Jimmy Jam, left, talks with Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz backstage at the preview party of “Giants” at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. (Jerry Holt/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
If art is a language, then individual pieces are like words or phrases that curators put together to compose stories. At Mia, “Giants” unfolds with a similar narrative of irrepressible creativity and sublime genius that the show told on its previous stops.
Tamara Wallace posed for a photo in front of painting of Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. (Jerry Holt/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
But the pieces, curated by Mia curator Casey Riley, play out differently in Minnesota. One example: the works of Minnesota’s iconic Renaissance photographer, filmmaker and writer Gordon Parks occupy their own sizeable room, an apt amplitude for someone who honed his craft in Minnesota.
But from Amy Sherald to Kehinde Wiley, Meleko Mokgosi to Nick Cave, the pieces resonate in different keys, in part because of the volume of space that Minnesota offers.
People mingle at the preview party of “Giants” Friday at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. (Jerry Holt/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
As collectors, the Deans own the most photographs by Parks, whose influence was evoked by painter and “Exhibiting Forgiveness” filmmaker Titus Kaphar.
Alicia Keys spoke to the crowd at the preview party of “Giants” Friday at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. (Jerry Holt/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Kaphar, who has monumental work in “Giants,” flew in from California for the preview party. Meeting Robin Hickman-Winfield, Parks’ niece, Kaphar related what Parks’ “Emerging Man, Harlem, New York, 1952,” also in “Giants,” means to him.
The subject in the images is John Bates, a boxer Parks photographed as he peeped out of a manhole. Bates’ daughter, sculptor Diana Pumpelly Bates, is Kaphar’s mentor.