Exhibitions

Upcoming Exhibitions

Few people outshine Mary’s glorious stardom. During 2,000 years of veneration, many legends have augmented the biblical outlines of her life. The stories have provided rich inspiration for artists, who often made their best efforts to create beautiful and affecting images of the Blessed Mother, Virgin, Mother of God, Our Lady, Madonna, Queen of Heaven.
This exhibition traces the life of this modest, yet courageous woman through prints and drawings from Mia’s extensive collection. They show her doing the ordinary—caring for children, moving house, and picnicking—and the extraordinary—greeting royalty and physically rising to heaven.

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Black and white drawing depicting two figures, Mary and Joseph, seated in a forest-like setting with trees and bushes. Both are wearing flowing garments, and Mary is holding a child.

Mary

This exhibition features paintings, sculptures, and religious images from the collection of Mary Ingebrand-Pohlad, a longtime trustee and supporter of Mia. Living between Minneapolis and Palm Springs, California, the collector has built a collection that reflects California as a place where American and Latin American cultures intersect.
Blending depictions of the arid landscapes of the American West with works by artists of Latin American descent—many of whom have lived or worked in the United States—the collection offers a lens through which to understand the region’s cultural interplay. Artists such as Diego Rivera, Alfredo Ramos Martínez, and Miguel Covarrubias invite viewers to consider the resilience and creativity that emerge from these crossings, where geography and identity continuously shape one another.

abstract painting of a woman's face with expressive eyes and gray-brown hair and swirls of orange, red, and brown colors in the background

Meeting Point: The Mary Ingebrand-Pohlad Collection of Latin American Art

What is physically the largest Italian Renaissance masterpiece in the United States? The answer has been in storage at Mia for nearly 70 years.
This exhibition brings back to view Francesco Salviati’s tapestry depicting the meeting of Dante and Virgil at the beginning of the Inferno. Over 17 feet tall, the tapestry was created to cover an entire wall of the Palazzo Salviati in Florence and was woven in the 1540s at a workshop established by the Grand Duke Cosimo de Medici.
Thanks to a grant from The European Fine Arts Foundation (TEFAF), the tapestry has recently undergone conservation, allowing it to be stabilized and safely displayed once again. Due to its sensitivity to light, however, it can only be exhibited for a limited time—making this a rare opportunity to experience the work in person.
Funding for the conservation of this artwork was generously provided through a grant from the TEFAF Museum Restoration Fund in partnership with the Bank of America Art Conservation Project.

Max Bryant, Mia’s James Ford Bell Associate Curator of European Decorative Arts and Sculpture, explores the tapestry’s artistic significance and the fascinating story of its conservation.
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The Tapestry of the Meeting of Dante and Virgil (1547–49) by Francesco Salviati.

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Medieval tapestry depicting people and animals in a forest setting.

Back from the Underworld: Mia’s Dante Tapestry Restored

Drawing on ancient practices from the Iranian plateau and Mesopotamia, Ziba Rajabi’s exhibition features textile works that explore the emotions following grief—peace, acceptance, healing, and progress. Presented with a soundtrack and cushions, the installation invites visitors to gather and experience collective reflection.
Rajabi (Tehran, Iran) was the inaugural recipient of the DAG Prize in Visual Art, DAG Foundation. She&#8217;s received additional support from the Jerome Foundation and the Mid-America Arts Alliance. Her work has been included in numerous national and international exhibitions, including Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Arkansas; CICA Museum, South Korea; 21C Museum, Arkansas; and Araan Gallery, Iran, among others. She was in residence at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Vermont Studio Center, and Terrain Residency. She received her MFA from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, and her BFA from the Sooreh University, Tehran.
This exhibition is part of the <a href="https://new.artsmia.org/exhibitions/maep/">Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program</a>.
Support provided by RBC Wealth Management.

