In Jim Denomie’s “The Prophecy,” Native American life unfolds on the moon. Earth hangs in the starlit sky alongside distant planets, as a giant walleye chases a dragonfly through the cosmos. Below, Native Americans ride winged horses between two towering mesas, one marked by a U.S. moon station and the other by a tipi. 

The scene imagines a future in which colonization pushes Native people so far from their ancestral lands that they are forced to leave Earth entirely — or perhaps one where they have developed the technology to venture into space on their own terms. 

The painting is part of “Renegade,” a series Denomie created early in his career. The posthumous solo exhibition at Bockley Gallery revisits these works this weekend. 

Plus, Minneapolis Poet Laureate Junauda Petrus is celebrating the end of her term on Friday with a night of poetry in your pajamas. Hmong artists will take over the Mall of America on Saturday and the International Sculpture Conference offers free ways to explore the Twin Cities arts scene. 

The fantastical world of Jim Denomie

Bockley Gallery is revisiting paintings Denomie created between 1994 and 2004, a formative period for his political commentary and vivid imagination. 

In 2022, Denomie was planning a mid-career exhibition with the Minneapolis Institute of Art when he learned he had cancer. He died at his Minnesota home that year at age 66. 

“Jim, without declaring it, was a casual mentor to so many artists,” said Robert Cozzolino, an independent curator who has featured Denomie’s work at the Minneapolis Institute of Art and Andrew Edlin Gallery in New York. “He would work this 9-to-5 construction job that was really physically demanding then come back to the Twin Cities and show up for people’s openings. He was really that kind of guy.”

Denomie started the Renegade series while finishing his undergraduate studies at the University of Minnesota. At the time, he was taking courses on the history of the reservation system and talking with other Native students about their experiences. 

These conversations, along with his own upbringing on a Wisconsin reservation, informed a series of vibrant, isolated mesas that served as metaphors for reservations created to confine Native communities. 

“The Renegade series is where he first put what he really cared about and his art together,” Cozzolino said. “These paintings are more formulaic and tighter in their forms. Later on, I think he loosened up in the paintings he’s better known for. They’re more expressive. They’re not as concerned with defining form precisely and I think that adds to the emotional impact of the work.” 

While Denomie’s work continues to resonate with Minnesota’s arts community, he remains less widely known in the national arts landscape. 

“I hope that curators outside of the Twin Cities and outside of Minnesota start to discover him and integrate him,” Cozzolino said. “To me, he’s one of the most important artists to this generation.” 

A Friday night in pajamas

Minneapolis Poet Laureate Junauda Petrus is nearing the end of her two-year term, and she’s celebrating with “Poetry Pajamas and Jams,” her second-to-last event as laureate. 

Head to Pillsbury House and Theatre in your comfiest pajamas, bonnets and slippers for an evening of music and poetry from Petrus, Blu Bone, A.E. Wynter and Yoni Light. 

Hmong art at the Mall of America

The Mall of America’s second annual Hmong Arts Celebration returns to the Huntington Bank Rotunda with a lineup of musicians, dancers and designers. 

Highlights include a K-pop dance performance at 1:40 p.m., traditional qeej (bamboo wind instrument) music at 1:55 p.m. and a fashion show at 2:25 p.m.

At 3:55 p.m., entrepreneur Cheng Kue will take the stage to talk about his experience pitching his shoe brand to millionaire and billionaire investors on “Shark Tank.”

Seeing Minnesota through sculpture

The International Sculpture Conference arrives in the Twin Cities this weekend with an itinerary that spotlights local artists, exhibitions and outdoor installations. You don’t need a $250 day pass to visit some of its stops. 

At Caponi Art Park in Eagan, explore 50 sculptures by local and international artists or head to All My Relations Arts in Minneapolis for “Roots,” a group exhibition featuring 12 Native artists. On the University of Minnesota campus, the Quarter Gallery presents international works in “Slices and Shadows,” while the Katherine E. Nash Gallery highlights local talent in “Let’s Meet at the Horizon.” 

The weekend program also points to a community mural honoring the late artist John Biggers along the Olson Memorial Highway bridge, over northbound Interstate 94.

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