The Wake

The First Amendment Gallery is the kind of place you hear about from a friend who heard it from their art teacher who had read an article online mentioning a hip new art gallery. Unless you’re an avid warehouse enthusiast, of course.

The gallery can be found in the basement of an inconspicuous Minneapolis warehouse. It consists of one main room with clean white walls and unassuming shelves that act as the merchandise showcases. First opened in September of 2006, First Amendment is the love child of artists Lonny Unitus and Amy Jo Hendrickson, whose printmaking had outgrown its upstart in Dinkytown.

The gallery is now promoting the artwork of five print artists: Christa Dalien, Mark Hosford, Bill Fick, Michael Krueger and curator Jenny Schmid. Running under the name “Cold Blooded, Warm Hearted,” the exhibit opened on Valentines Day of this year and boasts themes of morality and social responsibility, as well as gender and the fascism of beauty.

Particularly fascinating is the work of Michael Krueger, the first professor of digital art at the University of Kansas. Combining pages of his middle school notebook with new embellishments, Krueger succeeds in creating unique pieces with a droll sense of humor. The weathered notebook pages display the doodles of an apathetic adolescent school- boy, including a full-page list of his favorite bands (AC/DC, Poison, Jimi Hendrix).

Probably the most charming quality about First Amendment gallery is that while paroozing the incredible prints in the show room, gallery attendees can actually hear the print making being done in the next room. A refreshing take on art, the gallery is approachable and real; offering viewers the rare opportunity of singing along with the Led Zeppelin being blasted in the workroom as you analyze the provocative work of Jenny Schmid, an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota and curator of “Cold Blooded, Warm Hearted”.