Past Exhibitions

This annual exhibition celebrates the creativity, vision, and talent of North Dakota’s teen visual artists and writers.

The gallery features over 90 works by talented artists from all over the country. The proceeds of the 2026 Spring Gala Art Auction support living artists as well as Plains Art Museum, the only accredited art museum in North Dakota.

When the lights go out, the museum no longer behaves as a place of order, preservation, and quiet observation. Instead, objects come to life, and carefully constructed displays begin to unravel.

Local Color invites viewers on a journey through the familiar yet quietly stunning landscapes of the Upper Midwest. In her debut solo exhibition, Elizabeth Eggl captures the beauty of the Red River Valley’s winding roads, expansive fields, and tranquil waters.

Floating Beauty examines historical perspectives on women and their depiction in art in Edo Period Japan (1615–1858). Made up entirely of woodblock prints created in the ukiyo-e style.

Fifty Years of Photography and Design is a retrospective exhibition celebrating Murray Lemley’s artistic career.

This exhibition represents four centuries of art created by remarkable women who struggled against gender bias to take their places in history. Until the twentieth century, women were frequently denied formal training and often had difficulty showing and selling their work.

Color Improvisations 3 features 42 colorful, larger-than-life quilts that celebrate the expressive possibility of color in contemporary textile art.

Homing is a solo exhibition featuring the work of regional multidisciplinary artist Alicia Hauff. This body of work examines the disconnect between contemporary life and the ecological, ancestral, and somatic systems that have sustained human and non-human communities.

Donald D. Powell, a Fargo native, was a prolific, award-winning architect and a keen art collector. Powell amassed a sizeable collection of European and American modern art in an array of media. He donated much of his impressive collection to the Plains Art Museum in several installments in 1999, 2000, 2002-3, 2005-9, and 2013.

Art Camp, a celebration of regional student artists, begins on Friday, April 11th with activities for high school students and teachers at NDSU’s Renaissance Hall in downtown Fargo (across the street from the museum). Organized by NDSU’s School of Design, Architecture and Art (SoDAA).

The Queer Ecology Hanky Project (QEHP) is an ongoing traveling exhibition organized by Vee Adams and Mary Tremonte that features over one hundred and twenty artists from across North America.

The Hands of Hope exhibition in our café space showcases artwork by children and families in our community in honor of National Crime Victims’ Rights Week (April 6-12). These canvases hold 884 handprints, each representing a life touched by the Red River Children’s Advocacy Center in 2023.