Art in Ice
February 19 – 28 (or as long as temperatures allow)
Parks across Minneapolis
UPDATE: As of February 22, the warm temperatures have melted some of the sculptures, so this pop-up has ended earlier than planned.
Winter in Minnesota always holds surprises. This year, we’re offering our own. Five favorite artworks from Mia’s collection have been transformed into ice sculptures in Minneapolis parks, where many of us are spending more time than ever exploring and safely socializing. It’s an only-in-Minnesota moment, or as long as weather allows.
This pop-up art display is brought to you by Mia in partnership with the Minneapolis Park Board. Our ice sculptor is Chris Swarbrick of Ice Occasions.
Artworks and Locations
“Veiled Lady” at Longfellow Park
Mia’s beloved bust of a seemingly veiled lady is a kind of magic trick in marble, an illusion of light and skill that brought fame to its sculptor, Raffaelo Monti, in Victorian-era England.
“Your Dog” at Bde Maka Ska
Like much of Yoshitomo Nara’s art, Your Dog is at once inviting and disquieting, sweet and sinister, an imposing projection of our own ambivalent memories and imagination.
“Celestial Horse” at North Commons Park
Reports of a “heavenly horse” in central Asia, a couple thousand years ago, so intrigued the Chinese emperor that he sent soldiers to acquire them. In bronze tomb art, they became even more idealized—spirited escorts to the afterlife.
"Aphrodisiac Telephone" at Boom Island Park
In the 1930s, surrealist artists like Salvador Dali championed the modified found object as the ultimate modern art form, but the art was sometimes functional as well. He made 11 working lobster phones for the homes of British patron Edward James.
“Olive Trees” at Washburn-Fair Oaks Park
For six months in the late summer and fall of 1889, Vincent van Gogh painted the olive groves around Saint-Rémy in the south of France, trying to capture something of their gnarled mysticism—“too beautiful,” as he wrote his brother, “for us to dare to paint.”