Art: Event spotlights

SATURDAY

'Weathering the Storm: New Work by Greg Gossel'

Greg Gossel is a busy guy. Over the past year, he has shown in San Francisco, New York and Copenhagen -- and with exhibits in London and Miami rounding out 2012, the Minneapolis-based artist shows no signs of slowing. Gossel is showing his hometown some long-awaited love with "Weathering the Storm," his first local show since 2009. He returns to the Soo VAC with a collection of 13 large-scale, mixed-media works using repurposed street advertisements and old billboard scraps he has collected in Minneapolis, New York, San Francisco and other cities over the past year. While the new work is somewhat of a departure for the artist, with an emphasis on typeface over human faces, it's still signature Gossel -- gritty, urban and thriving on juxtaposition. (Free opening reception 6-10 p.m. Sat. Runs through Aug. 26. Soo Visual Arts Center, 2638 Lyndale Av. S., Mpls. www.soovac.org.)

OPENING

'Revisiting the Ark'

In a season of drought, the notion of biblical scale floods has a certain appeal. Arks are designed to survive such traumas and to preserve whatever we value most, be it our flocks, our food, our knowledge or our DNA. Sandra Menefee Taylor taps into the long history of ark imagery in books, textiles and other art to enrich her own musings about preservation, shelter, survival and renewal. Her new show will be an installation of wall drawings and paper images alluding to these ancient legends and their relevance in our fragile world. (Noon-6 p.m. Thu.-Sat. Ends Sept. 1. Free. Free opening reception 7-9 p.m. Aug. 4. Form + Content Gallery, 210 N. 2nd St., Suite 104, Mpls. 612-436-1151 or www.formandcontent.org.)