Guerrilla Girls begin their takeover of Twin Cities art venues

Starting Tuesday: With more than 30 arts organizations showcasing their hijinks, exhibitions and consciousness-raising activities, the Guerrilla Girls are having a Minnesota Moment. Founded in 1985, the GG are an anonymous collective of women working to eliminate art-world hypocrisies and male dominance. Wearing gorilla masks, they use humor, statistics and theatrical aggression to critique attitudes and institutions that trivialize, infantilize, ignore or demean women. More than 50 exhibits and events will happen during the next eight weeks involving students and activists as well as longtime members of the Guerrilla Girls. Festivities kick off Tuesday at Minneapolis College of Art and Design with the opening of "Minnesota Mean," an issue-­oriented participatory event (through March 6), and "Stepping Back, Looking Forward: Honoring Feminist Vision" (through Feb. 7), a show of feminist art by Twin Citians that includes Patricia Olson's "Self Portrait at 60 (after Beckmann)." A free reception at 6-8 p.m. Thursday will be followed by a performance by local hip-hip stars GRRRL PRTY. (2501 Stevens Av. S., Mpls.) Also Thursday, Walker Art Center opens an installation of GG posters (6-7 p.m. Thu., 1750 Hennepin Av. S., Mpls.) while the Minneapolis Institute of Art offers a Guerrilla Girls-engineered "ReMix" in its galleries (6-9 p.m. Thu., 2400 3rd Av. S., Mpls.). For info, see GGtakeover.com.

Mary Abbe