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Engineered for Domestic Bliss

<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>
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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>


Captive Beauties: Depictions of Women in Late Imperial China

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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>
<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>
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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>
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<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

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

<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>
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<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>
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<span class="Mia-bold">This exhibition will be presented in two rotations: </span></p>
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<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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<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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<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>
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<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>
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<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>
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<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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20 Dances: Japanese Calligraphy Then and Now

<p>Fresh and engaging displays reintroduce audiences to the interconnected, immensely diverse artistic traditions of South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Himalayas. Collection highlights, such as a recently conserved 1,000-year-old Indian sculpture of Shiva Nataraja, commingle with new acquisitions, important loans, and extraordinary objects—some at Mia since 1917—on view for the first time. Within each gallery, multiple narratives aim to disentangle complicated histories, evoke reflection, and celebrate the artists who created, and continue to create, a bountiful variety of expressive forms.<br />
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<h2 class="Mia-bold">Explore the Exhibition Virtually</h2>
<p><a  href="https://new.artsmia.org/with-new-light-mias-reinstalled-himalayan-south-and-southeast-asian-art-galleries/"><img loading="lazy" src="https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/12071522/6224.jpg" alt="" width="366" height="244" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-87958" /></a><br />
<a  href="https://new.artsmia.org/with-new-light-mias-reinstalled-himalayan-south-and-southeast-asian-art-galleries/"> <button class="background-black">Explore the Full Reinstallation</button></a>
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<caption>Support for the gallery reinstallation provided by the Jane and James Emison Endowment for South Asian and Indian Art.</caption>


2009.12.2a-c

With New Light: Mia’s Reinstalled Himalayan, South, and Southeast Asian Art Galleries

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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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2005.97.46

Khatt Islami: Sacred Scripts from Islamic Africa

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<span style="font-size:large;">L’Merchie Frazier is a fiber artist, quilter, historian, innovator, poet, and holographer. According to Frazier, “This exhibition continues my work and conversations, concerned with equity and justice, called </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Quilted Chronicles </span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">and its </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Target Series</span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> It</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">examines the lives and legacies of African-descended people, including children and their communities across centuries of memory, places, and activism.”</span></p>
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<a class="button" href="https://collections.artsmia.org/exhibitions/2854/freedom-rising-i-am-the-story-l-merchie-frazier">Explore the Exhibition here.</a>
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<span style="font-size:large;">This exhibition is part of a larger initiative, <em><a href="https://textilecentermn.org/wearethestory/">We Are The Story</a>,</em> organized by the <a href="https://textilecentermn.org/">Textile Center </a>and the <a href="https://wcqn.org/">Women of Color Quilters Network (WCQN)</a>. It was curated by WCQN founder Carolyn Mazloomi, who conceived of the project when Minneapolis became an epicenter for nationwide protests following the police killing of George Floyd.</span>
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Freedom Rising: I am the Story - L'Merchie Frazier

Freedom Rising: I Am the Story / L&#8217;Merchie Frazier

<p>In the male-dominated society of imperial China, most women were physically restricted to domestic spaces. The center of a woman’s life was the bedroom, where she would sit alone or with others, working or pursuing leisurely activities. The furniture and artwork featured in this exhibition, all drawn from Mia&#8217;s outstanding collection of Chinese art, would have been found in a typical imperial Chinese woman’s bedroom. These objects reflected a woman’s educated and well-read social status, while also indicating her subordinate position as a woman in a man’s world.</p>
<p><a href="https://collections.artsmia.org/exhibitions/2884/intimate-space-a-noblewoman-s-bedroom-in-late-imperial-china"><button class="background-black">Explore the artworks in this exhibition here.</button></a></p>


