is a recurring theme throughout life, whether you realize it or not. That’s why it’ll be the center point of art for the newest Ipso Art Gallery; Mystic October.

It’ll be a one-man show, headed by Cody Henrichs, Washington Pavilion’s Visual Arts Center creator. When first approached by First Produce, Henrichs says he didn’t consider his work “mystical,” but started to ponder the question.

“I am inherently inquisitive and obsessive. I wrote (mystical) down … I don’t know if that’s true. So I wrote it down and then went back home and started doing research and thinking about what that means to be mystical,” Henrichs said.

Henrichs, who calls himself tangential, started to focus on numbers. First, he started at seven, then three, eventually landing on 12.

“I was reading more and more and I was like ‘Oh interesting.’ So there’s the 12 primary Greek gods, then there’s 12 sons of Odin, 12 disciples, 12 tribes of Israel, 12 revolutions of the planet that we call months,” Henrichs said. “The 12 zodiac signs, the 12 chakras, and it just goes on and on and on. There’s basically this endless sort of mining information that comes out of the historic repetition for humans to use the number 12 as the number to signify divinity.”

He also pointed to more references including the number of Knights around the roundtable, members of the Jedi Council and rulers.

“What if I just hyper-focus on this concept of 12?” Henrichs said in a news release. “I’ve never been able to just so freely make. By just exploring the practice of simple repetition, I might have just cracked something.”

At the Ipso Gallery, Henrichs will display a number of sculptures, including 12 Hercules heads, wall-hanging pieces, a 12-foot light pillar, a video and more.

“We choose our artist who tend to be mystical in some nature, and so, we chose Cody just because of his work. It always felt kind of heavily researched and a little bit magical,” Fresh Produce Project Manager Erin Murtha said.

The show will run through the month of October.

Henrichs has been an artist since as long as he can remembers. In gradeschool, he was reprimanded for being too creative during an arts project and not following the rules. His punishment? A slap with a ruler, standing in the hallway during class and three recesses.

“Maybe some kids might have resigned and say ‘I guess I should just make it the way that she said.’ Instead, I was resolved to be like if this is the price I pay I have to get chastised and pulled away from the mass because I see the world differently, so be it,” Henrichs said. “... I think that’s the moment where I consciously started to recognize that I was seeing differently and thinking about things more intently.”

But that’s paid of for him thus far.

Henrichs, from Luverne, Minnesota, has had his work shown far and wide. One of those places is Fenway Park, where the Boston Red Sox play. There, he said, he replaced the head of Hall of Famer Ted Williams’ head on his bust.

And that’s not the only baseball legend he’s worked with.

David ‘Big Papi’ Ortiz was inducted in the Baseball Hall of Fame as a designated hitter in 2022, and Henrichs worked with him to create an outline of his hands.

The accomplished artist has not only created art, but taught at the University of Sioux Falls and in high school. He has also been shown in the New Orleans Contemporary Art Museum, Zurich, Switzerland and Trenton, New Jersey. He’s also worked with other standout artists including Tara Donavan, Robert Gober and Jeff Koons – to name a couple.

Along with being the head curator at the Washington Pavilion Visual Arts Center, Henrichs is an adjudicate professor of sculpture at the University of Sioux Falls. Henrichs has a master’s in sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design.

Henrichs has been busy this year, including shows at the USF Faculty Show. And, solo shows at USD, Aberdeen and Portland – all within the next 10 months, he said. In a typical year, Henrichs tries to do no more than three shows a year.

“I’ll probably get done with all that and then I’m like ‘Hold on,’ and then you’ll see a gap in my CV and you’ll be like ‘He went nuts in 2022 and 2023, and then didn’t make anything until 2035,” Henrichs joked.

The show opens with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. on Sept. 30 at Fresh Produce in Downtown Sioux Falls. The event is free and open to the public, and the display will close on Oct. 31.

This story has been updated to correctly spell the artist's last name.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Ipso Art Gallery new installment Mystic October