Exhibitions

Upcoming Exhibitions


            
        <h1>
          The Contemporary Print:
          <span>
             20 Years at Highpoint Editions
          </span>
        </h1>
      
            <h2>October 9, 2021 - January 9, 2022</h2>
            <p class="hero-text"> </p>
          

<p>Museums strip objects of their original context. Then the objects are reinterpreted and placed among works they might never have encountered otherwise. Playing with the notions of decontextualization and recontextualization that occur at Mia, &#8220;Posturing&#8221; conceptually approaches futility and paradox as it relates to abstract presentations of content through a sculptural installation featuring multiple videos.</p>
<p>Joshua McGarvey lives and works in Minneapolis. He received his MFA from the University of Minnesota, and an MA and BFA from Ball State University. He has received a number of awards and grants including the 2018 Jerome Emerging Artist Fellowship, 2017 and 2020 Artist Initiative Grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board, and a 2015-2016 Art(ist) on the Verge Emerging Artist Fellowship.</p>


Joshua McGarvey: Posturing

<p>The Japanese archipelago is home to extremely diverse cultures that made clothing and other textile objects in a kaleidoscope of materials and designs. This exhibition will focus on the resourcefulness of humans to create textiles from local materials like fish skin, paper, elm bark, nettle, banana leaf fiber, hemp, wisteria, deerskin, cotton, silk, and wool. It will showcase rare and exceptional examples of robes, coats, jackets, vests, banners, rugs, and mats, made between around 1750 and 1930, including the royal dress of subtropical Okinawa, ceremonial robes of the Ainu from northern Japan and the Russian Far East, and folk traditions from throughout Japan.</p>
<p>Lead Sponsor: Thomson Reuters<br />
Generous support provided by the Gale Family Endowment</p>
<div class="border-top-3" style="margin-top:50px"></div>


Dressed by Nature: Textiles of Japan

<p>Jovan C. Speller’s MAEP exhibition will aestheticize the security of a community too often targeted, misunderstood, and misrepresented in public spaces. From the creation of a sound installation, to scenes of protection across the gallery walls surrounding the viewer, the artist will depict the story of fear and hope for Black families in every American community. </p>
<p>Speller is a Minnesota-based artist originally from Los Angeles. She is a recipient of a 2018 McKnight Visual Artist Fellowship, a 2018 Next Step Fund Grant, and a 2016 Jerome Emerging Artist Fellowship. She completed a residency at Second Shift Studio Space in St. Paul and was awarded the Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation Minnesota Art Prize in 2021. Speller is represented by Aspect/Ratio Projects in Chicago. She holds a BFA in photography from Columbia College, Chicago, and studied art at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Her artwork, I Just Came Across the River, 2017, (2020.57) was acquired by Mia in 2020.</p>
<p>This exhibition is part of the <a href="http://new.artsmia.org/exhibitions/maep/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program</a>, now located in the U.S. Bank Gallery.</p>
<p>Generous support for MAEP provided by:<br />
<img loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-69432 " src="https://new.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/McKnight_logo_whtonblk_rgb-1.png" alt="" width="300" height="54" srcset="https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/01101456/McKnight_logo_whtonblk_rgb-1.png 800w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/01101456/McKnight_logo_whtonblk_rgb-1-768x138.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></p>
<p>Additional support provided by RBC Wealth Management.</p>


Jovan C. Speller: Nurturing, and Other Rituals of Protection

<div style="margin-top:20px">
<span style="font-size:large;">America is haunted. Ghosts from our history are an inescapable and unsettled part of daily life. Not merely the realm of metaphor but present and tangible, urgently calling for contact, these otherworldly visitors have been central to our national identity. They populate our literature, our entertainment, and our art. Through times of mourning and trauma, artists have been integral to visualizing ghosts, whether national or personal, and in doing so have embraced the mysterious and the inexplicable. This exhibition explores the numerous ways that artists in the United States have made sense of their own experiences of the paranormal and the supernatural, developing a rich visual culture of the intangible.</span>
</div>
<div style="margin-top:30px">
<u>Exhibition Tour:</u></p>
<li>June 12 &#8211; September 5, 2021: Toledo Museum of Art</li>
<li>October 7, 2021 &#8211; January 2, 2022: Speed Art Museum</li>
<li>February 19 &#8211; May 15, 2022: Minneapolis Institute of Art</li>
</div>
<div style="margin-top:40px">
<img loading="lazy" src="https://new.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Supernatural_sponsorlockup_v6-copy.jpg" alt="" width="1384" height="535" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-97243" srcset="https://new.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Supernatural_sponsorlockup_v6-copy.jpg 1384w, https://new.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Supernatural_sponsorlockup_v6-copy-855x331.jpg 855w, https://new.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Supernatural_sponsorlockup_v6-copy-385x149.jpg 385w, https://new.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Supernatural_sponsorlockup_v6-copy-768x297.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1384px) 100vw, 1384px" /></p>
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Related Blogs

