My favorite thing about the fair is NOT machinery hill. Nor is it the exotic animals (i.e., the sad looking giraffe whose head doesn’t quite fit under the big top). It’s not the stunt skateboarders and BMX bikers, not the corndogs and cheese curds, nor is it the ejection seat. And don’t get me wrong; I rather like each of these things. It’s just that I realllllllly love, for whatever reason, the state fair fine art show. Perhaps it’s because my friend Adam made it in a few years back, and I can still remember his self-portrait as being the most starkly beautiful thing in a room full of mediocrity. There’s always a gem or two in that show. Last year it was a photographer’s sideways glance at a golden retriever. A while back, it was the half-finished painting/drawing of a cow, as done by an artist who passed away earlier that summer. (Drat! I don’t remember his name!)
There is plenty of sentimental work to be had at the fair–which I find to be a nice respite from all the emotionally detached work I see at the galleries I normally visit. Perhaps this is because out state is hugely represented in the show, and folks out there aren’t bound by the same aesthetic fashions as we city-dwellers. I always suspected that Adam got in because his painting represented a purely visceral, and highly emotional scavenge for beauty–for love, even. He painted it after having an incredibly invasive craniotomy; and the painting, I suppose, was a lament for the person lost. But ultimately what he found was a thing of beauty and worth. Or at least that’s what I saw when I looked at the painting.
There are plenty-o-artists hanging around the fine arts building. If you listen closely, you can hear some of ’em grumbling about the jury process and all its out-state favoritism. On the other hand, another great thing to listen for is the reaction being had to the art. (Adam’s “Self Portrait after Surgery” won an inspired “harrumph” or two!) Surely this place is worthy of some Overheardinminneapolis.com lurkers!
Also of note: Hopkins Center for the Arts is hosting a state fair overflow exhibition. You won’t get to browse alongside the corndog-fed outlanders. But perhaps you see this as good thing.
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