MINNEAPOLIS, MN.- The Minnesota Artist Exhibition Program at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts debuts two new exhibitions by Minnesota artists this fall: Andy Messerschmidt’s surreal and immersive “Delta Delta Delta Force” and Mathew Zefeldt’s graphic and gamelike “Repetition, Simulation, Repetition.” The pair of exhibitions are on view at the MIA October 16 through December 28, 2014.

Messerschmidt is an artist, occultist, and collector of holiday ephemera. He is fascinated by the visual culture of mystical ceremonies he finds inscribed on decorative ornaments and sacred architecture.

“Delta Delta Delta Force” features collages of paintings, hundreds of feet of old holiday wrapping paper, and salvaged Christmas tree skirts. Obscure religious iconography is layered throughout the exhibition. The riot of patterning and appropriated symbolism creates a loud but composed visual noise based on the principle that one can come to find the divine in the dross of decoration. The gallery has been lit with a deep red glow, and a low delta wave hum emphasizes Messerschmidt’s free-associative imagery.

In “Repetition, Simulation, Repetition,” Mathew Zefeldt plunges viewers into a simulated environment. His most recent brightly colored, hand-painted acrylic paintings include 16-bit graphics and textures appropriated directly from classic video games that many will remember playing as teenagers, such as DOOM, Super Mario Brothers, and Castle Wolfenstein.

The exhibition informs both a real and virtual investigation of mortality and individuality. One painting, “When You’re Dead, You’re Dead”, features a pixelated graphic of a hero’s face against a repeating brick background with cartoons of viscous Day-Glo paint. The hero’s direct gaze at the center of the composition is framed by the traditional momento mori motif of the human skull. Zefeldt opposes representations of a singular life a with virtual forms of lives and deaths that end then start over again and again.

The gallery walls of “Repetition, Simulation, Repetition” are covered floor to ceiling with sheets of 16-bit brick vinyl wallpaper which, when set behind the paintings, produce a hypnotic visual field reminiscent of video game environments.