It's not every weekend that 700 Twin Cities artists sell nearly 7,000 works of art at affordable prices.
But Thursday through Saturday, Minneapolis College of Art and Design students and recent graduates will be in the spotlight in the MCAD Art Sale.
The biggest student art sale in the Midwest turns 25 this year. The past two years it was online only. Now, it's only in person.
"We really started the art sale for several reasons," said Cindy Theis, institutional advancement adviser. "We needed to let the community know about all this rich talent, and John Slorp, the president at the time, felt we needed to educate our students about selling work. And here we are 25 years later."
Another perk for budding artists — MCAD takes 20% of the profits from works sold and puts that back into the cost of running the sale and toward the MCAD Art Sale Fund. The other 80% goes to the artists.
Typically, alumni are only eligible to participate in the art sale for up to five years after graduation. But this year, artists who have graduated within the past 25 years are welcome back. They can sell up to 10 works, while current students and alumni from the past five years can sell up to 25 works.
Jenn Kroll, who graduated in 2016 with a BFA in graphic design, is looking forward to seeing what MCAD students and alumni have created. This year, she has 18 abstract experimental collages for sale. In these new works, Kroll plays with different color palette techniques and mixes in materials like acetate overlays.
"I'm just really excited for this year," Kroll said. "It's been too long. It's also an MCAD community thing — all the students know what the art sale is and they're excited to put their pieces in and see what happens."
Coming back from COVID-19
This year also marks a return from the COVID-induced online-only art sale of the past two years.
For artist Shirin Ghoraishi, who received her MFA in 2020, deep in the pandemic, it's her third art sale but the first one in person. She will sell three butterfly-shaped sculptures from her "Crystalized" series, which has 12 pieces total. Each is made of the lightweight metal pewter, and one has a surprise.
Ghoraishi became fascinated with butterflies after watching the film "In the Time of the Butterflies." She used a 3-D printer to design the shape, then grew salt crystals, made a mold for the butterfly and cast it.
"It was very fragile, and when I started it seemed to be almost impossible to make that mold," she said. "When you touch salt crystals, they fall [apart]. The idea behind that is how impossible it seems for a caterpillar to become a butterfly. It was fascinating to me, like to reflect that in the process."
Alumnus Steve Holzgraefe, who received a post-baccalaureate degree in sculpture in 2006, wondered if the art sale could be something of a comeback for him. The sleek, modern-style lamp sculptures he sells through his business, MNIMA, tend to sell mostly online to people outside of the region.
"For me, it's an ongoing struggle," he said. "My stuff is very, very niche. ... I've been told that there's almost next to no support in the Twin Cities for anything that I do."
For younger artists whose careers have just begun, the art sale is part of figuring out how to be working artists.
Kylin Thomas, BFA class of 2025, is a comic artist who draws illustrations, and aims to make "the everyday feel extraordinary." It's his second art sale, and this year he decided to raise his prices.
"I see my friends selling their work and seeing the increase in my own quality of work gave me the confidence in myself to say, 'This is what it's worth,' " he said.
For recent alumni back to in-person art sales, part of the excitement is seeing friends.
"As I was dropping off pieces yesterday [at the art sale], I saw someone that I went to school with that I hadn't seen in like five years," Kroll said. "We got to chat a little bit and show each other our work, and so it's also about the MCAD community, as well — and it's exciting to see art at somewhat accessible prices, which I think is really important."
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25th Annual MCAD Art Sale
VIP opening night: Thursday, 7-9 p.m., tickets $150.
Regular opening night Friday, 6-10 p.m., tickets $25.
Free admission on Saturday, 9 a.m.-3 p.m.
Information at mcad.edu/artsale.
