Exhibitions

Upcoming Exhibitions

Charles Matson Lume’s exhibition sparks joy, awe, and curiosity using materials like proofing paper, Mylar emergency sleeping bags, hologram tape, and spotlights. By presenting ordinary materials in a new light, the artist seeks to inspire an appreciation for life’s fleeting moments. The exhibition is dedicated to Gustaf Sobin (1935–2005), a poet and important mentor for the artist.
Lume is a visual artist whose art is engaged in the pas de deux of light and matter. He’s exhibited his work at numerous institutions, including the Irish Museum of Modern Art (Dublin, Ireland), Babel Kunst (Trondheim, Norway), Kemijärvi Art Gallery (Kemijärvi, Finland), and Hunter College, (New York City). Lume has received fellowships from the Bush Foundation, Jerome Foundation, and the Minnesota State Arts Board. He&#8217;s participated in artist residencies in Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Ireland, and the United States. Lume holds an MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and lives in Saint Paul.
The exhibition is part of the Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program, celebrating 50 years in 2025.
Support provided by RBC Wealth Management.

an abstract pieces of art with blue, teal, and orange colors made from plastic sheeting, hologram tape, mylar sleeping bags, sequined fabric, paper mache snowy owls, EMT conduit tubing corners, Kodak proofing paper, Bytek tape, and monofilament line

Charles Matson Lume: lacunae (for Gustav Sorbin)

Presented by
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“Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys” is a groundbreaking exhibition that marks the first major showcase of the Dean Collection, owned by renowned musicians and cultural icons Swizz Beatz (Kasseem Dean) and Alicia Keys.
Organized by the Brooklyn Museum, “Giants” highlights nearly one hundred significant works by Black diasporic artists, including Gordon Parks, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Lorna Simpson, Amy Sherald, and more. The exhibition reflects the Deans&#8217; passion for supporting established and emerging artists while fostering important dialogues about art, culture, and identity.
“Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys” is organized by Kimberli Gant, Curator, Modern and Contemporary Art, and Indira A. Abiskaroon, Curatorial Assistant, Modern and Contemporary Art, Brooklyn Museum.
Individual tickets will go on sale February 16. Mia members at the Contributor level and above can reserve tickets early starting February 1.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-110712" src="https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/12121315/Giants_SponsorLockup_Horizontal_Wide_K-2-855x130.png" alt="Logos of companies sponsoring the exhibition" width="934" height="142" srcset="https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/12121315/Giants_SponsorLockup_Horizontal_Wide_K-2-855x130.png 855w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/12121315/Giants_SponsorLockup_Horizontal_Wide_K-2-2000x304.png 2000w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/12121315/Giants_SponsorLockup_Horizontal_Wide_K-2-385x59.png 385w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/12121315/Giants_SponsorLockup_Horizontal_Wide_K-2-768x117.png 768w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/12121315/Giants_SponsorLockup_Horizontal_Wide_K-2-1536x234.png 1536w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/12121315/Giants_SponsorLockup_Horizontal_Wide_K-2-2048x311.png 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 934px) 100vw, 934px" />

Portrait of Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz (Kasseem Dean)

Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys

Spanning almost a century of creativity, &#8220;Transcendent Clay&#8221; offers a panoramic look at the achievements of the Kondō family of ceramicists based in Kyoto, Japan. The legacy of porcelain-making began with Kondō Yūzō (1902–1985) in the 1930s and continued with his sons Yutaka (1932–1983) and Hiroshi (1936–2012), who broke free to pursue original, individual expressions. Ultimately it was the grandson Takahiro (born 1958) who emerged as the family’s greatest innovator by developing the secret technique of applying a “silver mist” (gintekisai) of metallic droplets to his modern forms.
This exhibition brings together a wide range of works including freehand-painted vases, pure-white jars, and Takahiro’s dramatic shapes and textures, which he describes as “water born from fire.” Most of the works are from the collection of Carol and Jeffrey Horvitz, long-time supporters of Mia.

Transcendent Clay: The Kondō Family’s Path of Porcelain Innovations

In 1897, the French painter Claude Monet made four paintings of the chrysanthemums in his garden in Giverny, capturing them not in a vase but en plein air—painting the flowers as they grew. He had been an avid collector of Japanese prints since the 1870s, and his unexpected, expressive use of space in this experiment recalls the Large Flowers series of prints made between 1833 and 1834 by Katsushika Hokusai. This exhibition brings the Large Flowers and Chrysanthemums series into conversation, exploring the symbiotic artistic connections between Japan and France in the nineteenth century.

74.1.210 Hokusai | Monet

This exhibition is the first to present South African photographer Ernest Cole’s images of Black lives in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Created during a consequential period in American history, these photographs were rarely released during Cole’s lifetime and were believed to have been lost until they resurfaced in 2017. Brought together for the first time in this exhibition, the pictures reflect both a new-found hope and freedom that Cole felt in America, as well as an incisive eye for inequality and systemic racism in the United States. Seen through the eyes of a man who fled the apartheid regime in South Africa, this trove of images provides a revealing window into late 20th century American society.
Organized by Aperture. Curated by Leslie M. Wilson, PhD.
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This exhibition is made possible, in part, with generous support from the Ford Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
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Black-and-white photograph of a group of people, mostly white and one Black woman and young Black girl, standing behind a barricade

Ernest Cole. Midtown Manhattan.

