Minnesota's Heavy Hitters

As a contemporary art fanatic, I’m often amazed by the incredible talent thriving in unassuming gallery spaces across the Twin Cities. There is a strong network of brilliant and nationally recognized artists on the gallery circuit here in Minneapolis, and few spaces champion them as consistently as Hair+Nails, a 600-square-foot contemporary art gallery owned and operated by Ryan Fontaine and Kristin Van Loon.

Their latest exhibition, HEAVY HITTERS, brings together three young artists, Maggie Thompson, Cameron Patricia Downey, and Emma Beatrez, each at the top of their game—and all Minnesotans who’ve built success beyond the Minneapolis art bubble. It’s a lineup that taps into one of the Midwest’s favorite narratives: the underdog story. These artists, who may have faced early disadvantages of geography, identity, or representation, now stand as major voices in the national conversation on contemporary art.

 

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Maggie Thompson

Occupying the first gallery space is Maggie Thompson, a Fond du Lac Ojibwe artist born and raised in Minneapolis. Primarily a textile artist, Thompson draws on the native American experience and Ojibwe heritage when making her multimedia pieces. Her work recently appeared in the 2024 exhibition Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and her piece Quantum Entanglement is part of the Minnesota Museum of American Art's HERE NOW exhibition.

 

Maggie Thompson. Photograph from the She Trains series (2025) Image © Maggie Thompson, courtesy Bockley Gallery and HAIR + NAILS.

Her work examines the power dynamics within mixed race relationships, specifically between native women and white men, exploring how one can reclaim agency and cultural authority through relationships. This work includes six photographs of domestic scenes, all incorporating a beaded BDSM “pup” mask, “indigenizing” the wearer and suggesting an act of teaching or reorientation.

 

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Cameron Patricia Downey

The second main-floor gallery features Cameron Patricia Downey, a second-year MFA candidate in sculpture at the Yale School of Art. Downey describes herself as an “anti-disciplinary” artist, working across photography, film, sculpture, body, and curation. Her work also appears in the Walker Art Center’s Permanent Collection exhibition, This Must Be the Place: Inside the Walker’s Collection, alongside canonical figures like Edward Hopper and Franz Marc.

 

Cameron Patricia Downey. Gathering (2025) acrylic and steel, chrome, aluminum. 34” x 25” x16”. Image courtesy of the artist and HAIR+NAILS.

 

Downey’s contribution to HEAVY HITTERS, Gathering (2025), continues her exploration of found-object sculpture. What strikes me about Gathering (2025) is the domestic feel. It's the moss-green carpet and red-upholstered dining chairs that create a domestic warmth that’s immediately disarming. The whimsy of altered furniture feels warm and uncanny all at once.

 

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Emma Beatrez

Downstairs, Emma Beatrez transforms the third gallery space into a world of its own. The co-founder and curator of Night Club gallery in St. Paul (alongside artist Lee Noble), Beatrez recently exhibited her solo show “Polyester” at HAIR+NAILS NY.

Her practice combines painting, sculpture, and installation, intertwining influences of the occult with imagery from her Midwestern upbringing to explore the peculiar subculture of “the small town.” Like Thompson and Downey, her work circles back to domesticity—though Beatrez pairs the familiar comforts of home with the spectacle of levitation.

 

Gallery view of Primrose Veil, 2025. Oil on canvas 42” x 33”

 

When I look at Primrose Veil, it feels as if I’ve entered a portal into a liminal space; a half-world balanced between reality and dream. The work is rendered with such conviction that it’s almost impossible not to believe it.

 

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Minnesota Identities and National Narratives

I questioned whether the works in HEAVY HITTERS shared any direct relationships. In reality, the show’s strength comes not from formal similarities but from the shared Minnesota roots of these very different artists.

Thinking about Minnesotan identity raises larger questions about American art. As an art historian, I continually consider who is recognized as an American artist. The scope of American art is evolving to acknowledge people and groups long overlooked in the art world.

In this show, three talented women artists represent distinct facets of Minnesota identity, together telling a broader story: Cameron Patricia Downey highlights Black communities in north Minneapolis, Maggie Thompson explores Indigenous communities, particularly the Fond du Lac Ojibwe, and Emma Beatrez examines the subculture of middle America, the “small town.”

Compelling stories capture our attention, especially when they come from unexpected places. People root for underdogs; that will always be true. Untold stories carry particular power, as do contrast, contradiction, and duality. Few contrasts are as striking as the stereotype of “Minnesota nice” and small-town, lumberjack life set against the world of high art, national recognition, and eager collectors vying for work at Hair+Nails.

The Midwest holds countless untold stories, ones that artists, curators, and writers on both coasts are only now beginning to recognize.◼︎ 

 

HEAVY HITTERS opens at HAIR+NAILS this Friday, November 7, 2025 at 7:00 pm-10:00pm. Gallery hours are Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, 1:00-5:00 starting November 8 through the end of 2025.