Art Hounds

Heather Lawrenz of Red Wing Arts was deeply inspired by Journey to Rock Bottom, a visual arts show that celebrates athleticism. Burnsville artist Annie Young began creating this show after running an ice marathon in Antarctica in 2018.

She interviewed her fellow runners about their Antarctica journeys, then created paintings inspired by their stories and her imagination. An artist living with blindness, Young also collaborated with 10 local artists with a variety of backgrounds and abilities.

A free artist reception Saturday will bring together many of the artists as well as the “athletes coming in from all over the world who inspired these pieces,” Lawrenz said. Some of the runners plan to compete in the Twin Cities marathon on Sunday. The reception is from 5:30 to 8 p.m. The show runs through Nov. 5 at the Ames Center Art Gallery in Burnsville.

There is an audio description of the exhibit scheduled for Oct. 15, 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., including a discussion led by the artist.

Singer/songwriter Clark Machtemes of Waconia is preparing for a trip west this weekend to meander through towns along the Upper Minnesota Valley, checking out arts studios. The annual Meander Art Crawl is a juried event with more than 30 stops at studios in Ortonville, Appleton, Madison, Milan, Dawson, Montevideo and Granite Falls.

This free, self-guided tour includes potters, printers, basket weavers, painters, and more. Machtemes says he discovers something new every year. The Meander runs Friday through Sunday. Find a map and description of all the stops here.

Farther north, the 19th annual Fargo Moorhead Visual Arts (FMVA) Studio Crawl invites visitors to check out the work of 40 artists and organizations Saturday and Sunday afternoon. Find a map here.

If you take the studio crawl, Naomi RaMona Schliesman of Fergus Falls recommends a stop in Moorhead to see the collaborative “Mother Trees” exhibit from Ms. Anna Lee’s Gray Matter Series.

The title refers to trees in the forest that connect with and nourish others through the mycorrhizal relationship between fungus and plant.

The multi-step collaboration behind this exhibit moved from art to dinner party to more artwork. Chris Larson’s mural was the backdrop for a fungi-themed dinner party created by chef Candace Stock. Local creatives gathered at the dinner possessed skills ranging from photography to poetry to hairstyling. Photographer Sarah Faith Strong, artist Nancy X. Valentine, and poet Julie Larson created works resulting from that evening.

The works are on display at the Arthouse Gallery, a new space in Moorhead.

Raya Esmaeili of northeast Minneapolis is looking forward to the “Music of Iran” concert, part of the Twin Cities Iranian Culture Festival.  The show will feature Minnesota-based artists performing a variety of Iranian music.

One of the groups performing is The Ensemble Aras, consisting of Niloofar Sohi, Negin Chahardoli, Yashar Alizadeh and Aidin Milani. Esmaeili said the group performs music from different ethnic groups and cultures found in Iran, including in different languages.

“If you haven’t heard it before, I think it’s a great introduction,” Esmaeili said.

Others performing include the Twin Cities Daf Ensemble and vocalist Aida Shahghasemi.

The “Music of Iran” concert at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts is Sunday at 2 p.m. in St. Paul.

Co-artistic Director of Ragamala Dance Company Aparna Ramaswamy highlights an event for Minnesota writer Will McGrath’s new book “Farewell Transmission: Notes from Hidden Spaces”. The book, published in August, is a collection of essays featuring insight into the lives of people from different parts of the world.  

One of the people featured in the book, comedian Ali Sultan, will be performing at the event. A conversation with novelist Curtis Sittenfeld will also take place. 

A launch event is Tuesday, 7 p.m. at Sisyphus Brewing in Minneapolis.

Theater professional Catherine Glynn in Lanesboro recommends checking out History ALive! Lanesboro’s pop-up plays “Roma,” “Norskies” and “Bumtown.” Organized by Artistic Director Jane Peck, the pop-up plays depict real events from the towns’ past and are performed for audiences as they tour throughout Lanesboro.  

This year's stories are set in 1935 and allow audience members to walk through a Roma camp, experience a short play in Norwegian and interact with local historical characters like journalist Cecil Ward.  

