Compiled by: Lisa Roy
August is full of opportunities to explore the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District. Browse open studios and live music at the Solar Arts Building, discover Laura Andrews’ Transparent Eye at Kolman & Reeb Gallery, and enjoy the free Snack and Squish clay event at Flux Arts Building on August 20. Celebrate Within Reach, featuring PF Studios artists and alumni at PLOT Gallery, and join us in congratulating Northeast artist Leslie Barlow on the Walker Art Center’s acquisition of five of her paintings. Plus, don’t miss weekly open studios at Flux Arts Building and the Northrup King Building.
The Solar Arts Building is filled with opportunities for you to browse open studios, meet guest artists, and enjoy live music this August.
August 1st and 22nd: The Early Set- Open Studios & Live Music from 12-7pm
August 6th: Western Art Revival – Open Studios & Live Music from 5-9pm
August 8th: Secret Ingredient is Art- Open Studios & Live Music from 12-6pm
Within Reach: Featuring PF Studios Artists & Alumni
What kind of future becomes possible when we refuse to stop imagining?
Curated by Leslie Barlow, Free Spain, and Margaret Vergara, Within Reach brings together nine PF Studios artists and alumni whose work explores art making, visioning, and collective action as practices of shaping more just and joyful futures. Join us on Friday, August 7th as we celebrate an exhibition that reminds us the future isn’t something we wait for—it’s something we create together every single day.
Opening Reception: Friday, August 7th 6-9pm
Exhibition dates: August 7th – August 22nd, 2026
LOCATION: PLOT Gallery: 3730 Chicago Ave S. ste A, Minneapolis, MN 55404
*Note this exhibition is not on site at Public Functionary, we are pleased to partner with Plot Gallery for this special presentation*
Transparent Eye: New Project Space Grant at Kolman & Reeb Gallery by Laura Andrews
This series of paintings challenges traditional landscape formats through shifting perspectives, layered compositions, and unexpected spatial relationships. Inspired by plein air studies and collaged imagery, Andrews invites viewers into landscapes that feel both grounded in observation and altered by memory.
For this exhibition, Andrews’ outdoor studies capture the changing color, light, and atmosphere of a specific place. In the studio, they become raw material for a more experimental process where Andrews cuts, tears, combines, and reassembles fragments of landscape imagery. From this process, separate views and experiences merge into larger compositions, creating what she describes as conglomerate senses of space.
Kolman & Reeb Gallery – 1500 Jackson St NE #395 Northrup King Building, Mpls
On View: Aug 8th – Sep 26th
Make and Take Demonstration: Sat Aug 15th 1PM – 3PM
Artist Reception: Sat Aug 15th 6PM – 8PM
Snack and Squish at the Flux Arts Building, Thu Aug 20th 12PM – 1PM
Snack and Squish is a fun way to meet people and learn about two types of clay at Clay Squared to Infinity. Always free and open to the public.
“Treasure Maps and Parrots“
Make your lunch break out-of-this-world fun!
Every month Clay Squared invites the community to our studios to learn something new about ceramic clay and polymer clay! And have some snacks!
Our employees take over this month! Join them as they explore making art fast and slow. Glaze some tiles leftover from past projects with some speedy methods. Then learn how to make a turtle in the polymer clay studio!
Snacks will be popsicles – eat them slow or fast but you know fast is probably the best!
Leslie Barlow at the Walker Art Center:
The Walker Art Center recently acquired five paintings by Northeast artist Leslie Barlow for its permanent collection. Four of the works are from her Portraits During a Pandemic series. The entire series of 20 paintings was completed at the start of the COVID pandemic in April and May of 2020. The oil-on-paper pieces were created from Zoom call screenshots. The fifth painting, Behind the Mask, is an individual portrait in vivid colors. In addition to being a studio artist, Leslie is an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota, founder of PF Studios (Public Functionary) and Confluence. She is a co-founder of Creatives After Curfew, a mural collective developed in response to the murder of George Floyd. This recognition of the value of a local artist’s work and voice by the Walker Art Center is another example of the strong arts community in Northeast Minneapolis.
Monthly Open Studios
Flux Arts Building, Every Saturday from 10am – 5pm
Northrup King Building, every Saturday from 12-4pm
Solar Arts Building, 8/1, 8/8, 8/22 from 12-7pm and 8/6 from 5-9pm