Supernatural America: The Paranormal in American Art

<p>&#8220;Passage&#8221; by St. Paul–based artist Aaron Dysart responds to changes in the environment by combining spectacle, artifice, and scientific data in two juxtaposing installations. Both pieces question unseen and overlooked directional flow on this planet and, more subtly, what factors force this movement, which is producing ecological change.</p>
<p>Dysart’s work pairs visual language and spectacle to give hidden stories a broader audience. His environmental interventions showcase his love of color and fog machines, while his objects convey meaning through materiality. The artist will work with researchers at the Woodwell Climate Research Center, formerly known as the Woods Hole Research Center, in Falmouth, Mass., to coordinate the data used in &#8220;Passage.&#8221;</p>
<p>This exhibition is part of the <a href="http://new.artsmia.org/exhibitions/maep/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program</a>, now located in the U.S. Bank Gallery.</p>
<p>Generous support for MAEP provided by:<br />
<img loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-69432 " src="https://new.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/McKnight_logo_whtonblk_rgb-1.png" alt="" width="300" height="54" srcset="https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/01101456/McKnight_logo_whtonblk_rgb-1.png 800w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/01101456/McKnight_logo_whtonblk_rgb-1-768x138.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></p>
<p>Additional support provided by RBC Wealth Management.</p>


Aaron Dysart: Passage

<p>The son of Jewish immigrants in Argentina, Mauricio Lasansky (1914–2012) moved to the United States in 1943. He forged a flourishing career as a printmaker and draftsman, first in New York and then from studios in Iowa and Maine. His work often explored themes of war and violence. In 1961, coinciding with the televised trial of the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, he began a series of drawings to grapple with the Holocaust. Confronted with the atrocities, he said, “I was full of hate, poison, and I wanted to spit it out.” &#8220;The Nazi Drawings&#8221; are his visceral response to the horrors committed in Nazi concentration camps.</p>
<p>Brutal, haunting, and raw, “Envisioning Evil: &#8216;The Nazi Drawings&#8217; by Mauricio Lasansky” features his series of 33 monumental drawings made with pencil, turpentine, and earth colors. The exhibition, over 50 years after the series’ original tour, is its first comprehensive presentation in a generation. At Mia, archival media of the Eichmann trial and a selection of contemporary prints by Lasansky will also be shown. A catalogue examines Lasansky’s series, acquired in its entirety by Richard and Jeanne Levitt for their family foundation.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>“Envisioning Evil: &#8216;The Nazi Drawings&#8217; by Mauricio Lasansky” is organized by the Minneapolis Institute of Art and lent by The Levitt Foundation.</em></p>
<p><em>Generous support provided by Margaret and Angus Wurtele, Beverly Grossman, John and Ruth Huss Fund, Erwin and Miriam Kelen, John and Nancy Lindahl, Sheila Morgan, Donna and James Pohlad, through the Eloise and Carl Pohlad Family Fund, the Lynne and Andrew Redleaf Foundation, Laurie and Ronald Eibensteiner, Stephen and Sheila Lieberman, Sheldon and Lili Chester, Andrew Grossman, Irving and Marjorie Weiser, and John and Marsha Soucheray.</em></p>


