Fantastical, magical creations are very popular as of late—lots of dragons and magicians and cyber-wonders fill pages and screens—and the art world is stepping into that terrain as well. Does it mean dreams will become reality, or does it mean dreams will keep reality at bay? That’s for the viewer to decide. But these artists’ … Read more
Taken up by fans, feminists, malcontents, ideologists, and ax-grinders, Frida Kahlo has become much more than an artist over the last couple of decades. Yet somehow she is also often presented as less than an artist. In conjunction with Walker Art Center’s Kahlo exhibition, Grupo Soap, an alliance of artists who share a Hispanic heritage … Read more
This major exhibition of Native artists includes Rick Bartow’s paintings, Preston Singletary’s glass sculpture, and Sonny Assu’s weaving, among work from more than a hundred others. The curators of this traveling show, Ellen Napiura Taubman, former head of the Department of Native American Art at Sotheby’s, and David Revere McFadden of New York’s Museum of … Read more
Eagerly anticipated by sculptors across the state, this overview of the medium promises to be quirky and eye-opening. Jennifer Jankauskas, associate curator at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, chose just twenty-seven sculptors from 147 submissions. Some, such as Pete Driessen and Ruben Nusz, are better known as painters than sculptors; others, … Read more
More than a composer, Mary Ellen Childs devised a neat trick to lure skeptical listeners to her contemporary chamber music concerts. The Northeast Minneapolis resident is known nationally in avant-garde music circles for supplementing cutting-edge sonic experiences with any number of visual hooks. With Dream House, for instance, which premiered at the Southern Theater in … Read more
Back on October 23, a reader wrote to tell me that she and a friend had gone to Blackbird and while the overall experience was wonderful ("Both our meals were quite good — [my friend] nearly licked her plate — and I like that it’s in my neighborhood, friendly service, etc."), they were soured by … Read more
BOOKS & AUTHORSRaking through Books If you’ve been resenting the lack of story time for adults, then this evening’s Raking Through Books will please you immensely. Twin Cities local literati — Shannon Olson, Carl Brookins, Heidi Erdrich, Todd Boss, and Colleen Kruse — will read from books they liked as children. What fun! They won’t … Read more
Here is the first sentence of today’s Star Tribune editorial on "Aiding Baby Boomers’ Search for Meaning": "The nation’s supernumerary baby-boomers have reached what’s being gently called "the second half of life," but the big generation is still doing what it has done since its diaper days: It’s demanding notice and altering the contours of … Read more
Someone put a food curse on my house. I cooked like crap last week … Nothing lived up to expectation, mistakes were made at every turn, I threw my knife more than once into the wooden chopping block. Maybe it started with the Osso Buco my husband attempted last weekend. He had been craving the … Read more
And this other thing: One of my fave local fashion photographers, Nic Marshall, just sent along these new portfolio pics. Local designer George Moskal (also one of my faves) lent some of his latest looks for the occasion. I absolutely lurve the following fancy, gray brocade dress with roped belt. Actually, it’s the dress I … Read more