A Nation Takes Place: Navigating Race and Water in Contemporary Art

Our milestone exhibition at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum, A Nation Takes Place, will be closing this weekend on March 2, 2025. A groundbreaking exploration of marine art, this exhibition examines the complex relationships between waterways, national identity, and cultural heritage. Developed in collaboration with guest curators, Twin Cities-based Tia-Simone Gardner and the News Orleans-based Shana M. griffin, this exhibition invites visitors to consider how the sea and marine art have influenced and reflected our understanding of American history, including challenging aspects like colonization, enslavement, and resistance.

The exhibition draws together a collection of artwork by 38 historic and contemporary artists including Kwame Akoto-Bamfo, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, Gordon Coons, Jacob Lawrence, Kara Walker, and Dyani White Hawk. It is made possible by loans from over 20 lending institutions, including Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Denver Art Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Pace Gallery.

Tia-Simone Gardner and Shana M. griffin, *A Nation Takes Place: Navigating Race and Water in Contemporary Art.* Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Beyond Traditional Narratives

A Nation Takes Place is structured around three thought-provoking themes that encourage deeper reflection on marine art's connections to our collective past:

The Ledger explores where historical representations of the sea intersect with the canon of American art, questioning why maritime art often omits references to the triangle trade (the trade of goods that served the trade of people for the production of wealth), and the human costs of oceanic commerce that shaped a "new world." The Ledger explores the political economy of seafaring and its relationship to the international and domestic slave trade and colonization.
The Wake/The Break draws from the work of scholars Christina Sharpe and Fred Moten to examine resistance and interruption across time and space, inviting visitors to consider how artists address changing climate conditions and our evolving relationship with waterways.
The Deep explores the symbolic power of oceans as places of both endings and infinite beginnings, showcasing how artists transform historical understanding into new forms of cultural expression.

A Space for Everyone’s Story

Central to this exhibition is MMAM's commitment to serving diverse audiences and fostering inclusive dialogue. A Nation Takes Place stands apart from previous exhibitions by deliberately creating connections between marine art and the lived experiences of many different communities whose stories intersect with America's waterways.

Visitors whose heritage connects to maritime histories—whether through ancestry, geographic location, or cultural tradition—will find points of recognition and reflection throughout the exhibition. The universality of water as both connector and divider offers everyone an entry point to engage with the artwork on display. By acknowledging multiple historical narratives and contemporary perspectives, the exhibition resonates with visitors whose stories may not have been centered in traditional marine art presentations.

The exhibition environment encourages thoughtful engagement with challenging historical topics while respecting diverse viewpoints. Interactive elements and carefully crafted interpretive materials create opportunities for visitors to consider how their own personal or family histories might connect to the broader themes explored. This approach makes marine art more accessible and relevant to visitors from all backgrounds, inviting deeper connections with both the artwork and the complex histories it represents.

Installation image of *A Nation Takes Place* at Minnesota Marine Art Museum, Winona, MN.
Photo: Bailey Bolton for the Minnesota Marine Art Museum

Honoring Multiple Perspectives

This exhibition acknowledges that our understanding of marine art and history benefits from including diverse voices and experiences. By presenting works that engage with complex themes like the political economy of seafaring, indigenous dispossession, and the legacies of the transatlantic slave trade, A Nation Takes Place creates space for more comprehensive conversations about our shared heritage. These connections help us better understand how past maritime activities continue to shape contemporary American society and culture.

Regional Significance with National Resonance

While rooted in Minnesota's relationship with its waterways, A Nation Takes Place connects our regional experiences to broader national narratives. The exhibition demonstrates how Winona and surrounding communities are part of larger historical patterns that have unfolded across America's rivers, lakes, and coastal regions.

By examining these connections, visitors can appreciate how local histories reflect and contribute to national conversations about identity, belonging, and the ongoing process of understanding our complex past.

