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

Bockley Gallery (2123 W 21st Street, Mpls.)

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

Opening Reception: Friday, September 8, 6:00-9:00 p.m.
including a performance from 7:00-8:00 p.m.

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

Quarterly magazine The Third Rail, a free nonprofit periodical focused on discussions of modern and contemporary art, politics, culture, philosophy and more, launches its 11th issue on Saturday. Come hang out and listen to Feel Free Hi-Fi (Shawn Reed and Derek Maxwell) and watch video by Patrick Staff while eating kimchi tacos and enjoying drinks from the sake bar. Here's what will be inside issue 11 of the magazine:

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

Hundreds of years ago in Europe, long before the time of selfie sticks and digital cameras and the internet, artists were commissioned to document major rituals, religious processions and events of the day.

"Eyewitness Views: Making History in 18th-Century Europe," a big exhibition opening Sunday at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, focuses on the epic works of celebrated view painters such as Canaletto, Giovanni Paolo Panini, Francesco Guardi, Bernardo Bellotto, Hubert Robert and Luca Carlevarijs. These painters captured such events as a procession through Venice's canals to welcome a foreign dignitary; the eruption of Vesuvius, or the annual Bucintoro festival, celebrating the ritual marriage of Venice and the sea.