bio
Sandra Menefee Taylor is a Minnesota artist who pushes the boundaries of the role of the artist and art making: building bridges between the audience and the artwork, what writer Suzi Gablik calls "connective esthetics."
She was a member of the Women's Art Registry of Minnesota (WARM) -- one of the first women's gallery collectives in the United States -- during its formative years in the 1970s and '80s. Since then, her work is part of the growing "art in the public interest."
Many of her projects invite the audience to contribute their own memory, experience, and reflection, which she incorporates in sculptural installations that connect the audience back to themselves and their own authentic wisdom.
curriculum vitae
EXHIBITIONS
2023
Dirt: A Matter of Reverence, White Bear Center for the Arts, White Bear Lake, MN
2022
Second Nature (after Millet), Form + Content Gallery, Minneapolis
2020
Cancer Never Had Me, Juror’s First Prize Award, exhibition coinciding with 2020 Nobel Conference, Hillstrom Museum of Art, Gustavus Adophus College, Saint Peter, MN
2019
Un•earthed, Form + Content Gallery, Minneapolis
Two Birds, Swan Vision Gallery, Maiden Rock, WI
2018
DIRT & BONES, Form + Content Gallery, Minneapolis Joint exhibition with Judy Onofrio.
2017
I'M HERE: Art in the Service of Memory, Form + Content Gallery, Minneapolis Drawings, paintings and artist books created by people living with memory and cognitive loss in Taylor's "In a New Voice" program at Wilder Adult Day Health, Saint Paul.
2016
Living Arrangements, Form + Content Gallery, Minneapolis
Inside Out Outside In: Domestic Commitments, Textile Center of Minnesota, Minneapolis
2014
Heart/Land: Sandra Menefee Taylor's Vital Matters, Plains Art Museum, Fargo, ND
Transient/Enduring, Form + Content Gallery, Mpls, MN
2013
The House We Built, Katherine Nash Gallery, University of Minnesota, Mpls, MN
2012
Revisiting the Ark, Form + Content Gallery, Mpls, MN
Farmer's Daughter: Dirt in Our Bones, in Shadows Traces Undercurrents, Katherine Nash Gallery, University of Minnesota, Mpls, MN
2011
Ark and Preservation, Phipps Center for the Arts, Hudson, WI
2010
Gardens in Winter, Form + Content Gallery, Mpls, MN (click here for video)
2010
Women and Water Rights, Katherine Nash Gallery, University of MN, Mpls, MN
2009
Paradigm Shift, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Mpls, MN
2006
WARM: 12 Artists of the Women's Art Registry of Minnesota, Weisman Art Museum, Mpls, MN
2005
Saltworks: the Preservation of Women's Spirit, solo commission for College of St Catherine, St Paul, MN
2004
Home Sweet Home 2, travelling collection of The Family Housing Fund, Minneapolis MN
2003
Seed House for "Roots of Renewal" community project for Grinnell College, Center for Prairie Studies, Grinnell IA
Casting Off the Unspoken, solo show in "Verge" series, Plains Art Museum, Fargo, ND
2002
Material Witness: The Socio-Political in Contemporary Textile Art, The Goldstein Gallery, U of MN, Mpls MN
Writing Home, Commissioned Installation for Praxis International, Duluth MN
Tzedakah Box: The Art of Giving, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Mpls MN
Continuing Reflections: Black History Month, Walker Art Center, Mpls MN
Casting Off the Unspoken, Weisman Art Museum, Mpls, MN
2001
Photography Institute, NY University, NY
2000
Casting Off the Unspoken Installation commissioned by Weisman Art Museum, Mpls MN
Visual Literacy Expressions, Montana State University, Billings MT
Home Sweet Home, traveling curated show Mpls MN
1999
lifedeathafterdeath, Commissioned for national conference sponsored by Pathways Mpls, MN
The Farm Show, The Drawing Legion, Cedar Rapids, IA
Wisdom Passage, Des Moines Art Museum, Des Moines, IA
1998
Wisdom Path, Sioux City Art Center, Sioux City, Iowa
Medical Image-In the eye of science/In the eye of art, Arts for Forum Health, Warren OH
Artist as Witness to Illness and Recovery, U of Iowa Gallery, Iowa City, IA
Getting to the Heart of the Matter, Talley Gallery, Bemidji State U., Bemidji MN
1997
Wisdom Passage, Joan Kuyper Farver Gallery, Pella IA and Olson-Larson Gallery Des Moines, IA
Wisdom Passage, MN Historical Society and St. Joseph's Hospital, St. Paul, MN
WARM Mentor Exhibition, Katherine Nash Gallery, University of Minnesota
