'Excavations: Julie Mehretu Prints'

Internationally celebrated American artist Julie Mehretu will be in Minneapolis for the opening of her first print retrospective. Staged in Highpoint's chic new galleries, the 20-piece show includes images the Ethiopian-born artist has made at top printmaking studios nationwide, including Highpoint. The multilayered prints combine abstract gestures, vortex swirls, color flares and graphic patterns suggestive of maps, urban planning grids and architectural drawings. The show inaugurates Highpoint's new state-of-the-art facility designed by Minneapolis architect James Dayton. (Party with hands-on printmaking and dancing, 9 p.m.-midnight Sat. 10/03, $35.) View the full event listing.

  • Mary Abbe

'Contagious'

A few weeks ago, at the great local art orgy that was Eric Inkala's going-away party -- which crammed well over 100 works from about 40 artists onto the walls of First Amendment -- one piece by Tara Costello hung serenely amid the hubbub. It was a set of ovoid paintings, each about the size of a pantyhose egg, enclosing spectral ponds of pale, textured paint. It caught our eye then, and now we're blessed with a second look. Like a melancholy soundtrack, Costello's silent, quietly emotive work sets the mood for this weekend's one-night-only group show also featuring the nostalgic imagery of Jen Davis and Amy Rice. Both Davis and Rice construct vintage-styled pasts that evoke some kind of unlived, imagined childhood -- Davis with her saltwater taffy pastels, dreamy and sweet, and Rice with her stenciled wood surfaces, slightly worn and comfortably domestic. Together, the three women have a perfectly paired show. (Preview 3-7 p.m. Sat., opening reception 7-10 p.m. Sat. 1121 NE. Jackson St., studio 145, Mpls., www.contagiousart.blogspot.com)

  • Gregory J. Scott

RP Kittsteiner anniversary

The RP Kittsteiner Gallery is like the bed-and-breakfast of the local art scene, a cozy charmer of a space situated in the bottom half of a northeast Minneapolis duplex owned and occupied by a working artist couple. A more relaxing art environment we couldn't imagine. There's the warm-bath bleariness of Rosa Kittsteiner's paintings, the cool meditation of Bradley Royce's pagoda-shaped cremation urns, and, if you're lucky, maybe a spread of homemade snacks from the kitchen upstairs. Like the scent of some cleansing incense, a sense of well-being blooms here. The gallery celebrates its fifth anniversary with work from eight artists who have featured prominently in the space.

  • Gregory J. Scott

'HHH'

Few are mourning the pending loss of baseball at the Metrodome, which will host its final Twins game on Sunday. Regardless, the arts-and-baseball loving crew of Andy Sturdevant, Peter McLarnan, Brennan Vance and Sam Soule felt it appropriate to say goodbye to the beloved yet reviled stadium with an evening of music, art, performance and the premiere of a short film about the Dome. The collective will also raffle off two tickets to the sold-out final game for you sentimental types. View the full event listing.

  • Jahna Peloquin