Minneapolis' Top 10 Contemporary Art Galleries You Should Visit

The Walker Center is a heavyweight on the national modern art scene, often ranked among the top five spaces in the US. It was established in 1927, the first large contemporary art museum in the Midwest, and has hosted major first shows by artists including Joseph Cornell, Frank Gehry and Mario Merz. Today, it’s housed in a striking glass and aluminium mesh structure and is just across the street from the Minneapolis sculpture garden, which is filled with striking, modern pieces (a giant bent spoon cupping a cherry, for example). Recent shows at the Walker have included an exhibition of Hopper drawings and a collection of Mexican artist Abraham Cruzvillegas’ sculptures commenting on life in Latin America. Walker Art Centre, 1750 Hennepin Ave, Minneapolis, MN, United States, +1 612 375 7600

Rosalux Gallery hosts around 20 artists at any one time, and is dedicated to promoting Minnesotan artists. The space is through an unassuming door at the side of the Van Buren building in Minneapolis’ Northeast Arts District, and is only open at weekends. It’s small, but influential – its in-house artists are regularly shown all over the world and are pioneers of new ideas. Shawn McNulty, an abstract painter, produces acrylic paintings shaped by a knife attached to his shoe, while Laura Stack’s mixed media work combines romantic clouds of paint and ink with angular, bolted structures. Rosalux Gallery, 1400 Van Buren St NE, Minneapolis, MN, United States

The glass front of Todd Bockley’s gallery offers a glimpse at the plethora of native and folk art within. Tucked in a corner of Minneapolis’ residential Kenwood district, Bockley Gallery represents an impressively diverse roster of artists, including Jim Proctor, who works with plants in his 3D, wall-mounted pieces (his breakthrough moment came, he says, when he ‘literally stapled a gooseberry to a painting’) and Native American artists Frank Big Bear and Francis Yellow. The works here play into the state’s past and its large Native American community — as in Francis Yellow’s images Native Americans on horseback, painted onto copies of official colonial documents. Bockley Gallery, 2123 W 21st St, Minneapolis, MN, United States, +1 612-3 77-4669

The soap factory building dates back to 1882, and has gone through many incarnations since. It became a gallery in the 1980s, but retains an air of the historical through its factory-style metal girders and exposed brick walls. On show are a variety of modern artists, including many who examine the intersect between art and technology, and the gallery also hosts performance art, artists’ talks, readings and tastings. There’s even a haunted basement downstairs, open throughout October. The Factory calls itself a ‘laboratory’ for artists’ ideas, and its does seem to encourage artists’ interactions and inspirations, while acting as a local arts and social hub. Soap Factory, 514 SE 2nd St, Minneapolis, MN, United States, +1 612-623-9176

The Soo Center (or SooVAC, as it’s known to locals) is a community arts centre in Minneapolis’ residential Lowry Hill East neighbourhood, complete with an outdoor library and an easy, friendly atmosphere. Most artists are local and work is often sculptural, incorporating found objects or scraps of detritus: Objects For Consideration, a recent exhibition, featured decorative objects from the studios of over 20 artists on a series of shelves. SooVAC is a storefront gallery, and its one large hall looks out directly onto the street, encouraging passersby to come in to browse and drawing large crowds on opening nights. Soo Visual Arts Center, 2638 Lyndale Ave S, Minneapolis, MN, United States, +1 612-871-2263

Texas | Austin’s 10 Best Contemporary Art Galleries Oregon | Portland’s Best Contemporary Art Galleries Washington | Seattle’s 10 Best Contemporary Art Galleries California | Ten Art Galleries in San Francisco Kentucky | Lexington’s 10 Best Galleries