Photo of an artwork in a glass case with blurred images of people walking around — Preview party for the exhibition "In Our Hands: Native Photography, 1890 to Now" on October 21, 2023 at Minneapolis Institute of Art.

Collection and Exhibitions

In-depth multimedia explorations of Mia’s world-class collection and singular exhibitions. Learn about the historical, cultural, and social context behind Mia’s masterpieces.

The Latest

A Painting on the Move: The Loan of “The Large Blue Horses”

The Large Blue Horses is one of the most beloved paintings in the collection of the Walker Art Center. Its loan to Mia expands public access to important works of modern art and strengthens collaboration between the two museums.

Artists at Work

Many of the artists in “Built to Last: The Shogren Meyer Collection of American Art” received as little recognition for their artistry in their time as they did for their day jobs—working for the government, as commercial illustrators, or, in the case of artists like Jack Steele, in the very industries whose shadow their art depicted.

The Gods of Compassion: What Bodhisattvas Can Teach Us About Sacrifice

The god arrived in 1917, boxed and braced on a bed of straw.

Print Study Picks: Florals for Spring

Whether our attraction to flowers stems from some animal, bee-like instinct, an evolutionary reflex, an appetite for beauty, or the existential need to seek sources of renewal, flowers have always had an abiding draw.

Photo Study Picks: Shaking the House

In Persian, khāne-takānī, an Iranian spring-cleaning ritual associated with Nowruz, literally means “shaking the house.”

Secrets of the Veiled Lady: The Passion and Politics Behind Mia’s Marble Masterpiece

The story behind Raffaelle Monti’s Veiled Lady is as unbelievable as the sculpture itself, a virtuosic illusion of see-through marble that has been a visitor favorite at Mia for more than 50 years.

A Journey of Quilts: How Five of the Famous Gee’s Bend Textiles Came to Mia

The hamlet of Gee’s Bend is in the Black Belt of Alabama, a reference to the rich, dark soil that enabled the region’s cotton plantations and to the thousands of enslaved African Americans who worked them.

Print Study Picks: Art by Women

This edition focuses on women artists, featuring three whose works on paper together span nearly 400 years.

Art in a Time of Turmoil

Curator Tom Rassieur explores the themes behind “Modern Art and Politics in Germany 1910–1945,” Mia’s new exhibition about the role of art in times of turmoil.

Five Horses that Show Why the Year of the Horse Is the Best Year

“Year of the Horse: Hoofbeats through Time” explores the long history of horses in Chinese art and their many meanings. Here are five depictions that show the horse as one of the most fascinating animals in the Chinese zodiac.

Getting the Shot: How Photographs Have Shaped Our Understanding of Historic Sites

Views of splendid historic sites have been irresistible to professional and amateur photographers alike for nearly two centuries. “Site Lines” reveals the visual conventions that cut across place and time.

Print Study Picks: All About Love

Here’s a look at a selection of works that each reflect a different kind of love: agape (unconditional love; often understood as love of humanity); philia (deep friendship); and eros (passionate love).

Photo Study Picks: Building, Refuge, Witness

How do you photograph persistence? Spanning more than a century of Black image making, the images in this edition attempt an answer.

The Incredible, Forgotten Life of Painter Bob Thompson

When he was 18, Bob Thompson thought he might become a doctor.

“I Wanted People to Know”: The Moving History Behind Winfred Rembert’s The Beginning

Winfred Rembert had a tumultuous life in which he experienced the full force of American racism.

Print Study Picks: Happy New Year!

The flip of the calendar is always a good time to reflect on where we’ve been, on what we hope for in the coming year, and—for the philosophical among us—on the very nature of time itself. Here are a few pieces to use as a starting point for such considerations.

Photo Study Picks: We Call This Fun: Winter Games in Minneapolis

In 2012, British photographer Martin Parr visited Minneapolis for a winter weekend to see how Minnesotans embrace the cold rather than avoid it.

