Uptown Art Fair

Art is fun!
This is a long-​running art fair that draws in the best of the best in art as well as culinary arts.
Parking sucks; yes. When you do miraculously find a place to park, it’s pretty great to walk down the middle of what is typically one of the busiest streets in Minneapolis.
There is booth after booth after booth of jewelry makers, painters, potters, photographers, clothing makers, and on the list goes forever. It’s beautiful to see so much talent lined up in such an accessible way.
There’s also a culinary arts stage that Kitchen Window sponsors every year. There are multiple cooking and art making competitions that go on throughout the day and every day of the fair. This is my favorite part to watch!
Weather is generally a bear since it’s Minnesota+August. Most people are sporting some interesting hairdos at this event and I think the humidity only enhances them. Also, you can always duck into one of the stores or go into Calhoun Square for some bless-​ed air conditioning.
Again…parking sucks. Go in with the «parking sucks» mentality and you won’t be disappointed.

I love the Uptown art fair, I have been coming here ever since I can remember. My aunt Jil Franke used to do shows in the early 80s and helped me find a love in art.
I have purchased more artwork at the Uptown art fair than anywhere else. They truly do a good job picking talented artists from all over the US. I also enjoy Art-​a-​whirl, St Paul’s art crawl and other art shows in the area but this is the best in my book. Yes you will pay 2 to 3 times more here than other shows, but you are also getting artwork that is typically better than most shows in the area.

I’m admittedly clueless when it comes to art. Nevertheless, there was a wide variety of art work on display, including a real life-​sized Humpty Dumpty bronze statue complete with his whacko smile. Again, I have no credentials to artistically judge these pieces but I found much of the work visually-​stimulating. However, don’t expect to snag a few pieces to liven up your apartment. This artwork is generally unaffordable for the average Joe/​Jane.

Felt manly today.
I bought some art. That is right.
Pedicure is next.
Drove out today rather aimlessly. Got near downtown Minneapolis and decided to head over to Uptown. Took the Hennepin Avenue exit. It was jammed on a Saturday afternoon. Took me about ten minutes from exiting 94 until I was going southbound on Hennepin. What in the eff is going on?
Ohh.the Uptown Art Fair. I’m not a big art aficionado, but thought what the heck — there are much worse ways to spend the day. To make myself feel a little more masculine, I had to partake in some of the unhealthy street food and liquid libations that were available.
First stop: the AZ Canteen. I know Andrew Zimmern hates Unilocal,but I am an adventurous eater so I had to give it a shot. Had the Crispy Pork belly with an egg on top. Four stars for the food and one star for the Unilocal bashing. Delicious. At first, it just seemed like a big Chinese take-​out box full of nothing but tasty pork. Got near the bottom and found the Green Papaya Salad underneath. Think I was supposed to mix it up. Oh well. Think I liked it better the way I did it.
Next stop: Pimento Jerk Chicken. Can’t find anything online about this place. They were in a stand and not a truck. Got the combo jerk chicken and jerk pork with beans and rice. Fabulous! Now I was stuffed. But not stuffed enough to not have a couple beers.
One Inversion IPA at William’s and one Stone IPA at Bar Louie. Now with my hunger and thirst satiated, it was time to look at some art!
I think I have only been to two others art fairs in my life. One in Tempe probably about ten years ago and the Uptown Art Fair five or so years ago with a buddy who wanted to go. At both of these, I saw some stuff that I liked but nothing that stood out for me except for one booth of photographs by Xavier Nuez. Really cool urban photography. Thought if I can find his booth again, I need to make a purchase this time. Sure enough, found it on the cross street with Hennepin (Dean Parkway? Not sure about that). Check out his website:
Got two 8X10’s for $ 74.00. One of the two that I got is the one that is currently on the front page of his website. If money were no object, I would have got more and bigger ones. With the exception of one painting in my living room, my walls are completely barren. Plan on putting these two on the staircase wall, and hopefully, expand the collection over time.
No judging. A man his his needs! It was an awesome day.

The Uptown Art Fair has been a staple in Minneapolis. It’s been around for over 40 years. When I went again this year I felt much the same way as I have in the past. I little «underwhelmed» but still enjoyable. I wasn’t looking for anything particular but some of the art work just didn’t interest me. I know many of the traveling artists come to this fair year after year but now there’s competition with the Powderhorn and Loring Art Fair going on the same weekend.
Having attended several art fairs in town my suggestion would be to pick one. There tends to be similar items at most of them so unless you are looking for a very specific vendor you’ll tend to see much of the same art work.

