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Stella Ebner & Larry Hofmann
GrovelandGallery.com; 25 Groveland Terrace, Minneapolis; 612-377-7800 Stella Ebner’s One Day, in the main gallery of this Kenwood institution, features lovely, quiet woodcuts with domestic themes—a pile of bills, a tumble of opened envelopes, a sink full of dishes. These simple prints echo the matter of everyday existence, the true flowers and landscape of our lived … Read more
Voltage: Fashion Amplified
Dance Band, outfitted by Michele Henry; designs by Annie Larson and Labrador. Click To Play The Mood Swings, outfitted by Pomije; designs by Peloria and Kjurek Couture. Click To Play Black Blondie, outfitted by Elizabeth Chesney & Mackenzie Labine; designs by George Moskal and Ra’mon-Lawrence. Click To Play
Readying to Wear
“Eveningwear made comfortable”: Those are the operative words this season for Katherine Gerdes, the twenty-five-year-old designer best known for her appearance on Project Runway. The artist has successfully parlayed that exposure into businesses offering custom fashion and ready-to-wear, both of which bear the signature of Gerdes’ casual aesthetic. The avid snowboarder requires a loose fit … Read more
The Secret Garden
The St. Paul Cultural Garden, an installation of seven poetry-inscribed sculptures, isn’t easy to find. There is no signage or parking, and it’s on the way to virtually nowhere. The tiny plot of anonymous green space, perched one hundred feet above the Mississippi River atop a municipal parking ramp, is hemmed off from the rest … Read more
Well Suited
Actors on The Young and the Restless wore them while embracing Bianca, Bailey, or Bambi, and then convincing the ladies to sneak off and make love in the janitor’s closet. Older cousins wore them to weddings, with girlfriends attached to their arms like weights at the gym. As a scrawny, suburban Ohioan pre-teen who couldn’t … Read more
The State of the Union: The Fiftieth State
I live in Minneapolis, the fiftieth state in the union, known far and wide as the “Moon Crater State” and “Green Grocer to the World.” There are more than one thousand lakes in Minneapolis, and herds of bearded reindeer in the North Country. I’m sorry—Minnesota is the fiftieth state in the union, etc. Minneapolis is … Read more
“Look at me—I’m OK.”
Once upon a time, say fifteen years ago, portraits of chief executive officers had much in common with oil paintings of George Washington or Robert E. Lee. There was a man (they were pretty much all men), shot from a slightly low angle so as to amplify his stateliness and power, with his hand on … Read more
The Other White Milk
Despite the fact that March often brings the year’s biggest snows, I cling optimistically to an idyllic vision of spring. The sun coaxes me into a daydream involving windswept hills fresh with fragrant clover, buds bursting forth, and butterflies dancing their jagged jig while the goats and I frolic in a bracing breeze. The goats … Read more
In Vino Veritas
Take a piece of paper and write on one side: “The statement on the other side of this page is untrue.” Then turn the piece of paper over and write the same thing on the other side. Then apply for a tenure-track position in a university philosophy department, where they will tell you that this … Read more