Art Hounds

As actor Willie E. Jones III prepares to start the last semester of the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater BFA actor training program, he’s looking forward to Thursday’s one-man show “Missing Mississippi Moons.” The show is written and performed by Twin Cities creative Antonio Duke, an alumnus of the same BFA program. Inspired by a story told by Duke’s grandfather, the play follows a young Black man returning home to Mississippi in 1927 in the wake of his father’s death.

Jones says the show is an “investigation on racial violence, grief, and hope ... and what it means to have a legacy in an era when everyone’s trying to cut you down. I think it’s being released at the perfect time.”

The show streams for free at 6:30 p.m. Thursday on the Guthrie YouTube Page. A live post-show Q&A session with Duke follows the show. It’s part of an ongoing monthly series by the Guthrie Theater and Black Minneapolis actors. The series runs through May, with a new show each month.

Artist Karen Krey shines a light on fellow St. Cloud, Minn., artists: Eve and Gary Wallinga.

The husband-wife team draws influence from dot paintings by Aboriginal Australian people.

Often working together, the Wallingas use sticks to apply acrylic paint to canvas, creating images from layered dots. The resulting brightly colored paintings often look like murals, some are abstract, and others are nature-themed.

St. Paul-based ghostwriter Dave Walbridge recommended art that makes him happy during the pandemic: the Facebook concerts by Minneapolis singer-songwriter Ann Reed. Walbridge describes Reed’s musical style as “folk, alt rock. …she’s like a camp counselor who knows all the words to everything and you just want to sing along.”

Reed has adapted to the pandemic by hosting bi-weekly concerts titled “Live from Somewhere in Her House” as well as monthly singalongs with Twin Cities pianist Dan Chouinard. The next singalong is at 7 p.m. Monday, followed by a performance at 7 p.m. on Jan. 21. Both stream through Facebook. 

Emma Deaner, percussionist of the Superior Siren project, is looking forward to This Moment in Time, a live-streamed concert by artists of Duluth, Minn.-based DanSan Creatives, will feature eight musicians whose work spans neo-soul, hip-hop, rap and spoken word.

DanSan Creatives is a collective of artists working in music, spoken word and visual storytelling, with the goal of empowering youth and diversifying narratives.

Deaner appreciates the recording venue, the Sacred Heart Music Center in Duluth, a former church-turned performance space. She said it has “such great acoustics, and with all of their voices filling that sanctuary, I’m sure it’s going to make for a really beautiful experience.”

The free event goes live Saturday at 7 p.m.

Visual artist Brigid Higgins is drawn to the comics of Twin Cities artist Myc Dazzle. In particular, she was moved by “An Ordinary Day.” The brief comic follows two friends as they banter and tease each other on the way to the store one hot summer day. Both boys are Black, and the older one is stopped by the police in what the comic displays as a case of racial profiling.

The younger boy records the tense exchange. The episode ends without violence but with both boys notably shaken. This comic was among other artistic responses incorporated in MPD150’s “Enough is Enough: 150 year performance review of the Minneapolis Police Department,” a report prepared by activists and researchers.

Ellen Mueller, director of the Minnesota College of Art and Design MFA program, is looking forward to an art installation opening next week. “Suspended Modulations” pairs the large wood sculptures of Pete Driessen with fiber art by Nina Martine Robinson. Both artists used repurposed materials and created artwork for this site in response to the gallery’s high-beamed architecture. Robinson’s textile work hangs from the ceiling, suspended above Driessen’s sculptures.

The installation opens Jan. 14 at 6 p.m. and runs through February at Silverwood Park Gallery in St. Anthony, a Minneapolis suburb. The gallery also features an outdoor sculpture garden, which Mueller recommends as well.

Penumbra Theatre’s Black Nativity is an annual tradition for Erin Kelly-Collins’ family. She is looking forward to the St. Paul theater’s virtual offering this Saturday: “Celebration of the Soul.” The hourlong concert is hosted by T. Mychael Rambo and Regina Marie Williams, and features Greta Oglesby, Dennis Spears and Jamecia Bennett as they sing favorites from previous Black Nativity performances.

