There’s plenty of abstraction and surreality in the galleries of the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia), including some work in the new “Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys” exhibit.
However, the surreal is coming for the Renaissance this summer. the Mia opens “The Weirdening of the Renaissance” on Saturday, June 14, exploring “the strange, the surreal, and the sublime” from a period of European art that is more often associated with realism.
“This exhibition takes us to the wonderfully weird world of artists freed from narrow ideas of Renaissance propriety,” said Tom Rassieur, John E. Andrus III Curator of Prints and Drawings at Mia. “It’s a reminder that the Renaissance wasn’t just a rebirth of old ideas — it was also a hotbed of innovation, imagination, and strangeness.”
The exhibit showcases how artists “manipulated perspective, distorted figures, and turned away from purely representational imagery,” the Mia says. It’ll include infrequently seen engravings, woodcuts, and etchings from the museum’s collection. …