Karen Mary Davalos, professor of Chicano and Latino Studies at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, suggests a visit to see Dougie Padilla and Xavier Tavera’s new work at Anderson Center at Tower View in Red Wing. Titled “Frontera Liminal,” the show investigates borders both physical and spiritual.

Padilla’s series of screen prints forge a connection with his great-grandmother, whom he never met. Among his images are ghost prints, the second, third, or more pulls on the same inked plate of a printing press, that produce ethereal remnants of the original image. Even the hanging of the images is ghostly, said Davalos. The images hang free from the ceiling, allowing them to move in the breeze and adding a sculptural element to 2-D images.

Tavera is a photographer who has been traveling to the Mexican border for more than six years. He’s interested in the intersection of Catholic and Indigenous spiritual practices, creating images that Davalos calls “charged and emotionally compelling.”

The exhibit runs through Nov 5. and is capped with an artist talk and closing reception at 1 p.m. that afternoon.

Beverly Roberts of Homewood Studios appreciates the intricate felted creations of Susan J. Sperl. Sperl’s latest exhibit, entitled “Voices from the Water,” showcases her detailed, colorful sea creatures with such enticing names as warty frogfish, leafy sea dragon, wolf eel, Tasmanian sawshark. Many of these creatures face challenges due to plastics and pollution in their ocean environments.

Bringing these ideas closer to home are the cartoons about local water conservation and clean-up efforts, created by Winter Crenshaw and Donte Beck, students at Plymouth Youth Center’s Arts and Tech High School. Together, the exhibit is part inspiration and wonder, part encouragement to protect our water, from Minneapolis storm drains to ocean depths.

The show runs through Nov. 20 at the Westminster Gallery, located within Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis.  There’s an artist reception Sunday from 2 - 4:30 p.m.

Ilene Krug Mojsilov has long admired the work of sculptor and painter Dodie Logue and she highly recommends a visit to see her show “Color Thoughts” on display at One Division Art in Buffalo, Minn.

Mojsilov recalled visiting Logue’s studio this summer and looking out through the open barn doors at the restored prairie in full bloom. The prairie’s color and texture infuses Logue’s abstract paintings, whose grids and dots always deserve a closer look. Mojsilov explains Logue’s work celebrates “the unexpected poetry of hard and soft…the interactions between color and texture.”

The exhibit runs through Oct. 22. The gallery is open Friday 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. and Saturdays 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.