Gallery
December 2, 2018-February 17, 2019
100 Years and Counting is one of three inaugural exhibitions in the Minnesota Museum of American Art’s new facility in the Pioneer Endicott building, opening in December 2018. The exhibition features approximately 45 works from the M’s remarkable collection of American art, from 100 years ago to today. It invites a tumble into the depth and breadth of the M’s collection: early 20th century paintings, photographs, sculptures by Paul Manship and George Morrison, incredible ink and pastel drawings, mid-century studio craft, sculpture, prints, contemporary Native American art, and up-to-the-minute recent acquisitions by outstanding American artists. This exhibition proves the point that Minnesota Museum of American Art has been around awhile—over 100 years, in fact—and that its American art collection reflects that visual trajectory. It also shows that the new M, in this stunning new building and home, is likewise continuing to grow, to thrive, to build—indeed, counting our years and our way into a new era of significance, art, and visual engagement.
Sculpture Court
December 2, 2018-April 7, 2019
The M has commissioned New York-based artist Sheila Pepe to create a site-responsive installation for the museum’s Sculpture Court. This work will be premiered on the occasion of the opening of the new museum in the Pioneer Endicott buildings in December 2018. Pepe is an artist and educator known for large-scale, ephemeral works made from domestic and industrial materials through a process she calls “improvisational crochet.” Since the mid-1990s, Pepe has used lesbian feminist and craft traditions to investigate systems of power in institutions of art and education. Softly…Before the Supreme Court is a reference to architect Cass Gilbert, who designed the Endicott building which houses the new M, the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington D.C., and other nationally significant sites. Pepe’s looping, drooping lines and crocheted shapes are a response to the gravity and hard geometries of the room – a soft, gestural rejoinder to two landmark buildings by one of America’s most famous architects
Window Gallery
December 2, 2018-May 12, 2019
Duluth-based, multimedia artist David Bowen has been commissioned to create an installation for the Window Gallery. This street-facing work will be premiered on the occasion of the M’s grand opening of the new museum in December 2018. David Bowen’s installation brings the world to St. Paul. By tapping into surfline.com’s international network of research cameras, he captures wave videos from locations all over the world. The data is then channeled into large screens lit by thousands of LEDs, which are then covered with a shower curtain scrim. The work, which faces Robert Street, will display the current conditions from two different locations somewhere in the world. The installation’s hypnotic light patterns will run continuously over 24 hours; its live video feeds will switch automatically, as the earth rotates around the sun. The effect will be like watching the distant, yet gentle undulation of water washing up on shorelines all over the globe – a view on distant shores, seen through through the M’s windows in St. Paul.