Birds and Other Earthly Artifacts on View at Gallery 120

Melissa Borman exhibition on view now through Wednesday, October 29, 2025

Birds and Other Earthly Artifacts, an exhibition by Melissa Borman, is showing now through Wednesday, October 29, 2025, at Gallery 120. Art shows and exhibitions are hosted at the Gallery 120 brick-and-mortar location in the atrium of the Fine Arts building on the Inver Hills Community College campus in Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota.

Melissa Borman is a Minneapolis-based photographer and installation artist whose work examines the power of objects, images, and ephemera to hold stories, navigate grief, and honor resilience. Melissa has exhibited widely, including at the Regional Cultural Center in Ireland, Galería Valid Foto in Spain, Griffin Museum in Boston, Filter Space in Chicago, and the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Macon, Georgia. Her work is supported by Minnesota State Arts Board grants, the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, and the Jerome Foundation. She has published three artist books, two of which are held in the Walker Art Center’s Rosemary Furtak Collection.

Melissa Borman: Artist Statement

Birds and Other Earthly Artifacts brings together work that reflects on memory, grief, resilience, and the stories objects hold. In the winter of 2020, I began photographing fragile ceramic birds. What started as a simple studio exercise quickly became a meditation on fragility and loss. That spring, my mother passed away, and I inherited her collection of bird figurines.

The chipped beaks and fractured forms of the birds mirrored my mother’s absence and the imperfect care I experienced growing up. With a father who was a closeted gay man in the military and a mother who struggled with illness, I learned early to navigate fragility and resilience in both people and relationships. Through these figurines, I confronted grief and recognized how objects—and the people we love—carry memory, strength, and beauty even when marked by damage.

Alongside the photographs from Birds, the exhibition includes work from [Re]collections & Earthly Artifacts, a multi-media installation that revisits overlooked images, objects, and unfinished projects from two decades of my practice. These works combine natural elements, personal history, and inherited objects to explore how private memory intersects with broader cultural narratives. Together, the projects investigate how objects and landscapes serve as vessels for human stories, revealing tenderness and resilience at the heart of lived experience.

WHAT: Birds and Other Earthly Artifacts

WHO: Melissa Borman

WHEN: Now thru October 29, 2025

WHERE: Gallery 120

Fine Arts Building
Inver Hills Community College
2500 80th Street East
Inver Grove Heights, MN 55076
General: 651-450-3000
Gallery 120: 651-450-3101