In May 2020, the 1000 rolled out its first virtual fundraiser, Momentum. Edifice on the exciting growth of the Chiliad in the last few years, Momentum was a celebration of fine art and artists, a way to honor both the legacy and the time to come of the K's collection.

Momentum featured 12 artists, and each artwork told a story near the artist, the Chiliad, and the various inspirations, conversations, and stories that make upwardly this collection. Momentum fifty-fifty showcased five living artists, and some contributors had the opportunity to travel well-nigh effectually Minnesota on behind-the-scenes studio visits.

Pivoting due to the pandemic became a chance to ground downwardly into resilience and rising up in excitement nigh what the M has to offering. In challenging times, the role of art becomes more than key, whether we realize it or not. Momentum invited Y'all to engage through the M's drove.

Artists featured: Amalia Amaki, Leslie Barlow, Hazel Belvo, Sonya Clark, Jim Denomie, Maren Kloppman, Paul Manship, Joan Mitchell, George Morrison, Cara Romero, Alec Soth, and Aaron Spangler. Below are v of those 12 Momentum artists and artworks.

Leslie Barlow

The M snagged this painting by Leslie Barlow at the 2018 Minnesota Land Fair, where information technology was decorated with honors, including the White Bear Center for the Arts Honour and Metropolitan Regional Arts Council Award. (Fun fact: The M is the only museum that purchases an artwork each year from the Minnesota State Fair for our permanent collection.)

It's no wonder Stephen, Jeffery, and Twin s received such recognition. It's a tender portrait Leslie painted on top of a patchwork of fabrics, suggesting that a family is like a beautiful quilt.

Leslie herself is quite decorated.Urban center Pages named her "Artist of the Year" in 2016. She's received major commissions and does swell work to support other artists of colour through projects such as Studio 400. She'southward been a didactics artist at the K, besides!

Hazel Belvo

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Hazel Belvo is best known for her ability to capture the dynamic and elusive energy of an ancient, knotted cedar tree sacred to the Ojibwe people of Grand Portage. Manido-Gree-Shi-Gance, or Little Cedar Spirit Tree, has stood watchfully perched on a rocky overhang higher up Lake Superior for more than 300 years. Since 1961, Hazel has returned year after year to this tree on the Grand Portage Indian Reservation, where her former husband, artist George Morrison, was born and spent his later years. Hazel's apply of tobacco to make this drawing is pregnant, as it is customary to sprinkle tobacco at its base every bit an offering for safe passage beyond the big, sometimes treacherous lake.

Nosotros are excited to explore the full range of Hazel's artistic achievements in an exhibition that will open at the One thousand in 2021. Her exquisite drawings and paintings have of import stories to tell—about feminism, resilience, dedication, and the pleasures of creative work.

Jim Denomie

"We're not in Kansas anymore!" This fantastical mural doesn't quite wait similar The Wizard of Oz (the 1939 film that served as its inspiration). This is a earth of Jim Denomie's making, where transformed versions of Dorothy and her pals must navigate a symbolic minefield.

Jim was honored in 2019 with the land'southward most prestigious artistic honor, the McKnight Distinguished Creative person Award. This spectacular painting showcases his signature double punch of wit and satire to have aim at the ills of contemporary society.

A member of the Lac Courtes Oreilles band of Ojibwe, Jim often uses satire to face up stereotypes of Native Americans. The M is proud to call him a Trustee of the museum's Lath of Trustees, and a fellow member of the Collections Committee.

Maren Kloppmann

Maren Kloppmann is a wizard with dirt. Her porcelain ceramics—with their elegant shapes and serene palettes—create a sense of quietude and balance. She got her offset making functional vessels—beautiful cups, plates, and bowls to be admiredand used. When her practice shifted toward thought-driven installations, her interests in transforming dirt into form and drawing inspiration from the natural globe remained.

Born in Germany in 1962, Maren came to Minnesota to continue her studies in ceramics with Mark Pharis at the University of Minnesota. Although the love ceramist Warren MacKenzie had retired by that fourth dimension, she has fond memories of exchanging stories with him and using one of his kilns.

Alec Soth

20150701Soth_Brian_Williston_NorthDakotaIn this portrait of Brian Coffey, an employee of Raven Drilling, Alec Soth shows the states the hard piece of work, decision, and isolation of laboring on a drilling rig. The subject of a major solo exhibition at the Walker Fine art Middle in 2010, Alec is ane of the land'southward leading photographers, and he hails from Minneapolis.

In 2013,The New York Times magazine did a cover story on the oil boom in North Dakota and asked Alec to spend a week photographing the locals and learning well-nigh their lives. The commodity, "The Luckiest Place on Earth," explored some of the bug facing the region following the widespread employ of fracking, a controversial applied science used for extracting oil and natural gas.