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Crop art is headed to the museum.
The Minneapolis Institute of Art hosts “Cream of the Crop: A Minnesota Folk Art Showcase,” Sept. 6-28, featuring 10 artworks by 11 artists that were on view at the Minnesota State Fair.
The day before the fair opened on Aug. 21, a team from the museum visited the State Fair for a sneak peek of the artworks. They were looking for pieces in two categories: Best interpretation of an artwork and best interpretation of a Minnesota landmark, story or figure.
“It was hard because there were so many artworks,” says Leslie Ureña, the Mia associate curator of global contemporary art. The fair received a record-breaking 451 submissions this year. “It’s just amazing how much detail and how much care goes into each of these works.”
Mia named a winner in each category: “The Treachery of a Pronto Pup” by Amy and Steve Saupe and “My Chagall Dream” by Jeanne Morales.
The honorable mentions that will also be on view in the artwork category:
“Vincent Van Grow Olive Trees” by Jill Osiecki
“All the Eternal Love I Have for the Crop Art” by Jill Moe
“Under the Wave off Kanagawa (also known as The Great Wave)” by Amanda Cashman
“Crop Art study of Alice Neel's ‘Christy White,’ 1958" by Ursula Murray Husted
And in the Minnesota landmarks, story and figure category:
“GOAT!” by Annmarie Geniusz
“Broken Pinky, Unbroken Justice” by Juventino Meza
“Star Gazing” by Nancy Rzeszutek
“Old Dutch and Top the Tater” by Kaela Reinardy
Ureña says the technique for “The Treachery of a Pronto Pup” — which references the 1929 painting “The Treachery of Images” by Surrealist René Magritte — by the father-daughter Saupe team wowed the Mia. The Saupes have recreated famous artworks before, such as the “Mona” in 2023 and even two more in 2025: “Venus at the Fair” and another Magritte reference, “Son of the Fair”.
“The way that shading was used so beautifully in that work, with the careful selection of each of the seeds, and also how that corn dog really looks three-dimensional within the context of that work, and how the handwriting is so similar to the handwriting that's already in the Magritte original painting,” Ureña says. ”They were really using the seeds almost as painting.”
Ureña says they chose Morales’ map-like work “My Chagall Dream,” a reference to the works of 20th-century Russian-French Modernist Marc Chagall, for its use of Minneapolis landmarks (First Avenue, Harriet Island, Hidden Falls, Merlin’s Rest, the May Day Parade and more) that would appeal to viewers both in and out of state.
“It was really a beautiful evocation of the area,” Ureña says.
"My piece is a nod to the whimsy found in the works of Marc Chagall," Morales says in an artist statement. "In my piece, I am floating blissfully above the places I love in the Twin Cities."
Rob Bedeaux, who runs Mia's marketing team, is a self-described “State Fair superfan” and originally conceived the idea for a crop art show at the museum.
“I love the variety of subjects that the artists work on,” Bedeaux says. “They talk about social commentary, and a lot of times they have some pretty sharp wit with the subjects they're portraying.”
The exhibition will host a panel conversation Sept. 13 with Minneapolis crop artists and educators Marta Shore and Liz Schreiber, who recently completed a crop art commission for the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.
Bedeaux says the panel conversation will be an opportunity to discuss how folk art and craft fit into the realm of fine art.
“To really ask that question, ‘Is crop art fine art?’ If so, what makes it fine art? And who gets to decide if it's actually fine art or not?” Bedeaux says.
English (US) ·