Envisioning Evil: &#8220;The Nazi Drawings&#8221; by Mauricio Lasansky

<div style="margin-top:40px">
<h2>About the Exhibition</h2>
<p>Many boldface-name artists admire Highpoint Editions, the collaborative publishing arm of Highpoint Center for Printmaking, Minneapolis. Mia recently acquired Highpoint’s complete archive, comprising more than 325 published prints and multiples, plus hundreds of items of production material. These works, inspired proof of Highpoint’s impact on printmaking, will be on display at Mia in a sweeping exhibition, “The Contemporary Print: 20 Years at Highpoint Editions.”</p>
<p>“The Contemporary Print” showcases 175 artworks in a broad range of printmaking techniques, styles, and subjects. You’ll also find preliminary drawings and working proofs, as well as demonstrations to better appreciate this expressive art form. Featured visiting artists include Carlos Amorales, Julie Buffalohead, Willie Cole, Sarah Crowner, Jim Hodges, Delita Martin, Julie Mehretu, Todd Norsten, Chloe Piene, David Rathman, Do Ho Suh, and Dyani White Hawk.
</p></div>
<div style="margin-top:40px">
<h2>About Highpoint Editions</h2>
<p>Highpoint Center for Printmaking was established in 2001 and is the only community-oriented facility of its kind in the Upper Midwest. Until Highpoint opened its doors, broad public access to the printmaking arts was virtually nonexistent in this part of the country. The publishing arm, Highpoint Editions, produces fine art prints made by invited professional artists in collaboration with master printer Cole Rogers and Highpoint Editions staff. Highpoint advances the work of artists by presenting their projects to a broad public through gallery shows, lectures, and symposia and by placing Highpoint prints in important public and private collections around the<br />
world. Prints created at Highpoint Editions can be found in numerous public, corporate, and private collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Walker Art Center, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Centre Pompidou.
</p></div>
<div class="border-top-3" style="margin-top:30px">
<h2>Pop-up Print Studio</h2>
<p>Watch as local artists activate the etching press and conduct printmaking demonstrations in the Pop-up Print Studio inside the exhibition on select Saturdays at 11AM.</p>
<ol>
<li>
<h3 class="Mia-bold">October 9</h3>
<p>Zac Adams-Bliss, Collagraph Demonstration</li>
<li>
<h3 class="Mia-bold">October 23</h3>
<p>Anda Tanaka, Monoprint Demonstration</li>
<li>
<h3 class="Mia-bold">November 6</h3>
<p>Josh Bindewald, Intaglio Demonstration</li>
<li>
<h3 class="Mia-bold">November 20</h3>
<p>Cole Rogers, Chine Collé Demonstration</li>
<li>
<h3 class="Mia-bold">December 11</h3>
<p>Mike Marks, Woodcut Demonstration</li>
<li>
<h3 class="Mia-bold">December 18</h3>
<p>Nancy Ariza, Relief Demonstration</li>
</ol>
<div style="margin-top:60px">
<img loading="lazy" src="http://live-artsmia.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Highpoint_sponsorlockup_v15_all.png" alt="" width="788" height="384" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-98223" srcset="https://new.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Highpoint_sponsorlockup_v15_all.png 788w, https://new.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Highpoint_sponsorlockup_v15_all-385x188.png 385w, https://new.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Highpoint_sponsorlockup_v15_all-768x374.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 788px) 100vw, 788px" />
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The Contemporary Print: 20 Years at Highpoint Editions

Captive Beauties: Depictions of Women in Late Imperial China

Leslie Barlow: Within, Between, and Beyond

In the Presence of Our Ancestors: Southern Perspectives in African American Art

20 Dances: Japanese Calligraphy Then and Now

<p><span data-contrast="auto">Beautiful yet lonely and melancholy—women from imperial China were often depicted in terms of their highly circumscribed lives, which were entirely dependent upon men.</span><span data-contrast="auto"> In some paintings, women engage in duties appropriate to their stations in life, according to patriarchal Confucian principles. Other paintings show women with fanciful coiffures and silk dresses, </span><span data-contrast="auto">serving as musicians or courtesans, existing to please men.</span><span data-contrast="auto"> Literary and visual artists often compared women to flowers: refined and delicate yet fragile, their beauty (meaning marriageability) transient. </span><span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233279&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559738&quot;:225,&quot;335559739&quot;:225,&quot;335559740&quot;:480}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">But some artists hinted at</span> <span data-contrast="auto">suppressed urges and unacknowledged emotions, reflecting a growing interest in the inner lives of their subjects. In their paintings we see the equivalent of the following verses, sung by the female protagonist in the play </span><i><span data-contrast="auto">The Peony Pavilion</span></i><span data-contrast="auto"> (1598). Confined </span><span data-contrast="auto">to the </span><span data-contrast="auto">inner quarters of her home</span><span data-contrast="auto">, she laments a </span><span data-contrast="auto">brilliantly flowering</span><span data-contrast="auto"> spring scene in her isolated garden:</span><span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233279&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559731&quot;:720,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:480}"> </span></p>
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<p style="text-align: left;"><span data-contrast="auto">The flowers in purple and red,</span><span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233279&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:480}"> </span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span data-contrast="auto">Scattering here and there,</span><span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233279&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:480}"> </span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span data-contrast="auto">Yet only accompanied by</span><span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233279&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:480}"> </span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span data-contrast="auto">Dry wells and ruined fence.</span><span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233279&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:480}"> </span></p>
<p>&nbsp;<br />
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<a href="https://collections.artsmia.org/exhibitions/2811/captive-beauties-depictions-of-women-in-late-imperial-china" class="button">Explore the art in this exhibition from home.</a></p>


