The Walker After Hours event is a different kettle of fish than The Walker on a Saturday (especially a Free Family First Saturday) or even a Walker production. The Walker After Hours is much more of a scene – or maybe a see and be seen – than your usual visit. The After Hours on Valentine’s night was even more so. It was fun, but different.This event seemed almost too full. The queues were long and I think many people weren’t able to get into see Sisyphus, which I’m sure was a big draw for many guests. That being said, the people, police officers, volunteer guards, staff were all very friendly and nice. Continue Reading
“I like ‘mosaic’ because it has a lot of metaphor – making something broken into something whole,” said Lori Greene, this month’s cover artist. “There are so many metaphors. It works for me.”
I’ve spent the past couple of weeks plotting my strategy to bring attention to artist Bjarne Melgaard’s use of blatant racism in his work, but it seems he has done my work for me.Melgaard, the artist responsible for the recent “women of color as chairs” scandal that surfaced last week, currently has work in an exhibition called “9 Artists” at the nationally-recognized Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, MN. The show aims to explore the changing role of the artist in the global community. Melgaard’s contribution to the show includes a series of photos containing multiple uses of racially insensitive slurs, such as a photo of a painting with the text, “N*GGER ON A WHITE TRIGGER.” Artist Dahn Vo also contributed his piece “I M U U R 2” to the show, a work that displays various knick knacks, including a large collection of “Black Americana”: mammy and cook imagery and figurines of black children eating watermelon. As a gallery attendant at the Walker Art Center, I’m all for freedom of expression. You wanna splatter paint on a canvas and you can get somebody to buy that shit? Do you. Continue Reading
Public art is popping up all over the Standish and Ericsson neighborhoods—murals on buildings and utility boxes ,sculpture at Lake Hiawatha Park and Oaks Station Place, colorful windows at courageous heARTS on Cedar Ave. This spring, an outdoor art gallery will be installed in front of Roosevelt High School.
The Art Shanty Project is a month-long art show featuring ice fishing houses custom designed by artists; it’s located on White Bear Lake. It opened February 1 and with temperatures well above zero, it felt almost balmy on opening day. According to the program, there are 21 Art Shanties; I’m pretty sure we didn’t visit 21 shanties, but we saw a lot. The bad news with the outside lake location is that once you’re cold, you’re cold and you have to go home. The good news, we can come again. Continue Reading
The Minnesota Cuba Committee and Regla De Oro are sponsoring a month-long exhibit of the paintings of Antonio Guerrero, one of five Cuban revolutionaries locked up in U.S. prisons on trumped-up charges. The opening reception will take place on February 7, from 6-8 PM, at Regla De Oro in Minneapolis.The art show, “I will die the way I lived,” features 15 watercolor paintings by Guerrero, who learned to paint and draw from fellow inmates. The exhibit was successfully shown last year by Obsidian Arts and the Minnesota Cuba Committee during the month of September at the Pillsbury House in south Minneapolis. September 12 marked the 15th years of their arrest and imprisonment.“After finishing the painting number 15, I made the decision to stop in this number, because it coincides with the number of years that soon will mark our captivity,” writes Guerrero in his introductory note to the exhibit. The watercolors give a sense of the routine harassment faced from prison guards and officials, the lack of privacy, the arbitrary searches of cells, the shackling of prisoners every time they are taken to court, the brutality of solitary confinement.At the same time, the paintings show the resilience and creativity of the Cuban Five during their first 17 months of imprisonment awaiting trial in Miami, Fl., including six months of solitary confinement.Guerrero, along with four other Cubans—Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, and René González—were convicted on frame-up charges, including “conspiracy to commit espionage” and, in the case of Hernández, “conspiracy to commit murder,” and received long prison sentences. Continue Reading
Does spirit matter? Is matter spirited? Whether or not you’ve pondered such questions, you might find your native inquisitiveness fed by a new exhibit at Augsburg College’s Gage Family Art Gallery, located on the first level of the Oren Gateway Center, 2211 Riverside Avenue in Minneapolis.“Spirit + Matter” represents newly inspired work on and with paper by four artists: Anna Boyer, Monica Edwards Larson, Wendy Fernstrum, and Regula Russelle. It is an intriguing and ethereal exhibit of prints, artist books, and sculptures that invites the visitor to explore “the relationship between matter and spirituality—matter a temporal container of spirit, spirit shaping matter.”The sub-themes, each chosen by an artist, are: Ritual. Dwelling. Continue Reading
A few days ago I posted a question to my Facebook without really knowing the gravity of what I was asking. This question was regarding how an artist should feel about their art and if it’s okay for that artist to love the work they make; to think that they’re a talented artist.I posed the question like this…”Are there any other artists out there who feel kinda bad for thinking or saying that they’re great artists?”I wasn’t asking to be self-deprecating and I wasn’t trying to imply that an artist who loves their art is a narcissist. But when you’re working in a career field that praises you for doing your own thing and yet you simultaniously encounter people who call you selfish for doing just that, it’s hard not to take that message in. Like I said before, I didn’t expect the variety of responses I got from local artists and creatives because when I usually ask questions on social media, no one answers. But I was pleasantly surprised by the dialogue that ensued.Stefani McDade (local artist)”I think that enjoying your art is a requirement, thinking the result is good while also being critical is also helpful to keep yourself going, thinking your work is great with perspective is just fine also, but without critique, won’t help. Continue Reading
Polly Norman is definitely her mother’s daughter. From the same facial features and body type she and her mom share to the anxious minds they both bear, Norman considers her mom her “soulmate.”
