El Circo: Portraits by Xavier Tavera & On the Plains: Landscapes byPeter Latner
Runner Runner Gallery curator Luke Erickson, who worked at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, has tapped into proven talent with a new exhibit of color portraits by Xavier Tavera and Midwestern landscapes by Peter Latner. The combination of images may be a little strange, but both photographers have ample talent and well-defined turf. Tavera has tapped into multiple identities with portraits of Latino wrestlers, gang members, circus performers and Carleton College students. Latner is rightly known for his quiet documentation of Midwestern highways and byways, of quirky motels and small-town diners, graveled roads and cornfields with big skies. The gallery adjacent to a warehouse/office is brought to you by the newish Runner Runner, a small company with big ideas that produces TV commercials, music videos and lots of attitude. A place that boasts it is a "bad-ass content producer by day, fun house by night" has a lot to recommend it.
- Free opening reception 6-9 p.m. Thu 3/31 (ends 5/20)
Runner Runner Gallery
218 N. 2nd St., Mpls
612-332-9692
www.runner-runner.com/gallery
Miles Mendenhall, Conrad Ventur and Lisha Bai
Operating independently, three artists will transform Franklin Art Works' walls, floor and air with new pieces. Minneapolis' own Miles Mendenhall offers huge, enigmatic silvery shapes in a minimalist mode that he's concocted by reviving an early-20th-century process known as carbon printing. Up to 5 feet square, his prints involve pixelated images manipulated and layered to produce unusual depths of color and tone. New York artist Conrad Ventur has installed "If You Knew," a video tribute to Nina Simone in which the singer's image is refracted through a rotating prism. Lisha Bai, also of New York, is redoing FAW's floor with wave patterns cut from black-and-white vinyl flooring. All this and a party, too, followed by a Food Pyramid performance and a light show by Ventur. More event details.