<p><span style="font-size:large">Leslie Barlow’s MAEP exhibition “Within, Between, and Beyond” explores representation, race, family, and belonging. Comprised of both paintings and video interviews, the work shares stories of 16 Minnesotans who use the terms mixed race, multiracial, and/or transnational/transracial adoptee to identify themselves and their lived experiences. “Within, Between, and Beyond” invites us to hold space for, recognize, and reconsider our presumptions about race in Minnesota.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:large">Barlow lives and works in Minneapolis. Her life-sized oil paintings serve as both monuments to community members and explorations into how race entangles the intimate sphere of love, family, and friendship. Her work is tender, nuanced, and inspired by community dialogue and personal experience. Barlow is a recipient of the 2021 Jerome Hill Fellowship, 2019 McKnight Visual Artist Fellowship, the 20/20 Springboard Fellowship, and the MN State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant in 2016 and 2018. In 2018, she received the Minnesota Museum of American Art Purchase Award in the Minnesota State Fair Juried Exhibition. Barlow earned her BFA in 2011 from the University of Wisconsin-Stout and her MFA in 2016 from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Interviews were conducted and created in partnership with Lola Osunkoya, MA LPCC, and Ryan Stopera of Free Truth Media.</span></p>
<div style="margin-top:50px" class="border-top-3">
<h2>Selected Video Interviews</h2>
<div style="margin-top:30px">
<h3 class="Mia-bold">Atquetzali</h3>
<p><iframe loading="lazy" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/574184017?color=ffffff&#038;byline=0" width="840" height="500" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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<div style="margin-top:30px">
<h3 class="Mia-bold">Duaba</h3>
<p><iframe loading="lazy" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/574181445?color=ffffff&#038;byline=0" width="840" height="500" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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<p><span style="font-size:large">More information about the exhibition, resources, and MidWest Mixed can be found <a href="https://www.midwestmixed.com/resources">here</a>. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:large">More information can be found about the MidWest Mixed Annual Conference <a href="https://mwm.swoogo.com/mwmbeyondthebounds/1188516">here</a>. </span>
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<div style="margin-top:30px">
This exhibition is part of the <a rel="noopener" href="http://new.artsmia.org/exhibitions/maep/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program</a>, now located in the U.S. Bank Gallery.
</div>
<div style="margin-top:30px">
Generous support for MAEP provided by:<br />
<img loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-69432 " src="https://new.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/McKnight_logo_whtonblk_rgb-1.png" alt="" width="300" height="54" srcset="https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/01101456/McKnight_logo_whtonblk_rgb-1.png 800w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/01101456/McKnight_logo_whtonblk_rgb-1-768x138.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></p>
<p>Additional support provided by RBC Wealth Management.
</p></div>
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<div style="margin-top: 20px">
