Art: Christopher Saint Christopher's 'Private Myths'

"Inventory" & "Inverse Echo" at MIA.

January 15, 2015 at 7:11PM
“Hero With Beard” by Christopher Saint Christopher (The Minnesota Star Tribune)

FRIDAY

'Private Myths'

Christopher Saint Christopher's hand-cut paper images — ornately patterned, starkly black and white and populated by shamanistic figures in long beards and masks — pack a sinister, folky thrill. Aesthetically, they wallop with Kara Walker-style bluntness (she of the queasy, cut-paper silhouettes of plantation slave life). But the content pushes them more primitive, anthropological and occult: more on par with the tribal psychedelia of local painters (and fellow mask enthusiasts) Andy Mazorol and Tynan Kerr. Too much name-dropping? Just picture this: An explorer stumbles upon a deep-jungle tribe and only has hand-dyed paper and an X-ACTO knife to record its rituals. It's a fragile, alien safari. (Free opening reception 7-10 p.m. Fri. The White Page Gallery, 3109 E. 42nd St. Mpls. www.the-white-page.com.) GREGORY J. SCOTT

'The Temporary Autonomous Museum of Contemporary Art Minneapolis'

With the Minneapolis Institute of Arts celebrating its centennial and Walker Art Center its 75th anniversary, the Twin Cities art scene is clearly having a geriatric moment. So, when better than now to launch a Museum of Contemporary Art? The new MCA will be a "Temporary Autonomous" affair, as its official moniker makes clear. On view at Bockley Gallery for just a few weeks, the "museum" is in fact just an exhibition of recent narrative paintings, drawings, sculpture and quilted wall hangings by seven artists: Lauren Roche, Dietrich Sieling, Andrew Mazorol, Tynan Kerr, Lindsay Rhyner, Rachel Blomgren and Ryan Fontaine, who also helped organize the show. (Free opening reception, 6-9 p.m. Fri. Bockley Gallery, 2123 W. 21st St., Mpls. 612-377-4669 or www.bockleygallery.com.) Mary Abbe

THURSDAY

'Inventory' & 'Inverse Echo'

The mundane and the everyday are elevated in a solo exhibition by St. Paul artist Carolyn Swiszcz, presented as part of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts' Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program. In "Inventory," Swiszcz focuses on urban landscapes and the unpopulated small-town staples (grocery stores, churches) of her Massachusetts hometown through paintings, linoleum prints and short videos, rendered in her signature style emphasizing repetition and pattern. Similarly, Minneapolis artist Jonathan Kaiser, whose "Inverse Echo" installation opens concurrently, relies on repetition and pattern as well as shifts in perception to explore the interconnection between the past, present and future via a quartet of custom-made vinyl records played on continuous repeat. (Free opening reception 6-8 p.m. Thu. Ends March 29. Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 2400 3rd Av. S., Mpls. www.artsmia.org.) Jahna Peloquin

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