The pop-up plays take place on Saturday and Sunday, with tours departing from Lanesboro’s Sons of Norway Lodge, 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. both days.  

Correction (Sept. 22, 2022): An earlier version of this article misidentified where Raya Esmaeili lives and had the incorrect name of the ensemble. The article has been updated.

Art curator and bilingual instructor William Franklin recommends a trip along the St Croix River this weekend for the River Valley Potters Fall Tour, with stops at three pottery home studios in Shafer and Marine on St. Croix.

Nick Earl, Peter Jadoonath and father-daughter duo Guillermo and Alana Cuellar are the host potters, each of whom will host an additional four to six artists, ensuring that there will be plenty of handmade ceramics to see at each stop. Franklin particularly appreciates the work of fellow Venezuela-to-Minnesota transplant Guillermo Cuellar.

The pottery tour runs Sept. 16-18 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. It’s part of a larger event called Take Me to the River, which celebrates “art at every bend in the river” through Oct 2.

Rachel Miller looks forward to her hometown Lakeville Art Festival every third weekend of September. Held on the grounds of the Lakeville Area Arts Center, Miller says the two-day festival is a celebration of art that is intimate in feel. She loves getting to know the creatives who return year after year for the juried arts show as well as those emerging on the scene.

“Each time I go, I am so inspired, and it’s not just because of the fine artists. It just gives me a sense of community,” said Miller.

She particularly recommends checking out the vivid paintings of Olga Krasovska, originally of Ukraine, now living in Granite Falls, and the wooden furniture of Justin Hossle of Minneapolis,  who she says won Best in Show at last year’s festival. The festival also includes a community art project. This year it’s a 3D sculpture whose theme is “Setting Sail” — along with a youth art tent, live music, food, and art demos.

The festival runs Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Sharon Mansur of Winona was a McKnight dance fellow from 2018, and she is looking forward to seeing SOLO: the world-premiere dance performances by the 2020 and 2021 McKnight cohort. The performance will be a night of hip-hop, rhythmic Chicago footwork, Brazilian contemporary choreography, and modern contemporary dance. Each of the six dance solos lasts up to 10 minutes, interspersed with short videos showing behind-the-scenes looks at the artist’s process.

Each year, this prestigious award goes to three dancers who each develop a new solo dance work with the help of a choreographer they commission. Last year, the previous two cohorts presented their work as dance videos amid the pandemic; this year, the performances will be live.

The 2021 dance fellows whose work will be presented this year are Alexandra Eady, Hassan Ingraham, and David Stalter, Jr.  The 2020 fellows are Non Edwards, Melissa Clark, and Marciano Silva dos Santos.

The dancers take the stage Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at the Goodale Theater at the Cowles Center for Dance and The Performing Arts in Minneapolis. Saturday’s performance is pay-as-you-are and will be live-streamed.

Cynthia Hall-Duran of St. Paul has been a fan of the AZ Gallery (also called Argyle Zebra Gallery) in Lowertown for a while, and she was able to attend the soft opening of their September show “Rejected.”

More than 2,200 artists, both emerging and professional, submitted their work to the State Fair’s Fine Arts show this year, and only 324 were on display. Plenty of quality work didn’t make the cut, and AZ’s “Rejected!” gives these photos, paintings and other works a second chance to be seen. Hall-Duran called the show delightful.

AZ Gallery is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. There’s an artist reception from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday. The show runs through Sept. 25.

Art lover Florence Brammer of West St. Paul said she can’t stop telling people about the Weisman Art Museum’s fall exhibition, surveying three decades of art by Piotr Szyhalski. “We Are Working All The Time!” displays an impressive array of Szyhalski’s work, including posters, painting, web projects and public performance.

Raised and trained in Poland, Szyhalski is a professor of design and media arts at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Brammer singles out Szyhalski’s Labor Camp Report posters: a series of 225 hand-inked posters created daily over the course of eight months during the pandemic.

“To see them all together, chronologically hung, is really stunning,” Brammer said.

The show is open for public viewing now, but the gallery will host an opening bash on Sept. 15 at 7 p.m, its first such event since the pandemic hit. The exhibit will be on view at the gallery on the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities campus through Dec. 31.