Intimate Space: A Noblewoman&#8217;s Bedroom in Late Imperial China

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">American basketry is as culturally and technically diverse as the country’s inhabitants. Baskets can be coiled, crocheted, or composed of interlaced elements that travel over and under one another, as in a woven cloth. They can be made using local grasses, copper wire, celluloid film, porcupine quills, or tubular bugle beads. They can take the form of utilitarian vessels or abstract shapes.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Across traditions, techniques, and styles</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">, women have forged new and sometimes interconnected paths as innovators and mentors. This installation chronicles experiments in basketry—all made by American women artists from the 1800s to the present day—that explore the boundaries between utility and whimsy, weaving and sculpture. While some of the artists sought to maintain proper relationships with materials and environments, and others prioritized strengthening bonds with ancestors and communities, all balance individual artistic expression with centuries-old traditions.  </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Artists include Elizabeth Hickox (Karuk), Gail Tremblay (Mi’kmaq and Onondaga), Josie Robinson (Ojibwe), Mary Giles, Elaine Small, Ferne Jacobs, Carole Hetzel, Tracy Krumm, and Henrietta Snype (Gullah Geechee).</span></p>
<div style="margin-top: 30px;"><a href=" https://collections.artsmia.org/exhibitions/2877/unexpected-turns-women-artists-and-the-making-of-american-basket-weaving-traditions"><button class="background-black">Explore the Exhibition</button></a></div>
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<h2>Featured Artists:</h2>
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<h3 class="Mia-bold">Gail Tremblay</h3>
<p><div id="attachment_94075" style="width: 450px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-94075" loading="lazy" class=" wp-image-94075" src="https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/08051450/GailTremblay.jpg" alt="" width="440" height="440" srcset="https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/08051450/GailTremblay.jpg 720w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/08051450/GailTremblay-128x128.jpg 128w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/08051450/GailTremblay-32x32.jpg 32w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/08051450/GailTremblay-50x50.jpg 50w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/08051450/GailTremblay-64x64.jpg 64w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/08051450/GailTremblay-96x96.jpg 96w" sizes="(max-width: 440px) 100vw, 440px" /><p id="caption-attachment-94075" class="wp-caption-text">Gail Tremblay. Photograph courtesy of Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY</p></div><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br />
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“I use non-traditional materials to explore ways I can weave traditional Onondaga and Micmac basketry forms so that my work will comment on Indigenous life in the 21st century. I began making film baskets when I taught with Marge Brown, a filmmaker at The Evergreen State CollegeI asked our students for out-takes from their films. I found film was an interesting material to weave, and I enjoyed the notion of recycling film and gaining control over a medium that had historically been used by both Hollywood and documentary filmmakers to stereotype American Indians. I relished the irony of making film take on the traditional fancy stitch patterns of our ash splint and sweet grass baskets. Soon I began to develop more complex patterns. I also began to use recycled footage from films being thrown away by libraries so I could choose certain images that suited my themes. I enjoy creating titles to contextualize these baskets and often choose materials to ironic purpose. ”</span><br />
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<h3 class="Mia-bold">Henrietta Snype</h3>
<div id="attachment_94076" style="width: 461px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-94076" loading="lazy" class=" wp-image-94076" src="https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/08051657/1-Henrietta-by-Darrell-Johnson4-1-598x800.jpg" alt="" width="451" height="604" srcset="https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/08051657/1-Henrietta-by-Darrell-Johnson4-1-598x800.jpg 598w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/08051657/1-Henrietta-by-Darrell-Johnson4-1-768x1027.jpg 768w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/08051657/1-Henrietta-by-Darrell-Johnson4-1.jpg 891w" sizes="(max-width: 451px) 100vw, 451px" /><p id="caption-attachment-94076" class="wp-caption-text">Henrietta Snype. Photograph by Darrell Johnson.</p></div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Henrietta Snype descends from a lineage of basket makers in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. This region is home to the Gullah Geechee, a group who takes pride in their centuries-old cultural links to West Africa – a connection reflected in local basketry traditions.  “When I first learned the craft at the age of 7, it was a mandatory skill. If I made a mistake, my grandmother would rip it out. It had to be perfection. I had to make the base over and over until I got it right and the next step was to learn the walls. My grandmother taught my mother, my mother taught me, I taught my daughter, and she taught hers. I’m the only basket maker left with five generations of weavers in a row in my family.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Snype is dedicated to sustaining her community’s style of basket weaving for current and future generations and regularly teaches the craft to K-12 students in South Carolina public schools.</span><br />
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<h3 class="Mia-bold">Tracy Krumm</h3>
<div id="attachment_94077" style="width: 450px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-94077" loading="lazy" class=" wp-image-94077" src="https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/08052011/Krumm-Headshot-2019-600x800.jpg" alt="" width="440" height="587" srcset="https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/08052011/Krumm-Headshot-2019-600x800.jpg 600w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/08052011/Krumm-Headshot-2019-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/08052011/Krumm-Headshot-2019.jpg 900w" sizes="(max-width: 440px) 100vw, 440px" /><p id="caption-attachment-94077" class="wp-caption-text">Tracy Krumm. Photograph by Shelly Campbell</p></div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In 1982, Tracy Krumm was studying political ecology at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington when a friend encouraged her to enroll in a design class taught by Gail Tremblay (whose work is also shown in this gallery). It set Krumm’s life on a new course. Years later, studying at the Vermont College of Fine Art, a chance encounter with some free copper wire outside the science labs sparked Krumm’s interest in working with metal elements. According to Krumm, “My artistic path was shaped by chance encounters, and Gail Tremblay was definitely one of my own unexpected turns.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Krumm continues: “Basketry is loaded symbolically and culturally. It is an ancient artform – some of the oldest evidence goes back 10,000 years, way before loom weaving. It was an art of necessity that allowed humans to do things and it fit with their portable lifestyle. Creating objects by hand, and making things to fill a need was nothing less than a miracle.”</span><br />
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<h2 class="Mia-bold">Major Sponsor:</h2>
<p><img loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-93775" src="https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/25074202/ArtfulLiving_Logo-1200x342.png" alt="" width="200" height="57" srcset="https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/25074202/ArtfulLiving_Logo-1200x342.png 1200w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/25074202/ArtfulLiving_Logo-768x219.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />
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Related Events

