Art Hounds

Michael Whistler is a huge fan of cabaret, and he plans to attend the Valentine Day’s edition of Dr. Jay’s Cabaret Presents: Cabaret Amore! this Sunday. Dr. Jay is pianist Jay Fuchs who, with his musical partner Eric Schwab, runs Cabaret Camp, where they teach singers to develop their voice and performance style.

Performers in Cabaret Amore are alumni of the camp; and some will be familiar to fans as featured singers as past Dr. Jay Cabaret events. Being this close to Valentine’s Day, the focus of the show is love in its many forms.

The song covers range from Alanis Morrisette to Stephen Sondheim. Whistler says he’s excited to hear how the artists craft these songs to bring the audience into the story “the way only cabaret can.” 

The show is Sunday at 5 p.m. at KJ’s Hideaway in downtown St Paul.

Visual artist Gloria Pfeifer of Starbuck appreciates the strong community of artists working in the Alexandria, Minn., area.

Among them is Lou Ann Marks, whose commitment to taking photographs on her cellphone has won her national awards, including a Reader’s Digest Road Trip Photo contest in 2019. Marks often captures landscapes of water and sky, sometimes with the aid of a crystal ball that bends the scene in interesting ways. Her work is viewable on Instagram and Etsy.

Rick Baumann of Prior Lake, Minn., says he and his wife love attending live music performances in venues large and small. He’s a particular fan of Lakeville, Minn.-based Americana musician Jud Hailey.

Hailey plays at a full lineup of bars and venues across the Twin Cities. While the musician often covers other songs by request, Baumann says he loves seeing a bar audience request – and quiet down to listen to – one of Hailey’s originals.

Find his album “All Good Things” on his website. Hailey next plays at O’Brien’s Public House in Shakopee on Feb. 9 and Steele & Hops in Minneapolis on Feb. 11.

Most of us could use a dose of bright colors by this point in January. The bold palettes are what Heather Lawrenz of Red Wing Arts is seeking when “Vivid Survival” opens Friday.

The eight-artist exhibit at the Anderson Center was curated by Lindsey Cherek Waller, who has a studio at the Anderson Center. The forms vary from giant paintings to wearable creations. The strong colors allow viewers to consider survival during the pandemic.

There is a free artists’ reception on opening night from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The exhibit runs until March 26.

Mary Fox of Renegade Theater Company in Duluth, Minn., says she was deeply affected by her visit to the “Like Me, Like You” exhibit at the Duluth Art Institute. The Twin Ports Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) Collective mounted the exhibit.

Fox loves the way the show opens, with APIDA’s logo of a golden rice stalk transformed into a 3D sculpture strung with origami.

The show is a “cultural explosion [of] voices of Asian Americans and their lived experiences,” said Fox.

Photography gives way to poetry printed on a bright yellow wall, set alongside handmade clothing, film, podcasts, and painting. At the end, visitors can write their takeaways on a ribbon and tie it to a tree. “Like Me, Like You” is free and runs through the end of March.

Film publicist Peter Schilling of the Heights Theater plans to head to the Trylon Cinema in Minneapolis Friday for an action film from 1915 that’s getting new life with local music.

He describes the “Filibus: the Mysterious Air Pirate” as a film about an elegant baroness who dresses as a man and lowers herself from an iron dirigible into Italian Riviera mansions to steal their valuables.

While the special effects may appear primitive to an audience more than a century later, Schilling says early cinema magic creates a visceral experience. Pianist Katie Condon performs her original score to accompany the film at each of the four showings.

The screenings were organized by University of Minnesota cultural studies professor and author Maggie Hennefeld. The show runs Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. Masks and proof of COVID-19 vaccination are required.

Correction (Jan. 28, 2022): A previous version of this story called "Filibus: the Mysterious Air Pirate" a black-and-white film. The story has been corrected.

Sheena Janson Kelley of Minneapolis watched the world premiere of “Bina’s Six Apples” as soon as it opened at the Children’s Theatre Company.

Set in 1950 Korea, the story follows Bina on her journey to find her family during the war. On her way, the young girl encounters a number of characters — some are humorous, others have heartbreaking roles.

Recommended for audiences ages 9 and up, the play was written by Lloyd Suh, inspired by his parents’ experience during the Korean War; and directed by Eric Ting, Artistic Director of California Shakespeare Theater.

