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The Experience of Expression

Sat, Mar 2 - Sun, Jul 21 2024

The expressive nature of fine art is a well-known concept, largely popularized by the early twentieth-century European Expressionist movement and New York-based Abstract Expressionism that emerged a few decades later. Artists often create their work with expressive intent, but art objects can also gain a sense of agency aside from the artist, particularly when presented to a viewer. 

A close up of silicone nubs which fill with air in tandem with a heartbeat sensor. The silicone nubs are white but a faint red plug is visible inside—the nubs are held in place by stainless steel clips and rest in a stainless steel basin. The Other Four

Fri, Feb 9 - Sun, May 19 2024

The Other Four assembles a varied display of 16 multimedia works by 21 contemporary artists that forefront the senses of smell, taste, touch, and sound. Exploring the richness of the human experience, the exhibition engages audiences primarily through nonvisual – the other four – senses.

person standing in construction building with fabric around shoulders like cape Urban Cadence

Fri, Oct 6 - Sun, Dec 31 2023

Urban Cadence tells the multifaceted stories of two urban environments—Lagos, Nigeria and Johannesburg, South Africa—experienced through the artistic expressions of photography and video.

Why Look at Animals?

Sat, Jul 29 2023 - Sun, Feb 18 2024

This summer, Meghan Considine–the 2020-2021 O’Brien Curatorial Fellow–returns to WAM via the exhibition Why Look at Animals? Through a selection of varied images from the Weisman’s collection, Considine challenges the conventionally romanticized and infantilized perspective of animal life in order to reveal a millennia-old intimacy between “us” (humans) and “them” (animals). 

sewing machine on blue fabric Towards a Common Future: Banners for Solidarity

Wed, Jun 28 - Sun, Sep 17 2023

As part of the Wakpa Triennial, the Weisman presents Towards a Common Future: Banners for Solidarity. Rachel Breen describes these organic, Kala-cotton (a drought-tolerant variety, indigenous to India) banners as representative of the hand in the making process, how textiles contain meaning, and the history of banners as a symbol of protest and resistance.

rooster peering sideways on blue-striped background Doug Argue: Letters to the Future

Sat, Jun 17 - Sun, Sep 10 2023

Weisman Art Museum is pleased to present Doug Argue: Letters to the Future, on view through the summer from June 17 – September 10, 2023. Doug Argue emerged onto the Twin Cities art scene in the early 1980s. At the age of twenty-two, he had filled a studio with sensational, larger than life paintings made on a scale for museums. Their enormous size aside, these gnarly, expressionist images stood apart from current art fashion.

puzzle pieces, completed puzzles, and a brain inside a pod with poetry written inside The World Inside You

Wed, Apr 5 - Sun, Jun 25 2023

The World Inside You: Research on Creativity and the Adolescent Brain at the University of Minnesota

Weisman Art Museum is proud to present The World Inside You, an exhibition of artwork made by adolescent artist-participants in a collaborative research project undertaken by an interdisciplinary team of artists and researchers from the University of Minnesota Medical School, led by Dr. Katie Cullen, poet Yuko Taniguchi, and artist Peng Wu, which is part of a years-long collaborative partnership with the Weisman Art Museum.

left: headless statue covered in flowers, center: smartphone reading "Western World," right: painting of young woman wearing white with moon in background Message from Our Planet

Fri, Feb 10 - Sun, May 14 2023

The Weisman's spring 2023 exhibition, Message from Our Planet: Digital Art from the Thoma Collection, brings together software, video, and light-technology artworks from 19 international artists working at the forefront of digital and electronic art. Message from Our Planet proposes that media technologies―from vintage devices to cutting-edge digital algorithms―offer distinct ways for artists to communicate with future generations, encapsulating the artifacts and ambitions of contemporary society.

left: netting on water, center: ceramic hollow feet, right: ceramics on wall Ebb/Flow: Pritika Chowdhry, Chotsani Elaine Dean and Courtney M. Leonard

Sat, Dec 17 2022 - Sat, May 31 2025

The phrase “ebb and flow” is defined as a recurrent or rhythmical pattern of coming and going or decline and regrowth.  It is often used to evoke a sense of calm by suggesting that lows will be followed by highs in an endless and certain course. This usage, however, belies the fact that ebbing and flowing also describes the often fierce dynamism and unpredictability of natural and emotional reality.

a group of people smile through a window (left), a person stands in front of large native american art (middle), black and white photograph of person holding flowers (right) Locally Grown: Documentary Photography of Minnesota Communities

Sat, Nov 19 2022 - Sun, Jul 16 2023

This winter, the Weisman is pleased to present Locally Grown: Documentary Photography of Minnesota Communities, an exhibition of documentary photographs by Minnesota artists, drawn from museum's permanent collection, curated by 2019-20 O'Brien Curatorial Fellow Ashley Cope. Documentary photography published in magazines and books has seen a decline in recent years, with the advent of television, digital media, and infinite online content.