Photo of a wall made up of small squares in bright red, orange, pink, and blue

Ziba Rajabi: Belly Laugh at a Funeral

Over the course of a year, a group of talented artisans in Yautepec created an intricately beaded and feathered costume known as a Chinelo as a gift to members of the Mexican diaspora in the Twin Cities. The suit, titled Immigrants, celebrates working people across national borders and highlights the essential contributions of Mexican workers in North America.
As a form of artistic resistance that emerged during the colonial period, Chinelos also embody cultural resilience. Blending Catholic and Indigenous visual traditions, elaborately masked Chinelo dancers could anonymously mock—especially during Carnival celebrations—the governing authority of European colonizers. Today, Chinelos are a popular feature of Independence Day and Carnival celebrations throughout the Mexican state of Morelos, parts of the State of Mexico, and Mexico City, especially in the boroughs of Milpa Alta, Tlalpan, Xochimilco, and Magdalena Contreras.
Through the efforts of artist and educator Xavier Tavera and the collective generosity of the artisans of Morelos, Immigrants entered Mia’s collection in 2025, ensuring future public appreciation of this one-of-a-kind work of art.

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colorful mosaic illustrating a variety of workers engaged in different activities, including construction, food service, and agricultural work.

Immigrants: A Gift from Morelos to Mia

In the 1957 movie Funny Face, Audrey Hepburn tells Fred Astaire, whose character is based on the photographer Richard Avedon, to “Take the picture! Take the picture!” This memorable scene homes in on the importance of the sitter and photographer relationship in determining when the moment is just right to take a photograph.
This exhibition draws mainly from Mia’s photography collection and from across the medium’s history to explore different types of portraiture. The selection includes artworks in which performance, collaboration, and experimentation are at the core of their making—and others when chance proves pivotal to depicting someone’s likeness.

Black and white photo of a dresser with a portrait, bottles, and figurine

Take the Picture!

In &#8220;María Berrío: Songlines,&#8221; the Colombian artist builds monumental scenes by layering hand-cut Japanese paper onto canvas—constructing images mostly piece by piece with rare areas of painting. Figures and forms emerge through this meticulous process, creating dense compositions that shift between precision and abstraction. Bringing together close to 20 works from the past decade, the exhibition traces how Berrío draws on literature, music, and global histories to create symbolic, open-ended narratives.
&#8220;María Berrío: Songlines&#8221; is organized by the Minneapolis Institute of Art and San José Museum of Art.
Generous support for the national exhibition tour provided by Hauser &amp; Wirth and Victoria Miro. Mia&#8217;s presentation made possible with kind support from iArtis Foundation and Maria G Bales.

Painting of group of people gathered indoors, seated on chairs arranged in a circle. In the foreground, a person in a blue dress with intricate patterns and a fur collar lies back on an armchair, eyes open. To the left, a person bends over a container, preparing something. Several other individuals sit closely together, some holding papers and others interacting or playing games.

María Berrío: Songlines

Step into Parisian luxury at Mia. &#8220;Paris Couture&#8221; brings more than 80 haute couture masterpieces from the Palais Galliera, spanning the late 19th century to today.
The exhibition features icons such as Dior, Balenciaga, Schiaparelli, and Grès. Together, these extraordinary garments show couture as one of the great art forms of the modern era. You’ll see imagination matched with flawless technique and lavish materials. Get close to the details and discover how couture ateliers transformed dressmaking into high art.
The galleries create an immersive, opulent experience built for shared wonder and slow looking. It’s an ideal evening or weekend outing—only at Mia for a limited time.
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Vintage floral gown with puffed sleeves on a mannequin.

Paris Couture

Skulls and skeletons are a popular subject in Japanese art. They appear in paintings, prints, and book illustrations as secondary elements but also as primary subjects, especially with the increased understanding of anatomy in the 19th century.
This exhibition shows skeletons in a life-like, humorous manner, exhibiting a playfulness to the usually terrifying and haunting nature of skeletons. The highlight is the recently acquired pair of six-panel folding screens by Takeuchi Ryūa, a truly memorable and unique work of skeletons at play.

Skeletons with plants and lanterns on a textured background.

