University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, Sculptures

It was clear that a relatively new feature of the arboretum was the addiiton of dozens of sculptures and art pieces by amazing artists. They have created something of an exhibit of its own for these items, but they're basically incorporated in the rolling hills of the park itself. It was very cool to come across this kind of art in the wide open spaces of an arboretum and we really enjoyed it. It's like an open air museum you can intereact with in very unique ways (but no climbing on the artwork!).

Here are some of the best pics, imho:

This was about 20' high, multiple sided, had a native American feel to it, but was made by an Italian artist... which comes out in some of the masks on the piece

Rusted steel pinwheels

A Mondrain feel to it, no? The pop of color was great against the natural landscape

This is the artist for the next piece... we could have stared at it for hours as it kept moving... just with the wind or balance of the piece, we guessed

All stainless steel, using simple rectangle shapes

I mean, we could have watched it for hours

At first glance this looked like a lollipop. But it had so much more to offer. The texture of the piece was very interesting (ground stone work) and if you used the "window" to frame a picture of the landcape, it was even better

You can see the texture of the material close-up

And here it frames a great late afternoon sky

Another piece by the same artist, with more great texture and visual interest

I don't think you could miss the sculpture garden here... but make sure you don't.