We wrap up Season 2 by taking a look at Minneapolis’ most distinctive architectural feature, the network of bridges connecting the buildings of downtown. With each link being different, it’s an accidental experiment of what works and doesn’t work in architecture. Also: news!

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Ep. 2.9 The Skyway System

We’ve talked about good buildings. Why not check in on a bad one?

Ep. 2.8 Everything That Needs to Be Said About US Bank Stadium

Architecture isn’t just about buildings- it’s also about parks, places that are notably building-free. Peavey Plaza is a great park, and also a great exemplar of Brutalism, a form that sounds a lot scarier than it really is.

Ep. 2.7: Peavey Plaza, Parks, and Brutalism

More gamboling in the lush fields of semiotics as we look at why the University of St. Thomas worked hard to make its downtown Minneapolis buildings, designed around the year 2000, look like parts of them came from the Middle Ages.

Ep. 2.6: More Semiotics- Postmodern Buildings in Gothic Drag

Jean Nouvel’s Guthrie Theater plays a complicated double game with its appearance, lying to you and then telling the truth about what’s really going on inside. This means we need to work up the guts to talk semiotics.

Ep. 2.5 Semiotics and the Hidden Meanings of the Guthrie Theater

Wells Fargo Center looks like another Art Deco building (in more ways then one- it looks like another specific Art Deco building), but that’s not quite accurate. It’s time to get serious about this postmodernism thing. EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Ep. 2.4 Wells Fargo Center and Postmodernism

Some geometric glass buildings are really boring. Phillip Johnson’s IDS Center isn’t one of them, though! It’s a great example of modernism done well. But what’s modernism, anyway? Full Show Transcript

Ep. 2.3: IDS Center and Modernism

The Foshay Tower is a building everyone in Minneapolis seems to love. But why? And if it’s an Art Deco masterpiece, what does that mean? EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Ep. 2.2: The Foshay Tower, Art Deco, and Gozer the Destroyer

Welcome back to Artpal! Season 2, using buildings around downtown Minneapolis to talk about architecture, kicks off with a look at the Minneapolis Institute of Art as a building. But first, there’s some news about the show itself. FULL EPISODE TEXT

Ep 2.1: Architecture in General and of the Minneapolis Institute of Art in Particular

Keith wraps up the first season by pointing out that even though the Minneapolis Institute of Art is full of great works, one of its best artistic experiences involves looking out a window. FULL EPISODE TEXT

Ep. 1.9: Art Is All Around

Alexa Horochowski’s Vortex Drawing 17 (2017.80.6) is a striking work of art that alludes to the problem of garbage in the oceans. The difficulty of finding a lot of other works by women is an example of a different type of garbage. FULL EPISODE TEXT

Ep. 1.8: Alexa Horochowski, a Bunch of Garbage, and Centuries of Systematic Sexism

Yuji Honbori’s Eleven-Headed Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva (2012.68.1a,b) and Susan Folwell’s Why Does He Call Me Caitlyn? (2016.5.13) are a couple of works of art that punch back at the walls of the arbitrary boxes the art world would traditionally put them in. FULL EPISODE TEXT

Ep. 1.7: Honbori and Folwell, Catching You by Surprise

George Morrison wanted to be known as “a painter who happened to be an Indian.” But people always talk about him in the context of his ethnicity, even if it’s to say that he didn’t want to be talked about that way. It’s fraught. At any rate, his Collage IX: Landscape (75.24) is a pretty … Continue reading "Ep. 1.6: The Only Question About George Morrison Is What Kind of Great Artist He Is"

Ep. 1.6: The Only Question About George Morrison Is What Kind of Great Artist He Is

William Howard and William Edmondson were certainly not insiders to the art world. Does that make their works—a writing desk (2012.11) and a sculpture of a ram (2013.56)—pieces of outsider art, though? Is “outsider art” a dangerous, loaded concept? Help! Don’t worry, Keith is here to help. FULL EPISODE TEXT

Ep 1.5: Outsider Art: Threat or Menace?

When artists have a distinctive style, it can be jarring to look at works of theirs that come across a little differently. Keith digs into a couple of MIA pieces– Kehinde Wiley’s Santos Dumont- The Father of Aviation II (MIA accession no. 2010.99) and Georgia O’Keeffe’s City Night (80.28)–that diverge from what we usually expect … Continue reading "Ep 1.4: Kehinde Wiley and Georgia O’Keeffe Off the Beaten Track"

Ep 1.4: Kehinde Wiley and Georgia O’Keeffe Off the Beaten Track

Talking about art in the Twin Cities with your pal Keith Pille. Season One is a guerrilla audioguide to some works on display at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

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