?”Visible Fringe”

5 p.m.-10 p.m. daily through Sunday

Thorpe Building

1618 Central Ave. N.E., Minneapolis

Of the 17 artists in the “Visible Fringe” that are exhibiting their work at the Thorpe Building, two stand out with larger-than-life materials and themes.

Lester Hoikka welds sheet metal and sexuality together. Bent and abstract, his metal works are composed of three-dimensional human bodies and vibrant colosr. They seem to levitate in the middle of the museum.

Many figures are painted naked. As if their flesh has been torn off, pinks and yellows outline muscle and fat tones. Pastel blues and greens are reserved for the yawning cavities in muscle fibers and ligaments.

Men and women appear in some pieces tangled together in brutal sexuality.

In his piece “Movie Kiss,” two large heads, drunk with color, are locked together in hunger.

Where their mouths meet, Hoikka has fastened a large three-dimensional structure that looks like a carrying case for dentures.

Hoikka would have people believe that a cinematic kiss isn’t as idealistic and romantic as much as it is violent and confining.

Susy Bielak, a second bold artist, has created 8-feet by 4-feet snapshots of frozen childhood memories.

Using whitewashed plastic scrims, she draws outlines and images by scratching away the background, somewhat in the manner of a batik.

Family is the most common theme throughout her three pieces.

Two girls laugh and swing together. Family members whisper into one another’s ears. A child decorates a Christmas tree, while gifts are exchanged.

But fondness is an element that seems to be missing from many of these memories.

The pictures, if not part of a frozen and remote past, seem ice-cold and intangible in their whites and grays.

After all, can fond family artwork bear the title “6352 Douglas, 2002”?