"Labor Camp" at MIA

Last month, I took my boys to the MIA, and I was excited to see the Piotr Szyhalski exhibition "Labor Camp Report." I've admired Szyhalski's work for nearly 20 years, and we were teaching at MCAD at the same time 15 years ago or so.

I watched him create this series on Instagram. Here's a bit about it from the MIA website:

On March 24, 2020, Minneapolis-based artist Piotr Szyhalski embarked on a daily drawing practice responding to the COVID-19 pandemic as it unfolded in real time. What began as a way for the artist to share observations of life in lockdown and the pain caused by the pandemic quickly became a daily exercise of chronicling his thoughts and feelings and reconciling them with the changes being wrought in the world.

COVID-19: Labor Camp Report consists of 225 drawings created over eight months that fall under Szyhalski’s ongoing artistic framework, Labor Camp. New drawings were posted daily on Instagram, serving as a witness to the unfolding crisis and a record of time, both labored and lost.

Here's what my boys and I saw last month:

[click each image to enlarge]

Entering the space was overwhelming.

You can see more of his pieces on the MIA website, and check out the exhibition before September 19.