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Weisman Art Museum presents "Seeking for the Lost," portraits by Christopher E. Harrison of those sold or “lost” during slavery, as described in local Black newspaper classified ads from the period
Seeking for the Lost Newspaper header image
Composite graphic by Weisman Art Museum, with a detail from a portrait by Christopher E. Harrison, overlaid on a cropped detail from an archival scan of a “Seeking for the Lost” column in The Appeal, courtesy of Minnesota Historical Society.

Weisman Art Museum is proud to present Seeking for the Lost, on view from August 3, 2024 – February 16, 2025. This exhibition views the details of often overlooked histories, with an artistic lens. Featuring portraiture by contemporary artist Christopher E. Harrison, Seeking for the Lost explores the unbreakable familial bonds expressed through ads in the St. Paul newspaper The Appeal; presents the post-Reconstruction goals of Minnesota’s Black press; and shows how literacy informed the lives of Black Americans after the Civil War.

Organized by the African American Interpretive Center of Minnesota and curated by JoJo Bell, the exhibition centers on the eponymous “Seeking for the Lost” column from The Appeal, a Black-owned and operated St. Paul newspaper. The column printed ads from formerly enslaved people seeking family members who had been sold or “lost” during slavery and through the post-Reconstruction period. Informally, small ads started appearing in the paper in 1888; by 1891, The Appeal was publishing the ads as a permanent column. The Appeal was not the first paper to print such ads, but in this newspaper the ads were free, signaling the publication’s significant commitment to help readers find family, at no cost, as well as its resolve to uplift a new, post-Reconstruction generation desperate to reconnect with loved ones lost to slavery.

Each painting by Christopher Harrison in the exhibition imagines what a missing subject described in “Seeking for the Lost” might have looked like. By portraying each lost family member with a distinct perspective and personality, Harrison’s art emphasizes kinship as a unifying power and literacy as a means of endurance.

WAM senior curator, Diane Mullin, says: “We were immediately interested in presenting this fascinating exhibition of an important chapter in the state’s, and country’s, history — that of the Black experience in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War and its reverberation to the present day.”

“Seeking for the Lost sheds light on the existence of important networks of reunion for Black families in the years immediately following the Civil War,” writes exhibition curator JoJo Bell. “We hope the exhibition will be revelatory about African American history in Minnesota.”

Thanks to Minnesota Transform: A Just University for Just Futures for their support of this exhibition. General operating support for Weisman Art Museum’s exhibitions and programs is generously provided by Ameriprise Financial, the Art and Martha Kaemmer Fund of HRK Foundation, and the KHR McNeely Family Fund, thanks to Kevin, Rosemary, and Hannah Rose McNeely.

Christopher E. Harrison

A man with very short dark hair and a trimmed beard, wearing a red jacket, pictured in an art studio.
About the Artist
Christopher E. Harrison
Christopher E. Harrison is a fine artist, public artist and designer in Minneapolis .He received his BFA in 1987 Retail Advertising from the Columbus (OH) College of Art and Design and an MFA in Studio Arts, Painting from the Art Academy University, San Francisco (CA) in 2021.
 
He has exhibited locally, national and internationally. His exhibitions include Nemeth Art Center (MN), the Weisman Art Museum (MN), the Duluth Art Institute (MN) Smack Mellon (NY), the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (WI), Galerie Sobo Bade, Dakar, Senegal and the DeVos Art Museum (MI). Collections include The Minnesota Museum of American Art. Public art pieces include the City of Minneapolis, MN; Woodbury, MN; Richfield, MN. His artist grants include the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Jerome Foundation, the Elizabeth Murray Foundation Artist Residency, the Pollock Krasner Foundation, the Andy Warhol Foundation and MRAC Next Step. He is currently a Lecturer of Drawing/Painting at the University of MN-Twin Cities.

JoJo Bell

A woman is shown seated, wearing a flowing patterned dress, her hair in twists, pulled up
JoJo Bell
Jokeda “JoJo” Bell is the Executive Director and the Director of Exhibitions and Programming for the African American Interpretive Center of Minnesota (AAICM). Her roles within the organization have led to collaborative programming with state historical institutions like the Minnesota Historical Society and the Minnesota Museum of American Art. She has also appeared as an expert in the Minnesota Historical Society’s documentary Storied: African Americans in WWI. In 2019, JoJo curated The Builders exhibition for AAICM, which was named one of the top ten art exhibitions of the year by the Star Tribune.
 
Currently, JoJo is a PhD student in the History department at the University of Minnesota and is writing a book scheduled for publication with Minnesota Historical Society Press on September 17, 2024.

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