Friday: Minnesota State Fair Seed Art

Foiled Again Salon is hosting a best-of retrospective of the past 40 years of award-winning seed art at the Minnesota State Fair. Subjects include everything from Spam to Bo Diddley to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. As for the State Fair's 2009 entries, politics don't appear to play into the themes as much as they did last year, but one of the most clever comes from Teresa Anderson, who has been entering the State Fair crop-art competition since 2004. Her piece, titled "GOP Sideshow," features the right's most outspoken members as circus sideshow characters. (Especially funny is her crop-art version of Michele Bachmann in "Madam Michele's Zany Predictions.") Free opening reception 6-9 p.m. Fri. Foiled Again Salon, 2807 NE. Johnson St., Mpls., 612-781-5150.

  • Jahna Peloquin

SATURDAY: 'How to Build an Igloo?'

Coal, ice and sod are not typical elements found in an art gallery, but then again, Andrea Miller isn't your typical artist. The self-described "inner landscape" artist will incorporate these organic elements into her two-part performance art-meets-installation exhibition "How to Build An Igloo?" In the exhibition, Miller explores the concept of "internal shelter" in times of climate change, combining movement, song, dance and monologue to look at the relationship between the quality of human life and the quality of the environment. An installation version of the exhibition opens Sept. 18. View the event listing.

  • Jahna Peloquin

SATURDAY: 'The Austerity Cookbook'

The Soap Factory draws inspiration from the recession -- and the public's reaction to it -- for its latest exhibition. Curated by gallery director Ben Heywood, the exhibit is named after an English collection of recipes drawn from the forced pragmatism of the 1930s and published in response to financial anxieties of the early 1970s. "Austerity" puts current economic concerns into perspective while tying the repurposed origins of the gallery itself into overall concepts of reinvention and making do. The show features new work from 11 emerging artists from across North America. Resourcefulness is on display, demonstrating that beauty can emerge from discarded or useless materials. Still, the outlook is not uniformly optimistic. Other works cast doubt on our ability to navigate the obstacles on our way to economic and social survival, rounding out the examination of our current situation and the diversity of outcomes before us. View the event listing.

  • Suzanne Lindgren