Twin Cities' 5 must-see art shows this weekend

Above: "Nairy Baghramian: Déformation Professionnelle" is co-organized by the Walker Art Center and the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (S.M.A.K.), Ghent, Belgium. Photo by Timo Ohler.

Nairy Baghramian: Déformation Professionnelle

Walker Art Center (725 Vineland Place, Mpls.)

$9-$14, free for 17 and younger. walkerart.org

Runs through February 4

Berlin-based artist Baghramian, who relocated from Iran to Germany as a teenager, creates elaborate installations, each responsive to the site where they are placed. Her sculptures dismantle the gestural aspects of the human body, repositioning them in curious ways. With a wide range of materials, she challenges the definition of sculpture. In conjunction with this solo exhibit, her steel sculpture "Privileged Point" (2014), a curved rod of heavy steel that appears to be rubber, will be installed in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.

Edgar Heap of Birds

Opening reception: Friday, Sept 8, 5-8 p.m.

Runs through October 14

This solo exhibition features three decades of text-based works, abstract paintings and one public artwork by Edgar Heap of Birds, an artist who is an enrolled citizen of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes, and based in Oklahoma. His work both challenges and asks viewers to confront the romanticization narrative of the American Indian, instead reconciling with the ways that colonizers of North American attempted to tear apart native cultures' spiritual practices, languages and the land where they lived. Working in the vein of conceptual art, Heap of Birds has been making artwork consistently since the early 1980s. His work is political, multi-disciplinary, and expresses his Cheyenne-Arapaho identity and indigenous understanding of place.

De/Coding: 2017 MCAD MFA Fall Exhibition

MCAD MFA Studios and Gallery (2201 1st Ave S, Mpls)
Gallery entrance on Stevens Avenue

First and second year MCAD MFA students showcase their work in this exhibition of 26 artists and designers. Bonus: The event takes place in the program's new studio and gallery space up the street from the main campus, so you can get a peek at it. Gallery Hours: September 2, 3, and 9, 12:00-4:00 p.m. Panel Discussion: September 9, 4:00 p.m.

Third Rail Launch Party: Issue 11

1237 NE 4^th St, Mpls

12-4 p.m.

FB event info: https://www.facebook.com/events/128702501095002

Available Positions, Mónica de la Torre
Bojana Cvejić interviewed by Christina Schmid
Bodega Series, Tschabalala Self
Gabrielle Civil in conversation with Mankwe Ndosi
View from a Folding Chair, Mónica de la Torre
Full Bleed, Adam Milner
Patrick Staff interviewed by Sara Cluggish
Equiknoxx interviewed by Shawn Reed
Kimchi Recipe, Ann Kim
View from an Aeron Chair, Mónica de la Torre

Above: The church almost upstages the people in Giovanni Paolo Panini's "The Consecration of Giuseppe Pozzobeonelli as Archbishop in San Carlo al Corso," a bird's-eye view of a 1743 ceremony in Rome. Courtesy of the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

Eyewitness Views: Making History in 18th-Century Europe

Minneapolis Institute of Art (2400 Third Avenue South, Mpls)

On view September 10-December 31, 2017