Bare Bones: Skeletons in Japanese Art

For many Japanese artists, the process of conceptualizing and producing an artwork underwent fundamental, widespread change after the end of World War II in 1945. The strong emphasis on continuity was abandoned by some in favor of a radical new path, previously unheard of, especially in the crafts section.
The birth of an avant-garde and formal declaration for innovations is notable throughout different media. One approach for avant-garde artists was to create sculptures instead of functional objects. In 1948, a group of five ceramic artists, among them Yagi Kazuo (1918–1979), Yamada Hikaru (1923–2001), and Suzuki Osamu (1926–2001), founded Sōdeisha, literally the Crawling through Mud Association. The Sōdeisha group was active until 1998. While more than 60 artists were members at some point, not every ceramic artist who created innovative sculptures joined. Artists like Kawamoto Gorō (1919–1986) and Morino Taimei (born 1934) preferred to work independently and pursued their own paths.
Individualism is a key factor in Japanese contemporary ceramics today. This exhibition sheds light on the beginning of the break with Japanese ceramics traditions by showcasing works from independent artists and Sōdeisha members created before 1990.
Generous support is provided by the Joan B. Mirviss and Robert J. Levine Endowment Fund for Japanese Ceramics and the Gale Family Endowment—named for a generous gift from Alfred P. Gale—which strengthens the Minneapolis Institute of Art’s efforts to reach a spectrum of audiences through a variety of programs, events, exhibitions, and publications focused on the museum’s renowned collection of Asian Art.

Cracked ceramic with textured pattern and straight lines.

Breaking Tradition: The Avant-Garde in Japanese Ceramics, 1948 to 1990

&#8220;Latitude 33°&#8221; explores migration, inheritance, and belonging through objects shaped by displacement. Named after the cartographic line crossing North Africa and the Middle East, the exhibition traces artist Tamir’s cultural lineage.
When migration forces people to leave material possessions behind, stories, embodied knowledge, and remade craft traditions become vital vessels of cultural transmission. Within Mia, these objects exist in a state of quiet dislocation, powerfully echoing the profound, universal tensions of departure and arrival.
Tamir has exhibited at institutions including the Rochester Art Center, the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, the Haifa City Museum, Locust Projects, and the Harn Museum of Art, among others. She was a 2021 McKnight Visual Artist Fellowship recipient and received support from the Toby Devan Lewis Fellowship, Minnesota Jewish Arts Council, and an Exhibition Grant from Artis Contemporary.
This exhibition is part of the <a href="https://new.artsmia.org/exhibitions/maep/">Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program</a>.
Support provided by RBC Wealth Management.

Blue circular fabric sculpture next to golden Hebrew letters on wall.

Rotem Tamir: Latitude 33°

The Abstract Worlds of Yoshida Hodaka and Chizuko

Modern Art and Politics in Germany 1910–1945: Masterworks from the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin

Built to Last: The Shogren-Meyer Collection of American Art

An Indigenous Art: Huipiles from Mia&#8217;s Collection

Yoshida Hodaka (1926–1995) was born into a family of artists. He was the second son of Yoshida Hiroshi (1876–1950), a leading Western-style artist in Japan during the early 20th century. Hodaka leaned toward abstraction and began exploring that path after his father&#8217;s death in 1950. In 1953, Hodaka married Chizuko (1924–2017), a trained painter. In addition to oil painting, both Hodaka and Chizuko worked in the woodblock print medium. In 1992, Hodaka created a set of six extraordinarily large prints that depict walls with great attention to structural features and surface details. This exhibition showcases the entire wall set together for the first time, along with Chizuko’s abstract works and playful groups of butterflies.

abstract image: layers of bright orange and bright red loops and curlicues over brown circles extending from the upper left across to the lower right of the painting; bright blue, orange, brown, red, and tan squares throughout; horizontal bright blue narrow rectangles almost dance across the image.