The show will stream live at 7 p.m. on Saturday. The event is free, but registration is required, and all donations benefit Penumbra Theatre.

St. Cloud artist Karen Krey has been attending the Rock and Roll Christmas Spectacular for years. The show brings together musicians from across the state. This year is the show’s 16th, and will be a virtual performance featuring an eight-piece band playing its takes on some classic holiday songs, along with humorous skits and stories.

The show runs Friday through Wednesday. In past years, Krey says she’s found herself wishing she could share the fun concert with friends in other states. This year, she’s already sent them the link to the show.

Performer Robert Lee of Duluth was excited to share about a new escape room from local Solve Entertainment that was specifically designed for zoom. “Professor Prank” is audience-directed performance art-meets-puzzle room.

Groups connected over Zoom must direct actor Luke Moravec (aka Professor Prank) through a series of puzzles in order to pull the world’s best prank on his nemesis. Lee calls the experience fun and silly, adding “they use the technology in ways that is really fun and creative and can only be done through Zoom. This isn’t a game you can go play one day. It’s really meant for the online format.” Lee says it’s a great way to play together — separately — with friends from anywhere in the world. 

A final note: Art Hounds will be off for the holidays, but we’ll be back with flair to share the arts in 2021. If there’s a Minnesota artist who is bringing you joy or a performance you’re looking forward to experiencing, please let us know here. 

Doris Rubenstein of Richfield, Minn., learned all about Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company while writing her book Setting the Stage about Jewish theater in the Upper Midwest. She is looking forward to the theater’s online production of “Operation Immigration,” a one-man play written and performed by Avi Aharoni. Aharoni’s father was born in Iran, immigrated first to Israel, and later Minnesota. Aharoni explores the identities of Iranian Jew, Israeli and Minnesotan in this production, which premiered during the 2019 Fringe Festival.

The performance at Minnesota Jewish Theatre aired earlier this fall and is streaming online for a second run, aligned with the beginning of Hanukkah. The dates are Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.

Susana di Palma of Zorongo Flamenco Dance Theatre in Minneapolis recommended a new holiday tradition this year: a ballet performance of “The Snow Queen” by Ballet Co.Laboratory in St. Paul. The original ballet is based on Hans Christian Andersen’s classic story. In this version by Zoe Emilie Henrot, young Gerda goes on a quest to save her brother who is struck by an “icy fragment” from the queen’s magic mirror.

The ballet is set to the music of British composer Dame Ethel Smyth, whose work has received new recognition. The show features the company of Ballet Co.Laboratory and more than 70 student dancers, filmed to be viewed from home. Creators embraced the alternative format, with magical results, di Palma said. The ballet is available for streaming at 7 p.m. on Dec. 19 and at 2 p.m. on Dec. 20.

Trombonist John Sievers keeps an ear on the Rochester, Minn., music scene, but this week, he had a visual arts exhibit to recommend: Cassandra Buck’s “Reclamation,” which combines painting with fiber arts. Buck’s large paintings “catch your attention from a distance. They’re really bold with bright colors and big strokes,” said Sievers.

From close up, Sievers found his attention drawn to the detailed embroidery of the canvas itself. Buck’s work is on display through Jan. 3 at Threshold Art’s new gallery and storefront, which opened late last month in downtown Rochester. 

Art Hounds was off for Thanksgiving, and since our last one was released, the places in Minnesota where people gather to experience art indoors are on pause. Yet Minnesotans continue to make — and partake in — art.

Winona photographer and filmmaker Mary Farrell was struck by the Pandemic Portrait Project, on display in downtown Winona through Wednesday. The roughly 40 large photographs are all viewable from outside, spread along several blocks of storefronts on Third Street.

It’s the work of Winona State University students. Their assignment, inspired by a workshop with St. Paul photographer Wing Young Huie, was to photograph a stranger outside during the pandemic. Some people wear masks in their portraits; others don’t.

