MINNEAPOLIS, MN.- An empty wooden box, a clear plastic cup, a pair of balloons, a spray of paint, a bed of moss, a moment in time. Exploring the poetic and conceptual promise of minimal gestures and simple materials, the Walker Art Center exhibition A Shot in the Dark, opened on Thursday, features works that transcend their humble means as they evoke other places, times, and states of mind. Consisting entirely of recent Walker acquisitions and rarely seen works from the collection, the exhibition will be on view through March 20, 2011. Spanning disparate categories of artistic production—from early 20th-century landscape painting and 1960s conceptualism to kinetic sculpture and contemporary photography—A Shot in the Dark highlights a diverse group of works new to the collection, including three moving-image works, which form the core of the exhibition. Attempting to locate the expansive