Art Hounds recommend still lives, stained glass and live jazz

From MPR News, Art Hounds are members of the Minnesota arts community who look beyond their own work to highlight what’s exciting in local art. Their recommendations are lightly edited from the audio heard in the player above. 

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Actually a very active life

Life-long art lover Ted Pfohl of Little Falls wholeheartedly recommends that people see the work of Charles Gilbert Kapsner while it’s on view at Studio Pintura Fine Art Gallery in the Northrup King Building in northeast Minneapolis.

Kapsner is based in Little Falls but trained in Florence, Italy in the studio of Nerina Simi (1890-1987). The retrospective includes over 30 still lives, portraits and other works, gathered under the title of “Odyssey — A 50-Year Artist’s Journey: Not a Still Life!” The show’s run has been extended through Feb 8. 

Ted Pfohl muses on the odyssey of Kapsner’s work: I can in all integrity state that I am captivated by the stories within the works of Master Artist Kapsner, a designation earned within and from his colleagues in the world of fine art. Today, he voyages within oil and charcoal. He has been at several harbors within fresco. He has created a monument of paintings honoring the five branches of the United States military.

Each carefully chosen and curated piece provides glimpses into the creativity of a gifted helmsperson. There are flowers, bottles of wine, his wife — whom he calls Lady Catherine — still lives and portraits. As I was moving within the currents of the visuals before me, there were several times where my feet would not move as my gaze rested upon the piece before me.

— Ted Pfohl

Tickets to Paradise

Jewelry artist and silversmith Jessica Prill of Faribault works across the street from the Paradise Center for the Arts, and she says the exhibits there are always a source of inspiration.

She recommends taking in the new visual arts show, which opened this week and features painters Laura Andrews and Montana Becker as well as stained-glass artist Bob Vogel in the main gallery. Art by students of Bethlehem Academy will be featured in the Creger Gallery, which often features student work. There is an artist reception on Friday from 5-7 p.m., and the exhibit runs through Feb. 15. 

Speaking about the stained glass art of Bob Vogel of St. Peter, Jessica Prill says: [His work] blows my mind. He has done stuff with glass that I didn’t know was possible. He has found a way to make it look like he’s painting with glass. He uses the patterns in the glass like brush strokes. He does lamps, panels, fused glass: they’re just incredible.

— Jessica Prill

Remember: They’re on Thursday night

Dana Drazenovich of St. Cloud loves live music, and she wants people to know about Monday Night Jazz, a band that has been performing jazz for 20 years in St. Cloud.

Despite its name — a holdover from a previous location that was open on Monday nights — the sextet plays most Thursdays from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at the Veranda Lounge in St Cloud. 

Dana says: I feel like Monday Night Jazz is just a gift to St. Cloud’s music scene, because I’m sure it’s introduced plenty of people to the genre, and it’s probably even made fans out of people who might not have otherwise even heard jazz performed live. 

They take a lot from the Great American Songbook, Rodgers and Hart, Rodgers and Hammerstein. You’ll hear songs like “All the Things You Are” and “Mood Indigo.” They throw in a few originals here and there, too.

They’ve got drums, piano, bass, guitar, sax and trumpet, so it’s a big, full sound. And if you’re lucky, you’ll get to hear guitar player and vocalist, Muggsy Lauer, scat. There’s a lot of laughing between songs, a lot of joking back and forth and they just put out the tip jar and go.

— Dana Drazenovich