<div style="margin-top: 35px"><a href="https://new.artsmia.org/art-artists/explore/in-the-presence-of-our-ancestors-southern-perspectives-in-african-american-art/"><button class="background-black">Enter the Exhibition</button></a></div>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400">“We as a people of Africa have a story to tell about a journey of four hundred years here in America.” &#8211; Joe Minter</span><span style="font-weight: 400">“</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400">In the Presence of Our Ancestors: Southern Perspectives in African American Art” brings together methods of visual storytelling and ancestral memory through the individual practices of artists from the “Black Belt” region of the American South—a term that refers to the region’s black soil, as well as the legacies of African Americans who shaped its social and agrarian culture. Spanning from Louisiana to Florida, and the mid-20th century to the present, the artists highlighted in this exhibition document rural life and traditions of metalwork, funerary and yard art, and quilt making. Here, we witness an evolution of regional artistic practice, as raw materials and found objects related to time, place, and accessibility take center stage.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400">These artworks are sometimes called &#8220;folk&#8221; or &#8220;vernacular,&#8221; and the artists who made them labeled &#8220;self-taught.&#8221; Within the context of art museums, institutions rooted in colonial endeavors and oppression, such terms diminish the thoughtfulness and creative autonomy of both artwork and artist; for this reason, we do not use them here. The works speak for themselves, centering Black voices, material traditions, and visions.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400">We invite you to embark on a spiritual journey, experiencing the artworks and lives they connect us with from home.  </span></p>
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<div style="margin-top: 35px"><a href="https://new.artsmia.org/art-artists/explore/in-the-presence-of-our-ancestors-southern-perspectives-in-african-american-art/"><button class="background-black">Enter the Exhibition</button></a></div>
<div style="margin-top: 35px"><a href="https://new.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/In-the-Presence-of-Our-Ancestors-Teachers-Guide.pdf"><button class="background-black">Download the Teachers Guide</button></a></div>
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<h3>About the Souls Grown Deep Foundation</h3>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400">Founded in 2010 by the late collector and art historian William Arnett (1939–2020), the Souls Grown Deep Foundation is dedicated to documenting, preserving, and promoting the contributions of African American artists of the South and the cultural traditions in which they are rooted. Mia acquired 33 works in 2017 as part of the foundation’s initiative to introduce the collection to major museums across the nation. The foundation also collaborates with institutions each year to expand avenues of scholarship and professional development for college students of color. It prioritizes creative communal sustainability through grantmaking, artist’s rights, and more recently, Covid-19 relief and voting rights.</span></p>
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<p><i><span style="font-weight: 400">In honor of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation’s commitment to community, we recognize the contributions made by many to produce this exhibition. It is curated by inaugural Souls Grown Deep Foundation intern, Starasea Nidiala Camara, in collaboration with Mia’s BIPOC Curatorial Advisory Committee—Keisha Williams, Bayou Bay, Anniessa Antar, Tamira Amin, Frederica Simmons, Victoria Myers, Minna Jain, and Jeanine Pollard—with interpretation by visiting local artists through the Transcontinental Dialogue Project. A special thank-you goes to the 2019–2020 Souls Grown Deep Foundation intern cohort, and to the artists and their families who were such gracious hosts.</span></i></p>
<div class="border-top-3" style="margin-top: 30px">
<p>Major Sponsor:<br />
<img loading="lazy" class="alignleft wp-image-91820 " src="https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/24155341/BofA_k.png" alt="" width="421" height="47" srcset="https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/24155341/BofA_k.png 1520w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/24155341/BofA_k-768x86.png 768w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/24155341/BofA_k-1200x134.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 421px) 100vw, 421px" /></p>
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2019.16.8

