Saint Paul Art Crawl Fall Round-Up (Round 2)
Published October 3rd, 2024 by Russ White
This weekend's Crawl will take you all over Saint Paul, and here we zoom in on what you can find in Downtown & Lowertown
Banner image: Alex Kuno, We Grow Our Roots At Night (detail)
The Saint Paul Art Crawl is upon us — October 4, 5, & 6 in venues all over town — and when we planned this series of articles about it all, our intention was to save Downtown and Lowertown for last, to have fun bopping from place to place, highlighting a few artists and helping you all have a blast meandering around looking at art.
And then the Lowertown arts community suffered a shocking tragedy in the loss of Carrie Kwok, the artist who was killed while working on a mural outside the Lowertown Lofts Artists Cooperative.
“You know it’s going to take a lot of healing for our building, our members, but for the whole community," Lowertown artist Ta-coumba Aiken told KSTP. "Hopefully people will remember the goodness of her and the goodness of artists, how they want to give art for free.”
So we will keep our focus on Lowertown this week but with some extra love in our hearts for everyone grieving this loss, even as they prepare to open their doors and show their work. There's plenty to see and celebrate (and support) this weekend — and while you're planning your route, don't forget last week's Round Up of spots elsewhere in the city.
Gallery hours vary by location, but the official Crawling hours are Friday, 5 - 9 pm; Saturday, 12 - 8 pm; and Sunday, 12 - 5 pm.
Let's start with a couple of the stand-alone spots and save the big studio buildings for last:
Northern Light Art Studio
218 7th St E
"Northern Light Art Studio at the St. Paul Fall Art Crawl 2024 is a vibrant showcase of local art, pottery demonstrations, drop-in workshops, and more!
"Make sure to visit Northern Light Art Studio during the Fall Art Crawl for two days full of art and activities. Located in the heart of downtown St Paul, NLAS is a must-see on your Art Crawl route. Here's what you can look forward to:
• Shop local art • Drop-in workshops and games • Live art demonstrations • Studio tours
"Open Saturday, Oct 5, from 12 – 6pm and Sunday, Oct 6, from 12-5pm. This event is free and open to the public."
Ceramicist Mathis shares pottery at the Spring St. Paul Art Crawl. Photo courtesy of NLAS.
Calendula Gallery
275 East 4th St, Suite 130
Calendula Gallery • @calendula_gallery
In their Poppy Room, Calendula Gallery will be showing Everything Everything Everything by Stuart Raymond.
"Stuart Raymond has been creating his entire life. Trained in art, design and print his artistic roots reach into many mediums as he mines inspiration from the things that move us: culture, politics, war, rebellion, labor, love, sadness, anxiety, consumerism, alcohol, death, and birth. These are the perceptions of the outsider artist. No rules exist."
Stuart Raymond, I'm A Pieces, mixed media. Image courtesy of Calendula Gallery.
The M
350 Robert St N
You'll have to wait a few more weeks into spooky season to get a peak at The Minnesota Museum of American Art's New Wing, finally nearing completion after years of renovation and opening October 26. But in the meantime, crawl through The M to check out a couple of great exhibits — including one with art you can literally crawl through:
Hilo de la Sangre (Thread of the Blood)
Hilo de la Sangre, curated by Xavier Tavera and Dougie Padilla, brings together fifteen Latine visual artists from across the diaspora to consider the significance of blood as a material foundation of life, a carrier of complex lineages, a signal of violence and death, and a cultural and spiritual symbol of sacrifice and atonement. Despite its potency, its concealed fluidity in our bodies helps us disregard its significance.
Carlos Castro Arias, Tío (Uncle) Fragment of a Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada sculpture, intervened with beads using symbols of the Inga culture from Putumayo, Colombia, 2021. Resin and plastic beads. Photo by Xavier Tavera, courtesy of The M.
Together
Together is a mixed media art exhibition featuring artwork from ten Minnesota artist families of diverse ages and family structures who have created individual and communal work for the exhibition. Artists Emmett and Kit Ramstad conceived this project to elevate children’s artwork and provide a space for parent artists to support each other as they fulfill the roles of parents and artists while raising a new generation of makers. Together uplifts mixed generational creativity by showcasing artists who have contributed hugely to Minnesota’s artistic community and their children who are integral influences to their practice. Closing October 27!
A visitor enjoys the sculptural installation by Preston, Elvis, and Leroy Drum. Photo courtesy of The M.
Okay, you ready to do the Art Crawl the way nature intended? Into Lowertown's big studio buildings we go:
Tilsner Artist Cooperative
300 Broadway St
Tilsner Artist Co-Op • @tilsner_artist_lofts
Standing side-by-side between Kellogg and Prince St, the big brick behemoths of Tilsner and Northern Warehouse are a good place to spend a few hours and a few bucks supporting local artists, makers, and creatives of all stripes. We reached out to a handful at each building to give you a small sampler:
Jeffrey Hansen
jhansenartist.com • @jeffhansenart
Jeffrey Hansen, Non-Zero-Sum Counterweight No.2 w/Linework, 2024. Acrylic on canvas, 48 x 60". Image courtesy of the artist.
