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Franconia in the City @ Casket and Grupo Soap del Corazón present

Los Cuatro Ases

Sculpture and Paintings by Four Local Latino Artists

On April 7, 2012, Latino visual arts group Grupo Soap del Corazón will open the 12th year of its exhibitions with a show at the new Franconia in the City @ Casket Gallery in Northeast Minneapolis. “Los Cuatro Ases” (The Four Aces) will feature two- and three-dimensional art by four well known international artists: Alonso Sierralta (Chile), Peter Martín Morales (Guatemala), Douglas Padilla (Minnesota), and Xavier Tavera (Mexico). For the show Padilla, who is primarily a painter, and Tavera, who is primarily a photographer, will join Morales and Sierralta, both primarily sculptors, in creating two- and three-dimensional art.

The exhibit's opening celebration will be held on April 7 from 7-10 pm, and the exhibition will run through May 12, 2012. The Casket Gallery will be open Saturdays from 12-5 pm and by appointment. On Thursday, May 3, at 7 pm, Franconia will host its first 3-D Symposium in its new gallery space in the Casket Arts Complex, featuring an artists’ dialogue in conjunction with Padilla’s ongoing Salon Artissimo series.

The artists:

Peter Martín Morales is a visual linguist whose work is a result of what might be called an archeology of the imagination. As an artist he attempts to dig layer by layer into the recesses of memory. What emerges are representations of whatever he imagines he has imagined.

Douglas Padilla is a painter primarily involved with color, symbol, ritual, and story—often with a 3-D edge. When he turns to true sculpture, he concerns himself, most often, with a place where aesthetic paradigm and spiritual discipline can meet.

Alonso Sierralta’s work explores the visual relationship created by combining natural and manufactured elements. This combination is intended to appear grafted and somewhat uncomfortable. This tension and the forms he utilizes reference ideas of transplantation and migration.

Xavier Tavera focuses his photography on the lives of marginalized immigrants. His images offer insight into the diversity of alienated communities and give voice to those who are often invisible.

Grupo Soap del Corazón was founded in 2000 by Xavier Tavera and Douglas Padilla to celebrate Latino artists and culture and the Latinization of Lake Street in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In its 12-year existence, Grupo Soap del Corazón has stayed true to its purpose: to encourage and exhibit “Soap del Corazón”, art that cleans the heart. Neither a non-profit nor a for-profit organization, Grupo Soap has stayed street level and showcased the work of 50+ artists in venues as diverse as the walls of the old Sears building in Minneapolis, an old prison converted to cultural center in Valparaiso, Chile, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Highpoint Center for Printmaking, an armory in Northfield, and facebook.com. Grupo Soap has, in its ranks, award-winning artists such as Mexican photographer Xavier Tavera, Chilean painter Amaru (Marcela Rodriguez Aguilar), Argentinean installationist Gabriela Bertiller, Texan tattoo artist/painter Claudia “Billy” Baca, Mexican graphic designer/conceptualist Luis Fitch, and local Mexican-American painter/arts activist Douglas Padilla. Well over 100,000 people have viewed Grupo Soap’s art in person, another 100,000 have seen its work on the web. The work has gathered the people of Minneapolis-St. Paul, and of greater Minnesota, into deeper community with each other and with the world.

Franconia Sculpture Park is the Midwest's premier outdoor sculpture park, offering a unique combination of residence, work and exhibition space for emerging and established artists from around the country and beyond. Its mission is: To foster an inspiring environment for artists to expand their skills and promote the public education of three-dimensional art. In 2011, Franconia expanded to its satellite site in Northeast Minneapolis, Franconia in the City @ Casket. Each year, thousands of community members participate in Franconia’s arts education programs led by staff, resident and volunteer artists. These educational programs provide social context to the artwork and make contemporary art accessible.

