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A colossal puppy, an abandoned tricycle, an unnaturally manicured lawn: are these the markers of a suburban idyll—or signs of something more complicated, even subversive? The artists gathered here question symbols of domestic perfection by rendering them unnerving, strange, or potentially menacing. By disrupting our associations with everyday objects, these artists encourage us to examine the society that produces and upholds them.

Domestic Idols

The idea of retreating from society into mountainous landscapes has a long history in China. Daoist, Buddhist, and Confucian followers all regarded mountains as sacred places where one could become spiritually fulfilled, far from restraining social burdens.
This exhibition features classical Chinese paintings from Mia’s permanent collection that express the idyllic life of mountain dwellers, from recluses in their mountain huts to scenic lakes with fishermen who represent a life of freedom and spontaneity. Many paintings depict cascading waterfalls, a reference to the Confucianist and Daoist analogy for facing life’s troubles: to gaze into a waterfall is to gaze into one’s mind.

Dwelling in Mountains: Reclusion in Chinese Landscape Painting

Tanaka Ryōhei (1933–2019) was a prolific Japanese printmaker who specialized in etchings. Born and raised in Takatsuki, he grew up surrounded by the rural landscapes of western Japan, which would become the subject of his prints. This exhibition features prints by Tanaka given to Mia from the extensive collection of Sue Y. S. Kimm and Seymour Grufferman.
Tanaka began etching in his thirties after meeting Furuno Yoshio (1909–1978), the founder of the Kyoto Etchers Association. At the time, etching was far less common than woodblock-printing, the primary mode of printing in Japan for centuries. Tanaka learned the basics of etching from Furuno, soon developed his own methods through experimentation, and continued to make and print his own etchings until 2013.
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2019.78.325

Tanaka Ryōhei: Portrait of a Home

Thomas Putzier&#8217;s sculptures and paintings address the social longing for change despite insurmountable bureaucratic obstacles. Using utopian imagery and architectural forms, Putzier allows the visitor to imagine new possibilities.
Based in Greater Minnesota, Putzier works across various media as an artist and designer. His practice examines the complex relationships between social, political, and economic structures that shape society. His work has been exhibited at the CICA Museum in Gyeonggi-Do, South Korea; Franconia Sculpture Park in Shafer, Minnesota; the I-Park Foundation in East Haddam, Connecticut; the Neon Museum in Las Vegas; and the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art in Las Vegas. His work is in the permanent collection of the Neon Museum.
This exhibition is part of the Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program.
Support provided by RBC Wealth Management.

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Thomas Putzier: Grief &amp; Bureaucracy

Hendrick Goltzius (1558–1617) rose to become the hero of Dutch art in the late 1500s. He started his career as an engraver of copper printing plates, developing his skills to mind-boggling perfection, whether working in fine detail or with bravura gesture. Sometimes he engraved his own inventions; sometimes he worked from other artists’ drawings. He also had a remarkable aptitude for inventing new compositions in the style of other artists. Goltzius’s skill is yet more remarkable considering a serious childhood accident left him unable to open his dominant right hand. This exhibition looks at Goltzius’s mature printmaking and the circle of artists around him who came to rival his talent.

This is an engraved art piece of a figure dressed in prestigious clothing while holding a flag in their hand.

2023.32

Goltzius &amp; Co.

This exhibition showcases a selection of watercolors, drawings, and original prints recently added to Mia’s permanent collection. Ranging in date from 1975 to 2023, all are the work of women artists—some celebrated, others less widely known. Collectively, the selection reflects the museum’s ongoing efforts to reexamine and reset its collecting strategies to better reflect the remarkable diversity of artistic achievement in the United States and elsewhere. By championing the work of artists underrepresented in its collections, Mia strengthens its commitment to enriching the community by collecting, preserving, and displaying outstanding works of art.

L2023.56.2

New at Mia: Contemporary Works on Paper by Women Artists

Bizen ware, characterized by its rich reddish-brown clay with natural ash glaze, is one of Japan’s six pottery traditions. Originating from today’s Okayama prefecture on the Seto Inland Sea, its history reaches back to the 14th century. It peaked during the late 16th century when the tea masters in and around Kyoto, the center of culture in Japan, found it most appealing. With the modernization of Japan in the mid-19th century, Bizen almost disappeared, but the tradition was revived in the 1930s and many artists since have explored its potential. While some have stayed closer to conventional forms, others have surprised with new shapes while staying true to the core of Bizen. This exhibition showcases the journey in Bizen from the 16th century to the 21st.

