3 Not-to-Miss Art Exhibits in Minneapolis

Every day, I thank my lucky stars that I live in the veritable arts mecca that is Minneapolis. Theater, dance, music, visual art – you name it, Minneapolis has got it. Here are three arts events in Minneapolis taking place this fall and early winter that you should definitely check out.

The Minneapolis Institute of Art collaborated with the National Gallery in London to curate an expansive exhibition that explores Delacroix’s role in shaping the forms, palettes and themes of modernity. French painter Cézanne’s quote “we all paint in Delacroix’s language” serves as a departure point for this comprehensive show that features work by Delacroix and those who came after: Matisse, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Renoir, Degas, Monet, and other seminal artists of the period. The exhibition runs through January 10, 2016. If you miss it in Minneapolis, you can view it at the National Gallery, London, from February 10, 2016 through May 15, 2016.

This innovative show explores the intersections of art, architecture, and design with the counterculture of the 1960s and early 1970s. Themes that run throughout the exhibition include the challenging of societal and professional norms, overturning traditional hierarchies, exploring new media and materials, and forming alternative communities and new ways of living and working together. During this time in history, many artists and designers were searching for a new kind of utopia, and explored this idea within the realms of technology, ecology, and politics. This multimedia exhibition includes experimental furniture, alternative living structures, immersive and participatory media environments, alternative publishing and ephemera, and experimental film. The Walker is hosting a series of lectures and events in association with the show, so check the website before you plan your visit. Hippie Modernism runs through February 28th, 2016.

An incredibly unique exhibition, Black & White refers to both the stark palette in the stunning printed images found throughout the show and the racial segregation that was at the heart of apartheid in South Africa. One of the defining political acts of apartheid was the Bantu Education Act of 1953, which sought to maintain an inexpensive, uneducated black labor force by limiting educational opportunities. A young Swedish couple, Ulla and Peder Gowenius, founded the Rorke’s Drift Art Centre in South African in 1963, where they introduced Black students to artistic production and analysis, thus empowering them to communicate through visual language. Black & White tells this remarkable story through the art that was made by these talented and insightful students in the 1960s and 1970s. The exhibition is on view through February 14th, 2016.