Blog
Fresh perspectives on art, life, and current events. From deep dives to quick takes to insightful interviews, it’s the museum in conversation. Beyond the walls. Outside the frame. Around the world.
The Latest
Artist Sky Hopinka talks Standing Rock, growing up on the powwow circuit, and his show at Mia
Sky Hopinka says he’s always known who he is. His father is a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation, in Wisconsin; his mother is descended from the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians, in California. They met on the powwow circuit, traveling across the country to perform, and when Sky came along he joined them in the ...
Minnesota artist Rachel Breen on clothing that kills, visible mending, and her new show at Mia
By Diane Richard Rachel Breen’s exhibition “The Labor We Wear” is sitting in the U.S. Bank Gallery, on the second floor of Mia, waiting for the doors to open. “I literally finished installing it right before the museum closed,” she says, noting the museum’s decision to temporarily close on March 13, ahead of the statewide ...
Goya’s Gratitude and the Long Tradition of Artistic Tributes to Health Workers
By Gretchen Halverson In 1820, Francisco Goya painted himself leaning back into the arms of his doctor, Eugenio García Arrieta. Shadowy figures loom behind them. Are they real or a disease-induced hallucination? The doctor administers a tonic while Goya—weak, pale, staring blankly—desperately grips the sheets of his sick bed. Goya, who was the most prominent ...
Can you name 5 women artists? Here’s a start, from Mia’s collection
By Nicole Soukup “It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.”—Audre Lorde A popular meme asks: Can you name five women artists? How many artists on your list are women of color? How many identify as queer? Trans or gender fluid? How many are ...
30 great artworks chosen by Mia’s curators to mark Women’s History Month
To celebrate Women’s History Month, we asked each of our curatorial departments at Mia to highlight works by women. You’ll find more, along with videos, stories, and related exhibitions on our Women’s History Month site. Decorative Arts, Textiles, and Sculpture Faith Ringgold’s sculpture was inspired by the 1974 discovery in Hadar, Ethiopia, of “Lucy,” a ...
The case of the missing Rembrandt: How “Lucretia” returned to life, more than 250 years after vanishing
By Tim Gihring (This is a transcript of The Object podcast, episode 12, first broadcast in August 2019. You can listen, subscribe, and find all-new episodes here, or wherever you listen to podcasts.) In 1926, an art dealer in New York announces it has a painting by one of the most famous artists in the ...
The gods of compassion: What bodhisattvas can teach us about sacrifice
By Tim Gihring The god arrived in 1917, boxed and braced on a bed of straw. Then, as now, its right hand was missing, along with several fingers on the left. The gold leaf and bright paint that once covered it was nearly gone except for a few flecks, especially on the back, where the ...
How to Stop an Assassin: The Poison-proof Silverware That Could Save Your Life (Maybe)
By Tim Gihring This is a transcript of The Object podcast, episode eight, first broadcast in April 2019. You can listen, subscribe, and find all-new episodes here, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Assassins are everywhere in art museums. Depictions of assassins, I mean, not like some ninja actually hiding in a suit of armor. ...
A Custom House with a Custom Problem
By Jennifer Komar Olivarez Mia’s Purcell-Cutts House, in the East Isles neighborhood of Minneapolis, is one of a kind. It was designed by William Gray Purcell and George Grant Elmslie specifically for Purcell and his wife, Edna, and their two sons. But it was also informed by Purcell’s desire to create a home for the ...
Migration matters: How art can help us grasp the growing crisis
By Tim Gihring Erika Lee’s grandfather came to the United States from China in 1918, sailing into the harbor of San Francisco. He was 16, a farmer’s son. The Chinese Exclusion Act that was designed to stop him and all other Chinese immigrants, except for students, teachers, merchants, diplomats, and tourists, had been in place ...