Walker Art Center | Visual Arts
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Visual Arts
The Walker’s Visual Arts department presents forward-thinking
contemporary art exhibitions
and oversees the museum’s expansive collection.
The Walker’s Visual Arts department is a cornerstone of the museum’s acclaimed arts programming. Grounded in a commitment to creativity and rigor, the program illuminates the art and ideas of our time. Across both indoor gallery spaces and the outdoor
Minneapolis Sculpture Garden
, the department supports emerging work while stewarding
the Walker’s vast collection
Since the Walker’s founding in 1940, the scope of visual arts has evolved to include a broad range of practices. From sculpture and site-specific installation to performance and time-based media, today’s artists continually explore novel modes of expression. Reflecting the cross-disciplinary nature of contemporary art practices, the curatorial team presents a mix of solo, group, and thematic exhibitions. To date, dozens of artists have had their first major museum exposures in the Walker galleries, including Pao Houa Her, Kara Walker, Dyani White Hawk, Julie Mehretu, and Haegue Yang.
With an eye toward change and an ear toward community, the Walker’s Visual Arts department honors the past, present, and future of contemporary art, fundamentally reshaping how we engage with its many forms.
What is Contemporary Art?
Collections
Exhibitions
Visual Arts Stories
History
When the Walker Art Center opened in 1940, Assistant Director J. LeRoy Davidson was the first visual arts curator. With an expertise in Chinese painting and an interest in 20th-century art, Davidson was uniquely qualified to lead the visual arts program. He re-examined the thousands of Chinese jades, porcelains, paintings, and artifacts in the T. B. Walker collection, which led to a refreshed installation in colorful cases and the creation of informative labels describing how objects were made, as well as where, when, and why they were used. Similarly, he had an eye for modern and contemporary art; it was Davidson who saw Franz Marc’s
The
Large Blue Horses
(1911) on exhibition in the United States. Davidson encouraged the Walker to acquire the oil painting, even though the museum had very few works from the 1900s in the collection. With the acquisition of
The
Large Blue Horses
, the focus of the visual arts program shifted dramatically toward the presentation and collection of modern and contemporary art.
Davidson’s tenure was short-lived. In 1943 he, like many at that time, left to join the war effort. Davidson was assigned to the War Department and then served with the State Department, where in 1946 he organized
Advancing American Art
, a touring exhibition of American contemporary art in Europe
Though Davidson’s time at the Walker was brief, his direction was instrumental for its visual arts program. His successors combined both exhibition and collection practices to advance contemporary art. In exhibitions such as
136 American Artists
in 1946, the Walker purchased Edward Hopper’s
Office at Night
(1940) as well as numerous other examples over the years, including the acquisition of
Prayer
(1962) by a then young art student Siah Armajani from the
1962 Biennial
Besides exhibiting and acquiring, the curatorial team has long worked directly with artists. In 1941, local sculptor Evelyn Raymond became the first artist in residence—or “artist at work” as it was then called. Raymond created a bas relief for International Falls, Minnesota, in the lobby. Museum visitors could visit over the course of many weeks to watch as the relief came into view.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the Walker presented numerous exhibitions of installation art, including
Adhesive Products
(1971) by Lynda Benglis, and Robert Irwin’s
Untitled
(Slant)
(1971) in
Works for New Spaces,
the opening show of the gallery tower known as the Barnes building. More recent examples of residencies and commissions that provided artists with the freedom to explore new ideas include Goshka Macuga’s tapestry
Lost Forty
(2011), created during her residency, and Carolyn Lazard’s commissioned installation
Long Take
in 2022.
The Visual Arts team has worked with numerous artists, many over the course of their careers, presenting exhibitions, residencies, and collecting artworks including Kara Walker, Julie Mehretu, and Haegue Yang. In more recent years, curatorial practices have expanded the definition of visual arts to include performance and interdisciplinary art; examples include the presentation of works by Jason Moran and Sadie Barnette, and the acquisition of the
Merce Cunningham Dance Collection
of sets and costumes.
With a solid historical foundation, the visual arts program continues to change, question, and expand the presentation and acquisition of contemporary art.
What is Contemporary Art?
Contemporary art is the art of now. It’s made by living artists—across disciplines, mediums, and cultures—and it speaks to the complexity of our world in real time. Sometimes it’s political. Sometimes intensely personal. Sometimes it’s a giant blue rooster. Or a set of instructions on a simple notecard.
More about contemporary art
Collections
Visual Arts Permanent Collection
With
nearly 16,000
works by almost 2,500
art
st
from around the world, the Visual
Art
s Permanent Collection features a diverse range of
art
st
ic output.
View Collection
Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection
The Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection was
established
in 1973 and features more than 1,000 titles, including
16mm
and
35mm
films; video and digital
art
works; and Moving Image Commissions.
View Collection
Rosemary Furtak Artist Book Collection
This collection of “books that refuse to behave like books” features works by
art
st
such as Sol LeWitt, Dieter Roth, Edward Ruscha, and Lawrence Weiner as well as exemplary pieces by local book
art
st
View Collection
Digital Art Study Collection
The Digital
Art
s Study Collection includes over 50 important examples of early internet-based
art
created between 1993 to 2003.
View Collection
Merce Cunningham Collection
The Merce Cunningham Dance Company Collection includes over 4,000 objects that
represent
150 dances made in collaboration by Cunningham with various artists, designers, and musicians.
View Collection
Current Exhibitions
Trisha Brown and Robert Rauschenberg: Glacial Decoy
Jun 26, 2025–May 24, 2026
Exhibitions
Trisha Brown and Robert Rauschenberg: Glacial Decoy
Rosy Simas: A:gajë:gwah dësa’nigöëwë:nye:'
(i hope it will stir your mind)
Feb 12–Jul 5, 2026
Exhibitions
Rosy Simas: A:gajë:gwah dësa’nigöëwë:nye:'
(i hope it will stir your mind)
Suzanne Jackson: What Is Love
May 14–Aug 23, 2026
Exhibitions
Suzanne Jackson: What Is Love
Christine Sun Kim: All Day All Night
Mar 28–Aug 30, 2026
Exhibitions
Christine Sun Kim: All Day All Night
Sculpture Court
Oct 18, 2025–Aug 30, 2026
Exhibitions
Sculpture Court
Olalekan Jeyifous: Hydricosmic Litanies
Aug 6, 2026–Jan 3, 2027
Exhibitions
Olalekan Jeyifous: Hydricosmic Litanies
View Exhibitions
The galleries are FREE on Thursday nights and the first Saturday of the month.
Plan a Visit
Visual Arts Stories
What is a Sculpture Court?
Jill Vuchetich
Visual Arts
What is a Sculpture Court?
Is a sculpture court the name of the exhibition or an architectural description of the space? At the Walker, it can be both. Archivist Jill Vuchetich explores this deceptively simple concept from the Renaissance through today.
Seeing It in Person: Kim Benson on
Wall Flower
Walker Art Center
Visual Arts
Seeing It in Person: Kim Benson on
Wall Flower
Minneapolis-based painter Kim Benson discusses her work
Wall Flower
, the materiality of painting, and the medium’s unique ability to connect the past, present, and future.
A Large Number of Artists Make Their Homes Here: Henriette Huldisch on the Walker’s Collection
Visual Arts
A Large Number of Artists Make Their Homes Here: Henriette Huldisch on the Walker’s Collection
The Walker's chief curator and director of Curatorial Affairs sits down to talk about the role of museum collections, the local art ecosystem, and the surprises of snow maintenance.
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