As summer ends, museums across the Twin Cities are elevating individual narratives as a option to explore larger, thornier societal topics.
How can drawings communicate the experience of 37 continuous years of incarceration? What can we find out about pre-Soviet farm women from their textiles, or in regards to the modern queer identity from ceramic works? How can art help us put history — and the way in which it was told on the time in newspapers and magazines — in recent contexts?
These are some questions explored in gallery shows and exhibitions coming up this fall in St. Paul and the greater Twin Cities.
September
Openings
Sept. 14, “O’ Powa O’ Meng: The Art and Legacy of Jody Folwell” — Minneapolis Institute of Art: Artist Jody Folwell “has revolutionized Pueblo pottery—and Native art more broadly—over the past five many years,” per the museum. This free exhibition, co-organized by Mia and the Fralin Museum of Art on the University of Virginia, spans her profession. 2400 Third Ave. S., Minneapolis.
Sept. 21, “Queer Alchemy: Works By Sarah Knight — Northern Clay Center, Minneapolis: The artist, a trans ceramicist, explores ideas of artifice, transformation and experimentation of their work. Free; 2424 Franklin Ave. E., Minneapolis.
Sept. 26, Bill Crane solo exhibition — Interact Gallery, St. Paul: Bill Crane, a deaf artist, has been creating ink drawings and acrylic paintings at Interact Gallery, an art space focused on folks with disabilities, for the reason that studio opened nearly 30 years ago. He’s now an artist-in-residence there, and this solo show presents a retrospective of his landscape scenes, portraits and abstract works. On view till Oct. 31, by appointment only. Interact Gallery; 755 Prior Avenue N.; make an appointment at calendly.com/interact-gallery.
Sept. 28, “Kara Walker: Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated)” — Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis: Each of up to date artist Kara Walker’s 15 large-scale prints on this exhibition is paired with a woodcut plate illustration by artist Winslow Homer from an 1866 Harper’s Weekly publication; Walker’s art focuses on the people and events overlooked of what, on the time, was billed as a comprehensive history of the war — and what continues to be excluded from dominant narratives today. Free; 333 E. River Pkwy., Minneapolis.
Sept./Oct., “Kary Janousek Solo Exhibition” — Friedli Gallery, St. Paul: Fargo-based artist Kary Janousek creates ambrotypes, a process popular within the 1850s that involves developing photographs onto glass, which she embellishes with additional coloured glass and other layers. She also, interestingly, sells vintage hats. Free; 943 W. Seventh St.
Last probabilities
Closes Sept. 22, “Peasant Women of the Russian North: Heritage of a Culture Lost” — The Museum of Russian Art, Minneapolis: This exhibition focuses on farmstead craft from the pre-Soviet era; specifically, the long-lasting and meaningful flax textiles that ladies wove. Although lots of the artifacts within the exhibit date from the 1800s and early 1900s, they integrate millennia-old symbology from before Christianity reached Russia. Museum entrance is $14 for adults, $12 for seniors, $5 for college students, free for teenagers and members; 5500 Stevens Ave., Minneapolis.
October
Openings
Oct. 4–6, “Migration and Memories” — Solidarity Street Gallery, St. Paul: This unique exhibition will not be confined to 1 space but reasonably takes over Payne Avenue for 3 days. There’s a gallery show, at 967 Payne Ave., but works including visual art, music, poetry and more will probably be on display at local businesses on the East Side. Free.
Oct. 5, “A Thousand Nesting Dolls” — TMORA: The museum says its collection of Russian nesting dolls, or matryoshkas, is the biggest within the country, spanning from “a number of the earliest dolls ever created” to a post-Soviet heyday within the Nineteen Nineties.
Oct. 12, “On the Moulin Rouge — Minneapolis Institute of Art: In the course of the Eighteen Eighties and ’90s, the now-iconic illustrator Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec documented Paris nightlife in a series of colourful paintings and posters. Probably the most famous of his works, the oil painting “On the Moulin Rouge,” will probably be on the town on loan from the Art Institute of Chicago and displayed alongside works from Mia’s collection which are rarely on public display.
Oct. 17, “Here, Now” — The Minnesota Museum of American Art, St. Paul: The downtown museum has had a troublesome half-decade or so, however the M is on the rebound with this exhibition, its first major show of pieces from its everlasting collection since 2013. This show — paintings, prints, sculptures, textiles and more from artists like Grant Wood and Elizabeth Catlett — will probably be on display until 2027, so you’ve loads of time to stop by. Free; 350 N. Robert St.
Last probabilities
Closing Oct. 5, “Midwest Voices in Contemporary Glass” — Cafesjian Art Trust, Shoreview: Head to the suburban glass haven to see the museum’s first juried show of glass artists from the Midwest. This show accompanies a bigger exhibition tracing the past half-century of the American studio glass movement; that show continues through roughly the tip of the 12 months. Entrance is free, but reservations are required at cafesjianarttrust.org; 4600 Churchill St. Shoreview.
Closing Oct. 6, “The Art of Resistance” — Xia Gallery and Cafe, St. Paul: This exhibit curates works created over 37 years of incarceration by Zhi Kai Vanderford, an artist, author, trans activist, and considered one of the primary people within the country to earn a paralegal degree while incarcerated. A significant theme throughout the work is the dissonance between confinement as punishment and the friendships the artist has built while incarcerated. Free; 422 W. University Ave., Suite 14.
Closing Oct. 13, “Together” — The M: This exhibition of art created by 10 families — of assorted structures and ages — has been on display for the reason that spring.
Closing Oct. 20, “Women in Soviet Art” — TMORA: As a part of the Soviet political project, women were represented in art not in traditional domestic roles or as beauty objects but reasonably as energetic players within the workforce and economy, in keeping with the museum. What can we learn in regards to the truth of ladies’s roles within the USSR from how these canvases portray strong female characters?
All season
“Pearl Lines” — Walker Art Center, Minneapolis: This show of labor by rising artist Walter Price (born 1989) displays paintings never seen before. The artist’s work, the museum says, is “distinguished by his engagement with history, race, and cultural consciousness.” Included with required timed-entry museum ticket: $15 for general admission; $13 for seniors; $10 for college students; free for teenagers, teens and Walker members. 725 Vineland Place, Minneapolis.
“Searching for for the Lost” — Weisman Art Museum: Within the late 1800s, Black-owned St. Paul newspaper The Appeal ran a column of ads from members of the family searching for enslaved relatives who’d been sold. Now, contemporary painter Christopher Harrison has created a series of speculative portraits of those individuals and families torn apart by slavery — and reunited by literacy.