Teacher, theater director and artist Justin Spooner of Minneapolis is looking forward to attending Exposed Brick Theatre’s Through Our Eyes Festival that starts this weekend. The festival spans two weekends and features two new plays back-to-back. “Freeing Assata” by interdisciplinary healing artist Sterling Miller takes on the incarceration and liberation of political activist Assata Shakur. Siddeeqah Shabazz’s play, “A Love Story in 8 Scenes,” which explores the clash of love and religion for one teenage Muslim girl.

Spooner appreciates that, in addition to showcasing two world premieres, the festival includes a series of short workshops, whose subjects include  Spontaneous Storytelling, Decolonizing the Artist, and Exploring Childhood through your Senses. The festival starts Friday Sept. 9 at 7:30 p.m. and runs through Sept. 18 at Open Eye Theatre in Minneapolis. 

Monarda Thrasher loved Mixed Precipitation’s traveling production of “The Magic Flute” when they saw it earlier this month in Grand Marais, and they highly recommend this fun, modern take on Mozart’s opera.

Mixed Precipitation calls its traveling series “The Pickup Truck Opera” because the truck and trailer are both the mode of travel and part of the set design. Set in Strange Land Middle School, this production explores teacher shortages, burnout and toxic positivity. Papageno and Papagena are janitors, and the raging Queen of the Night is recast as an education administrator.

The dialogue is in English, and performers slip easily from German arias to pop songs and back again. As an opera lover, Thrasher worried that this shortened production might leave them wanting more, but they said there was enough of the original music to satisfy, danced and sung in a way that kept their whole family entertained.

The outdoor production takes place Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. at Alexis Bailly Vineyard in Hastings, as well as Sept. 10 at Swede Hollow Park in St. Paul and Sept. 11 at JD Rivers’ Children’s Garden in Minneapolis.

Minneapolis comedian Robert Fones plans to spend his Labor Day weekend at Prairie Fyre music festival in Wood Lake in southwestern Minnesota. The camping/music festival runs Friday evening through Monday, with a line-up of over 50 bands and performers. Fones says the space that will hold the event is beautiful, and he’s intrigued by the line-up of music, burlesque, comedy, and poetry.

Festival attendees can also join in on glitch art workshops Saturday and Sunday mornings in nearby Granite Falls and get back in time for the musical events that start at 2 pm. Friday evening’s opening event features a Q&A with comic book author Rob Sheridan, who is best known for his art work with Nine Inch Nails.

Will Dykes of the band Montclair really enjoys the sound of the Rat Castle Jazz Ensemble. He says the Minneapolis group has a unique sound that doesn’t pander and they collaborate and connect with other local bands.

You can find the Rat Castle Jazz Ensemble’s work on all streaming platforms as well performing across the Twin Cities.

Here they are at the White Squirrel bar in St. Paul:

Nancy XiáoRong Valentine is a visual artist in Underwood, and she was deeply moved by the exhibit, "Return to Normal? COVID Diaries from Local Youth" at the Otter Tail County Historical Society in Fergus Falls, Minn.

The exhibition by five high school students and one college student uses a range of artistic styles to tell the story of how COVID-19 affected their lives and education — and what it means to return to normal.

Valentine was struck by how thoughtful and vulnerable each of the artists were in considering the complexities of the pandemic. She says she was moved to tears by the work of Sylvia Pesch, who wrote an original piano piece that pairs with poetry and visuals.

The show runs through Sept. 30.

Retired arts educator Le Ann Gehring-Ryan of North Mankato recommends a show at the Owatonna Arts Center, the solo exhibit by landscape painter Andrew Judkins.

Judkins, also of North Mankato, is an avid hiker, and many of his landscape paintings feature water — from the waterfalls in the Mankato area to scenes on the North Shore.

Gehring-Ryan appreciates Judkins’ eye for color and his carefully layered paint that makes images “jump right off the canvas.”

Aurora: Landscapes by Andrew Judkins runs through Sunday.