The True America: Photographs by Ernest Cole

Artists at Work: The Mia Staff Art Show

Bizen: Contemporary Expressions of an Ancient Japanese Pottery

Splendid Patchwork: Buddhist Monastic Robes

Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room: The Alice S. Kandell Collection

Not all of the artistry at Mia comes from outside the museum—many employees are artists as well, and this exhibition spotlights their work.
The Staff Art Show was organized and curated by Team Mia, a group of museum staff devoted to cultivating a positive work environment, encouraging generosity and relationship-building among staff, providing accessible opportunities for connection and growth, and recognizing and celebrating museum employees. We are pleased to showcase the immense talent among us.

Two artworks from Mia's Staff Art Show hanging on the gallery wall

Bizen ware, characterized by its rich reddish-brown clay with natural ash glaze, is one of Japan’s six pottery traditions. Originating from today’s Okayama prefecture on the Seto Inland Sea, its history reaches back to the 14th century. It peaked during the late 16th century when the tea masters in and around Kyoto, the center of culture in Japan, found it most appealing. With the modernization of Japan in the mid-19th century, Bizen almost disappeared, but the tradition was revived in the 1930s and many artists since have explored its potential. While some have stayed closer to conventional forms, others have surprised with new shapes while staying true to the core of Bizen. This exhibition showcases the journey in Bizen from the 16th century to the 21st.

2019.92.4

This magnificent group of robes from Mia’s collection belonged to high-ranking Buddhist priests. Known as kashaya, they were designed to be draped over the left shoulder, under the right arm, and fastened in front under the left shoulder, and are more elaborate than the robes worn by most Buddhist monks. Yet they were fabricated from small squares sewn together, symbolizing the humble nature of Buddha. Within these patchwork squares are various Buddhist motifs and sometimes imperial imagery in which dragons cavort in the celestial landscape. Rich with courtly symbolism, the robes were likely worn in Buddhist ceremonies at monasteries patronized by the court or within the Forbidden City itself.

&#8220;Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room: The Alice S. Kandell Collection&#8221; includes more than two hundred gilt-bronze sculptures, paintings, silk hangings, and carpets that were created in Tibet between the 1300s and early 1900s. Buddhist ritual objects are displayed in the context of an elaborate private household shrine, a space used for offerings, devotional prayer, rituals, and contemplation. With its flickering candlelight, sonorous chanting, and the subtle smell of incense, the glittering room provides an oasis for peaceful contemplation within the galleries at Mia.
Tour a selection of objects in this guide. 
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Prepare your students for a visit with this guide. 
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Step Inside the Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room &#8211; 3D Virtual Tour 
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Related Events

L2023.76.198

Current Exhibitions

Dark Visions

Taking It to the Streets: Vitality Arts at Mia

Counter/Culture

Tanaka Ryōhei: Portrait of a Home

Some people go bungee jumping or cave exploring for fun, but most of us would rather watch a scary movie or listen to a ghost story when we need a little fright in our lives. It wasn’t much different in the 1700s and the 1800s. Artists reveled in the Sublime, the flip side of the Age of Enlightenment, in which Romantics opened themselves to the sensation of forces beyond human comprehension and control. They gave their audiences terrifying images—sometimes for giggles, sometimes for soulful contemplation. In this exhibition, artists such as Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Francisco Goya, and William Blake stir the cauldron with images so peculiar that it was—and still is—hard to know what to make of them.

Age does not hinder artistic expression. This exhibition features art made by participants in two Vitality Arts workshops for older adults 55 and better, that took place this summer. Working with two well-known local street artists, Luis Fitch and Cadex Herrera, the students explored the exciting world of street art, graffiti, and mural making.
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Major Supporter:
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"Vitality Arts: Street Art Workshop with Luis Fitch" at Mia

The most frequented places are often among the least noticed–including the humble counter. In restaurants, kitchens, and stores, counters are sites of preparation, display, communication, and more. As a verb, “to counter” implies opposition, but also holds the potential for dialogue. The photographs in this exhibition center the counter as a dynamic site of interaction and labor, revealing to us both what has happened and what could happen in the future.

2020.84.64

Tanaka Ryōhei (1933–2019) was a prolific Japanese printmaker who specialized in etchings. Born and raised in Takatsuki, he grew up surrounded by the rural landscapes of western Japan, which would become the subject of his prints. This exhibition features prints by Tanaka given to Mia from the extensive collection of Sue Y. S. Kimm and Seymour Grufferman.
Tanaka began etching in his thirties after meeting Furuno Yoshio (1909–1978), the founder of the Kyoto Etchers Association. At the time, etching was far less common than woodblock-printing, the primary mode of printing in Japan for centuries. Tanaka learned the basics of etching from Furuno, soon developed his own methods through experimentation, and continued to make and print his own etchings until 2013.
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