From MPR News, Art Hounds are members of the Minnesota arts community who look beyond their own work to highlight what’s exciting in local art. Their recommendations are lightly edited from the audio heard in the player above. 

Want to be an Art Hound? Submit here.

‘Our What Ifs Became Real Life’

Kayla Maria of Fort Ripley is an avid arts consumer, and she recommends a visit to the MacRostie Art Center in Grand Rapids.

She appreciated the multi-disciplinary show “Our What Ifs Became Real Life” by Amber Buckanaga and James Harvin, on view through March 27.

She describes the “intimate moments” of the exhibit.

Kayla says: As you walk into the exhibit, you're basically walking through time and through the timelines of James and Amber's ancestors and even thinking into the future. There were components like poetry, textiles, fashion, design and painting.

There was a moment where they were talking about Amber's family history with boarding schools and relating that to James's family escaping slavery.

— Kayla Maria

‘Monsters Not Monoliths! A DnD Actual Play’

Eli Effinger-Weintraub is really looking forward to seeing “Monsters Not Monoliths! A DnD Actual Play,” at 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 6, rescheduled from the original January date due to the federal immigration enforcement surge.

Professional game master Manny Elliott will run a live table-top role-playing game with a group of experienced actors/gamers while the audience watches the story unfold.

The show will run approximately three hours and is recommended for ages 18 and older.

Eli says this show should be a blast for experienced and would-be gamers, improvisers and storytellers.

The story follows a group of ordinary people in a city a lot like Minneapolis, when mythical monsters and fairy tale creatures start showing up, the characters have to decide whether to fight the new arrivals or stand with them.

— Eli Effinger-Weintraub

Lowry Hill Gallery grand opening

Kristin Makholm has a bead on the arts community as a former art museum curator and director and now a nonprofit fundraiser in the Twin Cities.

She recommends visiting the grand opening this weekend of the Lowry Hill Gallery in Minneapolis. Located on Franklin Avenue near Hennepin, the Lowry Hill Gallery will feature Minnesota and regional artists working in a representational style.

Kristin describes the two artists with featured shows starting Saturday.

Kristin says: Charles Lyon is a Minneapolis artist who paints what he himself has seen and experienced. For example, he paints nature as it appears in the urban environment or the landscapes of the Boundary Waters as seen from a canoe.

The show he's opening this weekend is called “Round Here,” which features paintings of the greenery of our Midwest spring, summer and fall.

Kirsten Tradowsky’s paintings are based primarily on photographs, reimagined through her own vibrant lens of paint color and expressive brushwork. The series of paintings called “Annemarie's Vision” uses her grandma's photos of family gatherings as source material to create paintings.

— Kristin Makholm