Bill Childs of St. Paul runs a weekly radio music show for kids called “Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child,” and he loves the new album, “The Greats,” by Louis and Dan and the Invisible Band. The Northfield-based group is the brainchild of Louis Epstein, who teaches musicology at St. Olaf College, and Dan Groll, who teaches philosophy at Carleton College. Childs calls the album “goofy and funny and very smart.”

“It’s kind of like a standards album, except that none of the songs are covers.” Childs added that Louis and Dan are masters at each genre they tackle.

The album includes several guest artists, including Tesfa Wondemagegnehu, Chapel Choir director at St. Olaf, who joins in on a jazzy tune about the joy of singing and a blues number about barbeque.

The band will be performing on Sept. 4 as part of the 10th annual Fest du Nord at Camp du Nord in Ely. The festival runs Sept. 2 - Sept. 4.

Puppeteer Karly Bergmann was a fellow in the previous PuppetLab cohort, and she is excited that the series is back after a pandemic hiatus for its 10th year. Four residency artists have spent the past six months developing and workshopping new, experimental works with puppets, which will air as two distinct shows this weekend and next. Titled, The PuppetLab Festival of New Work at Open Eye Theatre in Minneapolis, Dominique Herskind and Mary Plaster will perform this Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Amoke Kubat and Liping Vong perform Aug. 19-21. Both shows run about 60 minutes. Masks are required in the theater.

Brian Parmeter has been a fan of Prudence Johnson’s singing career for decades. He’s looking forward to seeing her and a number of other performers he recognizes from “Prairie Home Companion” at the Backus Community Center in International Falls on Friday, Aug. 12 at 7 p.m. The free concert is entitled “An Evening of Stories, Songs & Laughs” and it features storyteller Kevin Kling along with musicians Dan Chouinard and Randy Sabien, as well as special guest Anishinaabe comedian Pebaamibines.

Visitors can also check out a show of paintings and photography, “Natural Wonders II,” at the Backus Center through Aug. 12. There is an artists’ reception for both performers and artists at 5:30 p.m. on Friday.

Matt Wehling of Northfield is an artisan violin bowmaker and musician, and next weekend he’s ready to head to the Cannon River Clay Tour in and around Northfield. Wehling remembers last year’s event as “a wonderful weekend to be out,” adding that he invariably runs into people he knows and pottery he likes. This year, 21 potters are displaying their creations at four different locations in the Northfield area Aug. 20-21 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. You can find a map of the locations here.

Mai Tran, a woodcut and print artist from Mankato, is looking forward to seeing an exhibit at her favorite local gallery, 410 Project. The show is titled “Art Inside,” and it features 60 works made by people incarcerated at Minnesota Correctional Facility - Faribault.

The artists are students in Scholars Serving Time, a Minnesota State University, Mankato program. Tran is impressed with the works the gallery has revealed so far online.  The exhibit runs Aug. 5 - 20, with an opening reception Friday from 7 - 9 p.m.

The Fringe Festival kicks off Thursday and runs through August 14 with shows running under an hour at venues across the Twin Cities. Callie Aho, a director and intimacy counselor from Savage, is looking forward to attending. In particular, she’s planning to see Sheree Froelich’s show “My Empty Arms.”

The two-woman show tells of Froelich’s decision to give her daughter up for adoption more than two decades ago. The subject strikes a personal note for Aho, whose mother was adopted, and she says this poignant show is bound to spark conversation.

The show runs August 4, 6, 7, 11, and 13 at the University of Minnesota’s Rarig Center Arena. The show is appropriate for ages 16 and up. Find information on attending all the Fringe Festival shows here.

Suzanne Tibbetts is a huge fan of Twin Cities comedian Trish Cook, who will be performing along with Jonny R. and “The Rez Reporter” Rob Fairbanks at the NDN Way Comedy show next week. Tibbets, who saw the show a few weeks ago and plans to watch it again, says the three Native American comedians play off each other, but each has their own style.

Cook has ties to both the Red Lake reservation in northern Minnesota and to Minneapolis; she uses both of those worlds in her storytelling.

The show will be at Rick Bronson’s House of Comedy in the Mall of America on Aug. 10. Cook performs at 7:30 p.m.