“It was thrilling to see such a robust and well-cast cast of characters,” said Kelley, who is Asian-American and a freelance casting director. “I think there are moments where audiences will also start to discover new parts of themselves through this young girl … It absolutely made me laugh and cry in the same moment. I could not recommend this show more.”

The show, 75 minutes without intermission, runs through Feb. 13 at the Children’s Theatre Company’s Cargill Stage in Minneapolis. Patrons are required to wear masks and show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test taken within 72 hours.

Artist Erica Spitzer Rasmussen of White Bear Lake loves gathering with friends around a table set with eclectic, handmade ceramics. A longtime collector, she’s planning to attend the Hot Dish pottery sale at Franconia Sculpture Park in Shafer, Minn., this weekend.

Twelve potters from Minnesota and Wisconsin — some established and some emerging — will have a range of pottery for sale, including mugs and bowls, plates and serving platters.

Outside, Franconia’s 50-acre sculpture garden will be open for exploring. Visitors can also gather around a bonfire or bring ice skates to enjoy the ice rink.

Inside at the sale, masks are required, and Rasmussen says all the potters have committed to getting COVID tests prior to the event. The artists’ work is also available online. Hot Dish runs Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Eveleth musician Thomas Frichek of the band Horse Fzce has enjoyed watching the evolving career of fellow Iron Range musician Josh Lubovich.

A Hibbing, Minn., native who now lives in Duluth, Lubovich has been a drummer for the bands Average Mammals and Heroes of Heartache, but at the end of 2021 he dropped his first solo EP of original work.

Lubovich plays all the instruments and performs vocals on the indie rock recording  “ADHD.”

As a 90’s kid, Frichek loves Lubovich’s “quiet-loud-quiet-loud” song dynamic, reminiscent of the Pixies. 

Choreographer Taja Will has watched performances of the Naked Stages Fellows in Minneapolis for years, and they always appreciate the innovative voices of the solo performers.

Each performance is the product of a seven month-long fellowship, which allowed the artists to learn the business side of art while developing a creative work with a director of their choice.

The works are transdisciplinary, often combining text, movement, and music along with creative use of the space.

This year, both the 2020 cohort, Alia Jeraj, Atlese Robinson, C. Michael Menge, and the 2021 group, Alys Ayumi Ogura, Margaret Ogas, Ashembaga (Ashe) Jaafaru, performed for a limited audience in December. The performances are available for ticketed streaming Jan. 15-30 via Pillsbury House and Theatre in Minneapolis.

Beth Hall of Duluth recently visited the AICHO Gallery to see a new exhibit by local artist Ellen Sandbeck, entitled “As Long As the River Shall Run.” The show comprises a series of giclée prints of Sandbeck’s multicolored, multilayered paper art. Each represents a section of the Mississippi River from its watershed to the Gulf.

The exhibit at the American Indian Community Housing Organization in Duluth explains which of the species shown in the art works are endangered, native or invasive. Sandbeck includes extinct species, leaving the viewer to consider the effect of their loss on the food chain.

“What struck me besides the educational aspect of it was the sheer beauty and layered colors which gave everything depth and sometimes movement [seen] when standing back,” Hall said.  A closer look reveals scissor cuts intricate enough to appear drawn.

The exhibit is open to limited admissions, Tuesdays and Thursdays 4 to 6 p.m. through Feb. 25 at AICHO, with a community workshop on papercutting Feb. 3 at 7 p.m.

Visual artist K. Daphnae Koop of Brooklyn Center plans to see the Moving Company’s performance of “Anamnesis” for a third time when it reopens this month at the Southern Theater in Minneapolis. The show, subtitled “bits and pieces from a supposed previous existence,” knits together a series of sometimes-fantastical subplots under the frame of putting on a play.

What keeps Koop returning to this show is the way it inspires a range of emotions. “There were absolutely heart-rending scenes left for a moment to settle in the air, and then with a new line and a chuckle the scene was over and the moment had passed,” Koop said.

“The first time I saw the play especially, I felt like I had just been through my emotional experience of the last two years — they encapsulated it in an evening of theater.”

The show runs Thursday, Jan. 13 through Jan. 30. Masks are required, as is proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test within 72 hours.