<div class="gmail_default">In East Asia, calligraphy has been hailed as the highest of all art forms for more than 15 centuries. It’s not hard to understand why: With more than 80,000 Chinese characters and infinite graphic variations, the expressive potential is unlimited. The results, as seen in this exhibition, speak for themselves. Each work is a unique expression of the artist’s personality, offering a glimpse into the culture that held calligraphy in such high esteem.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 30px;">
<div class="gmail_default" style="margin-bottom: 30px;">The Japanese writing system was adopted from Chinese characters; given the Japanese reverence for Chinese artistic traditions, these works explore the full range of scripts possible with these characters: seal script (<em>tensho</em>), running script (<em>gyosho</em>), cursive script (<em>sosho</em>), clerical script (<em>reisho</em>), and standard script (<em>kaisho</em>). Calligraphy’s emphasis on movement and timing suggests dancing, and each script has its own rhythm, from the formal strictness of seal script to the wild dance of cursive writing.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 30px;">
<span class="Mia-bold">This exhibition will be presented in two rotations: </span></p>
<ul>
<li>Rotation 1: August 1, 2020 &#8211; June 6, 2021.</li>
<li> Rotation 2: June 19, 2021 &#8211; January 2, 2022.</li>
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</ul>
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<div style="margin-top: 40px;"><a class="link-fade-in-brdr" href="https://lume.space/mia/group/20-dances-japanese-calligraphy-then-and-now"><button class="background-black">Explore the art in this exhibition from home.</button></a></div>
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<div id="attachment_84774" style="width: 510px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-84774" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-84774 size-full" src="https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/20092611/mia_6017324_Crop-e1595273207135.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="479" /><p id="caption-attachment-84774" class="wp-caption-text">Maki Ryōkō, 1787–1833, Lu Tong&#8217;s Tea Song, 19th century (detail), hanging scroll; ink on silk, Gift of Stephen Addiss and Audrey Yoshiko Seo, 2013.63.19</p></div>
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<p><b><span data-contrast="auto">Clerical Script</span></b><span data-ccp-props="{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">隸書</span><span data-contrast="auto"> (</span><span data-contrast="auto">Jp</span><span data-contrast="auto">.: </span><span data-contrast="auto">reisho</span><span data-contrast="auto">; Ch.: </span><span data-contrast="auto">lishu</span><span data-contrast="auto">)</span><span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:true,&quot;134233118&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Clerical script was the starting point for stylized calligraphy: curved lines were straightened, radicals (graphic components that indicate the meaning of the character) were simplified and merged, the number of strokes were reduced. The script developed in China around 300 BCE and became increasingly important during the Han Dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE) as the territory expanded and an increasing number of imperial edicts needed to be copied and distributed across the country. This job fell to the official </span><span data-contrast="auto">clerics, and</span><span data-contrast="auto"> was made possible with the advent of paper and silk as substrates, rather than stone or bamboo strips.</span><span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:true,&quot;134233118&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}"> </span></p>
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<p>&nbsp;<br />
<div id="attachment_84775" style="width: 426px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-84775" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-84775 size-full" src="https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/20092832/mia_6017309_Cropped-e1595273349404.jpg" alt="" width="416" height="500" /><p id="caption-attachment-84775" class="wp-caption-text">Nakai Tōjū, 1608–48, Bring the Qin, 17th century (detail), hanging scroll; ink on paper, Gift of Stephen Addiss and Audrey Yoshiko Seo, 2013.63.24</p></div></p>
<p aria-level="3"><b><span data-contrast="auto">Seal Script</span></b><span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:true,&quot;134233118&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">篆書</span><span data-contrast="auto"> (</span><span data-contrast="auto">Jp</span><span data-contrast="auto">: </span><span data-contrast="auto">tensho</span><span data-contrast="auto">; Ch: </span><span data-contrast="auto">zhuanshu</span><span data-contrast="auto">)</span><span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:true,&quot;134233118&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Seal script reflects the earliest form of Chinese calligraphy. It developed during the Zhou Dynasty (c. 1045–256 BCE) and was standardized around 300 to 200 BCE. Ultimately the script fell out of favor due to its linearity, which did not lend itself to the fluid strokes of the calligrapher’s brush. It did, however, continue to be used for seal carvings, which were generally made of stone and were used to apply an individual’s official signature or identifying mark to a document or other object.</span><span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:true,&quot;134233118&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">The script underwent a revival from around 1600 to 1900 CE, and was used as visual shorthand for archaism, a reference to the ancient world. It was especially favored by scholars interested in Chinese antiquity.</span><span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:true,&quot;134233118&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}"> </span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div id="attachment_84776" style="width: 510px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-84776" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-84776 size-full" src="https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/20093050/mia_8010159_Detail-e1595273480871.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="428" /><p id="caption-attachment-84776" class="wp-caption-text">Suda Kokuta, 1906–90, Words Concerned with Existence, 1984 (detail), ink on paper, Gift of the Clark Center for Japanese Art &amp; Culture, 2013.29.1337.1-2, © Suda Kokuta</p></div>