2012 was my fourth year in a row attending the Uptown Art Fair (as well as the Loring Park Art Fair). And I think it will be my last. Here’s the deal:
Transportation:
Hey, I live in the suburbs. So, guess what? I’m going to have to drive here and somehow find a way to get to the Art Fair. In years past, it’s been easy. Park at a park ‘n ride (there is one at the Lake Street Station, I believe, but don’t quote me on that) and hop on the Art Hop bus, which is provided by Metro Transit for FREE. Then, the bus makes a loop through all three of the art fairs.
But in 2011, this changed. Metro Transit still provided free rides, but you need to take a regular city bus that does not go in a loop to get to the fairs. And unfortunately, there are no park ‘n rides, unless you go to Southdale. (we found this out the hard way after thinking we could park at the 38^th Street Station. No dice.) They made it much more difficult — and they advertised «Park and Rides», yet there were none on the two routes (6 and 23). They made it VERY difficult for those who do not live in Minneapolis proper to get to the fair.
The Uptown Art Fair itself is VERY VERY crowded. You are shoulder-​to-​shoulder with people. You get bumped and brushed, hit with strollers and get slobbered on by big dogs (yes, you can bring your dog, as it is outside). It’s so crowded that it is difficult to get in the booths to look at the artwork.
The artwork is kinda meh. I only saw a few things that I really liked, but I came home empty handed. Art Fairs are expensive and this is no exception. I didn’t see anything reasonably priced. There’s a lot of photography booths, and being a hobbyist photographer myself, I wasn’t all that impressed with what was there. A lot of pretty, but boring, landscape stuff. It was stuff I could probably do myself, if I visited the particular landmark/​waterfall and brought my equipment. I overheard so many other patrons saying, «This is overpriced.» «Too expensive. It’s just a photograph.»
The jewelry was incredibly overpriced and the clothing wasn’t anything I’d buy (but I’m not a fan of homemade clothing either). Lots of lawn ornaments too, also which are not my thing.
I can’t see how doing a show is «worth it» to the artists — because I didn’t see ANYONE buying anything. Everyone was walking around empty-handed…and if they did have something in their hands, it was a lemonade or a bag of mini donuts. I realize that a lot of work goes into making these pieces, but Joe Average is probably not about to drop $ 250 on a necklace made with buttons and embroidery floss. Someone could REALLY make a killing here buy selling stuff $ 20 and under. I’m serious.
Maybe I’ve been here too many times. I’ve seen some of the same vendors and I’m like, «Oh. I saw these same paintings last year…»
I prefer the Edina Art Fair. There were much more reasonably-​priced vendors and I actually BOUGHT stuff.
It’s kinda fun to walk around/​people watch and I do like the Ben and Jerry’s booth :)

I completely agree with the majority of the people who have reviewed, this place is completely overpriced and good art is few and far between. We came here on a beautiful Saturday and while they had some pretty good jerk chicken street food, the art inspiration was definitely lacking. I was truly looking for something that would go amazing above our fireplace and the majority of booths were photography whose style had been seen before. I’m looking forward to the next legitimate art fair. whenever that may be.

I had a decent time at the Uptown Art Fair 2011. The weather was nice out and it’s a nice stroll down Hennepin. Yes the food was overpriced and some of the artists were tooting their own horn with the high prices but it’s a fair. What do you expect? This isn’t the first time you’ve seen water bottles at $ 3 at a fair have you? Bring your own water. We tried out the cheese curds since someone said it was very «minnesotan». Not half bad.
The art was interesting and I thought there was a good variety from ceramics, to painting, photography, to silk. One of my favorite booths was a photographer who took pictures of the shady side of cities. It was a thought provoking take. He had one under the bridge in Dayton Ohio scribbled with graffiti and you can see a beautiful, glowing city in the background. So many people live in these areas and in some cases, alleys, and graffiti is beautiful in it’s own right. Loved the dual perspective that the photo captured.
In some cases, the prices made sense. The travel, the time to make the art, and then producing, and wrapping it in shrink wrap at a lower production quantity can get costly.
I was entertained for the day with the food, art, people, free samples, and some prize opportunities.

Not very crazy about the Uptown Art Fair.
overpriced food? check
annoying hipsters and yuppies? check
so so art? check
overcrowded? check
A lot of these artists also seem to have an attitude. Won’t be going back.

If this is art I’m a zebra. Boring, commercialized readers digest version. Save a lot of disruption to traffic and move this joke to Edina, where no price is too high to pay for something that matches the pillows.
«It looks just like a photo!»
Now I know what happened to the starving artists.

The Art Hop 2010 took us via bus to Loring park, uptown and then powderhorn park. Loring park was beautiful, shaded with trees, the art vendors were all along the park walk areas, it was wonderful. I highly recommend if you visit one art fair in the future, that the Loring Park location be the one. It is family friendly, paved walking trail with plenty of shade. We boarded the bus to uptown art fair location and decided not to get off the bus as it looked so very hot, way too croweded and there was no shade to be seen anywhere. We had experienced the uptown art fair a few years ago only at the uptown location and had absolutly no fun at all. We vowed not to return. This year, upon seeing that there were three different places one could go to via free public transportation, we though we’d give it a try. We had a nice adventure on the light rail and felt like tourists. To sum up, still think the Uptown Art Fair is a miss, but found a hit at Loring Park!

I agree on the art part: super expensive and not more than a couple of interesting works. Most of the artist seem to produce series of basically the same crowd pleasing painting…
However, I like walking around, seeing people, looking at stuff (and eventually criticize it) and trying to win the occasional prize…
Not the best art, but still an occasion to go ut and enjoy the city.

Every year the lamescapes advance further into the territory of the anything else. Managed to make a purchase to support the local color but only after spinning a bunch of straw into gold. Counting down the days until Art-​A-​Whirl.

Uuugh is it over yet? Neiman Marcus meets Walmart of the Art world.

With Drew… Art wasn’t impressive but cost more than kidneys in Mexico.
Only good part was the Ben & Jerry’s dude allowed me to get two flavors on my small scoop of ice cream.