How Angkor Became a “Lost City”

The ancient treasures in “Royal Bronzes: Cambodian Art of the Divine” were largely drawn from the vast temple complex of Angkor Wat, which was hailed as a “lost city” when the French took control in the 1800s. But the real story is more complicated.

Wearing the Cosmos: The Symbolic Significance of Daoist Priest Robes

Embroidered priest robes are among the most ornate expressions of Daoist ritual, rich in symbolic imagery. Sun and moon, dragon or carp, what do these symbols mean?

Print Study Picks: Hygge

The winter months are cold, dark, and a little depressing here in the Twin Cities. To cope, we lean into coziness, borrowing from a Danish and Norwegian tradition called hygge.

The Photographs You Might—but Really Shouldn’t—Miss in “Annotations”

At the entrance of Mia’s Harrison Photography Gallery (364), where the exhibition “Annotations” is currently on view, is a glass case displaying six small photographs.

Dragon Style: A Norwegian Silver Show Reveals the Nordic Spirit

In the late 1800s, as Norway was pushing for independence from Sweden, it leaned into silver making as a source of national pride.

Print Study Picks: Time to Eat!

The harvest is in; time to celebrate!

Photo Study Picks: Native American Heritage at Mia

In this first edition of Photo Study Picks, we’re taking a look at a striking selection of works in Mia’s collection by Native American artists.

Print Study Picks: What the Weirdening Left Out

I come to enhance “The Weirdening of the Renaissance,” not to steal the exhibition’s thunder. (With apologies to Marc Antony from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.)

“Gatsby at 100” Shows Why the Jazz Age Still Jumps

The Great Gatsby was F. Scott Fitzgerald’s worst-selling novel during his lifetime.

Halloween in the Vaults: These Ghosts Are not Normal

Artists are generally carefree, of sunny disposition, rarely given to dark or macabre thoughts.

Print Study Picks: Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month

Hispanic Heritage Month, observed from September 15 to October 15, skirts official “month” status to include and honor the independence days of various Latin American countries.

Lobby Object Highlight—Hispanic Heritage Month: Portable Writing Desk (Bufetillo)

This lavishly decorated little lacquered box, or bufetillo, from 1600s Mexico, is both beautiful and useful.

When Trees Could Talk: The Curious History Behind Mia’s “Timber!” Exhibition

Egon Schiele’s 1913 painting of a sawmill, surrounded by clear-cut forest, has always been something of a mystery.

Print Study Picks: Dog Days

We find ourselves in the “dog days” of summer.

The Personalities Behind Mary Sully’s “Personality Prints”

Mary Sully, the groundbreaking Native American artist, channeled her life experiences and her fascination with American celebrities into what she called her “personality prints,” abstract triptychs she created between the late 1920s and mid-1940s.

From Table Tennis Champion to Master Potter: Kondō Takahiro’s Many Forms

There was, surprisingly, little pressure on Kondō Takahiro. Born into a legendary family of ceramicists, his grandfather a designated Living National Treasure, Takahiro might have found the weight of expectation to be almost unbearable. Not so.

Print Study Picks: Endless Summer Vacation

July is the golden month, filled with sunshine, fun, heat, and time outdoors. Here’s a sampling of works permeated by the glorious, languid spirit of summer—capturing repose, verdancy, and vibrancy.

5 Prints That Show How Weird the Renaissance Was

The Renaissance, which began in Italy some 700 hundred years ago, was idealized even as it was happening, as a kind of beacon of beauty and reason that would lead the way out of the Dark Ages.

Three Insights from Leslie Wilson’s Talk on Ernest Cole’s Photographs

In her recent talk at Mia, Leslie Wilson, academic curator and director of research programs at the Art Institute of Chicago, explored the complexities of South African photojournalist Ernest Cole’s documentary work in the United States.

This Just In: Mia’s Latest Accessions

Mia continually enhances and diversifies the collection with the addition of new artworks every year. Here are four highlights, soon to be on view in the galleries.

Collectors of All Kinds

The Deans—better known as Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys—have built an art collecting practice that screams disruption.