<p aria-level="3"><b><span data-contrast="auto">Standard Script</span></b><span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:true,&quot;134233118&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">楷書</span><span data-contrast="auto"> (</span><span data-contrast="auto">Jp</span><span data-contrast="auto">: </span><span data-contrast="auto">kaisho</span><span data-contrast="auto">; Ch: </span><span data-contrast="auto">kaishu</span><span data-contrast="auto">)</span><span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:true,&quot;134233118&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">The next step in calligraphy’s innovation was the development of a standard script. Standard or regular script is used when clarity is of the utmost importance, such as for formal documents, books, etc. It was also the script most commonly used for mass printing, which was first invented in China around 800 CE, while movable type developed around 1000 to 1100 CE.</span><span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:true,&quot;134233118&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Though standard script’s crisp lines would seemingly require less skill, such regularity requires a steady hand and an understanding of how much ink to load onto the brush to achieve a consistent stroke—any error or irregularity would be glaringly obvious.</span><span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:true,&quot;134233118&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}"> </span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div id="attachment_84777" style="width: 510px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-84777" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-84777 size-full" src="https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/20093208/mia_6017316_Cropped_Detail-e1595273559782.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="347" /><p id="caption-attachment-84777" class="wp-caption-text">Ōtagaki Rengetsu, 1791–1875, Letter to Tomioka Tessai, 19th century (detail), Ink on paper, Gift of Stephen Addiss and Audrey Yoshiko Seo, 2013.63.6</p></div>
<p aria-level="3"><b><span data-contrast="auto">Cursive Script</span></b><span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:true,&quot;134233118&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">草書</span><span data-contrast="auto"> (</span><span data-contrast="auto">Jp</span><span data-contrast="auto">: </span><span data-contrast="auto">sōsho</span><span data-contrast="auto">; Ch: </span><span data-contrast="auto">caoshu</span><span data-contrast="auto">)</span><span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:true,&quot;134233118&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Similar to</span><span data-contrast="auto"> Western shorthand, cursive script may have appeared as early as 200 BCE out of a need for a rapid, simplified way of writing clerical script. Cursive script was used chiefly for private and informal communications as well as for poetry.</span><span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:true,&quot;134233118&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">The shapes of the characters are greatly abbreviated and sometimes altered to such an extent that they do not resemble the standard forms. Brush strokes are wave-shaped and made rapidly. The difficulty of reading this fluid script is further increased because several characters are often vertically connected without interruption.</span><span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:true,&quot;134233118&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}"> </span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div id="attachment_84778" style="width: 510px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-84778" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-84778 size-full" src="https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/20093330/mia_6017329_Cropped-e1595273637706.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="396" /><p id="caption-attachment-84778" class="wp-caption-text">Ema Saikō, 1787–1861, On Becoming Fifty, 1836 (detail), hanging scroll; ink on paper, Gift of Stephen Addiss and Audrey Yoshiko Seo, 2013.63.37</p></div>
<p aria-level="3"><b><span data-contrast="auto">Running Script</span></b><span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:true,&quot;134233118&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">行書</span><span data-contrast="auto"> (</span><span data-contrast="auto">Jp</span><span data-contrast="auto">: </span><span data-contrast="auto">gyōsho</span><span data-contrast="auto">; Ch: </span><span data-contrast="auto">xingshu</span><span data-contrast="auto">)</span><span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:true,&quot;134233118&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Running or semi-cursive script is an intermediate form between standard script and cursive script. As it is not as abbreviated as cursive script it can be read by most people who can read standard script.</span><span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:true,&quot;134233118&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Developed before 100 CE, it became the usual style of handwriting.</span><span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:true,&quot;134233118&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}"> </span></p>
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Current Exhibitions

