THE MINNEAPOLIS INSTITUTE OF ART’S NEW EXHIBITION: AMY USDIN’S “AFTER ALL” OFFERS A MOMENT OF REPRIEVE

A contemplative textile exhibition examines grief, environmental responsibility, and the forms of human connection

The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) presents Amy Usdin: After All, an immersive textile exhibition organized within the framework of the Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program (MAEP). Through handwoven sculptures, loom-woven works, and net-based installations, Amy Usdin develops a practice that intertwines memory, place, and emotional experience, creating a narrative that is at once intimate and expansive. For the artist, fiber serves as a critical medium to explore the interdependence between humans and the land, as well as the practices of care required to sustain both. Installed in the U.S. Bank Gallery and on view through February 22, 2026, the exhibition is free and open to the public.

Amy Usdin: After All brings together seventeen works, including new pieces created during recent residencies in Cleveland and Chicago. The centerpiece of the exhibition is a hanging panel installation inspired by Dead Horse Bay in Brooklyn, New York, a site where the remnants of a mid-century landfill resurface cyclically with the tides. Loom-woven objects formally echo these material emergences, offering tactile translations of displaced lives and interrupted histories.

Autobiographical narrative and ecological reflection converge at the core of the exhibition through four new works. Mother/Earth serves as the sculptural focal point, inspired by the artist’s processing of grief following her mother’s death and by a restorative artist residency in Iceland. Usdin’s international residencies and travels have provided both solace and renewed awareness, informing the creation of three additional wall-mounted textile works.

The work After All depicts the decomposing forest floor of a Portuguese woodland illuminated by beams of light, evoking the beauty and hope the artist experienced at that moment. In the Falling examines the delicate sheet moss tumbling from steep Icelandic cliffs, burdened by the weight of water and gravity. The In-Between, created in Italy, emphasizes the importance of conscious presence, reminding viewers that inattention may result in a loss of engagement with the surrounding world.

Together with the other works in the gallery, these pieces encourage reflection on the body as landscape and, conversely, landscape as body, prompting audiences to consider what is inevitable versus what is culturally constructed or imposed.

Among the exhibited works is Passages, a series of digitally woven textiles inspired by anthropomorphic patterns discovered on an airport floor during renovations. In this context, the airport – conceived as an artificial landscape and infrastructure of global mobility—becomes an unexpected site of visual recognition and shared humanity.

“Amy Usdin’s work transforms fiber into a language of reflection,” says Nicole Soukup, MAEP supervisor. “Usdin’s practice elevates textile traditions while confronting contemporary anxieties – economic, ecological, and emotional. Her exhibition invites visitors to slow down, to sit with loss, and to imagine a practice of care – not just for one another, but for the environments that sustain us.”

Amy Usdin is a Minneapolis-based artist who began her studio practice in 2018 after a career as an art director. A graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, she has exhibited widely in contemporary craft and fiber contexts. Her accolades include multiple grants and fellowships from the Minnesota State Arts Board and the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, as well as fellowships from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design–Jerome Foundation and the Jerome Foundation.

The Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program (MAEP) is an artist-led initiative within Mia. Founded in 1975 as an annual collaboration between the museum and regional artists, it has evolved into a unique, ongoing relationship now in its fiftieth year. Today, MAEP presents exhibitions in the U.S. Bank Gallery, a 2,500-square-foot space, with support from RBC Wealth Management.

The Minneapolis Institute of Art houses a collection of over 100,000 works spanning 5,000 years of world art history. Through world-class exhibitions and one of the nation’s most significant collections – ranging from ancient to contemporary and representing cultures from every geographic region – Mia fosters dialogue between past and present, stimulates creativity, and provides an exceptional environment for the development of new cultural perspectives.