Unexpected Turns: Women Artists and the Making of American Basket-Weaving Traditions

<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

Saul Steinberg: Visual Verse

<p>&#8220;Rituals of Resilience<i>&#8221; </i>is<i> </i>an audio-visual experience, co-curated by the Twin Cities-based musician and community organizer Chaka Mkali (aka I Self Devine). The experience creates dialog between works by Black visual artists from the United States, Africa, and the greater African Diaspora and new music created for the exhibition by Mkali and his collaborators. Artworks by Kevin Beasley, Bisa Butler, Jordan Casteel, Deborah Roberts, Cinga Samson, Billie Zangewa, and others explore themes of identity, culture, spirituality, and power through the embodiment of Black lived experience. The accompanying <a href="https://lnk.to/ejSBGyRI">album </a>grew from in-depth research on the work of each artist, and approaches their individual visual practice as a means to access and articulate a collective Black consciousness that transcends time and space.</p>
<p>Chaka Mkali explains, “&#8217;Rituals of Resilience<em>&#8216;</em> is about the act of survival under intense pressure and heat. A place to hide when being in your body isn’t safe. A reimagining of new worlds and possibilities. The creative culture of Indigenous and diasporic ethnic groups of African descent surviving and dismantling 400 hundred years of white supremacy &#8230; through a visceral fabric of repetitious intentional movements, vibrations, gatherings, acts, symbols, and codes.”</p>
<p><em>Rituals of Resilience is co-curated by Chaka Mkali and Gabriel Ritter, Mia’s Curator and Head of Contemporary Art. The <a href="https://lnk.to/ejSBGyRI">album </a>is executive produced by Orko Eloheim, Medium Zach and I Self Devine, with features from The Lioness, SoloStar, Tish Jones, Izell Pyramid, Muja Messiah, Greg Grease, I-BE and others. </em></p>
<div style="margin-top: 30px;"><a href="https://collections.artsmia.org/exhibitions/2875/rituals-of-resilience/room/all"><button class="background-black"> Explore the Exhibition </button></a></div>
<p> <a href="https://live-artsmia.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Rituals-of-Resilience-Lyrics.pdf"><button class="background-black"> Album Lyrics </button></a><br />
<a href="https://lnk.to/ejSBGyRI"><button class="background-black">Buy The Album Here</button></a></p>
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<h2>Rituals of Resilience Orientation</h2>
<p><iframe loading="lazy" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/525149056?color=ffffff&amp;byline=0" width="840" height="500" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
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2014.74

Rituals of Resilience

<p>On March 24, 2020, Minneapolis-based artist Piotr Szyhalski embarked on a daily drawing practice, responding to the COVID-19 pandemic as it unfolded in real time. What began as a way for the artist to share observations of life in lockdown and the pain caused by the pandemic, soon became an exercise in chronicling his thoughts and feelings, reconciling them with the changes being wrought in the world.</p>
<p><em>COVID-19: Labor Camp Report</em> consists of 225 drawings created over eight months, with new drawings posted daily on Instagram, a witness to the unfolding crisis and a record of time both labored and lost.</p>
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<a href="https://collections.artsmia.org/exhibitions/2882/labor-camp/room/all" class="background-black"><button>Explore Exhibition</button></a>
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<p><img loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-94195" src="https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/12100952/210310_mia327_0780_small-1200x696.jpg" alt="" width="1015" height="589" srcset="https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/12100952/210310_mia327_0780_small.jpg 1200w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/12100952/210310_mia327_0780_small-768x445.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1015px) 100vw, 1015px" /></p>
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<p><img loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-94196" src="https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/12101021/210310_mia327_0776_small-1200x678.jpg" alt="" width="1014" height="573" srcset="https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/12101021/210310_mia327_0776_small.jpg 1200w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/12101021/210310_mia327_0776_small-768x434.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1014px) 100vw, 1014px" /></p>
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<div id="attachment_94194" style="width: 1027px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-94194" loading="lazy" class=" wp-image-94194" src="https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/12100854/210310_mia327_0774_small-1200x733.jpg" alt="" width="1017" height="621" srcset="https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/12100854/210310_mia327_0774_small.jpg 1200w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/12100854/210310_mia327_0774_small-768x469.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1017px) 100vw, 1017px" /><p id="caption-attachment-94194" class="wp-caption-text">Views of Gallery 370 with objects installed for the exhibition &#8220;Piotr Szyhalski / Labor Camp – COVID-19: Labor Camp Report&#8221; at Minneapolis Institute of Art.</p></div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>


L2021.6.2

Piotr Szyhalski / Labor Camp &#8211; COVID-19: Labor Camp Report

<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 />
<iframe loading="lazy" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/529508780?color=ffffff&#038;byline=0" width="800" height="500" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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Siah Armajani's "An Exile Dreaming of Saint Adorno" at Minneapolis Institute of Art.