“This is my 30th year of both being in the Tilsner and taking part as an artist in every Art Crawl during that time.
“I enjoy creating visual structures that include circles for the idea of how the shape of a circle is used as a symbol for infinity. I believe art, in itself, is infinite. I'm using the circle as a infinite motif to create my art in an infinite universe of artistic possibilities. I tend to use color, form, texture, and lines to convey emotions, ideas, and concepts within simplified geometric construction. Tied together with the term and title of ‘Non-Zero-Sum’ carries with it another, not so familiar term, for infinite possibilities. A Non-Zero-Sum theory, as it were, has balance of both complementary and completely opposed motives that are perceived as never-ending, or infinite.”
Boo Studios
Boo Studios, Farmers Market Flowers #1, 2024.
"This weekend at the Tilsner Artist Lofts during the St. Paul Art Crawl, my work will be featured in the 3rd-floor hallways. Visitors can expect a bold showcase of vibrant mixed media and wearable arts, including new floral-inspired pieces and my upcycled clothing collection, The Royal Apocalypse. As a multidisciplinary artist, I blend visual art with fashion, creating dynamic, thought-provoking works that explore themes of identity, trauma, and empowerment, with a strong focus on LGBTQIA voices. Each piece, whether on canvas or in fabric, challenges societal norms and invites introspection.
"This weekend, along with free giveaways with every purchase, I’ll be hosting a silent auction of older works, offering a unique opportunity to engage with my journey as an artist!"
Kyle Rennell
Work by Kyle Rennell, courtesy of the artist.
"My work is a mixed bag of painting and drawing, primarily acrylic painting and graphite drawing. Most of my work is abstract, however, I also do images based on dream interpretation and politics."
Northern Warehouse
308 Prince St
This may be my favorite spot of the whole Crawl — tons of great artists, so let's get to it:
La.dy.like Art
Film still courtesy of the artists.
"La.dy.like Art Project Co-Founders Andrea Bagdon and Spencer Legendre-Gillespie are excited to have the opportunity to connect with the community during the St. Paul Art Crawl at the Northern Warehouse Artist Lofts, Studio 310. They will be sharing their latest projects and offering a curated selection of artworks from both new and previous collections for sale."
Burl Gallery (formerly AZ Gallery)
Burl Gallery • @burlartgallery
Clockwise from top left: Brit Sigh, Ascension; Kathryn Blommel, Entangled in my Roots; Seth Peter, Furn the Furniture Cow. Images courtesy of Burl Gallery
"Our current exhibit is the 4th in our 2024 Curatorial Series: Collective ALCHEMY IV, featuring an incredibly diverse body of work from 57 artists.
"We also have a gift shop of artisan wares (candles, soaps, cards, prints, ceramics, etc.)."
Alex Kuno
Alex Kuno, The Riot, courtesy of the artist.
"I'll be showing some original gouache and oil paintings and my newest allotments of band and artist signed Tool posters will be available, but mostly I'll be featuring over 30 prints mounted on ready-to-hang wood panels that will be sealed in wax. I'll also be trying something new this Fall, by opening an 18+ Only little gallery space in my studio to show additional mounted prints of my more NSFW images. It's an experiment so I'm interested to see if it'll be worth developing for future Crawls."
Lowertown Lofts Artist Cooperative
255 East Kellogg Blvd
lowertownlofts.org • @llartistcoop
And we will end our long, meandering journey through Saint Paul — which has veered wildly off-brand and proven to be not at all boring — at the Lowertown Lofts Artist Co-Op (not to be confused with the apartment building at 5th & Wacouta). Let's show up and show them some love.
Liz Carlson
Artwork by Liz Carlson, courtesy of the artist
"This summer I completed over seventy illustrations for the upcoming tweens cookbook Fresh, Food Science written by local author and educator, Dr. Megan Oliva Hall. A selection of the original gouache paintings will be on view during the weekend art crawl. The book release party will be October 24th at the Lowertown Lofts Artist Cooperative. "
Nancy Robinson
nancyrobinson.com • @nancy_robinson_artist
Nancy Robinson, Mermaid Self-Portrait, 2022. Oil on canvas, 30 x 40". Image courtesy of the artist
"I’m a surrealistic painter. I’ll be showing self-portraits which are based on my daily life as a woman."
I know that was a lot, but believe me, we've barely scratched the surface. Happy crawling, y'all! ◼︎
The Saint Paul Art Crawl happens twice a year and is presented by the Saint Paul Art Collective, a network of creatives first started in 1977. This is the third in a series of articles promoting the Fall Crawl; the first is a Q&A with SPAC's new Executive Director Mariusz Kujawski, and the second is a round-up of artists and venues in greater Saint Paul.
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