Past Exhibits

 The interaction between water and birds is the focus of A Reflective Nature, which comprises 50 paintings and works on paper selected from the permanent collection of the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, Wisconsin, which organized the exhibition for national tour. 

 Though all the works in A Reflective Nature are alike in that each features birds and water, they differ in as many ways as there are artists to interpret these two subjects.   

Betsy Bowen is a renowned woodcut artist based in Grand Marais, Minnesota. Her subjects are Lake Superior, traditional folklore, animals and people of the north woods. On display are a variety of her work from several woodcut series and illustrations from several children's books.

Sponsored by Winona National Bank.

Offering a variety of art and navigational instruments from many countries, this exhibit chronicles the history of ocean travel.  Imagine sailing in an age prior to instant global communication, weather updates and radio communication. Featuring navigational instruments, artifacts, books, historical documents and paintings from the Burrichter/Kierlin Marine Art and museum's collections. Explore the tools, techniques and challenges faced by the sailors over the last centuries.
 

Jim Brandenburg, Ely, MN, traveled the globe as a photographer with National Geographic Magazine for over 30 years and has won a multitude of national and international awards.  The "Chased by the Light" photographs were all taken in the deep woods surrounding Brandenburg's home, Ravenwood, near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, in northern Minnesota. They represent his feelings about the essence of wild places - a raven feather in the rain; a tree marked by a bear; a frosty meadow; lichens; an abandoned beaver dam; a wolf chasing ravens; or the aurora borealis in the nighttime sky.

Sponsored by Merchants Bank.

Dashing through the snow, on a one-horse open sleigh....

 From October 4^th through March 26^th, 2010, twenty-seven oil and canvas, gouache and watercolor paintings from the Burrichter/Kierlin Marine Art Museum by four of the world’s best contemporary marine artists are on display. 

John Stobart, Roy Cross, Dusan Kadlec and Maatren Platje are best known for their photorealistic style, painstaking attention to detail and accuracy in rendering a variety of historical and contemporary ships and locations.  Most of the scenes depict the busy sea and river ports in the growing America from 1795 to 1906. Historic seaports, such as New York, Boston, Savannah, Cincinnati, San Francisco, and  Nantucket, welcome new immigrants and merchandise. Museum visitors will view ‘famous name’ ships such as Constitution, Charles W. Morgan, Mariette, Robert E. Lee, and Minnesota.

Sponsored by Schwab LLC.

 In 1935, George Macy, the publisher of the Heritage Press and Limited Editions Club books, invited Norman Rockwell to illustrate Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. Rockwell visited Hannibal, Missouri, Twain’s boyhood town, to find authentic details to include in his work. Twain’s vivid descriptions of character, setting and mood were an inspiration to the illustrator, who considered each of the writer’s scenes to be “complete and perfect to the last detail.”

The sixteen signed limited edition prints from Rockwell’s own collection comprise this exhibition featuring the artist’s timeless images for these American classics.

On loan from the Norman Rockwell Museum

Treasured whimsical wood carvings from the Leo and Marilyn Smith Collection combine with cyanotype photograph reproductions by Henry Peter Bosse.  The artists' subject is our area of the Mississippi River and its people, flora and fauna. Several new Smith pieces are on display for the first time.

From Ely to Winona, and from transportation to recreation, canoes hold a special place in the past and present of Minnesota. Now, the Minnesota Marine Art Museum offers a look at the canoe as art. From hand-crafted birch bark to modern designs that are lighter, tougher and sleeker than ever before, this exhibit will explore the fascinating story of Minnesota built canoes.