Laura Burlis of Minneapolis appreciates the work of the organization “Art to Change the World,” and she’s looking forward to attending the artist talks at Saturday’s closing event for their “Age of Age” project.

The exhibit features 10 pairs of artists, roughly 20 years apart, who create art works either together or in conversation with one another. The artists’ ages span from 25 to 103 years old, and they vary in experience level. Burlis enjoyed hearing about the connections that the creatives formed.

One pair, Madalina Kelner, 25, and Layl McDill, 51, reached back to their childhoods to create habitats for fairies and Smurfs from found objects. Other pairings created paintings and self-portraits, and other works sure to spark conversation in this exhibit designed to spark conversation about age.

The exhibit at Homewood Studios in Minneapolis is on view Friday 1 to 6 p.m., with a closing event Saturday from 2-4:30 p.m. The Saturday event is one of many taking place during the FLOW Northside Art Crawl Thursday through Saturday.

Painter Alena Hrabcakova is at an artist residency in Pennington, Minn., and she’s heading to Puposky, north of Bemidji, this weekend to see a concert performance of a new musical. “Water from Snow” was written and directed by Minneapolis playwright Janet Preus, with music co-composed and co-arranged by Fred Steele, of the singing family The Steeles, and Robert Elhai, Tony-nominated for his work on Broadway’s Lion King, also of Minneapolis.

Set in northern Minnesota, the musical tells the story of a single mother finding her way in the world, who returns to her hometown to make peace with her teenage daughter.

Produced by Mask and Rose Women’s Theater Collective, which lifts up work by women playwrights, the concert performance has three showings: Saturday at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2.

Novelist Linda LeGarde Grover of the Bois Forte Band of Ojibwe has a recommendation for families in Duluth. Every Wednesday and Saturday at 1 p.m. through Labor Day, there is an Ojibwe story time at the Lake Superior Ojibwe Gallery, located on the fourth floor of The Depot.

Through the stories told each session, listeners can learn about Ojibwe cultural teachings. Books were selected by the St. Louis County Historical Society American Indian committee.

Story time is aimed at children ages two to 12, but all are welcome and it’s free.

Brad Pappas of St. Louis Park performed in Theatre 55’s concert production of “Hair” last summer. Now he’s looking forward to seeing the company’s performance of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” opening Friday.

Pappas said the show promises strong actors in a beautiful setting, at the outdoor amphitheater at Caponi Art Park in Eagan.

Lyrics will be provided for the audience to sing along to the title song during the encore, though the audience is welcome to sing along during the show as well. It runs through July 24. Tickets are $15 a person or $30 per vehicle with up to six people inside.

St. Paul actor and director Greta Grosch recently discovered the Minnesota Mandolin Orchestra, and she’s excited to spread the word about this community ensemble with several upcoming concerts. Formed in 1991, the Minnesota Mandolin Orchestra has about 25 musicians playing a range of classical and contemporary music on plucked stringed instruments.

“It's what a community orchestra is supposed to be: people coming together because they have a passion for music,” she said.

Grosch said she was delighted to learn that Minnesota has a rich history of mandolin orchestra. Because the instrument was affordable and fairly easy to learn, mandolin groups were hugely popular in Minnesota in the early 1900s, though they fell out of fashion starting in the 1940s.

The Minnesota Mandolin Orchestra performs this Sunday at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. An entry ticket to the Arboretum is required.

Upcoming free public performances will be at the Richfield Band Shell on July 26, the Loring Park Art Festival in Minneapolis on July 31, and Centennial Lakes Park in Edina on August 1.

Escape room enthusiast Michael Larson of Minneapolis recommends a new backstage escape room set inside a theater. In “The Show Must Go On,” two to eight participants must find the missing diamonds of a visiting Broadway legend before she takes the stage in 75 minutes. The escape room is designed by David Pisa of Walking Shadow Theater.

Larson appreciates Pisa’s inventive shows, which explore the line between immersive theater and escape room puzzles. There are no live actors in this particular escape room but, like the best puzzle experiences, this one will leave you feeling like you’ve lived through the drama.

“The Show Must Go On” takes place at Daleko Arts in New Prague and runs through the summer. Individual tickets go on sale Friday.