Art spotlight: Terra Incognita

Opening Saturday: As an alternative to this week's art fair frenzy, "Terra Incognita" offers contemplative landscapes transmuted into abstract designs. Estlund, who teaches at Minneapolis College of Art and Design, paints "natural spaces that do not represent the ideal," the sort of inconsequential but intriguing spaces that surround us everywhere — ditches, back alleys — and layers them with imaginative scenes. Squadroni, an architect who lives in Coleraine, Minn., documents and predicts changes in the Mesabi Iron Range, particularly the Kawishiwi River and nearby areas whose deposits of copper, nickel and other metals are sought by mining companies. Intended to inform the public about the "future of Minnesota's landscape," his abstract "land portraits" fuse metaphoric images of the area's past and future. (Opening 6-9 p.m. Sat., Aug. 8. Free. Soo Visual Arts Center, 2909 Bryant Av. S., Suite 101, Mpls. Ends Sept. 5. 612-871-2263 or www.soovac.org)