28 September 2023
Art is popping all around the metro right now — especially during this, the Twin Cities Art Week. Get ready for gallery- and museum-hopping fun as you explore exhibitions, openings, performances and more at our local galleries and museums. Graywolf hosts three writers getting national attention at the Minneapolis Event Centers, and Frances Gumm performs at for the opening of artist collective Paintallica’s opening in Northeast. Meanwhile, move beyond musical genres with mssv at the Turf Club and Kassa Overall at Icehouse. Finally, on Monday, Bobby Wilson from Reservation Dogs will be in town for an artist talk.
Twin Cities Art Week
From the 20th anniversary of the Regis Center for Art at the University of Minnesota to artist talks at the Walker Art Center, Public Functionary, and the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Twin Cities Art Week is in full swing. Arts-related social activities abound, like a non-alcoholic happy hour at Midway Contemporary Art, pancakes at David Peterson Gallery, and patch printing and popcorn at Highpoint Center for the Arts. There’s also performance art taking place at Dreamsong Gallery, Hair + Nails, and Mirror Lab, plus a lot more. Through Sunday at various times and locations. See the TC Art Week schedule here.
Graywolf Literary Salon
“Spring in Hell and everything’s blooming.” That’s how Sally Wen Mao opens her visceral poem, “The Belladonna of Sadness,” part of the collection “The Kingdom of Surfaces published by Graywolf Press. In the book, Mao traverses loneliness, violence, Anti-Asian hate and more with detailed specificity of image. On Thursday, Mao will join essayist and poet Roger Reeves (author of “Dark Days: Fugitive Essays”) and fiction writer Shannon Sanders (who wrote “Company,” about a multigenerational Black family) for Graywolf’s Literary Salon. The topic for discussion between these writers — whose books published by Graywolf have all gotten smash reviews — is “Writing with Our Ghosts.” Regular tickets for this fundraising event come with a drink and a treat, with VIP options available as well. Thursday, Sept. 28, at 7:30 p.m., with VIP reception at 6 p.m. at Minneapolis Event Centers ($50, $150 and up for VIP options). More information here.
Make Believe in Yourself by Paintallica
Paintallica, the long-running art collective made up of University of Iowa graduate students circa 2004, descends on Northeast Sculpture | Gallery Factory this week for a site-specific gallery exhibition. Expect subversive, vivid authority-defying, circus-y satirical romps of painting, sculpture and more. The punk band Frances Gumm provides the music for the opening event. The opening reception takes place Friday, Sept. 29 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Northeast Sculpture, with the exhibition running through Oct. 21. (free). More information here.
mssv AKI Tour
Since forming in 2019, the band mssv (Main Steam Stop Valve) has developed a method to record an album after perfecting the album’s songs while on tour. The group is made up of Mike Baggetta, a guitarist with a background in jazz, bassist Mike Watt of the ’80s punk rock band The Minutemen, and Stephen Hodges (who has played with Mavis Staples and Tom Waits and was in David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me”). They just released the eclectic album “Human Reaction,” and are testing out their new material on a 58-show tour. portal iii and Samuel Locke Ward & The Malevolent Gaze open. Saturday, Sept. 30, at 8 p.m. at the Turf Club ($20 in advance, $25 day of the show). More information here.
Novel Stages: Kassa Overall
A series called Novel Stages, coming to the Icehouse, aims to highlight artists who break out of musical genres, creating innovative and exciting work. Headed up by Bobby Mahr of Wools Management, the series had its origins at the start of the pandemic with virtual offerings, and now flourishes with a whole slate of interesting artists. This Thursday, Kassa Overall, whose avant-garde style lives in space between jazz and hip-hop, leads off the new series. Last May, Overall released “ANIMALS,” where he brought together improvisation and composed arrangements with layered percussion and a rich sound. Thursday, Sept. 28, at 8 p.m. (6 p.m. doors) at Icehouse ($20-$28) More information here.
Conversation with Bobby Wilson
Multi-talented Bobby Wilson, aka Bobby Dues, will be in town for an artist talk this week, talking about a new planned mural he’s set to work on in St. Paul. An actor and writer in the series “Reservation Dogs,” Wilson, a member of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota Oyate, adds to the murals he’s already created in the Twin Cities with “The Procession of St. Paul.” A vinyl version of it was on view in the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary as part of the Wakpa Triennial. Now, the East Side environmental conservation nonprofit Wakan Tipi Awanyankapi (WTA) is proposing a permanent version at the new Wakan Tipi interpretive center in the Sanctuary, opening in 2024. WTA’s director of programs Ben Gessner will talk with Wilson about screenwriting, public work, beadwork and comedy during the conversation. Monday, Oct. 2, 6 p.m. to 8 pm. at Metropolitan State University, Great Hall (free). More information here.