In the first half of the 20th century, Germany experienced the last years of the German Empire, World War I and the revolution that followed, the liberal Weimar Republic, the rise of Adolf Hitler and Nazism, World War II, and the Holocaust. Modern art played an important role in the discourse of the period, and politics influenced the arts.
This exhibition features more than 70 paintings and sculptures from the collections of the Neue Nationalgalerie (New National Gallery), the distinguished modern art museum of the Berlin State Museums. It traces the German experience in the visual arts over four decades.
Beginning with the Expressionist reaction and opposition to the conservative artistic regime of Kaiser Wilhelm II, the exhibition moves on to the New Objectivity movement, the modern style of the 1920s. Between the wars, German artists participated in international experiments with abstraction. Painters and sculptors critiqued social currents, but most were silenced under the Nazis. This exhibition concludes with an epilogue that examines the ambiguous aftermath of World War II.
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Mia offers free admission to ticketed exhibitions for veterans and active-duty military and families, Minnesota WIC, MCAD students and staff, Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board staff, and museum professionals. You can reserve free admission tickets by calling Visitor Experience at 612-870-3000.
Use our <a href="https://guides.bloombergconnects.org/en-US/guide/minneapolisInstituteOfArt/exhibition/6883a787-6181-449a-a25c-da42110a78e4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">free audio guide</a> to explore the exhibition wherever you are or to enhance your visit to the museum. For the best listening experience during your visit, bring your own headsets to listen to the audio guide on your personal device.
Note: This exhibition includes depictions of nudity, scenes of war and violence, and Nazi and Holocaust imagery.
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Mia members at all levels can see the exhibition for free on Member Days: Thursday, March 12; Tuesday, March 31; Thursday, April 9; Saturday, April 18; Friday, May 15; Sunday, June 7; Thursday, June 18; and Wednesday, July 8, 2026.
Not a member yet? Learn more and join today.
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Enhance your visit with a free audio guide that uncovers the bold, urgent art of a nation in upheaval. Hear how artists challenged power, endured persecution, and redefined modern art in a time of revolution and war.
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Join us for a free public tour of the exhibition and gain deeper insight into the pieces in the exhibition. Note: The tour is free, but you need a ticket to enter the exhibition.
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Learn about the exhibition’s main themes and artworks, and prepare your students for a visit.
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Highlighting the influences and antipathies among art, politics, identity, and censorship, this book brings together more than 70 painting and sculptures from the distinguished modern art collections of the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin.
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Join us for a free workshop that uses art as a classroom resource for exploring the Holocaust and other genocides.
Friday, June 26 
10 a.m.–4 p.m.
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Teacher Workshop: Teaching Genocide through Art

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Experience the special exhibition through the artist’s lens. In this five-part series, Mia teaching artists will help you explore the creative periods reflected in the exhibition.
Saturday, March 14, 10 a.m.; Saturday, April 11, 10 a.m.; Saturday, May 9, 10 a.m.; Saturday, June 13, 10 a.m.; and Saturday, July 11, 10 a.m.
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Vision and Voice, Mia’s event for young adults, is your stop for chill vibes, good food, and amazing art. Plus enjoy free access to “Modern Art and Politics in Germany 1910–1945.”
Thursday, April 9 
6–9 p.m.
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Join Mia and The National WWII Museum for a free educator workshop exploring the powerful connections between art, history, and culture.
Saturday, March 14 
10 a.m.–3 p.m.
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Educator Workshop: Art, Politics, and the History of Germany in Turbulent Times

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Join us for an evening designed just for educators, featuring free admission to the special exhibition, new classroom-ready learning resources, light refreshments, and time to connect with colleagues.
Thursday, March 12 
4:30–7 p.m
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Mia welcomes experts from the University of Minnesota for a lively talk about the intertwined nature of politics and aesthetics, the relationship of painting to other art forms, ambiguity in art, and the idea of the New Woman.
Sunday, June 7, 2 p.m.
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Panel Discussion: Modern Art and Politics in Germany 1910–1945

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Join Emily Evans of the Neue Nationalgalerie for a closer look at specific works in the exhibition and stories about what happened to them between creation and joining the Neue Nationalgalerie&#8217;s collection.
Thursday, April 30, 6:30 p.m.
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Emily Evans: Case Studies from “Modern Art and Politics in Germany 1910–1945”

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Join Irina Hiebert Grun, a curator at the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin (NNg), as she discusses the history and collections of the NNg and how both reflect the turbulent history of Germany in the 20th century.
Saturday, March 7, 2 p.m.
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The Neue Nationalgalerie: Modern Art and Politics in Berlin

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Painting of a woman with black-brown bobbed hair and curls falling over her forehead wearing a black dress and holding a cigarette seated at a table in a nightclub setting with two men behind her and a champagne chiller holding an opened bottle of champagne

This exhibition brings together paintings and photographs from the collection of Dan Shogren and Susan Meyer that explore the rich and complex meanings of industrial art during the first half of the 20th century. Spanning the late 1920s to the early 1940s, these works illuminate the importance of artistic creativity during a period shaped by economic hardship, social unrest, and the dominance of industrial manufacturing. Paintings by Harry Gottlieb, Edmund Lewandowski, Ben Shahn, and others appear alongside photographs by prominent figures such as Margaret Bourke-White, Walker Evans, and Dorothea Lange, offering a unique cross-section of artistic life during a tumultuous era.

