I was glad to see South Minneapolis’ own Art Of This Gallery take the nod for ”Best Gallery“ in this year’s City Pages best-of awards. The Soap Factory is always number one in my heart, of course (and on that note, the comprehensive 21-year history of TSF that I am currently working on will be in stores later this year) (seriously!), but AOT earned this one. They are young and fresh and refreshing: they are the Pepsi Generation of the Minneapolis art community.
AOT’s director, David Petersen, once explained the appeal to me in this way: dollar-for-dollar, they’re bringing you more than anyone else in town. For example, they hosted close to fifty artists last year, both local and national, for one night or for extended runs, for a tiny, tiny fraction of the operating cost of the Walker. It’s simple mathematics!
Of course, it’s not just quantity. Some of the most quality shows I’ve seen in the past year or so have been there, including the unbelievable Rotarians Society Presents Impel by Tate Manufacturing performance, the varied inscrutable offerings of the Hardland/Heartland collective, Matt Bakkom’s Graduates and, er, gee, the Sarah & the Southside Sultans performance/interview that I had a little hand in creating. One of our personal favorite locals, installation artist Andy DuCett, has a show coming up later this year.
You can follow along yourself: Art Of This maintains a blog here. No Twitter yet, but what can you do?