2019.92.4

Bizen: Contemporary Expressions of an Ancient Japanese Pottery

Some people go bungee jumping or cave exploring for fun, but most of us would rather watch a scary movie or listen to a ghost story when we need a little fright in our lives. It wasn’t much different in the 1700s and the 1800s. Artists reveled in the Sublime, the flip side of the Age of Enlightenment, in which Romantics opened themselves to the sensation of forces beyond human comprehension and control. They gave their audiences terrifying images—sometimes for giggles, sometimes for soulful contemplation. In this exhibition, artists such as Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Francisco Goya, and William Blake stir the cauldron with images so peculiar that it was—and still is—hard to know what to make of them.

Dark Visions

This magnificent group of robes from Mia’s collection belonged to high-ranking Buddhist priests. Known as kashaya, they were designed to be draped over the left shoulder, under the right arm, and fastened in front under the left shoulder, and are more elaborate than the robes worn by most Buddhist monks. Yet they were fabricated from small squares sewn together, symbolizing the humble nature of Buddha. Within these patchwork squares are various Buddhist motifs and sometimes imperial imagery in which dragons cavort in the celestial landscape. Rich with courtly symbolism, the robes were likely worn in Buddhist ceremonies at monasteries patronized by the court or within the Forbidden City itself.

Splendid Patchwork: Buddhist Monastic Robes

In 2016, while working in Spoleto, Italy, JoAnn Verburg experienced three major earthquakes. The aftershocks, which continued for months, unnerved her. With parts of buildings still falling around her, she couldn’t shake a sense of impending catastrophe. Her anxieties were enhanced by the major events that followed, from the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis to the global pandemic. For Verburg, as for so many others, the world felt dangerously out of balance.
Long known for her exquisite landscapes and innovative techniques in photography and video, Verburg questioned how to continue making beautiful art amid the devastating reality of world events. Beneath the surface of the mesmerizing images of nature in &#8220;Aftershocks,&#8221; the question lingers, as she explores loss, dread, and the healing power of art in a time of worldwide change and upheaval.
Presenting Sponsor: David Wilson and Michael Peterman
Major Sponsors: Samuel Heins and Stacey Mills Heins
Supporting Sponsor: UBS Financial Services

JoAnn Verburg Catalog

JoAnn Verburg: Aftershocks

Art from Latin America and the Caribbean has been collected by Mia since the 1940s, particularly in the form of ceramics, objects in gold, and textiles produced by artmakers of the ancient civilizations that populated Central and South America. The collection has significantly increased over the years largely because of donations and purchases of works by historical and contemporary artists. These artworks constitute today the foundation in which the museum plans to build a more consistent and inclusive collection, one that can better represent the diversity and creativity of Latin American artists.

Latin American Art at Mia II

The most frequented places are often among the least noticed–including the humble counter. In restaurants, kitchens, and stores, counters are sites of preparation, display, communication, and more. As a verb, “to counter” implies opposition, but also holds the potential for dialogue. The photographs in this exhibition center the counter as a dynamic site of interaction and labor, revealing to us both what has happened and what could happen in the future.

2020.84.64

Counter/Culture

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 promised 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.
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="(max-width: 85px) 100vw, 85px" />

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

Age does not hinder artistic expression. This exhibition features art made by participants in two Vitality Arts workshops for older adults 55 and better, that took place this summer. Working with two well-known local street artists, Luis Fitch and Cadex Herrera, the students explored the exciting world of street art, graffiti, and mural making.
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Major Supporter:
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-109220 " src="https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/13112016/e.a_michelson_logotype_horizontal_Donor-Boards-855x153.png" alt="" width="586" height="105" srcset="https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/13112016/e.a_michelson_logotype_horizontal_Donor-Boards-855x153.png 855w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/13112016/e.a_michelson_logotype_horizontal_Donor-Boards-2000x359.png 2000w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/13112016/e.a_michelson_logotype_horizontal_Donor-Boards-385x69.png 385w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/13112016/e.a_michelson_logotype_horizontal_Donor-Boards-768x138.png 768w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/13112016/e.a_michelson_logotype_horizontal_Donor-Boards-1536x276.png 1536w, https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/13112016/e.a_michelson_logotype_horizontal_Donor-Boards-2048x367.png 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 586px) 100vw, 586px" />

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Ongoing Exhibitions

Domestic Idols

Dwelling in Mountains: Reclusion in Chinese Landscape Painting

Tanaka Ryōhei: Portrait of a Home