Last year I was surprised by the news that a gallery of African art was to open in Richfield, a suburb in which “Black or African American persons” total only 6.6 percent of the population. (Source: U.S. Census Bureau: State and County QuickFacts)

I visited the new Ampah Gallery, and though I had planned to look around for 20 minutes, I ended up hanging out for hours. The owners, Felix Ampah and his wife Silvia, handed me hot cider and showed me around. I was family.

The owner-curators explained the symbolism in Felix’s work, most of which depicts the people and traditions of his native Ghana. I stayed for a class that Felix taught for the community called “Living with Art.” More chat, more cider, and the photo above, which is exactly how I will remember Felix, who died on February 26, 2008.  read more »

I learned a lesson today: always call before you show up at a small, out-of-the-way art gallery, even when they advertise an exhibit. The place might be locked and dark. This is the downside of being adventuresome—like Geraldo Rivera finding nothing but cobwebs in the alleged secret vault of Al Capone, you sometimes wind up at a dead end, forced to apologize for hyping up the mission and then wasting everybody’s time….

On the air yesterday, I declared today (Sunday, February 26) to be Happy Bubble Sunday, a name I invented for a fun-filled afternoon. My group of friends coming from the rock opera My Green Eyes at Judson Church (which was, in fact, sold out as I reported), along with any listeners who dared, were to meet at Stevens Square Center for the Arts for the last hour of an advertised exhibit called The Happy Show, featuring the cheerful work of seven visual artists, including Keiko Yagishita, whose sweet “Above the Clouds” print of a boxer pup was featured in promotional materials. I thought it fitting that after such levity, we should all enjoy some bubble tea. (I learned to love the stuff in China. Slurping pea-sized tapioca pearls through big, fat straws from frothy drinks is fun!) Thus, Happy Bubble.  read more »

I’d like to know what you think of the concerts, plays, gallery shows, museum exhibits and other arts and culture activities recommended on the show. If you’ve attended anything you’ve heard about on the show, or an event we haven’t talked about (but should!), send me your comments! Good, bad or indifferent, your thoughts matter, and I’d love to hear from you!

As always, I invite you to call in with your comments or just to be part of the discussion at 651-989-KTLK (-5855). Thanks for listening and I hope you have a chance this week to see and be seen on the art scene! For links to what you heard on the show, click here.

Everywhere I go around the world, I seek out art and never fail to find some that I love. But like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, I always seem to find that “there’s no place like home.” In other words, the Twin Cities is an awesome place for art.

Last night I visited three galleries and it has left my mind awhirl in a kaleidoscope of colors, shapes, materials and meaningful messages. First stop: Rogue Buddha Gallery on 13th Street just off of University, where I picked up the Craig Bell painting I purchased when the show opened a month ago. Now a new show is up (artist Jon Langford) and I like it—in particular, the digital image of Hank Williams, gussied up through techiques that make his smile fairly jump off the plywood to which it is applied and I can almost hear the “Howdy, Ma’am” that would tumble from the country singer’s lips. Better put a sticker on that one. He’s mine.

Next, a short walk down the block to Gallery 13, and I’m sorry, did we just enter Wonderland? My friend Jill and I agreed that “Tin Man” sculptor Lester Hoikka has created a fabulous pop-up book for grown-ups that you can actually walk around in. Inspired by tin toys of the ’40s and ’50s, and influenced by themes you’d see during Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) in Mexico and Carnival (Mardi Gras) in New Orleans and points south of the equator, Lester’s sheet metal imagery makes you feel as if you’ve been dropped onto a stage on which a colorful play about life and death is in progress. The motion, the drama, the humor, the fun—it’s all there! I hope you see it, but hurry. Lester’s work is in demand, and so the show runs one week only.  read more »

Okay, so I had a bad hair day, but that didn’t keep me from sidling up to world-famous painter, TV/movie producer, illustrator (Cranium board game, The New Yorker), humorist, and my friend Michael’s hero Gary Baseman for a photo op at Ox-Op Gallery. After standing behind him (not a bad view, by the way) in a line that seemed unending only because he so generously adds illustrations to the books he signs, I was pleasantly surprised to see, when he turned around, that the artist is as cute as the characters he paints—and that he has no visible wounds. For some reason, I received custodianship of flexi-mascot Toby, whose little leather tummy nestled into my palm with the pleasant heft and squishiness of an orange. Part of the fun in meeting Gary (yes, we’re on a first-name basis now) was watching him display equal charm in addressing do-ragged bikers from Grumpy’s as he did in squatting down to chat with children.  read more »

Friends,

If you’re checking in to see when the show starts, relax—it’s not until next Saturday the 14th (update: 21st), as the station is still juggling producers. (Rather amazing to watch, epecially when they light ‘em on fire.)

Great crowd Thursday night at Marysburg. So much fun to see y’all and sing some tunes again after a month-long hiatus for the holidays. Of course now there’s one more reason to hang out at Washington & 3rd on Thursday nights, in addition to J. D. Hoyt’s, the Monte and the Burg—it’s The R Factor at the new Trocadero’s, just up the street. My heart is still racing a full day and a half after hotboy Emil Campbell (red suit, at right) brought that portable mic all the way into the dining room and sang to me. (Hear it? Thumpity-thump thump!) Jimmy May, I hope that photo you took turns out.  read more »