Art

Anticipating the inauguration of President Barack Obama, Twin Cities photographer Alec Soth compiled a series of photos entitled, “The Last Days of W.” Taking its title from a poem by Lester B. Morrison, the series (and book) offers a poetic look at the country George W. Bush leaves behind. Shot in Minnesota and across the United States, the works represent “a panoramic look at a country exhausted by its catastrophic leadership.”

Making the cover of TIME wasn’t the peak of Shepard Fairey’s successes this election season: his iconic Obama poster was purchased by the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery for an undisclosed sum, and a reworking of the red, white and blue classic is being given away to donors to the historic inauguration. But for those of [...]

TIME’s Person of the Year package includes a collection of Obama-inspired art. Among the entries is a poster created by Brooklyn artist David Choe. The photo of the image was snapped in Minneapolis’ Warehouse District by local photographer and South High senior Mark Vancleave . (Full-size image after the jump.)

For 35 years, Intermedia Arts has focused on working to “build understanding among people through art,” cosponsoring everything from the B-Girl Be festival of women in hip-hop and exhibitions by artists in its Lyndale Avenue neighborhood to the annual Art Car Parade and last year’s series of creative responses to the Republican National Convention called The UnConvention. Its building, covered by an ever-changing mural that mixed realistic, abstract and graffiti-style paintings, telegraphed its dextrous, community-oriented mission. But according to its website, Intermedia has been hit especially hard by the economic downturn: next month, it’s laying off all full-time staff and closing its gallery.

With half of my Twitter friends in the political sphere and the other half involved with art, watching my feed during last night’s debate yielded an entertaining mash-up of both. One, from Washington, D.C.–based art journalist Tyler Green, referenced a contemporary art darling (who happens to be Mr. Björk): “It occurs to me that Matthew Barney was on the vanguard of incoherence as a strategy. Palin’s just following in his footsteps.”

So in the spirit of absurdity and art, a less-than-political rundown of odd takes on proceedings.

This morning, a group of journalists and activists held a press conference to raise awareness of what they see as a frightening trend: police, in the run-up to the Republican National Convention, increasingly targeting journalists. I’ll have video of the conference later today, but here’s a quick video on Vlad Teichberg, a member of the Glass Bead Collective, a New York new-media art group. He and two colleagues were detained by Minneapolis police this week without charge and searched. Police confiscated notes, computers and videocameras, exposing the film in one camera and finally returning the equipment days later. He says we’re at a cultural tipping point: With so many citizens toting cameras to events like RNC protests, police have little choice but to follow strict police protocols — or run the risk of being outted on YouTube.

As a part of the UnConvention, a sideshow to the Republican National Convention, next week Miami artist Steven Gagnon will drive his sculptural contraption to the Twin Cities and park it in a public spot near Intermedia Arts, a sponsor of the festivities. Gagnon’s “border cruiser” calls attention to the experience of undocumented people in the U.S.

Last time the Republicans had a national convention, New York-based designers Thomas Fuchs and Felix Sockwell couldn’t pass up a chance to protest — only they did so in a medium they’re comfortable with: They reinvented the GOP elephant in 100 different ways. Sockwell distributed the logos — a Pepsi-sponsored GOP elephant, a trunk transformed into a gun aimed back at a soldier’s head, a pachyderm turned into a hunch-backed man with a cane — in a bicycle rickshaw throughout New York.

With another convention in the wings, I contacted the artists to see if they had any updates to their self-published book, GOP 100: Deconstructing Dumbo. While they said the book is still fresh four years later and doesn’t necessarily need updating, they had one: a retitled piece showing an elephant in prison stripes (reminiscent of this year’s convention logo). It’s now called “Larry Craig.”

A cacophony of voices and a one-(wo)man-one-vote policy on which messages get amplified: Sounds like the Republican National Convention, right? Not really.

As a stark counterpoint to the “scripted democracy” of this fall’s GOP nominating convention, a project by mnartists.org, the Walker Art Center and the UnConvention is inviting people of all political stripes and artistic [...]

Even John McCain has acknowledged things are worse in America today than they were eight years ago, and according to artists Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese, democracy agrees. The duo who brought us “Contract with America” underpants (signed by Newt Gingrich!) will present their work “The State of Things” in the Twin Cities during [...]