Black-and-white photograph of a cemetery with brick rowhouses and steel mills in the background

Derived from a Nahuatl word, a huipil is a traditional blouse worn by women throughout Mesoamerica, particularly among the Maya, since before the 16th century when the Spanish arrived in the region. The garment remains especially prevalent in Guatemala’s highland regions, where a majority of Maya descendants reside today.
Huipiles are traditionally handwoven on a backstrap loom in two or three rectangular panels, later sewn together. Decoration, motifs, and color choices serve as a visual language that uniquely identifies the wearer’s village and social standing.
The selection presented in this exhibition comes from a significant donation of textiles made to the museum by Richard Simmons and his wife. Their contribution has greatly enhanced representation of Latin American culture in the museum’s collection.

Guatemala woman's ceremonial blouse, or huipil, featuring white, red and orange colors

Current Exhibitions

Along the Nile with David Roberts

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

Painted Poetry: Art of the Rajput Courts

And More by More They Dream Their Sleep: Mezzotints by Yōzō Hamaguchi Part II

In the 1830s, Scottish artist David Roberts journeyed through Egypt, capturing its monumental temples, tombs, palaces, and timeless landscapes with dramatic vision. Trained as a theatrical scene painter, Roberts conveyed romantic grandeur and scale like few before him, balancing accuracy with artistic imagination.
His on-site drawings were later transformed into hand-colored lithographs and published in the landmark series The Holy Land, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, and Nubia (1842–1849). With the invention of photography in 1839, these prints, widely celebrated in their day, became the last of the great hand-made views of Egypt.

view into an Egyptian temple hall lined with colossal carved statues of pharaohs, buried up the knees in sand, with a small group of men in Arab dress gathered at the center of the hall

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.&#8221;
Drawing from the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, along with 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.
Wells Fargo Center Hours: Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. &#8211; 5 p.m. 
Generous support provided by:  <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-69398" src="https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/01101447/LOGO-std_blk1web.png" alt="" width="85" height="85" srcset="https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/01101447/LOGO-std_blk1web.png 85w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/01101447/LOGO-std_blk1web.png 32w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/01101447/LOGO-std_blk1web.png 50w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/01101447/LOGO-std_blk1web.png 64w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 85px) 100vw, 85px" />

Rajput paintings evoke many moods and senses. They tell stories about the beliefs, desires, myths, poetry, and power that shaped the royal Rajput courts of northern India during the 16th to 19th centuries. Rajput artists chose subject matter that was meant to engage all of our senses (taste, touch, smell, sound, and sight) and elicit emotional responses—an aesthetic experience known as rasa. Love, laughter, fury, compassion, disgust, horror, heroism, wonder, and tranquility are the nine rasas of Indian aesthetics and offer one way to interpret Rajput paintings.

A watercolor painting of over 10 people watching a thunderstorm approach. Some people are inside and some are on a balcony.

Yōzō Hamaguchi (1909–2000) was a master of color mezzotints, a technique that allowed printmakers to reproduce complex details of an artwork. Photography had rendered it obsolete by the 1900s, but Hamaguchi revived the technique after encountering it during a stay in Paris in the 1930s. There, he met American poet e.e. cummings, who gifted him a tool to achieve the signature tones in mezzotint. In the 1980s, Hamaguchi paid homage to the poet with the “e.e. cummings suite” of prints titled with lines from the poem “anyone lived in a pretty how town.”
This exhibition explores how Hamaguchi transformed the ordinary into the uncanny, featuring prints generously donated by Charles and Robyn Citrin and Bill and Roberta Stein.
This exhibition is presented in two parts:
<ul>
<li data-pm-slice="1 1 []">Part I: November 27, 2024–July 20, 2025</li>
<li>Part II: August 2, 2025–April 26, 2026</li>
</ul>

abstract painting of wavy green, pink, and blue lines against a black background