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Oct. 2: WAMdemonium at Weisman Art Museum

After being closed for nearly a year, the Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota will reopen with four new galleries and a special studio for artistic collaborations. Designed by the museum's original architect, Frank Gehry, the additional 8,100 square feet of space will allow the Weisman to show more of its 20,000-piece collection. Two new galleries will feature the American Modernist art for which the museum is best known, including paintings by Georgia O'Keeffe, Marsden Hartley, Arthur Dove, Milton Avery and Charles Biederman. A ceramics gallery will highlight work by Warren MacKenzie, Hans Coper, Lucie Rie and other 20th-century masters in the context of the field's history. The fourth new space, dedicated to works on paper, will feature prints and drawings by Minnesota-born Edith Carlson. New York sculptor Sharon Louden and Korea's Eun-Kyung Suh are organizing new installations responding to Gehry's iconic building and spotlighting the museum's unusual collection of Korean furniture.

  • "Reopening day" celebration 1-6 p.m. Oct. 2
  • Free
  • Weisman Art Museum, 333 East River Rd., Mpls
  • weisman.umn.edu

"Edo Pop: The Graphic Impact of Japanese Prints"

Andy Warhol is often heralded as the guy who turned popular culture into high art, but Japanese artists beat him at that game centuries earlier. "Edo Pop" will feature more than 160 colorful ukiyo-e -- woodblock prints from the Edo era (1615-1868), many of which depict brightly costumed Kabuki actors, fashionable courtesans, country travelers and urbanites relaxing in elegantly decorated pavilions. Contemporary prints and videos carry ukiyo-e into the present with references to hip-hop, graffiti tagging and cartoons. Another exhibit, "Bonjour Japon: A Parisian Love Affair With Japanese Art," will showcase Japanese-influenced prints by such 19th-century artists as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Mary Cassatt, Pierre Bonnard, Edouard Vuillard, Edward Degas and Vincent van Gogh.

  • "Edo Pop": Oct. 30-Jan. 8, $8 adults
  • "Bonjour Japon": Oct. 1-Jan 22. Free
  • Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 2400 3rd Av. S
  • 612-870-3000 or www.artsmia.org

"Dance Works I: Merce Cunningham/Robert Rauschenberg"

Rauschenberg's imaginative curtains and props for Cunningham's dance troupe also inspired the artist's collaged paintings and "combine" sculptures. Examples of these early collaborative pieces, recently acquired by Walker Art Center, will be showcased in the first of several "Dance Works" exhibits planned for the next three years.

  • Nov. 3-Aug. 5, 2012
  • Walker Art Center, 1750 Hennepin Av. S., Mpls
  • $10 adults
  • 612-375-7600 or www.walkerart.org

"Antiquities From Ukraine: Golden Treasures and Lost Civilizations"

Dazzling gold drinking vessels, urns and bowls created about 2,500 years ago in the Ukrainian steppes will star in an unusual exhibit on loan from a Kiev private collection. Displays include prehistoric stone and ceramic objects, plus gold objects that Ukrainian nomads acquired by selling grain to Greek colonies on the Black Sea.

  • Opens Oct. 1
  • The Museum of Russian Art, 5500 Stevens Av. S., Mpls
  • $7
  • 612-821-9045 or www.tmora.org

"New Millennium Japanese Ceramics: Rejecting Labels and Embracing Clay"

Young Japanese ceramicists are breaking the mold of tradition in their new work. As the culmination of its 20th-anniversary season, the Northern Clay Center will showcase flamboyant ceramic sculptures that include abstract forms, pop figures, cartoon-inspired designs, exotic textures and colorful shapes. The show includes talent from Austria and Mexico, as well.