Andre Schü recommends checking out the work of a fellow Minneapolis glitch artist they find inspiring, John Bumstead of RDKLinc. Glitch art, Schü explains, “is using technological systems in ways that they weren't intended in order to demonstrate the expressive, creative agency of technology that we might otherwise overlook.”

Bumstead repairs laptops for a living, and uses some of those broken pieces of tech for his art. In photographing everyday objects through broken media, Bumstead creates images that offer a new way to look at both the everyday and the tech that creates and distorts it. He is currently about two-thirds of the way through a “Broken Screen of the Day” project, creating Non-Fungible Token images made from broken screens.

If you’re in the Fargo-Moorhead area, Maija Lindaas recommends a free concert Sunday by Fargo Moorhead Spelemannslag. Lindaas was a founding member of the group but has since moved out of state. The group, made up of residents of Minnesota and North Dakota, includes new and experienced players on the hardanger fiddle, which is the national instrument of Norway.

The hardanger fiddle has eight or nine strings, instead of four, and may be ornately carved and decorated. Lindaas describes it as looking like a “tattooed violin” and sounding like “a fiddle mixed with a bagpipe because it has some droning sounds in the background.”

The tunes the Spelemannslag members play often tell stories, from tales of love to Grimm-style yarns. Lindaas says viewers will hear some of these stories recounted alongside the music.

Many in the group have built their own hardanger fiddles. Lindaas recommends reaching out to them if you’re interested in learning the instrument.

Fargo Moorhead Spelemannslag will perform 2 p.m. Sunday at the Sons of Norway Kringen Lodge in Fargo, N.D.

Former St. Paul mayor and Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity head Chris Coleman loves music, and he clearly remembers the first time he heard country singer Trevor McSpadden perform on his friend’s front lawn in the summer of 2020.

Coleman showed up expecting a dad band, but said, “all of a sudden there is Trevor and Mary Cutrufello on electric guitar, and they are just knocking it out of the park. And I went, ‘Wow, what a find. This is amazing.’” Coleman has seen McSpadden perform several times since. He appreciates the singer’s classic country voice and bluesy quality.

McSpadden plays at Forager Brewing Company in Rochester on Friday at 7 p.m., and in Wyoming, Minn., at Smokey’s Pub & Grill Saturday at 2 p.m. He and Mary Cutrufello play at the White Squirrel Bar in St. Paul on Tuesday at 6 p.m.

At the Icehouse in Minneapolis  Annie Mack performs from her new EP “Testify,” with special guest, 21-year-old R&B and rap artist Lakee.

Minneapolis artist Key Rose has watched Lakee Abner perform over the past few years since she took part in the R&B shows Rose hosted at Bullwinkle’s Saloon in Minneapolis. She's seen Lakee move from performing covers to writing and performing her own material across the Twin Cities.

“I know it's gonna be just great vibes. Great music, great voices. Great energy all around,” Rose said.

The Thursday all ages show starts at 8 p.m., 6 p.m. doors.

If you’re looking for a fun podcast, playwright and actor Vincent Hannam recommends The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society. Each episode features an original recording of an old-time radio drama from the 1930s and 40s. Three Minnesota actors and comedians break down the show, with an eye to its timeless quality, or not.

In addition to the podcast, the society puts on live performances, where they stage crime, horror and suspense radio dramas, complete with sound effects. There are doors slamming, footsteps, and commercial breaks.

This month’s performance is “The Mysterious Old Radio Holiday Special,” with new original material. The live show is Monday at 7:30 p.m. at Park Square Theatre, with live-streaming options as well. 

Slow down and look at the beauty around you. That’s what Pacem in Terris Hermitage Retreat Center director Tim Drake is reminded to do when he looks at a painting by Joshua Cunningham. Cunningham’s oil paintings of landscapes across Minnesota capture the seasons.

“He paints places you feel you recognize, even if you've never been there,” Drake said. “They are peaceful, and peace-filled.”

Cunningham started the paintings long before he knew how to finish them. He often would complete them over the course of several visits to the same place.

The exhibit of Cunningham’s work “Further In” is on display at the Groveland Gallery in Minneapolis now through Jan 8.