Siah Armajani: A Bridge Divides, A Bridge Transforms

Ninga Izhichige Nibi Onji / I Will Do It For The Water

Saul Steinberg: Visual Verse

Khatt Islami: Sacred Scripts from Islamic Africa

<p><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">“A bridge divides what is &#8216;above&#8217; the bridge, what is &#8216;below&#8217; the bridge, what is &#8216;before&#8217; the bridge and what is &#8216;after&#8217; the bridge, but at the same time it brings totality </span></i><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">and turns it into a neighborhood.”—</span></i><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Siah Armajani</span></i></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Siah Armajani (1939–2020, born Lahijan, Iran) left his native Iran to study at Macalester College in St. Paul in 1960, when he was 21, and called Minnesota home thereafter until his death last year. Throughout his career, Armajani blurred the boundaries between architecture, art, philosophy, and his personal experiences. This installation of Armajani’s work celebrates a core facet of his practice, the act of bridging: creating spaces and structures that both divide and connect. For Armajani, bridging also illustrated the intersection between cultures at which many immigrants stand.</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Armajani’s work has been exhibited and collected by numerous museums in the United States and abroad. In 2011, he was awarded the Chevalier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government and received the McKnight Foundation’s Distinguished Artist Award. In 2018–2019, his work was featured by the Walker Art Center and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in a survey exhibition, “Siah Armajani: Follow This Line.”</span></p>
<p><a href="https://collections.artsmia.org/exhibitions/2893/siah-armajani/room/all"><button class="background-black">Explore the Exhibition</button></a></p>
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<h2>Siah Armajani, An Exile Dreaming Of Saint Adorno</h2>
<p>In this work, Armajani explores exile as a physical, political, and emotional condition.<br />
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Siah Armajani's "An Exile Dreaming of Saint Adorno" at Minneapolis Institute of Art.

<p><span style="font-size:large">This exhibition explores the importance of nibi (the Ojibwe word for water) as a life-giving force. For the past ten years, Ojibwe artist and community leader Sharon M. Day has been guiding Nibi Walks as extended ceremonies to pray for the water. Water is gathered in a copper vessel and carried by walkers along the length of the river, until they reach the confluence, where it is released to remind the river of its original state.  </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:large">“Ninga Izhichige Nibi Onji / I Will Do It For The Water” brings together art, images, words, and works by the community of water walkers who have criss-crossed Turtle Island to bring healing to the waters. The reflections on these journeys invite you, the viewer, to act to protect water in your own life.</span></p>
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<h2>To learn more, view the video below. </h2>
<p><iframe loading="lazy" width="860" height="500" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xxeKZtsDinI" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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<h2>View a recording of the July 9, 2021 Virtual Story Circle: Nibi Walks</h2>
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<p>Saul Steinberg (1914–1999) is widely known for his decades of drawings in <em>The New Yorker</em> magazine. He thought of himself as an author who drew—a conceptual artist. Born in Romania, Steinberg studied architecture in Milan and contributed cartoons to student journals. In 1941, Fascist anti-Semitic laws caused him to flee Europe. By the time he arrived in New York in 1942, his drawings had already appeared in several American periodicals, including The New Yorker. He soon entered the U.S. Naval Reserve, joining the Office of Strategic Services, precursor of the Central Intelligence Agency. He served in China, North Africa, and Italy, returning to Washington, D.C. in 1944.</p>
<p>All of this gave Steinberg a healthy distrust of power, authority, and even perception. After the War, he poured his energy into his art. He became famous for destabilizing his audience, reorienting them to his off-kilter point of view.</p>
<p><a href="https://collections.artsmia.org/exhibitions/2874/saul-steinberg-visual-verse"><button class="background-black">Explore the Artworks in this Exhibition</button></a></p>
<p><em>This installation celebrates The Saul Steinberg Foundation’s gift of eight works, giving Mia a representative selection from his mature career.</em></p>


2018.122.3

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<p>Arabic calligraphy is considered the highest form of art in Islam. This writing transmits the words of God as recorded in the Qur’an, Islam’s holy book. Over the centuries, calligraphers have created beauty inspired by their faith. The 16 artworks on display stem from Africa and date from the mid-1800s to today. They all incorporate <em>Khatt Islami</em>, “Islamic line” or “Islamic design”—calligraphic writings made by Muslims. These objects include writing boards that are used in education, healing, and protection; textiles; iron blades; and a vase, created by a contemporary Sufi artist.</p>
<p>Co-curated by Amallina Mohamed, curator at the <a href="http://www.somalimuseum.org/">Somali Museum of Minnesota</a>, and Jan-Lodewijk Grootaers, curator of African Art and head of the Arts of Africa and the Americas at Mia; transcription and translation of the Arabic provided by Fahimeh Ghorbani, University of Toronto, in collaboration with Alam Saleh, Australian National University, Canberra; Fahimeh Ghorbani, Ayan Ahmed, Nahid Khan, and Dzenita Hadziomerovic also consulted on this exhibition.</p>
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<a href="https://new.artsmia.org/art-artists/explore/khatt-islami/"><button class="background-black">Enter Khatt Islāmi Virtual Exhibition</button></a><br />
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