A group art show at the new Interact Gallery shows 'scary things in the woods’
Go Deeper.
Create an account or log in to save stories.
Like this?
Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.
At St. Paul’s new Interact Gallery, a colorful, mischievous energy fills the room for “Something There in the Woods…,” a new exhibition where landscapes and otherworldly creatures blur the line between the real and the imagined.
There, curator Bob Cozzolino and artists Carl Clark, Jill Reedy and Jesse Ferdinand gather before their newly hung pieces, including Clark’s painted landscapes of blue skies and roiling clouds, Reedy’s felted perched owl and Ferdinand’s psychedelic canvases of alien rituals and animal bridegrooms.
Michael Engebretson explores space and autism“When I'm making the art, images come from like a subconscious place, it's almost more like channeling,” Ferdinand says. “I'm usually almost as surprised about it as anyone else is.”
The work was curated by Cozzolino for the Interact Center for the Visual and Performing Arts, a nonprofit that supports artists with disabilities. Interact moved into the new space, a few blocks from the old gallery, in January, effectively doubling the exhibition square footage.
Turn Up Your Support
MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all.
Cozzolino is part of a guest curator program that tasks curators to create an exhibition from works in Interact’s archives, which date back to 1996.
“I'm drawn to artists who are trying to imagine the otherworldly, the intangible, things like that, and make it in tangible form,” Cozzolino says.
“There's so much in this show that is really about going to other places, going into the landscape, into nature, encountering fairies and hybrid creatures and sometimes scary things in the woods, but really about immersing yourself in another place.”
A Minnesota curator remembers filmmaker David Lynch“Something There in the Woods…” will be on view through May 15, 2026.
Interact recently opened another exhibition, too: “The Big Winter Show,” up through Dec. 18, featuring the work of more than 70 artists. On view are paintings, jewelry, wall textiles, clay skulls, and a wall of glossy ceramic masks — a menagerie of tigers, unicorns, foxes and more.
“It's really a chance for people to kind of put their best foot forward and show the things that they're really excited about that they've been doing for the last 12 months,” says Brittany Kieler, gallery director for Interact.
There will be a free public reception for both exhibitions Nov. 22.
