The Year in MN Art, According to mnartists.org Project Asst. Chloe Nelson

Our ticketing software will be undergoing maintenance on Monday, May 19. During this time, we will not be able to process ticket or membership orders.

Skip to main content
Open Today at 10:00 AM
Walker News

The Year in MN Art, According to mnartists.org Project Asst. Chloe Nelson

I recently returned to Minnesota after spending some time, first, abroad and then in California, and so it seems only fitting that my “best of” choices for 2012 are rather displaced and eclectic. As the newest member of the mnartists.org team, I am still familiarizing myself with the local arts scene. It seems like most of the Minnesota shows and exhibitions I loved last year cropped up in unexpected spots, and all of them share that element of whimsy that tends to thrive in small spaces.

Poor Nobodys/Battleship Potemkin/Trylon

The Trylon Microcinema is the perfect venue for intimate chamber music, as illustrated by the elegant accompaniment of Poor Nobodys to the dreary tale of mutiny aboard Battleship Potemkin (1925).

 Harriet Bart/Macalester

WARM artist Harriet Bart’s poetic In Between Echo and Silence exhibition heralded a new era for Macalester’s Law Warschaw Gallery and truly resonated with the space.

Harriet Bart, “Requiem” (detail). Photo by Rik Sferra, courtesy of the artist’s website.
Harriet Bart, “Requiem” (detail). Photo by Rik Sferra, courtesy of the artist’s website.

The Big String Thing/Open Field

The Big String Thing brought together strangers with the under-appreciated and family-friendly fireside activity of string figures.

Taja Will/Playing the Building

Among the ghosts of the Warehouse District’s Aria in the old Theatre of the Jeune Lune, Taja Will and her troupe of dancers interpreted, echoed, and responded to David Byrne’s jarring interactive musical piece Playing the Building.

David with bike and organ at Aria, Minneapolis, MN, 2012. Photo by Jake Armour, courtesy of Aria Mpls.
David with bike and organ at Aria, Minneapolis, MN, 2012. Photo by Jake Armour, courtesy of Aria Mpls.

AMTK/Modern Times Café

Wall-to-wall creatures and priests, psychoses and séances, mixed with vibrant vegan food? Works by Tynan Kerr, Andie Mazorol & Lauren Roche of art collaborative AMTK at Modern Times Café in Powderhorn made me feel like I was grabbing breakfast in the tree house I never had.

WISH LIST

Art Shanties/Medicine Lake

Perhaps it is because I hail from the Golden State in which my hometown has never seen snow, but the idea of an art fair on ice is absolutely exhilarating to me!

The Giant Sing Along/Minnesota State Fair

The Giant Sing Along at the Minnesota State Fair gave passersby the pleasure of performance with unregulated, unsupervised karaoke as a platform.

Get Walker Reader in your inbox. Sign up to receive first word about our original videos, commissioned essays, curatorial perspectives, and artist interviews.