“It’s a wonderful visual experience,” said Farrell. “It’s just striking, because you’re walking along and you just stop and take notice. The fact that they’re so big and so colorful and so personal really draws you in.”

Sarah Woolever of Minneapolis shines a light on the handmade jewelry of Peter Mielech of St. Paul this week. Mielech crafts earrings, pendants, rings, pins and more out of reclaimed wood and colored resin, which he sometimes swirls to create the appearance of stone, but the material makes them lightweight to wear.

“It’s beautiful enough for the special events or for everyday wear.” Woolever said she often gets compliments on her jewelry made by Mielech from coworkers and children in her work as a musical therapist at Children’s Minnesota.

High School for the Recording Arts and Minnesota Jazz Education released an album last month that was recorded, mixed and produced from home by students during distance learning.

HSRA student Kristina Reed, 18, of Maple Grove is a student publicist and radio coordination intern. She got to watch the process of creating the album, from individual recordings to editing and production, with all the expected technological challenges along the way.

“It took a while, but the effort was well worth the wait. It is such a nice album,” Reed said.

The recording, “Experience Jazz 2020: The Sounds of Distance,” is available on iTunes and Spotify.

With the election over, but still reverberating, Minneapolis theater maker Nora Montañez recommends rediscovering common ground by watching “The Empathy Project” from Full Circle Theater this weekend. The virtual staged reading of the new play by Stephanie Lein Walseth is based on interviews with 20 Minnesotans across the state.

“I feel that the title is so timely right now, particularly because I believe empathy grows out of stories,” said Montañez, who is the founder and coordinator of the Alliance of Latinex Minnesota Artists, or ALMA.

Appropriate for a show about bringing people together, “The Empathy Project” was in partnership with several organizations statewide: The Yes! House in Granite Falls, the Department of Public Transformation, and Dreamland Arts in St. Paul. It’s directed by Rick Shiomi.

The free event — watchable from home — requires registration. The show is in two acts: Act I streams Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 3 p.m.; Act II streams Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m.

Anniessa Antar, activation specialist at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, gave a shoutout to All My Relations Arts, a creator of Native American fine art exhibits in Minneapolis. Antar calls the gallery a “cornerstone in Native art, both regionally and nationally.” The current exhibit, “Bring Her Home: Sacred Womxn of Resistance” is a collection of paintings, video and other art by Indigenous women, two spirit and trans women and gender nonconforming artists sharing narratives around missing and murdered Indigenous people. Antar says the exhibit is “rooted in empowering the community to be able to address this [issue], to grieve, to mourn, but also to celebrate the resistance” of Indigenous people.

All My Relations Arts has temporarily closed in order to comply with Minnesota's updated COVID-19 guidelines. The exhibition will be available online through Jan. 2.

Note: Music for the audio segment linked above came from “RUINS: Movement 3” by Leah K Lemm, a Grand Rapids-based singer/songwriter and a member of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe.

St. Paul comedian Adam Mellerup recently attended a Facebook Live event that he says made excellent use of the medium: Strike Theater’s first One Minute Film Festival. The festival featured 23 one-minute films that included animation, dancing and storytelling. Comedy was the most common style, says Mellerup, and that’s understandable given the judging categories from a panel of live judges: best use of the color red, best use of peanut butter and best use of the word “collide.”

“It was a nice place for people to release some creative energy and to show a little piece of what they’ve been doing, or what they like to do,” said Mellerup.

The current film festival is available for viewing on Strike Theater’s Facebook page.

Front of House manager Brian Scot says Strike Theater plans on hosting another festival next fall.

Kathy Howell, an educator from Bloomington, says the current exhibition at Modus Locus in Minneapolis “stopped her in her tracks.”  The “outstellation” — multimedia paintings viewable from the outside, is entitled “Just Us, Awakening Liberatory Consciousness” by Miko Simmons.

Howell described the show as having multiple iterations. Phase I occurred when the safety plywood came down, revealing the paintings through the windows. Phase II allows for in-person, appointment-only experiences, which Howell highly recommends.