**Gordon Coons (Ojibwe, b. 1949) *We Cannot Be Redacted,* 2019.**
Linoleum hand-pulled reduction block print
Photo: Bailey Bolton for the Minnesota Marine Art Museum

Marking the 165th anniversary of the last treaty between the Ojibwe/Chippewa and the United States, which established the current permanent Ojibwe reservations in Minnesota and Wisconsin, Coons unmasks this history in *We Cannot Be Redacted*. In this unredacted flag, he embeds the names of the original six Ojibwe villages from the time of the first Ojibwe/Chippewa 1795 Treaty of Greenville, with all six treaty names signed by the elders from the reservation Coons is enrolled in. The last entry–”May 20, 1991,” re-established the hunting, fishing, and gathering rights established, then denied to the Ojibwe/Chippewa over 137 years, in the 1854 Treaty of La Point. In discussing his work, Coons states, “I came up with the image title *We Cannot Be Redacted* because of our current political climate and how documents are being redacted.”

Contemporary Responses to Historical Themes

A Nation Takes Place features both historical works and contemporary artistic responses that address themes of environmental change, cultural identity, and social transformation. These works demonstrate how artists continue to find inspiration in water as both physical reality and powerful metaphor.

**Pam Longobardi (United States, b. 1958), *Ghosts of Consumption (for Piet M.),* 2011**
Found ocean plastic from Hawaii, Alaska, Greece, Costa Rica, Italy, and the Gulf of Mexico
Photo: Bailey Bolton for the Minnesota Marine Art Museum

Longobardi lays a grid of waste reflecting the impact of imperial exploration and human dominance of nature. The arrangement of household goods, toys, and tubing, largely composed of industrial plastics draws our attention to our environmental impact on our shared waters. As its title implies, the piece also references Piet Mondrian’s 1915 painting *Pier and Ocean (Composition 10).* Longobardi has given the fragments of objects in her piece a unifying structure, a container for the abandoned flotsam, and an opportunity to change course.

**Kara Walker (United States, b. 1969), *8 Possible Beginnings or The Creation of African-America, a Moving Picture by Kara E. Walker,* 2005.**
16mm film and video transferred to DVD (black and white, sound), boxed with paper silhouette
Photo: Bailey Bolton for the Minnesota Marine Art Museum

Two of Kara Walker’s artworks are included in this exhibition, a short film“8 Possible Beginnings or The Creation of African-America,” (2005), and a book, “Freedom: A Fable” (1997). In 8 Possible Beginnings or The Creation of African-America, Walker unravels the complexities of power dynamics in the history following the illegally sanctioned slave trade in America.

A Landmark Exhibition

A Nation Takes Place represents an important step in MMAM's mission to inspire more people to explore the role of marine art in understanding our world. By presenting multiple viewpoints on maritime histories and futures, the exhibition encourages visitors to engage with complex narratives about who we are and how we relate to our environments.

This groundbreaking exhibition promises to deepen appreciation for both traditional marine art and emerging perspectives that expand the field in exciting new directions.

**Kent Monkman (Swampy Cree, Fisher River First Nation, b. 1965), *Saving the Newcomers,* 2023.**
Acrylic on canvas
Photo: Bailey Bolton for the Minnesota Marine Art Museum

*Saving the Newcomers* represents an important moment in the evolution of Kent Monkman’s monumental diptych *mistikôsiwak (Wooden Boat People*). Here, Monkman portrays an imagined first meeting between Indigenous people and settlers at the shores of Turtle Island. The artist took inspiration from several historical works of art, including *Seal Rock* by nineteenth-century Hudson River School artist Albert Bierdstadt. Monkman imagined his alter ego Miss Chief Eagle Testickle standing on Bierstadt’s craggy island and pulling a vulnerable European conquistador from the ocean to safety.

Contributing to the Conversation

With funding from the Terra Foundation for American Art, the Minnesota Marine Art Museum co-hosted a series of three national convenings as part of the A Nation Takes Place project, bringing together artists, writers, curators, scholars, community organizers, and art professionals at critical waterways in the United States to further discussion, knowledge sharing, and cultivate networks. We addressed new and emerging scholarship, curatorial practices, and artistic expression that centers Indigenous and Black voices within the marine art and maritime genre. . The Gulf South Convening was held at Tulane River and Coastal Center in New Orleans, LA in December 2024, and the East Coast Convening was held in February 2025 at the Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, CT. The Central Mississippi River convening will be held in June 2025 at Jim’s Journey: The Huck Finn Freedom Center in Hannibal, MO.

Images from the Gulf South Convening, held at Tulane River and Coastal Center in New Orleans, LA December 2024
Photos: Fernando Lopez