“A Snowy Kiss: An Improvised Holiday Romance Movie” is Jorts Improv’s take on a romantic movie for the holidays, and Shea Roberts Gyllen can’t wait to go. They remember some of the last improv version of “A Snowy Kiss” from before the pandemic: It may have included a small-town homecoming, a meet-cute, an improbable rallying of the entire town, and sentient gingerbread — all of which they said left a warm glow afterward.

This year’s show, with a cast of five and music by Vanessa Tu, promises new takes on holiday movie tropes over its three-day run. It’s “such a ding-dang blast,” Roberts Gyllen said.

The show runs Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m. at Strike Theater in Minneapolis. Masks and proof of vaccination are required.

Mary Ellen Mueske loves the van Daalen pipe organ at Austin First United Methodist Church in her hometown of Austin, Minn. Mueske says the low notes “rumble your backbone,” and she’s looking forward to the Advent Organ Recital at noon on Dec. 15.

Jan Van Daalen built pipe organs in many churches, colleges and private residences in Minnesota and other states, including at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y.

The half-hour concert will have boxed to-go lunches available. Guest organist Neal Erickson will play Christmas classics.

Darren Tesar of FOGSTAND Gallery in St. Paul recommends a visit to the current exhibition by visual artist Charles Matson Lume, which also celebrates light this December. The site-specific, light-based exhibition, “what opens — like a blaze of fire” is at the Catherine G. Murphy Gallery at St. Catherine's University in St. Paul. It runs through Dec. 12, with an artist talk Thursday on campus.

Lume uses humble materials such as reflective paper, hologram tape, and even dirt to manipulate and reflect light throughout the two symmetrical rooms of the exhibit.

Tesar says that Lume uses poetry as his jumping-off point for creation. In this exhibit, Lume collaborated with Minnesota’s second poet laureate Joyce Sutphen of Chaska and Minneapolis-based interdisciplinary artist Galilee Peaches.

The show is accompanied by a book created by the three artists, which allows the poems and the exhibition to continue to reverberate after the show closes.

Writer Tracy Harris is enthralled by photographer Rebecca Pavlenko’s exhibit “One that Got Away.” The show focuses on lost images or photographs that failed to come into being through mechanical failures or that were never taken at all.

To create the show, Pavlenko asked more than 30 photographers to describe one image that escaped them. These handwritten texts, written by the artists on photographic paper, become the visual representation of each image that got away.

The show includes stories from some of Minnesota's most well-known photographers, such as JoAnn Verburg, Alec Soth, Steve Ozone, and Wing Young Huie.

“What I love about this show is that in a world where we are bombarded with visual input, Rebecca gives us a chance to reflect on the relation between words and pictures and what it takes to create a memory,” Harris said.

See “One That Got Away” at Traffic Zone Gallery in Minneapolis through Dec. 31, or online.

Country and western singer/songwriter Trevor McSpadden of St. Paul is a big fan of Nick Hensley’s MN Songwriter Showcase. The long-standing event returned to performances this fall after an 18-month pandemic hiatus, and now it’s going strong with performances twice a week: Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. at the Aster Cafe in Minneapolis and Sundays at Plums Neighborhood Grill and Bar in St. Paul, starting at 8:45 p.m.

McSpadden says he’s impressed by the range of musical styles that assemble, hosted by grace and enthusiasm by Hensley, who also performs.

“It's always a really nice assortment of talented folks from first time singer songwriters to veterans,” says McSpadden, “but everyone is treated with equal levels of enthusiasm. And I've seen the room be silenced because somebody's singing so well. And that may be somebody that has never had a chance to sing in public or somebody that's singing, you know, a song they've been doing for 50 years.” 

Susana di Palma of Zorongo Flamenco Dance Theatre is planning to attend the world premiere this weekend of “Shaamya — Of Equality.” The performance by Katha Dance Theatre is a coming-together of music, dance and poetry, inspired by the poet Kazi Nazrul Islam’s visions of equality across gender, race and religion.

Choreographed by Katha Artistic Director Rita Mustaphi, the show incorporates ballet, hiphop and flamenco along with the rhythmically complex kathak dance from northern India.

The show features music by J.D. Steele and poetry by Somali-American performer Ifrah Mansour. Taken together, di Palma says, this original work is “going to provoke thought and feeling in a beautiful way that we can all examine” on a universal topic. The show runs Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. at Park Square Theatre in St. Paul.

