Best Murals In Minnesota
Some murals are new and creative. Many are historically significant and can be found throughout Minnesota. Geoff McFetridge produced a creative application of mural art on Walker's construction fence. Jennifer Steinkamp transformed the rotunda dome in Minneapolis Institute of Art's Target Gallery by projecting 3-D digital animation of asteroids. Street artist Swoon created a life-sized cityscape in MIA's gallery 361. On the other hand, old public buildings throughout the state house historical treasures. One is featured below. Another is the Governor's Reception Room, with its walls covered by monstrous murals that are of great significance to Minnesota history. This list captures some of Minnesota's best murals. Get out and see them all.
Geoff McFetridge Mural
Walker Art Center
1750 Hennepin Ave.
Minneapolis, MN 55403
(612) 375-7600
www.walkerart.org
Walker Art Center displayed a daring and brilliant use of murals on a temporary site fence mural covering the construction area of the Walker's Barnes building ongoing through the fall of 2013. Artful mural designer Geoff McFetridge created the work for the Walker. As Geoff explains on a Walker video, his mural looks like a "filmstrip pulled apart. We read things fast because we have been inundated with culture, graphics and imagery. When you see one image, you understand that the two things on either side of it are related. You are kind of connecting the images and start animating it in your head." See more pictures of the mural in the Walker blog.
Target Gallery Rotunda Dome
Minneapolis Institute of Arts
2400 3rd Ave. S.
Minneapolis, MN 55404
(612) 870-3000
www.new.artsmia.org
Digital projections of asteroids bounce and spin across the Target Gallery rotunda dome. Jennifer Steinkamp, professor in the department of Design and Media Arts at UCLA, is a pioneer in transforming architectural space with 3-D digital animation. The illusions are so realistic that one feels swept into to its space. Steinkamp says she uses "natural forms because the motion can be so intriguing... Motion can touch you on an emotional and physical level in a timeless way." Born in Denver, Colorado, she spent much of her childhood in Edina, Minnesota.
Gallery 361
Minneapolis Institute of Arts
2400 3rd Ave. S.
Minneapolis, MN 55404
(612) 870-3000
www.new.artsmia.org
Swoon creates murals by pasting life-size, woodcut, block-print portraits directly onto walls of city streets. She likes breaking away from the convention of hung artwork. Gallery 361 is a transplanted collage of a cityscape made of salvaged urban materials, scrap metal and wood. It flakes and decays over time as would any cityscape. Swoon placed two figures, Alixa and Naima, fellow street artists, in the center of this cityscape. The result is both realistic and engaging.
Restored Murals In The Jackson County Courthouse
405 4th St.
Jackson, MN 56143
(507) 847-4400
www.mncourts.gov
"Eye popping." That is what David Grabitske, Manager of Outreach Services at Minnesota Historical Society, says of the restoration work by Dan Tarnaveneau. "He is a fabulous mural conservator," says Grabitske. Recent immigrants painted many of these murals freehand using camel-hair brushes when the classically designed courthouse was built in 1909. Some of the murals are of toga-clad figures working in construction and engineering on a railroad and a sodbuster's cabin. Three women, Liberty, Equality and Justice, guard the judge's bench. Fourteen other figures line the top of the courtroom. Charles Skooglun of St. Paul built the Bedford limestone Beaux Arts building and Buechner and Orth Architects of Minneapolis designed the building.
Minnesota State Capitol
75 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
St. Paul, MN 55155
(651) 296-2881
www.sites.mnhs.org/historic-sites/minnesota-state-capitol
"From a purely historical point of view, the Civil War murals in the Governor's Reception Room at the state capitol chronicle important chapters in Minnesota's history. Some were executed by the best mural painters of the day (circa 1905)," says Brian Szott, Head of Collections at MHS. Huge paintings, dwarfing all else in the reception room, depict the important Civil War battles fought by Minnesota soldiers in historically accurate garb.
Related: Best Permanent Exhibits In Minnesota
Robin Johnson was born in Annandale, Minn. and graduated from Richfield High School and then the University of Minnesota where he studied Political Science, Business and Industrial Relations. A writer for Examiner.com, he also consults with a variety of organizations and individuals helping them develop and grow. His work can be found at Examiner.com.
