Past Exhibitions

After a 25-year exploration of all aspects of Lakota lifeways through ceremony, dance, and prayer, Gerald Cournoyer presents his observations in his newest solo exhibition, Sending A Voice. Gerald Cournoyer rejects Edward Curtis’s observations that the Lakota are a people of the past.

The Practice is the Point celebrates the union of artistic and social practice, by exploring the ways artists create, listen, and react to the needs of their communities.

John Nellermoe’s lake paintings intersect realism and abstraction with reverence to his environment and playful respect to the picture plane. Through dissecting the plane into strips of land, water and sky while pushing and pulling space, Nellermoe’s work simultaneously disorients and calms.

Plains Art Museum is proud to present Carrying Things from Home–a series of seven woodcuts with hand dyed chine collé by printmaker Annalise Gratovich. The prints reveal captivating stories combining historical, cultural, home, and familial ties.

Returning for its sixth year, and again demonstrating power in quality, diversity, and strength, Plains Art Museum welcomes back the 2023 North Dakota Human Rights Art Exhibition. This exhibition displays artwork that celebrates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its standards of achievements for all peoples and nations.

Each year, Fargo Moorhead Visual Artists (FMVA) presents the Studio Crawl—a popular, free event that gives the community access to professional artists’ studios. The Studio Crawl is an opportunity for people to meet artists, see demonstrations, and purchase their work.

Architecture for the Birds is a popular annual exhibition presented in partnership with the North Dakota State University Department of Architecture & Landscape Architecture. The work is the result of a design challenge posed to participating students: to design and build a birdhouse based on the work of a Pritzker-Award-winning architect.

Fargo Moorhead Visual Artists (FMVA), North Dakota Arts Education (NDAEA) and the Plains Art Museum are coming together to promote and support our state and regional arts educators.

This exhibition celebrates the vision, ingenuity, and talent of North Dakota teen artists. Since 2015, Plains Art Museum and the Red River Valley Writing Project have partnered to serve as the state affiliate for the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards.

A Lazy Love is a multimedia installation that explores the liminal space between labor and rest, love and loss. After a long day’s work, Omaha-based artist Ella Weber, treats herself to a free 90-minute massage at Nebraska Furniture Mart, America’s largest home furnishing store. While reclining in a massage chair, she records the dialogue of couples shopping for La-Z-Boy chairs. 

School Spirit: Celebrating Youth Art Month, now in its 21st year, showcases the talents of regional K-12 art students from area schools in a variety of media. This exhibition celebrates our region’s emerging artists and promotes awareness of the vital work done by art educators.

Art Camp, a celebration of regional student artists, begins on Friday, April 12th with activities for high school students and teachers at NDSU’s Renaissance Hall in downtown Fargo (across the street from the museum).

Everything is more complex than it appears. This is Not Black and White is an exhibition featuring works from Plains Art Museum’s permanent collection that underscore spectrums of complexity. The works in the exhibition reflect a diversity of place, ethnicity, culture, gender, and medium but are aesthetically linked by artistic use of strong blacks and whites.

Rob and Eric Thomas-Suwall – known online by their moniker, The Icy Gays or @theicygays – acquired their first artwork, Corydon Cowansage’s Stairs #3, seven years ago after discovering it online.

The Zoetic Spaces exhibition combines works from Plains Art Museum’s permanent collection, Hannaher’s Inc. Print Studio education collection, and works from around the area to create an environment to celebrate our shared existence.