Fall arts and entertainment guide: Gallery shows tell big stories in personal ways

As summer ends, museums across the Twin Cities are elevating individual narratives as a way to explore larger, thornier societal topics.

How can drawings communicate the experience of 37 continuous years of incarceration? What can we learn about pre-Soviet farm women from their textiles, or about the modern queer identity from ceramic works? How can art help us put history — and the way it was told at the time in newspapers and magazines — in new contexts?

These are some questions explored in gallery shows and exhibitions coming up this fall in St. Paul and the greater Twin Cities.

September

Openings

Sept. 14, “O’ Powa O’ Meng: The Art and Legacy of Jody Folwell” — Minneapolis Institute of Art: Artist Jody Folwell “has revolutionized Pueblo pottery—and Native art more broadly—over the past five decades,” per the museum. This free exhibition, co-organized by Mia and the Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia, spans her career. 2400 Third Ave. S., Minneapolis.

Sept. 21, “Queer Alchemy: Works By Sarah Knight — Northern Clay Center, Minneapolis: The artist, a trans ceramicist, explores ideas of artifice, transformation and experimentation in their work. Free; 2424 Franklin Ave. E., Minneapolis.

Sept. 26, Bill Crane solo exhibition — Interact Gallery, St. Paul: Bill Crane, a deaf artist, has been creating ink drawings and acrylic paintings at Interact Gallery, an art space focused on folks with disabilities, since the studio opened nearly 30 years ago. He’s now an artist-in-residence there, and this solo show presents a retrospective of his landscape scenes, portraits and abstract works. On view till Oct. 31, by appointment only. Interact Gallery; 755 Prior Avenue N.; make an appointment at calendly.com/interact-gallery.

Sept. 28, “Kara Walker: Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated)” — Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis: Each of contemporary artist Kara Walker’s 15 large-scale prints in this exhibition is paired with a woodcut plate illustration by artist Winslow Homer from an 1866 Harper’s Weekly publication; Walker’s art focuses on the people and events left out of what, at the time, was billed as a comprehensive history of the war — and what continues to be excluded from dominant narratives today. Free; 333 E. River Pkwy., Minneapolis.

Sept./Oct., “Kary Janousek Solo Exhibition” — Friedli Gallery, St. Paul: Fargo-based artist Kary Janousek creates ambrotypes, a process popular in the 1850s that involves developing photographs onto glass, which she embellishes with additional colored glass and other layers. She also, interestingly, sells vintage hats. Free; 943 W. Seventh St.

Last chances

Closes Sept. 22, “Peasant Women of the Russian North: Heritage of a Culture Lost” — The Museum of Russian Art, Minneapolis: This exhibition focuses on farmstead craft from the pre-Soviet era; in particular, the long-lasting and meaningful flax textiles that women wove. Although many of the artifacts in the exhibit date from the 1800s and early 1900s, they integrate millennia-old symbology from before Christianity reached Russia. Museum entrance is $14 for adults, $12 for seniors, $5 for students, free for kids and members; 5500 Stevens Ave., Minneapolis.

October

Openings

Oct. 4–6, “Migration and Memories” — Solidarity Street Gallery, St. Paul: This unique exhibition is not confined to one space but rather takes over Payne Avenue for three days. There is a gallery show, at 967 Payne Ave., but works including visual art, music, poetry and more will be on display at local businesses on the East Side. Free.

Oct. 5, “A Thousand Nesting Dolls” — TMORA: The museum says its collection of Russian nesting dolls, or matryoshkas, is the largest in the country, spanning from “some of the earliest dolls ever created” to a post-Soviet heyday in the 1990s.

Oct. 12, “At the Moulin Rouge — Minneapolis Institute of Art: During the 1880s and ’90s, the now-iconic illustrator Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec documented Paris nightlife in a series of colorful paintings and posters. The most famous of his works, the oil painting “At the Moulin Rouge,” will be in town on loan from the Art Institute of Chicago and displayed alongside works from Mia’s collection that are rarely on public display.

Oct. 17, “Here, Now” — The Minnesota Museum of American Art, St. Paul: The downtown museum has had a tough half-decade or so, but the M is on the rebound with this exhibition, its first major show of pieces from its permanent collection since 2013. This show — paintings, prints, sculptures, textiles and more from artists like Grant Wood and Elizabeth Catlett —  will be on display until 2027, so you have plenty of time to stop by. Free; 350 N. Robert St.

Last chances

Closing Oct. 5, “Midwest Voices in Contemporary Glass” — Cafesjian Art Trust, Shoreview: Head to the suburban glass haven to see the museum’s first juried show of glass artists from the Midwest. This show accompanies a larger exhibition tracing the past half-century of the American studio glass movement; that show continues through approximately the end of the year. Entrance is free, but reservations are required at cafesjianarttrust.org; 4600 Churchill St. Shoreview.

Closing Oct. 6, “The Art of Resistance” — Xia Gallery and Cafe, St. Paul: This exhibit curates works created over 37 years of incarceration by Zhi Kai Vanderford, an artist, writer, trans activist, and one of the first people in the country to earn a paralegal degree while incarcerated. A major theme throughout the work is the dissonance between confinement as punishment and the friendships the artist has built while incarcerated. Free; 422 W. University Ave., Suite 14.

Closing Oct. 13, “Together” — The M: This exhibition of art created by 10 families — of various structures and ages — has been on display since the spring.

Closing Oct. 20, “Women in Soviet Art” — TMORA: As part of the Soviet political project, women were represented in art not in traditional domestic roles or as beauty objects but rather as active players in the workforce and economy, according to the museum. What can we learn about the truth of women’s roles in the USSR from how these canvases portray strong female characters?

All season

“Pearl Lines” — Walker Art Center, Minneapolis: This show of work by rising artist Walter Price (born 1989) displays paintings never seen before. The artist’s work, the museum says, is “distinguished by his engagement with history, race, and cultural consciousness.” Included with required timed-entry museum ticket: $15 for general admission; $13 for seniors; $10 for students; free for kids, teens and Walker members. 725 Vineland Place, Minneapolis.

“Seeking for the Lost” — Weisman Art Museum: In the late 1800s, Black-owned St. Paul newspaper The Appeal ran a column of ads from family members looking for enslaved relatives who’d been sold. Now, contemporary painter Christopher Harrison has created a series of speculative portraits of these individuals and families torn apart by slavery — and reunited by literacy.