Siah Armajani: A Bridge Divides, A Bridge Transforms

<p>This exhibition focuses on four remarkable and highly individual printmakers who worked in Italy around the year 1600. Each took a different path. Two were brothers, Agostino and Annibale Carracci. Promoting the study of live models and nature, they had a profound impact on artistic trends in Italy. Camillo Procaccini spent scant time on printmaking, but his few excursions into the medium resulted in visionary productions with powerfully emotional content. Andrea Andreani devoted his career to translating the works of other artists into complex woodcuts, sometimes of remarkable size.</p>
<p><a href="https://collections.artsmia.org/exhibitions/2876/italian-printmakers-circa-1600"><button class="background-black">Explore Exhibition</button></a></p>


Italian Printmakers Circa 1600: Four Diverging Paths

<p>In 1964, a young David Hockney won First Prize at the International Exhibition of Drawings and Engravings in Lugano, Switzerland; at the same event, Amano Kazumi received an excellence award for prints of his abstract Moral series. Amano first studied under Munakata Shikō, Japan’s best-known contemporary print artist, who is famous for his roughly executed black-and-white designs. Amano’s early works emulate Munakata’s style but take on subjects of his home, Toyama, such as dances associated with the iron mills. In the early 1960s, Amano radically changed his style and from then on created abstract shapes in strong and bright colors. In 1971, Amano left Japan and moved with his family to New York. This exhibition focuses on Amano’s time in Japan and presents prints from the extensive collection of Sue Y. S. Kimm and Seymour Grufferman.</p>
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Amano Kazumi: Prints from the Kimm-Grufferman Collection

<p>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.  </p>
<p>“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.</p>
<p>To learn more, view the video below. </p>
<p><iframe loading="lazy" title="My Body of Water" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xxeKZtsDinI?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>


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

<p>Lacquer art has a long history in China, beginning more than 5,000 years ago. Richly decorated lacquer wares often invoke themes and ideas intended to bring wealth, health, moral ethics, good luck, longevity, and even immortality to their owners—and also communicate their wealth and status. Featuring works from Mia’s collection, this installation showcases a wide variety of forms, styles, and techniques, as well as an array of themes that remain significant in Chinese culture even today.</p>


Shimmering Surfaces: Chinese Lacquer Motifs and Techniques

<p>Hindsight presents a case for the decisive impact of women upon the history of documentary photography through a selection of prints drawn from Mia’s collection as well as that of Dan Shogren and Susan Meyer. Centering the work of six American photographers—Margaret Bourke-White, Esther Bubley, Imogen Cunningham, Dorothea Lange, Genevieve Naylor, and Marion Post Wolcott—the exhibition showcases images that were created for a diverse range of projects, from governmental commissions to editorial assignments. Meant to communicate with audiences increasingly attuned to global social and political movements, these photographs provide insight into lives both everyday and extraordinary: the routines of working people in Brazil; the impact of industrialization upon rural Americans; Black Americans’ experiences of racial segregation and economic inequality; the nonviolent political resistance of Mahatma Gandhi against British colonial rule. In these ways, Hindsight reveals each photographer’s power in the making of historical memory.</p>


Hindsight: American Documentary Photography, 1930-1950

<p>This exhibition highlights 50 years of photographic expression by a diverse roster of artists working within, against, and beyond the history of the medium: Nona Faustine, Martine Gutierrez, Deana Lawson, An-My Lê, Rania Matar, Lorraine O’Grady, Adrian Piper, Selma Fernandez Richter, Martha Rosler, Nona Faustine, Mickalene Thomas, Carrie Mae Weems, and Carmen Winant. </p>
<p>Spanning the past half-century in modern and contemporary photography, these photographs contend with many of the period’s defining issues, especially within the United States. They meditate on the intersection of personal and political histories, freshly interrogate matters of national identity and belonging, reflect on cycles of trauma and healing, and imagine worlds beyond the inequalities of our time.</p>


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Ongoing Exhibitions

Engineered for Domestic Bliss

Captive Beauties: Depictions of Women in Late Imperial China

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