September 2014 Twin Cities Arts and Entertainment Picks

Alexa Horochowski: Club Disminución

opening 9.6

One of the first artists to exhibit at the Soap Factory back in 1997, Alexa Horochowski’s eclectic work has been shown in North and South America. Hers is a hybrid vision combining traditional sculpture materials with found objects and a photographer’s eye in works that both inhabit and comment upon the spaces in which they’re found. This show combines sculpture, video, and large-scale prints, the result of her artist’s residency in a minimalist cultural center built on a cliff overlooking the ocean in Chile—she takes breathtaking nature and combines it with garbage and abstract forms into a landscape that we made and that will potentially outlive us. • through 11.9, opening reception 9.6, soapfactory.org

 

2014 American Pottery Festival

 

9.12-9.14

A lot of us reach a certain stage in our lives at which earlier tendencies of youth—collecting, pack ratting—fall by the way in favor of a more minimalist approach to possessions. Call it wisdom, call it pragmatism, whatever: We don’t need to lug as much stuff through our lives, and quality rules over quantity. The artistry, utility, and beauty of a piece of artisan pottery can make the cut of things that are truly indispensible, and Northern Clay Center’s annual three-day celebration attracts artists and clay lovers from around the country, and includes pieces ranging in price from $18 to $1,200 by more than 20 throwers and spinners. • 9/12–14, northernclaycenter.org

 

Meshell Ndegeocello

 

9.16

Singer/bass player Meshell Ndegeocello has traveled a path hers alone, from her debut Plantation Lullabies in the early 1990s—which mixed R&B and hip-hop influences into a fresh new soul stew (and sold well on CD—it was that long ago). She went on to record for Madonna’s Maverick label, but that was a high-water mark for her commercial clout. Instead of striding the pop charts, she’s recorded jazz sessions and pursued her winding and willful vision, writing, playing and leading her band through her new Comet, Come to Me with lush sounds and the hallmarks of a player daunting to categorize but always infused with soul, smarts, and a deep well of human insight. • 9/16, dakotacooks.com

 

Spoon

 

9.19

It’s been four years since the tableware-referencing Texas combo has played in the Twin Cities—not counting their headlining set at Rock the Garden earlier this summer, which capped off the day with a welcome reminder of the power of inventive, warm, and crazy-catchy rock music played with telepathic intensity by the group ranked “top overall artist of the decade” for the aughts by online aggregator Metacritic. Spoon returns to play the State Theatre on the heels of new album They Want My Soul, the band’s first using outside producers for an outfit that has laudably opted not to settle into a one-size-fits-all groove. • 9/19, hennepintheatretrust.org

 

Franconia Art & Artists Celebration

 

Now through 9.20

Franconia Sculpture Park is an ever-changing dreamland stroll through the imaginations of artists and their three-dimensional visions, on scales large and larger, coming and going with the seasons and years. It’s a gem that I always associate with the lengthening shadows of autumn—the end of summer, the long journey inward through the winter months and our eventual regeneration mirrored in the park’s cycles of restless creation. This 18th- annual celebration goes all day, with art-based activities and performances friendly to the family. It’s inspirational, a little weird, and fun to boot. • 9/20, franconia.org