Toward the Millennium-Art, Technology, & Community, commission for East Lansing MI
1995
In So Many Words, Minnesota Museum of American Art, St. Paul, MN
Culture and Agriculture, New Visions Gallery, Marshfield, WI
Photographic Book Arts in the United States, traveled 13 states, 1991-95
Sacred Into Science, pARTS Gallery, Mpls. MN
1994
From the Heartland, curated by the University of Minnesota Art Museum, traveling exhibit 1993-94
1992
Farmer's Daughters: Dirt in Our Bones, SOLO exhibition, Civic Fine Arts Center, Sioux Falls, SD
Completing the Circle - Artists' Books on the Environment, MN Center for Book Arts, Mpls. MN
1991
All Over the Place: Women and Place, Plains Art Museum, Moorhead, MN
Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA
Landscape of Hope and Despair, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND
Mentor-Protege, Macalester College, St. Paul, MN
1990
Multiples, Nexus Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta GA
Creative Connections WARM Exchange, Kansas City Artists' Coalition, Kansas City, MO
Food: From Pleasure to Politics , Goddard-Riverside Community Center, NYC
1989
15th Anniversary Exhibition, Center for Book Arts, NYC, NY
Inside: Works Describing What is Enclosed, Dahl Fine Arts Center, Rapid City, SD
CODA, WARM Gallery, Mpls MN
Jerome Book Arts Exhibition, Minnesota Center For Book Arts, Mpls, MN
Mount Mercy College, Solo Exhibition Cedar Rapids, IA
Volumes, Minneapolis Institute Of Arts, Mpls, MN
Vision and Three-Dimensional Representation, U of MN, Mpls MN
1988
Raw Space, solo exhibition, ARC Gallery, Chicago IL
WARM Shows, Katherine Nash Gallery, U of MN, Mpls, MN
1987
Artists' Views of the American Farm, Troy-Hayner Cultural Center, Troy OH
Jerome/Minnesota Center for Book Arts Fellowship Exhibition, Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Mpls, MN
The Twin Cities: A Major Arts Center, New Visions Gallery, Ithaca NY
Women's Sensibilities, A National Juried Exhibition, WARM Gallery, Mpls, MN
1986
Spirit of Place, House and Garden, Minneapolis Institute of Arts
WARM Gallery, Mpls, MN
Mentor-Protege, College of St. Catherine, St. Paul MN
Fragments from the Missing Woman, Solo Exhibition, WARM Gallery, Mpls MN
Past and Present Faculty, Art Center of Minnesota, Minnetonka, MN
Minnesota Artist Exhibition Program 10th Anniversary, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Mpls, MN
1985
Big Brother is Watching, national traveling show, origination in Rosendale, NY
1984
WARM: A Landmark Exhibition, Minnesota Museum of American Art, St. Paul, MN, and Tweed Museum, Duluth MN
1983
Domestic Environments, Interart Gallery, NYC NY
Chairs, WARM Gallery, Mpls, MN
Ten Artists, New Directions, Minneapolis College of Art & Design
House/Body, solo exhibition, Kiehle Gallery, St. Cloud State University, MN
ARTIST'S BOOKS
in editions, available for purchase
From Sacred to Science book, 1995
The One About the Farmers' Daughters: Stereotypes and Self-Portraits book, 1993
Landscape of Hope and Despair book, 1989
House/Dress book, 1988
VIDEOS
Food For Thought video, collaboration with Claire Simonson, 2002
LOVE/LETTERS AT DEATH video, collaboration with Claire Simonson, 2000
SLOW FOOD; Sustainable Agriculture and Responsible Eating video, collaboration with Kathleen Laughlin, Linda Gammell and Michel McCall, 1997
AWARDS AND RECOGNITION
2022
Named one of three Distinguished Public Artists in Public Art Saint Paul’s 2022: Soul | Soil | Senses event. Co-panelists Kinji Akagawa and Tacoumba T. Aiken; moderators Laura Wertheim Joseph (MN Museum of American Art) and Sanjit Sethi (Mpls College of Art and Design).
2020
Juror’s First Prize Award for “The Artists and the Surgeon,” mixed media accordion book, in Cancer Never Had Me exhibition at Hillstrom Museum of Art, Gustavus Adophus College, Saint Peter, MN
2017
Presenter, Midwest Women Artists Symposium, Bradley University, Peoria IL
2015
Sandra Menefee Taylor is a fiscal year 2015-16 recipient of an Artist Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is funded, in part, by the arts and cultural heritage fund as appropriated by the Minnesota State Legislature with money from the Legacy Amendment vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008.