Artist Spotlight: Amy Sherald and the Hard Work of Simply Being

For the past few months, in the opening gallery of Mia’s “Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys” exhibition, two men have been popping wheelies.

Print Study Picks: Pride!

June is Pride Month, and we’re celebrating with a selection of works by LGBTQIA+ artists that (fittingly) repudiate assumptions, subvert norms, and exemplify creative invention.

Print Study Picks: The Influence and Endurance of Asian American and Pacific Islander Artists

Mia is proud to celebrate the creative legacies of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) artists this May.

“Thing of Gladness”: Eharo Dance Mask

In Oceania, the Western Elema people of Papua New Guinea created Eharo dance masks as part of their Hevehe cycle of ceremonies.

Notes on a Flower: Chrysanthemums in Japan and France

In 1897, the French Impressionist painter Claude Monet made four paintings of the chrysanthemums in his garden in Giverny.

Print Study Picks: Art in Bloom

In this edition of Print Study Picks, it’s Art in Bloom season, and we’ve got flowers on the brain.

Print Study Picks

In this first edition of Print Study Picks, we’re showcasing the variety of works viewable in the Print Study Room with three prints that each use a unique printmaking technique.

Can You Name Five Women Artists?

We’re joining the thousands of cultural organizations and arts institutions answering this question—a small-scale action within an ongoing conversation about gender equity in the arts.

Celebrating Women’s History Month with the Enigmatic Art of Esther M. Moore

This month a work returns to display at Mia that’s been unseen for decades: Esther M. Moore’s The Charmed Circle of Youth. For the occasion, we’re here to tell the story of her enigmatic work—or as much as is possible to tell.

Masterful Marketing, from Edo to Montmartre

Artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec has been called the “master of the publicity poster.” Given the distinctiveness of his work, viewers could be forgiven for assuming he was the originator of this unique style. In fact, he was borrowing from the rich visual culture of Edo-period Japan.

Magic and Mythmaking in Roshan Ganu’s “रातराणी: The Night Blooming Jasmine”

Roshan Ganu is fascinated by the night. It’s a fascination she wasn’t always able to explore growing up in Goa, India, where caution rules women’s mobility in public spaces. “We grow up hearing ‘don’t go out at night.’ It’s something that’s just so hardwired [into a woman].”

The Magic of the Moulin Rouge: A Q&A with Galina Olmsted

The Moulin Rouge opened in Paris on October 6, 1889, the same year as the Eiffel Tower. This month, as the iconic cabaret marks its 135th anniversary, Mia has opened “At The Moulin Rouge,” an exhibition built around Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s painting of the same name.

“The Shape of Time” Reveals the Creative Spirit Behind South Korea’s Rapid Rise

The year 1989 is remembered for many things—the birth of the World Wide Web and Taylor Swift, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the uprising in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. Often overlooked is the shift in South Korea from dictatorship to democracy, which has propelled the country’s remarkable rise in economic and cultural power.

Jaida Grey Eagle, Co-Curator of “In Our Hands,” Reflects on the Future of Indigenous Photography

In an essay excerpted from the exhibition catalogue for In Our Hands: Native Photography, 1890 to Now, Jaida Grey Eagle talks about her work and impact of Native photographers.

“In Our Hands” Turns the Camera Around, Puts Native Photographers in Control

In the fall of 2020, a group of 14 mostly Native artists and writers met online to discuss a potential exhibition of Native photography, and they agreed on some basic guidelines. Honor the work of elder artists, while including contemporary photographers.

How “ReVisión” Challenges the Narrative of American History, and Looks Great Doing It

In 1854, the word “Pre-Columbian” first came into use, according to Merriam-Webster, bifurcating the history of the Americas into a time before Columbus arrived and a time after. Mia’s exhibition “ReVisión: Art in the Americas” bridged the divide with a simple but liberating concept: no boundaries.

_{Preview party for the exhibition "In Our Hands: Native Photography, 1890 to Now" on October 21, 2023 at Minneapolis Institute of Art.}