“State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now” opened February 18 at Mia and features dozens of living artists from across America. Three are from Minnesota: Andy DuCett, Chris Larson, and Cameron Gainer. A small fraction, the exhibition’s curators acknowledge, of the art being made all around us.
“There likely have never been more artists at work,” they note in the introduction to the show, “yet few receive the attention and visibility their art deserves.”
In the spirit of discovering terrific artists in our midst, The Store at Mia is hosting a West Elm LOCAL pop-up shop of handmade goods for the duration of the show. Fourteen makers, four from Minnesota.
A modern quilt by Louise Gray.
Alexandra Gray Bennett and Jocelin Johnson are the Minneapolis designers behind Louise Gray, which makes contemporary quilts through traditional handwork. They met in 2009 at the Minnesota stationery store russell+hazel, where Bennett was the sales manager and Johnson the creative director. After departing in 2013, to branding and ad agencies, they reconnected over quilts and went into business together in 2014. It’s been bold stripes and cotton ever since.
Mod-Dog’s gold-leaf silhouettes of Minnesota.
St. Paul graphic designers John and Kari Finkler were inspired by friends’ dogs and cats and their own demanding dachshund to make sleek silhouette art prints for pet lovers as Mod-Dog. Modern art for modern pets, they call it.
They now offer English bulldog cufflinks, gilded silhouettes in gold leaf of Irish setters and pretty much any other breed. For this shop, they’ve given the state of Minnesota their signature silhouette treatment in gold leaf.
Marvin Freitas’s wooden furniture.
Marvin Freitas grew up watching his grandfather make things in his garage shop in Galicia, Spain, and is now a Minneapolis woodworker. His stump-like stools and pedestals seem ripped from the bark, though smooth, as though washed ashore. His tables and shelves have the bleached appearance of driftwood.
Oh Dier’s wooden words.
Katie and William Dohman, of West St. Paul, are the husband-and-wife design team known as Oh Dier. William was an architect, Katie a style editor, when William quit the long and arduous architectural design process for the more immediate gratification of making and selling his own wares. Playful wooden signs (“Hustle,” “Holla,” Whoop Whoop”) established the duo’s design sensibility nearly eight years ago, and they’ve since branched into fine wooden furniture, ring boxes, and other, often commemorative lifestyle goods.
Oh Dier’s Pixie Ring Box.
“We grew up going to Mia and seeing all the wonderful, world-changing works and feeling so inspired,” William says. “And now to have our products within a stone’s throw of that work is an experience that is difficult to put into words. I would have never dreamed of having my work in a museum way back when, nor when Oh Dier began, but it’s such a sweet experience to be there now.”