Here, Now opens at the Minnesota Museum of American Art

The Minnesota Museum of American Art has opened a new wing with Here, Now: Selections from the M’s Collection. Emphasizing thematic connections between artworks and artists from different times, media, and backgrounds, the exhibition is rooted in Minnesota artists’ participation in major art movements, and a desire to share a collection that has been out of view for years with various communities. 

“What does it mean that Minnesota has all of these ties to all of these really important art movements?” stated Assistant Curator Kylie Linh Hoang, who co-curated Here, Now with independent curator Robert Cozzolino. “Does it mean that Minnesota was just influenced by those movements? I don’t think that that’s true. I think Minnesota was influencing, was an active part of a lot of these really important American art movements.”

The exhibition opens with a room of portraiture by artists from Elizabeth Catlett, to Leslie Barlow, to Avis Charley, whose painting Smile Now, Cry Later (2022) is the first work by a Dakota artist to enter the M’s collection. A renovated arcade escorts viewers under the restored stained glass ceiling, through work by artists as wide-ranging as Frank Big Bear, Joan Brown, and Frederick D. Jones. The exhibition concludes with a room displaying some of the M’s extensive holdings of work by George Morrison, including works on paper from throughout the celebrated artist’s life.

“One of the wonderful things about discovering and rediscovering The M’s collection, I think for the public, but also for me, is just seeing what these wonderful things that don’t seem to have anything in common on paper do when they’re in the same room together,” said Cozzolino of the project.

Other Bockley Gallery artists featured in the exhibition include Jim Denomie, Pao Houa Her, Tom Jones, Cara Romero, and Maggie Thompson. 

Read more on MPLSART.com, Minnpost, and the Minnesota Star Tribune.