61. Art Of This
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 721-4105
Address: 3506 Nicollet Ave.
Description: This small storefront space packs a big punch: It’s the Twin Cities’ premier independent gallery for cutting-edge installations of visual art, performance art, and everything in between. At Art of This, it’s sometimes hard to see the boundaries between art, performance, and party—which is exactly how its proprietors like it. Art events ranging in length from a single evening to several weeks rotate through this space: Keep a close eye on the gallery’s Web site or, better yet, subscribe to its e-mail newsletter to keep track of all the activity.
62. Az Gallery
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (651) 224-3757
Description: This prominent Lowertown St. Paul gallery holds opening receptions on the first Friday of each month, hosting artwork premieres of two featured artists plus a group exhibit. The 2,000-square-foot gallery also puts on performing arts events throughout the year.
63. Circa Gallery
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 332-2386
Address: 210 North First St.
Description: CIRCA Gallery’s mission is to provide awareness and appreciation of contemporary styles, media, and expressions. The gallery represents 40 regional and national artists, with an exhibition rotation approximately every five weeks.
64. Groveland Gallery
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 377-7800
Address: 25 Groveland Terrace
Description: Groveland Gallery represents the work of nearly 50 regional artists and specializes in contemporary representational painting and drawing. Established in 1973, this elegant gallery is located in a restored 1890s mansion and carriage house on the edge of downtown Minneapolis. On the premises is a second gallery, the Annex, which features work by emerging local artists. Exhibitions in both galleries change every six weeks.
65. Inside Out Gallery
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 339-5145
Description: Interact is a studio for actors and artists with physical and mental disabilities. The organization’s Inside Out gallery has four exhibitions each year that are open to the public. Interact’s theater company, supported by professional actors as teachers and peers, produces two major shows per year.
66. Intermedia Arts
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 871-4444
Address: 2822 Lyndale Ave. South
Description: The graffiti on Intermedia’s facade isn’t just a nice concession to local taggers—giving them the space is part of the gallery’s mission. More than perhaps any other gallery in town, Intermedia is dedicated to being a neighborhood space, with shows often focusing on the work of artists from the semibohemian streets of Lyn-Lake. As a result, Intermedia’s exhibits lack the gloss and commercial appeal of other galleries’ shows, but they do offer a compelling artistic window into the soul of a community.
67. Katherine E. Nash Gallery
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 624-7530
Description: The mission of the Katherine E. Nash Gallery is to create an accessible environment for University of Minnesota faculty and students to exhibit their work, as well as to show art in various media by regional, national, and international artists.
68. Mpls Photo Center
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 643-3511
Address: 2400 North 2nd St.
Description: With the closing of the Minnesota Center for Photography, the Mpls Photo Center has become the metro area’s central meeting point for photographers serious about their craft. Besides hosting rotating exhibits of local photogs’ work, the center holds many classes and events, including a monthly open workshop with Minnesota photography legend Tom Arndt.
69. Northern Clay Center
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 339-8007
Address: 2424 East Franklin Ave.
Description: Northern Clay Center’s mission is the advancement of the ceramic arts. Ongoing programs include classes and workshops for children and adults at all levels of proficiency, more than 10 exhibitions a year of functional and sculptural work by regional and national clay artists, studio facilities and grants for artists, and a sales gallery representing many of the top ceramic artists across the region and country.
70. Pink Hobo
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 216-3924
Address: 507 East Hennepin Ave.
Description: “Please don’t leave a mean note,” pleads the Web site of the Pink Hobo gallery, a venue that opens to the public at least once for each exhibit—and maybe no more than that, spelling frustration for some local gallerygoers. Though it’s run on a shoestring, Pink Hobo has won an ardent following of arthound fans for its fun shows devoted to things like Barack Obama commemorative paper plates. As this guide went to press, Pink Hobo was joining forces with boutique store ROBOTlove and PUNY, a local animation studio whose work can be seen on Nickelodeon and elsewhere—this development will likely mean longer hours, and fewer mean notes.
71. Rogue Buddha
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 331-3889
Address: 357 13th Ave. NE
Description: Rogue Buddha is at the pumping heart of the 13th Avenue arts scene, playing host to not only exhibits of alternately whimsical and grotesque painting and sculpture but also to some of the indie-oriented art world’s biggest see-be-seen-and-drink-PBR parties. Every third Thursday, Rogue Buddha hosts an experimental music series (to be precise, the gallery refers to them as “experimental music happenings”) called iQuit.
72. The Soap Factory
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 623-9176
Address: 518 Second St. SE
Description: The Soap Factory has become notorious for the ultrascary Haunted Basement experience it offers in October, but it’s much more than that: It’s an exciting, and expanding, nonprofit arts organization that supports emerging artists, raises the public’s understanding and appreciation of their artistic expressions, and fosters strength and vitality within the arts, cultural, and education communities of the Twin Cities. The gallery is particularly supportive of experimentation in the visual arts. Each year, the Soap Factory presents several large-scale visual exhibitions featuring a wide range of media from local, national, and international emerging artists as well as performance art, film, video, and spoken-word events.
73. Soo Visual Arts Center (Soovac)
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 871-2263
Address: 2640 South Lyndale Ave.
Description: The SooVAC hosts exhibits by some of Minnesota’s most beloved contemporary artists—Erin Currie, Jennifer Davis, Sean Tubridy—as well as by national artists like Plasticgod. “Cute” is a word appropriate to describe work at the SooVAC much more often than at most galleries, but when it comes to art, just because something is eye candy doesn’t mean it’s not also nutritious. The Soo Too shop is one of the best spots in town to buy lovely, quirky prints and gift items made by local artists.
74. Vern Carver & Beard Art Galleries
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 339-3449
Address: 2817 Hennepin Ave.
Description: Vern Carver & Beard is the oldest gallery in the Twin Cities. Founded in 1886, the gallery features fine original art by regional artists of past and present, antique prints, and art glass (stained glass, blown glass, etc). The gallery also provides custom framing for prints and paintings.
75. Weinstein Gallery
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 822-1722
Address: 908 West 46th St.
Description: The Weinstein Gallery, located on a quiet corner in south Minneapolis, is the Cadillac of serious art galleries in the Twin Cities: Here you can get up close and personal with the work of world-renowned artists like Man Ray, Chuck Close, Robert Mapplethorpe, August Sander, and Minnesota photographer Alec Soth. The gallery shows work in all media, but it’s especially strong in photography.