Kirsi Kivivirta, Finnish, born 1959, Spoon Tile, 2012, slip cast stoneware, Promised Gift of Tamara and Michael Root L2023.30.276

A Little Fun at My Work: Women in Design and Craft

A Little Fun at My Work: Women in Design and Craft

August 3, 2024 - July 24, 2026
Wells Fargo Center, Downtown Minneapolis
Free Exhibition

The exuberant 20-century ceramic artist Clarice Cliff famously said, in response to critics, “Having a little fun at my work does not make me any less of an artist, and people who appreciate truly beautiful and original creations in pottery are not frightened by innocent tomfoolery.”

Drawing from the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, along with promised gifts from the Tamara and Michael Root collection of studio ceramics, this exhibition at the Wells Fargo Center in downtown Minneapolis showcases the delights and talents of women in the fields of modern and contemporary industrial design and craft. The exhibition features examples of design from Cliff as well as British silver designer Kate Harris, American inventor Marion Weeber, and prolific designer Eva Zeisel. Studio ceramics include works from important American ceramic educator Laura Andreson, Finnish contemporary artist Kirsi Kivivirta, and clay sculptor Karen Karnes, among others. The exhibition is on view in twenty cases in the ground-floor concourse and skyway levels of the Wells Fargo Center in downtown Minneapolis.

Generous support provided by:  

Kirsi Kivivirta, Finnish, born 1959, Spoon Tile, 2012, slip cast stoneware, Promised Gift of Tamara and Michael Root L2023.30.276