Franconia Sculpture Park is free and open to the public 365 days a year, dawn to dusk. Franconia has a lively schedule of programs and events for art lovers of all ages including the 3D Concert Series, Kids Make Sculpture Workshops, Community Collaboration Hot Metal Pour, artist-led tours, annual fall Art & Artists Celebration, and specific programs for at-risk youth. Franconia Sculpture Park is located 45 minutes northeast of the Twin Cities in Chisago County, near Taylors Falls, Minnesota.

WHERE:

Franconia in the City @ Casket

Gallery and Education Space

1781 Jefferson Street NE, Minneapolis, MN 55418

CONTACT

English: Douglas Padilla, 612-275-2835 artjones@bitstream.net

Spanish: Xavier Tavera, 651-775-2536 xtavera@hotmail.com

Earth Day, celebrated in the US on April 22, is a day designed to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's environment. It was founded by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in in 1970 and is celebrated in many countries every year. This date is Spring in the Northern Hemisphere and Autumn in the Southern Hemisphere.

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Come celebrate with Franconia Sculpture Park!
For more information please & to RSVP, please call 651-257-6668 or e-mail info@franconia.org.

Meet at the information booth. Donations encouraged and welcomed!
Tours are led by resident artists.
Click here to view the current sculptures on display

1781 Jefferson St. NE
Minneapolis, MN  55413
651-257-6668
info@franconia.org

Exhibition & reception @ our new city site Friday May 18th from 5:00pm to 10:00pm. Please come celebrate the new Franconia City Sculpture Park and the exhibiting artists: Amy Toscani, Aaron Dysart, Andrew MacGuffie, and Peyton.

Saturday May 19th from 12 noon to 4pm, we will have a Spin-Art Workshop, Face Painting, a BBQ, and music at the Casket Building.

Art-a-Whirl organized by NEMAA

All people are warmly invited to a series of lively evenings for a free dialogue and an interchange of ideas between artists and everyone interested in art of three dimensions. Franconia Sculpture Park artists and alumni converge at the park twice a month, from June through October, for Three Dimensional Thursday Symposiums. The evenings’ events will include dinner with Franconia resident artists ($10 donation for dinner), examples of alumni and/or resident artists’ current artwork and a freewheeling discussion between artists, critics, philosophers, poets, and you!.
Please RSVP or for more information, please call 651-257-6668 or e-mail info@franconia.org.

Come one come all to Franconia to celebrate the longest day of the year! Enjoy dinner with Franconia resident artists ($10 donation for dinner). At sunset, there might be a dance with the disco ball rearing its infamous self.
For more information please & to RSVP, please call 651-257-6668 or e-mail info@franconia.org.

Franconia’s second annual 3-D Music series invites musical artists to the Franconia Sculpture Park to perform bi-monthly on Saturdays from July until October. The musicians perform in the Franconia Earthen Amphitheater, which was completed in July of 2009. The 3-D Concert series exposes our community to a wide range of musical artists over the course of four months, while featuring tours and the continuous exhibition of world-class sculpture on view at Franconia. Event organizer Woody McBride has coordinated the diverse mix of musical artists for the 8 performances that comprise the 3-D Concert series. This music series encompasses a wide range of musical genres to create a diverse family friendly art and music cultural event for our entire community. The 3-D Concert series significantly expands the park’s existing cultural event programming with a summer-long series of musical performances on June 11th and 25th , July 9th and 23rd , August 13th and 27th , September 10th and October 8th . From 4 to 8PM. Food will be available at the Lizard Lounge, Franconia's own " you betcha brat shop " Tours of the Park will be given during the break.


For more information please call 651-257-6668 or e-mail info@franconia.org.

Reservations required, with a non-refundable, pre-paid fee of $25 per student per class.
Limit 30 students per class. All are on Saturday. We start taking reservations June 1. Call 651-257-6668 or e-mail kidsmakesculpture@franconia.org.

This activity is funded, in part, by a grant from the East Central Regional Arts Council with funds provided by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund as appropriated by the Minnesota State Legislature with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008.

This activity is made possible, in part, by the St. Croix Valley Foundation through a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and all of our patrons. Thank you!

Click here to view complete 2010 Events Calendar.
Click here to view complete 2011 Events Calendar.