In the Twin Cities this weekend, Saudi-born, Minnesota-based artist Hend Al-Mansour makes her Minneapolis Institute of Art debut with portraits of Arab women in Minnesota. At the Southern Theater, three women-led dance companies from the Twin Cities explore nostalgia, biology and astrophysics through movement.

St. Paul’s Rondo Days Festival returns with live music from local hip-hop artists; and at Lake Harriet, Twin Cities dance groups perform Indian classical, Japanese contemporary and more. 

MIA exhibit turns prayer spaces into portraits

Painter and printmaker Hend Al-Mansour, known for merging Islamic geometric abstraction with intimate portrayals of women, invites viewers into the personal and spiritual lives of four Minnesota-based Arab women in her latest exhibit “Mihrab: Portraits of Arab American Women” at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. 

Each installation is structured as a mihrab — a decorated niche in mosque walls that indicates the direction of Mecca — but here, it “points toward understanding this woman,” Al-Mansour said. 

The mihrabs feature domes, arches, floral designs and geometric patterns reminiscent of Islamic architecture. The four unnamed women serve as archetypes of Arab femininity, with roots in Morocco, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Palestine. 

“In each of them I found part of myself,” Al-Mansour said. “Each of them took me on a journey to open a door into my own psyche and find some gems there that maybe I didn’t think about before.”

She began the project in 2016, interviewing each woman over the course of several visits. She asked about their lives, memories, treasured objects and moments they deeply miss. One mihrab honors a Syrian woman who fled Damascus but longs for mornings spent drinking coffee and listening to Lebanese singer Fairuz at home. Another reflects a Moroccan woman who embraces Earth as her mosque, feeling free to pray anywhere. The largest and most recent installation, “Living Threads,” features a portrait of a Palestinian woman and highlights the ongoing conflict in Gaza. 

Al-Mansour grew up in Hofuf, Saudi Arabia, surrounded by Islamic art but never encouraged to be an artist. Instead, she studied cardiology in Cairo, returned home to practice medicine and only began making art seriously after moving to Minnesota in 1997 for a Mayo Clinic fellowship. At night, she took classes at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, where she confronted how little space Islamic aesthetics occupied in American art education. 

“I went to school and found out that Islamic art was represented as part of ‘world art,’ and it’s secondary,” she said. “It kind of called in me something. I have grown up with Islamic art and I just found myself wanting to, it’s not like activism, but more like going back to your origins, paying attention to where you come from.”

Although traditional Islamic art generally avoids human figures, Al-Mansour merges its geometric and floral patterns with portraits of women. 

“I came here to seek my independence as a woman,” she said. “Because of what I saw and experienced of women abused in Saudi Arabia, I find myself drawn to that theme of empowering women and finding women with resilience and power.”

Dancers translate science into movement

Three emerging choreographers explore the connection between science and the human experience in “Converge,” a new contemporary dance show at the Southern Theater. Nieya Amezquita of Amez Dance reflects on the psychology of nostalgia, Brenna Mosser of Analog Dance Works investigates plant intelligence and Ruby Josephine Smith of Ruby Josephine Dance Theater turns to astrophysics and planetary motion for inspiration. 

Festival celebrates Rondo neighborhood 

The Rondo Days Festival returns to St. Paul this Saturday, featuring headliners Brand Nubian and rapper Monie Love alongside local hip-hop artists performing at the Martin Luther King Recreation Center. Kids get their own zone from 825 Arts with art activities, double dutch and digital displays showcasing historic Rondo structures. A community bike ride, starting at Central Village Park, will kick off Rondo Days on Thursday from 6 to 7 p.m.

Flamenco, Middle Eastern and Japanese dance at Lake Harriet

The Dances at the Lake Festival returns for its 23rd year with two nights of free outdoor performances at Lake Harriet’s Lyndale Park Rose Garden. Expect Middle Eastern, Indian classical, flamenco and Japanese contemporary choreography from Jawaahir Dance Company, Nritya Kalakshetra Academy of Performing Arts, Flamenco X, Alys Ayumi Ogura, Sansei Yonsei Kai, and more.

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