“The intertwining of Miko’s theatrical projection design with his brilliant and powerful painting is breathtaking,” said Howell. “And a brand new creation is made as the windows reflect you, there, merging with social justice…His paintings’ effervescent Black joy and majesty [along with] the lurking, ever-present danger stopped me in my tracks. In a sense, this is an extension of the George Floyd Memorial space just six blocks away.”

The exhibit runs through December, and the third phase will involve collaborations with spoken word artists, storytellers and instrumentation in a live-streamed format.

Katherine Lucht of Eden Prairie has enjoyed watching performances at Stages Theatre Company in Hopkins since she was a child, and now she enjoys them with her children. During the pandemic, Stages has been putting on “Out of the Box” productions that can be experienced from home. Lucht says the September show designed for very young children had her 3-year old daughter acting along with the show several times a day for the five days it was available.

The current show is designed for children ages 5 and up. Titled “Enchanted Mystery: a Detect the Story Adventure,” it’s part mystery, part scavenger hunt, part puzzle room, and all interactive theater. The show is designed to be experienced either in downtown Hopkins or in your own home. Tickets come with a limited access video performance and a clue box, which can either be picked up in Hopkins or shipped to you. The show runs through Nov. 19.

Dave Casey, assistant curator of the Minnesota Marine Art Museum, recommends the Winona Color Project, an ongoing series of public art installations by Sarah Johnson, who is the city’s first Creative Laureate. Winona has long had a poet laureate, but in 2020 they expanded the position to include other forms of creative work.

Through the Winona Color Project this year, Johnson has painted a series of vibrant murals on walls, garages, and fire doors across the city, with positive messages like “Glad you are here” and “Art is for everyone.”

Johnson’s most recent project, unveiled last weekend, has been to facilitate a mural by Our Voices, a group of students of color in the Winona Schools. Each student created their own letter to spell out “Hear Our Voices.” Find this newest addition on the corner of Eighth and Franklin streets in Winona.

In a week where many people have voting on their minds, Elizabeth Dunn of the Commonweal Theatre in Lanesboro, Minn., wants to draw attention to the show “Votes for Women! MN Rally 1920.” One hundred years after the adoption of the 19th Amendment, the show features five Minnesota suffragists, Scandinavian immigrants and an African American woman, who fought hard for women’s right to vote.

The show was produced by History Alive Lanesboro. A planned statewide tour was canceled due to COVID-19, but there are free in-person and digital viewing options at the Landmark Center in St. Paul through Nov. 15.

Want more? Learn about the many women who fought for the right to vote at the Minnesota History Center here.

St. Paul music writer Youa Vang has a recommendation for ghostly theater. An enthusiast for spooky stories and haunted homes, Vang recommends the new audio play “The House at Echo’s End.” The show follows city-dweller Allison, who inherits the rural farm where she grew up, only to discover that the house is inhabited by three ghosts who want their stories told. The 36-minute audio play streams for free on the Everwood Farmstead podcast “Conversations from the Barn.”

The show’s original music and lyrics were written by Cat Brindisi-Darrow; the book was written by her husband, David Darrow; the show was conceived by them and Derek Prestly. The show was voiced by Minnesota actors Serena Brook of “Live from Here” and Cat’s mother, Michelle Brindisi of Chanhassen Dinner Theatres.

Visual artist Carolyn Brunelle recently saw Anne Labovitz’s show titled “Response” at the Burnet Fine Arts Gallery in Wayzata. Brunelle appreciated the energy of the artwork, on display through Nov. 28.

“This exhibit of abstract paintings are wildly colorful and exciting,” Brunelle said.

“‘Response’ investigates the intimacy of color and space,” Labovitz said in a statement on Burnet’s website. “For me, color is a personal reflection, a language that crosses boundaries and can connect us. I believe color is a life force. These works are about hope for the future; for a connection between people as we struggle through current complexities."

Labovitz will be in the gallery to greet visitors on Nov. 21.

