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Twin Town High (vol. 8) |
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Art @ A Coffee House Near You
Thursday 04 September @ 14:44:20 |
 by Mary Ann Vincenta
Art is to coffee houses what hair is to heads. It kind of appears naturally, erupting spontaneously, and is taken completely for granted, except when the walls are bald. Then you wonder, where’s the art? I need it.
Every coffee house has an art show. That’s a LOT of art—none of which particularly clamors for attention. It calmly hangs there reminding coffee lovers that artists are alive and well, endlessly immortalizing the fleeting fragments of their gestalts and their Weltanschauungs in innumerable and remarkable ways. The work never seems like decoration—especially when it’s very bad—or very good. Even when technique is limited there is always a serious dose of personality. When I go to drink coffee somewhere and I think the art is weak, there is always one piece that speaks to me, and I try to sit facing that one.
The sheer volume of art to be found in coffee houses is a testament to life itself. But do people really look at it? I don’t know. I assume people look at it with a quick glance-over, just to get the main information: Is it appealing? What color is it? Is it big or small? Is it a photo or a painting? Are there people in it? Kind of like looking at trees, which also are pretty much taken for granted and observed in a general way: Does it have leaves or needles? Is it big or small? Can I climb it? Is it dead?
Labor Day seemed like a good day to check out the proliferation of art in coffee houses, at least on the surface. How much more superficial could it get than to visit a place for five or 10 minutes, look at all the works, and move on to the next site? Some places were closed, and in those instances the potential for superficial viewing escalated. Very briefly I saw what appeared to be gorgeous, dramatic, intriguing abstract photos of skin and cloth through the window at Cahoots in St. Paul. And it was nice to see the powerful, large woodcarving of the big, black bear outside of Black Bear Crossing in St. Paul. At May Day in Minneapolis, again through the window, I saw small photos teeming with people and pageantry from another country.
Caffetto in Minneapolis was deliciously open, filled with intense conversations and people drawing, writing and reading. Many artists’ works are represented but there are no names and no explanations. You are on your own. One artist had framed several squarish, dull-colored photos sloshed with something sloppy, maybe the water used to clean paintbrushes. Inside the picture he or she had put cryptic messages in little black letters. Two sinister photos placed in separate rooms, most certainly by the same photographer, gave me an uneasy feeling. My favorite work was a smallish landscape photo developed in white and purple that was mostly white sky space.
The works by Gregory Euclide shown at the Urban Bean in Minneapolis are unmistakably by the same artist. Large, sweeping, and simultaneously intricate, they seem to be illustrations for children’s stories, scientific drawings, blueprints, game boards and much more.
I used to know a painter who walked his paintings down the street like some people walk their dogs. He’d say to people, “You’re in the gallery now. Have a look at my work.” Artists in coffee shops are not that aggressive; the viewer has to make the effort. Next time you’re getting your caffeine fix, take a look around. It’s always fascinating.
Cahoots is located at 1562 Selby Ave., St. Paul. 651-644-6778; Black Bear Crossing is located at 831 Como Ave., St. Paul. 651-488-4927; May Day Cafe is located at 3440 Bloomington Ave. S., Mpls. 612-729-5627; Caffetto is located at 22nd & Lyndale, Mpls. 612-872-0911; Urban Bean is located at 3255 Bryant Ave. S., Mpls. 612-824-6611.
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