Nearly 3,000 artists submitted work to the Minnesota State Fair Fine Arts Exhibition this year, and only 343 pieces made the cut. For everyone else, there is now a well-established backup plan: the Reject Show at Douglas Flanders & Associates, opening next Saturday with more than 200 visual artists whose work the fair turned away.
The third annual show, taking place at the gallery's location at 5025 France Ave. S. in Minneapolis, has grown fast since it began. As reported by the Minnesota Star Tribune, the Reject Show started with roughly 80 submissions in its first year, took in 110 submissions in 2025, and has now more than doubled that figure heading into its 2026 edition. Any artist whose work was rejected by the State Fair is eligible to apply, and the show costs nothing to enter or attend.
The scale of rejection at the official fair helps explain why. According to the Minnesota State Fair, artists submitted 2,836 works to the 2025 Fine Arts Exhibition, and only 336 were accepted for display — an acceptance rate hovering around 11 to 12 percent most years. For 2026, the fair required Minnesota residents to register online by July 20 across eight designated classes, including painting, sculpture, textiles, and photography, with each entry capped at 6 feet and artists limited to a single submission.
A Painting Rejected Seven Times Before, and Twice More
Among the artists exhibiting at the Reject Show is Dan Petrov, a Lakeville-based painter trained in Italy in Renaissance and Flemish painting techniques. Petrov submitted his painting “Herald Bringing the News” to this year's State Fair and was rejected, missing selection four times even after being accepted into the fair seven times before 2022. He believes the fair's judges tend to favor abstract and non-representational art over his more traditional style, and told the Star Tribune that sometimes it is good to be rejected.
Michele Yates, an artist from Blaine, submitted a bright yellow mixed-media painting to the State Fair this year and was also rejected. She will exhibit that same painting at the Reject Show instead. Twenty-year-old artist Hawkins Moore submitted the portrait “Waiting for Sadie” to the State Fair and, after it was turned down, will now show the piece at Douglas Flanders & Associates.
Not every artist connected to the show has been rejected outright. John Barth, who has submitted his work to the State Fair for three years, was not accepted into this year's fine arts competition for a painting depicting his newborn grandchild Hunter in the arms of the child's mother. Gallery founder Douglas Flanders had encouraged Barth to return to the gallery if he was rejected again, a piece of advice that now carries added weight.
Why Jurors Offer No Explanation
Part of what drives artists toward the Reject Show is the silence that follows a State Fair rejection. Official fair rules state that competition jurors change every year and do not provide individual critiques or explanations for rejected submissions, given the sheer volume of entries reviewed in a compressed timeframe. That leaves thousands of artists each year with no feedback and no public platform for work the fair declined to display.
The concept of exhibiting rejected art has deep roots. The tradition traces back to 1863 in Paris, when Emperor Napoleon III authorized the original Salon des Refusés after the official Paris Salon jury turned away thousands of submissions, according to Art & Object. That historic show went on to feature work by Édouard Manet and Camille Pissarro, and it helped inspire the modern tradition of independent art exhibitions that continues in Minneapolis today.
The idea has also started spreading locally. Burl Gallery in Minneapolis launched its own concurrent 2026 “REJECTED SHOW” for State Fair rejects, offering free submissions and zero commission to participating artists, according to Burl Gallery. The trend suggests Douglas Flanders & Associates helped establish a model other Twin Cities venues are now following.
A Gallery Carrying On Without Its Founder
This year's show arrives under new circumstances. Douglas Flanders, who founded the gallery in 1972 and spent more than 50 years supporting local artists, died in November at age 75. The gallery now continues under executive director and CFO Syril McNally and gallery manager Michelle Connealy, who is Flanders' niece. McNally said the Reject Show continues as a way to support local and regional artists, carrying forward the mission Flanders built over five decades.
Douglas Flanders & Associates represents more than 145 local and regional artists and holds more than 15,000 objects in its collection, one of the largest private holdings in the Upper Midwest. Earlier last year, the gallery sought community financial support to cover rising costs, noting that roughly 80% of its local artists had no other gallery representation in the Twin Cities, according to CBS News. That reliance underscores what is at stake for artists when a gallery like this one offers them a stage the State Fair does not.
Reject Show Details
The Reject Show offers Minnesota artists an audience beyond the State Fair fine arts building, opening Aug. 29, 2026, with a reception from 3 to 7 p.m. The exhibition runs through Oct. 10, 2026, and the gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. More information is available through flandersart.com or by calling 612-920-3497.