Michael Murnane, a lighting director and head electrician at the Minnesota Orchestra, is a huge fan of the rock band Annie and the Bang Bang. They have a new record — available in both vinyl and digital — called “Walkie Talkie.” Murnane says it's the kind of music that makes you both want to move around and sit and focus on its thoughtful lyrics.

“They're like a garage band but with 30 years of experience,” said Murnane. “It looks like they're in it for the fun, but they're saying really interesting things.”

Artist Janine Holter of Montrose drove to Lanesboro when Commonweal Theatre Company opened its first in-person show this spring. She’ll be there for the close of the 2021 season with its production of “A Christmas Carol,” which opens Friday and runs through Dec. 19. It’s the classic ghost-filled story based on the work of Charles Dickens, complete with the heartfelt transformation of miserly Scrooge.

Commonweal’s twist is to cast Scrooge and the three ghost characters as women. “[Commonweal Associate Artistic Director] Adrienne Sweeney is just a delightful actress,” Holter said, “and I know she’s going to play one heck of a nasty Scrooge.”

It’s not the first time women have played Scrooge. In 2018, the Guthrie cast both a male and a female lead, with Nathaniel Fuller playing the role 43 times and Charity Jones, in male dress, starring in 13 shows.

Sweeney developed this version of the show as she thought about how a female Scrooge might fit historically and resonate today.

Patrons are required to wear masks inside the theater. The show will also be available virtually.

The 22nd Sound Unseen Film + Music Festival in Minneapolis wraps up Saturday, with its annual focus on films and documentaries about music. Independent film critic Nick Kouhi recommends the final film of the event, “Being Bebe” about Minneapolis drag performer Bebe Zahara Benet.

Originally from Cameroon, Benet gained national attention as the first winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race in 2009. The film draws upon approximately 15 years of archival footage shot by director Emily Branham, interspersed with commentary by a wryly witty Benet. It’s an intimate, contemplative film that is “also a really powerful testament to art and the value of art and how art can express oneself,” Kouhi said.

“Being Bebe” screens in-person at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis on Saturday at 7 p.m. There will be an onstage Q&A with Benet and Branham following the screening.  Tickets are currently sold out, with an in-person, night-of waitlist starting an hour before the screening. The Walker Cinema requires masks and proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours.

Minneapolis actor and playwright Eric “Pogi” Sumangil is a fan of Qui Nguyen’s plays, and he’s happy to see that the University of Minnesota Theatre Arts & Dance department is kicking off its in-person season with Nguyen’s show “She Kills Monsters.”

It’s a comedy about being an outsider and finding your chosen family. The 10-year-old play, follows a young woman, Agnes, who is mourning the death of her younger sister. When Agnes finds her sister’s Dungeons and Dragons notebook, she decides to go on a D&D campaign in order to get to know her sister better.

The play is co-directed by Doug Scholz-Carlson and Annie Enneking, who Pogi says “are two really great fight choreographers and directors, so they're going to bring their brand of action and entertainment and adventure to a play that really supports that well.”

Nguyen lived for a time in the Twin Cities, and he’s known nationally for writing such works as “Vietgone” and Disney’s “Raya and the Last Dragon.” His “geek theater...blends theater with hip hop and martial arts and creates these worlds that are very grounded and fantastical at the same time,” Pogi said.

“She Kills Monsters” runs Thursday through Nov. 21 at the Rarig Center / Stoll Thrust Theatre on the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities campus.

Michael Whistler is a playwright and teaching artist at Interact Center for the Arts who sees as much theater as he can. Before the pandemic, he recalls being blown away by Mistress Ginger’s cabaret of Kurt Weill’s music. During the pandemic, the drag performer staged mini cabarets from her home that also featured vegan recipes.

Now Whistler is thrilled to see her back on stage this weekend to perform “Hollywood Blondes.” The show features stories of actresses including Mae West and Marilyn Monroe, with music. Jazz musician Rick Carlson is on piano.

“Mistress Ginger is a cabaret singer who brings warmth and depth to a lyric, and always lets the song shine through,” Whistler said “She moves easily from the steam of a torch song to the campy wink of a double entendre- always while holding up the classic composers and lyricists she loves.”

“Hollywood Blondes” is at Bryant Lake Bowl Theater in Minneapolis Saturday and Sunday at 7 p.m. both nights.