TEN: This Week in Local Art

Another week has flown by so here are another ten picks from what is happening in local art.  

 1. Franklin Art Works NexTen Benefit: Franklin Artworks turns ten years old with a benefit celebration and auction on Saturday November 7th from 7pm to 11pm. The auction features an impressive lineup of 40 local, national and international artists including Uta Barth, David Rathman, Nicola López, Shinique Smith, Ghada Amer, Paul Chan, Santiago Cucullu, Stacey Davidson, Kota Ezawa and Rob Fischer, Xavier Tavera, Javier Piñón, tectonic industries, Zak Smith and Maximillian Toth, among many others. There will be music, drinks and all the other reasons to come out and support an important local art venue.  If you are a student ask about discounted tickets as well! 

2. Bruce Tapola: AU NATUREL: opens on Saturday night November 7th at Art of This Gallery  from 7pm -11pm..  This new installation is a can’t miss highlight of the weekend.   The piece combines two distinctive bodies of work to create a novel investigation within the artist’s painting and sculptural practice to initiate a dialogue between the distinctive and eclectic artworks.  All the cool kids will be there.

3. mnLIT Original: “The Four Hermans” by Brian Beatty is the first of mnartists.org’s newly commissioned pieces by the 2009 mnLIT grand prize-winning poets and writers. Each work will be accompanied by a curated selection of work drawn from mnartists.org’s vast database of artists.  Look for more original works in the coming weeks and announcement for the 2010 mnLIT series schedule soon.  

4.  Art and the Economy: Here is an interesting article from the Wall Street Journal about how art collectors are looking closer to home due the unstable global art market.  On a somewhat related note…I have had numerous discussions lately with local artists about the need to build an active and informed collectors base for local art.  There are a lot of good investment opportunities close to home which can be had on a limited budget. There is a trend in local food to buy local…it would be nice to see some of that same mentality carry over to the local arts.  Here is also an article from the New York Times about a sometime forgotten aspect of the downturn in the economy….the gallery owners.

5. Art Attack:  is an annual open studio and gallery crawl at the Northrup King Building, in the heart of the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District. The weekend-long event features over 200 artists working in all media.  Art Attack is an exciting opportunity to gain admission to private studios and to buy original art direct from local, nationally and internationally known artists. This a great one-stop event to see a dramatic range of artists and artwork and perhaps add to your art collection or get a few early holiday gifts.  

6. giveMN.org: Check out this site to research and contribute to Minnesota non-profits.  

7. Congrats to the 2009-10 Jerome Fellowship winners in visual arts Steven Accola, Caroline Kent, Tony Sunder, and the collaborative of Tynan Kerr and Andrew Mazorol.

8. Bad at Sports: is an awesome contemporary art blog and podcast based out of Chicago…. that everyone should check out on a frequent basis.  Their blog has an interesting post as to food as the hot trend in art events and performances.  Here is a link posted on the blog this week to best Halloween costume of the year …in my opinion.  8-bit is a bit played out, but this is cleaver. 

9.  As a tribute to the seminal local punk rock band the Suicide Commandos, newly re-elected mayor RT Rybak is declaring this Saturday, November 7, “Suicide Commandos Day.” The band will re-emerge to play three separate shows on Saturday: a pair of “10 and under” shows at the Walker Art Center during the day (one at 11 a.m. and one at 1 p.m.), and a late-night gig at the Dakota Jazz Club that begins at 11 p.m. The Walker concerts are first come seating and you must have a child with your group 🙂 [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zs_RlJ_cLv8[/youtube]

10. mnartists.org / Walker Art Center artist pass program  We are launching a new program today for registered members of mnartists.org to receive admission to the Walker Art Center galleries and discounts on select events for the discounted price of $20 annually.  This program is intended to offer access and recognition to working artists  and active mnartists.org members within the state.  For more information and for an application for visit www.mnartists.org/artistpass.