Until Now at Minneapolis Institue of Arts

When Until Now: Collecting the New (1960–2010) opens later this month, it will stand as a visible symbol of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts’s commitment to add art made in the last 60 years to a collection that spans 5,000 years. Elizabeth Armstrong, who joined the MIA more than a year ago as its very first curator of contemporary art, describes Until Now as a “first sketch” of what the museum’s contemporary art collection will eventually look like. “Because the MIA stopped collecting new work around 1960, a whole period of what’s now becoming history was not represented in the collection,” she says.

Armstrong brings a unique perspective to the task of building the MIA’s contemporary art collection. Her curatorial gigs to date include more than a decade at the Walker. “I don’t want to duplicate what the Walker has done,” she says. “I am being conscious not to overlap, but to complement.” Because she knows the Walker’s collection so well, Armstrong says she can “be really aware of how the MIA can differentiate.”

Until Now offers a snapshot of how she plans to proceed. The exhibition surveys major themes in contemporary art ov er the last five decades, from the iconic (and now historic) pop art creations of Andy Warhol to work that embodies familiar 21st- century sensibilities, such as Willie Cole’s “recycled” sculpture (lower left) made of dozens and dozens of discarded black designer pumps.

For Armstrong, the goal is to play to the MIA’s strengths, using its vast encyclopedic collection to put contemporary art in context. In that spirit, part of Until Now includes contemporary pieces that will be paired with historic works at various spots throughout the galleries. Visitors to the gilded Grand Salon period room will, for instance, find a sculpture by Yinka Shonibare (above)—a headless mannequin decked out in an elaborate 19th-century dress made with African textiles.

“I’m calling it art remix, recombining the familiar with the new,” explains Armstrong. Juxtaposing contemporary art with work from the past “can be a wonderful way to leverage the meaning of the historical art,” she says. Such complementary contrasts are how Armstrong plans to simultaneously broaden the MIA’s reach and deepen its historical impact. Opens April 16. 2400 3rd Ave. S., Mpls., 612-870-3131, artsmia.org