Artists in 'Worlding' create alternative universes at Minneapolis gallery

The title of this small group show invokes both active voice and a transitive verb, and with it, co-curators Patrick K. Pryor and Kate Casanova put us on notice: This is art that perpetrates. The "world making" of the six exhibiting artists — Andrea Carlson, Preston Drum, Andy DuCett, Nicole Gordon, Sarah Faye McPherson and Lamar Peterson — is something done to us. Drum pulls us most literally into an alternate reality with "Living Room Scene," a sculpture/video installation that invites viewers to sit in a cardboard armchair and spy, from the perspective of the television, into a household of masked characters. With gritty materials (cardboard, garbage, recycled cinder block) and hallucinatory calm, Drum creates a sinister dream that lands somewhere between Claes Oldenburg's "The Street" and David Lynch's "Rabbits." Carlson, DuCett and McPherson are characteristically great, and Gordon and Peterson haunt and surprise with strange oil-on-canvas scenes. (Opening reception 7-9 p.m. Sat., Kolman & Pryor Gallery, 1500 NE. Jackson St., #395, Mpls. kolmanpryorgallery.com.)

GREGORY J. SCOTT