Minneapolis-based artist Monica Sheets will turn the gallery into a large-scale exploration of civic participation and history with her archive and installation, Das Fundbuero (2007-ongoing). Das Fundbuero, or the Lost and Found Office, is an archive of interviews, documents, and objects from East Germany. The artist asks visitors to reflect on their own relationships to democracy and citizenship as they explore the archive.

Sheets creates spaces for dialogue and engagement that explore topics such as urban development, economics, and civics. Born and raised in Toledo, the experience of growing up in the American Rust Belt influenced her desire to connect with audiences who might not normally visit galleries and museums. Work by the artist has been exhibited or been on public display at Art Center Waco, Texas; Art Shanty Projects, Minnesota; Chevy Commons, Flint, Mich; Claypool-Young Art Gallery, Moorehead State University, Moorehead, Ky; Galerie im Malzhaus, Kunstverein Plauen-Vogtland, Germany; marke.6, Weimar, Germany; Society for Contemporary Craft, Pittsburgh; Völkerschlachtdenkmal, Leipzig, DE; and Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis. She has received A Blade of Grass Fellowship for Socially Engaged Art (2019); a Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant (2005, 2015, 2017); Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony (2011), Santo Foundation Individual Artist Grant (2009), and Jerome Foundation Fellow for Emerging Artists (2005/2006). Sheets holds an MFA from the Bauhaus-University Weimar, Weimar, Germany, and a BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art.

This exhibition is part of the Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program, now located in the U.S. Bank Gallery.

Generous support for MAEP provided by:

Additional support provided by RBC Wealth Management.