2005
Opportunity grant for project documentation, MN State Arts Board
2002
Guest Speaker, symposium DEATH MATTERS, Grinnell College, Grinnell IA
Guest Speaker, Material Witness exhibition, Goldstein Gallery, U of MN, Mpls MN
Commissioned Installation for Praxis International Conference on Family Violence
Opportunity grant to supplement Praxis commission, MN State Arts Board
2001
Presenter, Art/Culture/Nature Conference, Flagstaff, AZ
Speaker, Theological Insights Program, Wisdom Ways, College of St Catherine, St Paul MN
1999
Presenter, First International Leadership Forum On Cardiovascular Health In The 21st Century; A Focus on the Woman's Heart, The Big Island Hawaii
1997-98
Presenter at "The Artist, Therapist, Culture, and Spirit" conference, Iowa City IA
Presenter at Michael Fields Agricultural Institute's 7th Annual Urban-Rural Conference: Reclaiming the Sacred in Farming and Food, East Troy WI
Presenter at New York University Tisch School of the Arts Photography Program's Public Strategies: Public Art and Public Space, New York University, NYC, NY
Presenter at Palliative Care Conference, North Memorial Health Care, Mpls MN
Presenter at 17th Annual Cancer Conference, St. Gabriel's Hospital, Little Falls MN
Presenter at Midwest Regional Society for Photographic Education panel "Collaborative Projects: Documentary and Public Art Works," University of Minnesota, Mpls MN
1996
Leadership in Neighborhoods (LIN) grant, from St. Paul Companies for research into the role of art in healing land and body
1995
SARE Grant (Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education) USDA, for research work with women and land
Keynote address to The Women's Studies Conference, U of S. Dakota, Vermillion
1994
Barbara Deming Memorial Fund for Women
1993
Project finalist for The Smithsonian Experimental Gallery in Washington D.C.
1993-94
President of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design Alumni Association
1991
Residency, Headlands Project Grant Recipient, Headlands Center for the Arts, Fort Barry, CA
1990
Residency, Ucross Foundation, Clearmont WY
1985-89
Public Art R&D grant from Forecast Public Artworks
Panelist at "Collecting Contemporary Art in the Midwest" Conference
Two Jerome Book Arts Awards
Walker Art Center Open Studio artist
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Heart/Land: Sandra Menefee Taylor's Vital Matters, (Plains Art Museum, 2014) Exhibition catalog featuring essays by museum director Colleen Sheehy, Ph.D., curator Laura Wertheim Joseph, Ph.D., and feminist art critic Lucy R. Lippard. Available for purchase: please contact the artist.
Featured in:
Seed Queen: The Story of Crop Art and the Amazing Lillian Colton, Colleen Sheehy, Saint Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2007
WARM: A Feminist Art Collective in Minnesota, Joanna Inglot, Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota Press, 2007
The Lure of the Local: Senses of Place in a Multicentered Society, Lucy R. Lippard, New York: the New Press, 1997
The Power of Feminist Art: The American Movement of the 1970s- History and Impact, Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard, New York: Harry Abrams, 1996
In the Company Of Women: Voices from the Women's Movement, Bonnie Watkins and Nina Rothchild, St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1996
The Reflowering of the Goddess, Gloria Feman Orenstein, New York: Pergamon Press, 1990
Featured in keynote address at 2001 "Art / Nature / Culture" conference by Lucy R. Lippard, Flagstaff, AZ
The Root of the Matter: Artists, Corporeality and the Farm, essay by Patricia Vettel Tom, conference presentation at Minnesota History Center and Columbia University
Writings by Sandra Menefee Taylor:
Getting to the Heart of the Matter, essay published in CONNECTIONS, Minnesota Project
What I Did for Love, essay, MFA Digest, Minnesota Food Association
COLLECTIONS
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Walker Art Center
Minnesota Historical Society
Weisman Art Museum, U of MN
University of Montana, Billings
Stearns County (MN) Museum
Franklin Furnace, NY, NY
Artists Book Works, Chicago
Family Housing Fund, HOME SWEET HOME Collection
General Mills Corporate Collection
El Archivo, Mexico City
Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester NY
+ numerous private collections
ENGAGEMENTS
2022 Co-curator with photographer Ellie Kingsbury, Field Notes: 7 Truths About the Rural, group exhibition at Form + Content Gallery, Minneapolis
2009-2019 Program Developer/Teacher for seniors with dementia, Wilder Adult Day Health Program, St. Paul, MN
2008 Guest Lecturer, Masters in Advocacy and Public Leadership (MAPL) Program, University of Minnesota Duluth, Duluth, MN
Adjunct Faculty, Hamline University, St. Paul, MN
2006 Visiting Artist, College of Saint Catherine, St Paul, MN
1999-2019 Visiting Artist, The Women's Art Institute, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minneapolis, and St. Catherine University, St Paul, MN
2001-02 Journal as Spirit Container, Private Studio Classes
2001 Visiting Artist, WellBeing Class, Hamline University, St. Paul, MN
1987-2002 Instructor, Minnesota Center for Arts Education, Hamline University adjunct
1996 Artist Educator Institute, specialist instructor
1989 Visiting Artist, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minneapolis, MN
1989-94 Minnesota Center for Book Arts
1986-87 Instructor, Grand Marais Art Colony, Grand Marais, MN
1984-85 Mentor for Women's Art Registry of Minnesota (WARM) Mentor Program, Minneapolis, MN
1983 Instructor for Art Center of Minnesota
Guest lecturer at U of WI Superior; Macalester College, St. Paul MN; School of Associated Arts, St. Paul, MN; Mt. Mercy College, Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Minneapolis College of Art and Design