The MPR News arts and culture team’s arts briefs offer a weekly guide to the ever-evolving art scene in Minnesota.
Artist Jonathan Thunder plays with mythologies in his work. A new episode of “American Masters” on PBS features the Duluth-based artist.
Thunder’s paintings, often reminiscent of comic book art, are infused with humor and critique. In one, he reimagines the famous painting “Washington Crossing the Delaware,” which shows George Washington atop a boat with a group of soldiers. But in Thunder’s painting, Washington has been replaced with the “Hamburglar.”
He says that his piece is different from the original, which depicted “Washington as this fearless leader. But if you think about what was happening in Indigenous communities, he just seems like a big Hamburglar, a clown.”
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In the new episode, the Anishinaabe artist pulls and pushes at myths to unveil new truths.
“There’s a certain responsibility that I feel to say something about our time. If not to say anything profound, to at least say this is how it was when I was here,” he says.
“Good Mythology” is now streaming on PBS.
Pavek Museum announces Minnesota Broadcasters Hall of Fame inductees
The Pavek Museum in St. Louis Park has announced this year’s inductees into its Minnesota Broadcasters Hall of Fame.
Inductees include wrestling announcer Jim Bartels and Omni Broadcasting co-founder Mary Campbell.
Other inductees are KARE 11’s Boyd Huppert, longtime “Prairie Home Companion” voice actor Tim Russell and Lee Valsvik of iHeartMedia’s KOOL 108.
They will be honored at a ceremony on Oct. 23 at the St. Paul Hotel.
Boyd Huppert and 2022 Minnesota Broadcasters Hall of Fame inductee Cathy Wurzer were classmates at the University of Wisconsin – River Falls and worked together at the college radio station WRFW-FM.
Courtesy of Boyd Huppert and Cathy Wurzer
Seldom-seen Minnesota movies at Trylon Theater
The Trylon Cinema in Minneapolis will be screening seldom-seen independent Minnesota films Friday and Saturday.
Filmmakers David Burton Morris and Victoria Wozniak were responsible for a series of films in the 1970s and 1980s that were set in Minnesota and starred local actors, telling the stories of downbeat characters and complicated relationships.
Friday’s screenings will be 1975’s “Loose Ends” and 1988’s “Patti Rocks.” Both star Chris Mulkey as a comically overbearing lout; Mulkey has since had a long career as a Hollywood character actor.
Saturday’s screenings include the 1982 film “Purple Haze” by Morris and Wozniak, a film set during a fraught moment in 1968 when a former Princeton student (kicked out for smoking cannabis, we learn) wanders the Twin Cities waiting to hear from the draft board. The film is self-consciously a “Catcher in the Rye” for the Vietnam generation, including having a main character whose last name is Caulfield.
Tickets are available on the Trylon website.
Handcrafted publishing at Friedli Gallery
Friedli Gallery in St. Paul is presenting a book arts exhibition through May 27. The show will feature fine press books, zines and other examples of handcrafted publishing. Curator Erin Maurelli is a book art creator herself, creating elaborately decorated boxes and colorful stickers and prints.
The exhibit opens tonight with a “cocktail casual” reception.
‘TERRANE’ explores the meaning of home
A dance show focused on Palestinian experiences opened yesterday at Red Eye Theater in Minneapolis.
“TERRANEA: hakawati of the sea” takes place in the Mediterranean Sea and focuses on themes of occupation and refugee status. Leila Awadallah is the artistic director of Body Watani, the group performing the piece. She also choreographed the piece with her sister.
“Our mother lineage is from Sicily … our father is directly from Palestine,” Awadallah told MPR News. “So, for me when I think about the question of home, I’ve often felt like that water is home for me.”
The show runs until Saturday. For more information visit the Red Eye website.
Hamlet returns to the Guthrie
The Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis’s new production of “Hamlet” begins previews Saturday.
It helps to mark the theater’s 60th season by looking back to its origins, as it was a production of “Hamlet” that kicked off the landmark theater’s first season in 1963.
Now returning for its fifth production at The Guthrie, Shakespeare’s tragedy about a Danish prince bent on avenging his father will be helmed by artistic director Joseph Haj. Haj said that he is honored to direct the show in a press release, and calls it “arguably the greatest play written in the English language.” The show begins previews Saturday and officially opens on the April 14.
Alice Longyu Gao, a Chinese singer, songwriter, DJ and performance artist is known for bold hyperpop music. Gao has released music independently since 2018.
Courtesy of Astra Zero and Stolen Besos
Absolute Bleeding Edge: Alice Longyu Gao
Alice Longyu Gao (who uses the neopronouns xe/xyr) has a terrific collection of hyphenates on xyr Wikipedia page: singer, songwriter, DJ and performance artist.
Gao’s newest EP is marvelously titled “Let’s Hope Heteros Fail, Learn and Retire.” It somehow showcases all the Wikipedia hyphenates, as well as the artist’s own biography: Gao was born in China, studied in Japan, and became a DJ in New York.
Gao’s music is often identified as “ultrapop,” a nebulous critical phrase that nonetheless is entirely appropriate here. “Heteros” is a manic tour of various pop styles, offered with both a snarl and a wild sense of humor.
Standout songs include the stripped-down, looping “Come 2 Brazil,” in which Gao crows about international popularity in a hilarious deadpan, and “Believe the Hype,” where Goa alternates between the arch vocals of anime theme songs and the hysterical screaming of Japanese noise rock. “You’re listening to the future of music,” Gao declares, and, gosh, maybe we are.
The MPR News arts team offers suggestions for the best in avant-garde, experimental and off-the-beaten-path arts and culture.