“She’s really committed to public art work,” Brunelle said, noting an installation at Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport,“122 Conversations: Person to Person, Art Beyond Borders”. It’s a series of large, brightly colored paintings on different materials displayed in Terminal 2. The work arose from conversations with 10 people from each of  the city of Duluth’s five sister cities around the world.

Ceramic artist Damien Wolf recommended the vivid plein air paintings of Colleen Cosgrove of St. Paul. Painting outdoors, Cosgrove takes on subjects both large and small, from tomatoes newly plucked from her garden to landscapes, using bold strokes and bright colors.

“I like her work because it makes me look at the world around me differently,” Wolf said. He recalls seeing Cosgrove paint during the Art Shanty project on Lake Harriet in Minneapolis: “She [was] standing outside in the freezing cold painting all the other exhibits in the Art Shanty, and her color choices actually brought warmth to the scene around her.”

Cosgrove’s work is on display at the Frameworks Gallery in St. Paul through October. It will be at the “Extremely Minnesota” exhibit at the Robbin Gallery in Robbinsdale Nov. 5 through Dec. 5.

Ella Moróne followed the work of Minneapolis artist Nicholas Pumper throughout college. Both graduated from the University of St. Thomas this year. Pumper’s acrylic paintings are inspired by his love of nature and his Catholic faith. He posts his work and his process regularly on Instagram, and Moróne appreciates his meditations about why seeking beauty and creating art matter.

Music educator Scott Kummrow of Fergus Falls enjoys the work of singer-songwriter David Stoddard, who has produced seven albums and has performed across the U.S. and Canada. Kummrow said he got to know Stoddard’s music when he performed on the open mic scene in western Minnesota, albeit “at a different level than everybody else.”

Stoddard sings and plays piano, guitar, and accordion; his songs range from introspective folk songs to humor. “He’s good at being funny and also creating good music at the same time,” says Kummrow, who recommends seeing Stoddard perform live. Next chance: a livestream concert on Nov. 2 with singer-songwriter Beth Wood.

Poet Connor Stratton shines the Art Hounds spotlight on “Beyond Bars,” the annual reading from the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop. As with every year, the reading will feature poetry, stories and other creative work from incarcerated writers, often read by the writers’ friends and family. Unlike other years, the COVID-19-friendly format has created new possibilities for the writers to read their own work.

Saturday’s Zoom reading will include videos — recorded before the pandemic — of some writers reading their own work, which Stratton says is a first for the audience.

The videos are part of the Seen project by the Minnesota nonprofit We Are All Criminals.

Marlise Riffel of Virginia was inspired by the essential worker portraits by Duluth artist Carolyn Olson, who was first inspired to create pastel portraits of essential workers by her daughter, a grocery store cashier in the Twin Cities. The boldly colored portraits show masked bus drivers, hospital workers, sanitation workers and many more whose work keeps our communities running during the pandemic. Riffel loved both the subject and the visual impact of the colors. “When you walk into the First Stage Gallery,” Riffel said, “the walls are white, the floor is light, and they just jump off the wall at you. They’re very vivid.”

The exhibit at the Lyric Center for the Arts in Virginia runs through Nov. 7.

Opera singer Jack Swanson is looking forward to Minnesota’s contribution to the “Tales from a Safe Distance” opera series. They are short, coronavirus-related operas presented digitally by the Decameron Opera Coalition. An Opera Theatre — that’s the name of the Twin Cities-based opera company — premieres “The Sky Where You Are” on Friday at 7 p.m. The production is in English with English subtitles.

Written by Maria Thompson Corley with libretto by Jenny O’Connell, the opera takes on the subject of domestic abuse during quarantine. O’Connell collaborated with Women’s Advocates in St. Paul in creating the story.

One ticket purchases access to nine original short operas nationally. “The Sky Where You Are” is part of the third chapter, entitled “So Noble a Heart.” A ticket provides streaming access until Dec. 31.

Correction (Oct. 22, 2020): A previous version of this story had an incorrect name for the “Beyond Bars” annual reading event. This version is corrected and updated.