Close Out Your August with the Conspiracy of Strange Girls Summer Night Market

Swampy summer heat seems to have already given way to milder days and cooler nights, and everyone’s thoughts are turning to the trappings of fall. In the arts world, the works whose turn it is to come out and play in this season tend to carry a darker tone, and while it has the word “summer” in its name, the Strange Girls Summer Night Market—August 31, 2019 at Modist Brewing in Minneapolis—should give shoppers a little bit of later-season inflection to close out the dog days of summer.

Art by Monica Helland. Helland Studio

I asked Danielle Pebbles, core member and gallery curator with the Conspiracy of Strange Girls collective, point blank whether CSG runs this market as sort of a Halloween preview.

“To us, every day would be Halloween,” she said.

The Summer Night Market is a chance for 25 Strange Girls members plus some friends to showcase their work. “Each vendor has something that is maybe a little bit on the stranger side,” said Pebbles. “More oddities. We had somebody who makes different types of runes or little symbols that you can hang in your house. We have a lot of potters and artists. And every little piece—it just might be a little bit more on the darker side of the spectrum.”

A jacket patch by Lofty Dog Designs, which also offers lots of D&D-themed items. Lofty Dog Designs

A Conspiracy of Strange Girls was started by two women who “wanted to make a space for women that create a little bit stranger artwork,” according to Pebbles, and the group now includes over 100 artists. They wear their mission statement on their sleeves, their website putting front and center their zero-tolerance policy for sexism, transphobia, racism, fascism, ableism, sizeism, homophobia, ageism, and “hatred and discrimination of any kind.” “We just made this huge banner to make sure that at every single one of our events, [the mission is] present, so that people will always feel comfortable coming into any event we have,” said Pebbles.

The August 31 event promises an eclectic mix. As Pebbles notes, the collective doesn’t just include visual artists; the members and friends who will be selling at the market make music and dance, they create nail polish and essential oils, they garden, and one of them is known as the Pickle Witch.

A gouache painting in artist Stacey Combs’s Body Positive series. Stacey Combs

One member whose work will be available at the market is Alice Ferox, whose work focuses on altered photography. She “messes up a lot of portraits that otherwise would have looked great,” as she puts it. For this show, she’s bringing framed pieces, some in miniature. “I do mini framed pieces that are smaller than your palm. I want my art to be in people’s homes, but I want it to be accessible too.”

Ferox notes that CSG has been instrumental in helping promote and sell her art, providing access to events and markets. “I’ve gotten support, new connections, resources, collaborative opportunities,” she said of the group’s modus operandi. “As a trans woman, when I came out in the arts scene, my career died, my normal opportunities disappeared . . . I feel like just about every trans person has a story like that.”

Iridescent Dark, triptych. Alice Ferox

“I was making a lot of art about being closeted,” she says of her career. “A lot of people didn’t know, so it was very confusing at the time. And it was confusing to me too, to be honest. I wasn’t in queer spaces because I wasn’t out. I wasn’t in trans spaces, and I wasn’t in women’s spaces.” But when she came out, “it made a lot of sense all of a sudden. It made a lot of sense to me, but then I was showing [my work] at places that weren’t really into that, they weren’t really accepting or knowledgeable about what I was making anymore.” CSG has opened the door to an accepting community for Ferox, and art shows like the Summer Night Market connect her to an audience.

Modist Brewing Co., located in the North Loop about two blocks north of Target Field, has fashioned its taproom into fantastic showroom and frequently hosts events such as Queer Soup Night, Pre-Pride Night, and the third annual Drop In skateboard art event, all of which happened in July. “Modist and the staff there are always extremely helpful,” said Pebbles. “They try to make a space for artists. Even from the skateboard deck show that just happened recently; they added more walls so we could have more art there . . . not everybody is nearly as accommodating as they are. They really try. The last time we were there, they brewed us own own beer for Strange Girls and called it Witches Brew.”

World Alone, ink and digital. Lucy Comer

This year, Modist will debut a collaboration with Marz Brewing from Chicago, which is “one of the only beers in the world made from 100 percent wheat malt, and it’s fantastic,” according to Modist “Marketing Dude” Dan Wellendorf. Asked what he likes about working with the CSG crew, Wellendorf puts it simply: “They’re awesome, they’re queer, they’re organized, they’re radical.”

Such partnerships and spaces are critical in connecting the artists and art of CSG with fans and the public. “There isn’t always a space for artists to go,” said Pebbles. “It’s really hard to keep galleries and businesses that are brick and mortar places. If you only have one or two events a month, there isn’t always space for people to go.” In Modist, CSG has found fellow travelers in its mission of inclusion and uplifting marginalized voices, “to have people who kind of align with your beliefs of feeling like you might be marginalized or an outsider,” said Pebbles. “To know this is a safe space.”

Rings by Betty Jäger. 3 Jäg Design

Ferox wants to highlight this part of CSG’s work and the space Modist has made for them as well. “They’re welcoming of gender-diverse people, black and Indigenous people of color; it’s focused on marginalized communities and welcoming of them, so I knew I was in the right spot. When [A Conspiracy of Strange Girls] opened up their call for members, I was like, yeah—I want to be part of something.”

The Strange Girls Summer Night Market runs Saturday, August 31, from noon to 8:00 p.m.