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July 30, 2024
MINNEAPOLIS – The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) is pleased to announce celebrated local photographer JoAnn Verburg’s “Aftershocks” as the museum’s newest exhibition, on view from Aug. 24, 2024 – Jan. 12, 2025 in the Harrison Photography Gallery.
“Mia is excited to present JoAnn Verburg’s powerful and thought-provoking ‘Aftershocks,’ to the Twin Cities community” said Elizabeth Armstrong, guest curator at Mia. “Long known for her exquisite landscapes and innovative techniques in photography and video, Verburg’s new work continues to mesmerize while also raising questions about how to make beautiful art amid the devastating reality of world events.”
“Aftershocks” was inspired in part by three major earthquakes and the unnerving aftershocks Verburg experienced while working in Italy in 2016. Her anxieties were amplified by the major events that followed, from the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis to the global pandemic. ‘Aftershocks’ embraces the dissonance felt after tragedy and invites guests of the exhibition to explore the healing power of art in a time of worldwide change and upheaval. As urgent as the need to respond to crises, there is also the need for creative resilience. As this exhibition demonstrates, Verburg’s reaction to the barrage of aftershocks is to use art to seek out peace and the vitality that coexists with trauma.
“The magic resulting from Verburg and Armstrong’s partnership is revelatory as we consider the power of art in times of crisis,” said Katie Luber, Mia’s Nivin and Duncan MacMillan Director and President. “The power of creation paired with interpretation can help us make sense of a sometimes bewildering world.”
Presenting Sponsor: David Wilson and Michael Peterman
Major Sponsors: Samuel Heins and Stacey Mills Heins
Supporting Sponsor: UBS Financial Services
For more information on “Aftershocks” as well as other upcoming exhibitions, visit new.artsmia.org.
About JoAnn Verburg
JoAnn Verburg (b. 1950) lives in Minneapolis and Umbria, Italy. From 1977 to 1979, she served as the research director and photographer for the Rephotographic Survey Project, traveling throughout the American West to replicate the same wilderness views made by 19th-century frontier photographers. While heading Polaroid’s Visiting Artist Program in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Verburg promoted technical innovation in the photographic field by inviting artists Chuck Close, Andy Warhol, William Wegman, and Jim Dine, among others, to experiment with new large format instant cameras.
Distinguished by its extraordinary sensitivity to the energy and sensuality of the natural world, Verburg’s own photographic work combines exquisite color, varied focus, and thoughtful composition to convey the beauty of its subject and setting. Often presented as diptychs and triptychs, her images of olive groves near her home in Umbria, to which she has returned for over 40 years, envelop the viewer in a serene, dreamlike atmosphere and explore the passage of time both literally and figuratively.