Maggie Thompson (Fond du Lac Ojibwe) was born and raised in Minneapolis, MN. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Textiles at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 2013. As a textile artist and designer she derives her inspiration from family history, Ojibwe heritage and the broader Native American experience. Skillfully and intuitively working with both natural and synthetic materials, Thompson’s multimedia artwork expands various textile traditions’ inherited ways of being and becoming.

Thompson had her first solo exhibition Where I Fit at All My Relations Gallery in Minneapolis in 2014, and was most recently included in the Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture in 2024 and the 2023 Renwick Invitational Sharing Honors and Burdens at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Renwick Gallery. Recent solo exhibitions include Loves Me, Loves Me Not, Mardag Gallery, Franconia Sculpture Park, Shafer, MN (2023); Just Friends, Bockley Gallery, Minneapolis, MN (2022), and Dakobijige/ She Ties Things Together, Watermark Center, Bemidji, MN (2021). She has exhibited in numerous group exhibitions in Minnesota including at the Plains Art Museum, Minnesota Textile Center, Walker Art Center, and Minneapolis Institute of Art.

Thompson has been awarded grants and awards, including in 2023 the All My Relations and Bockley Gallery Jim Denomie Scholarship, Jerome Foundation Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, and First Peoples Fund Seeding Cultural Treasures Grant. Others have been awarded from the Minnesota State Arts Board and the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation. Her work is collected by the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Minnesota Museum of American Art, Minnesota Historical Society, North Dakota Museum of Art, Hood Museum, Tia Collection, and Field Museum, among others. 

In addition to her fine arts practice, Thompson runs a knitwear business known as Makwa Studio. She has alsoworked on curating special exhibits in Minnesota’s Twin Cities, including atTwo Rivers Gallery, the McKnight Foundation and the Minnesota Museum of American Art.

As a (Fond Du Lac) Ojibwe woman of mixed heritage, I work with an intuitive hand to bridge cultures and traditions gathered from firsthand experiences. I derive my inspiration from the history of my heritage and what it means to be a contemporary Native woman. 

My work calls attention to its materiality pushing the viewer’s traditional understanding of textiles and “Native Art”. I explore materials in my work by incorporating multimedia elements such as photographs, beer caps, ribbon, and beadwork. Each of my pieces are built around a strong conceptual narrative, digging deeper into notions of identity by focusing on issues of cultural appropriation, Native authenticity, relationships, and loss and grief. 

Being transparent is a fundamental value in my working process.  Although my work is very rooted in personal experiences I aim to educate others about the Native community about both our collective and individualized experiences. I use textiles as a way to contain memory, to reflect, and to tell a difficult story.

Education

2019 H. Stoll AG & Co. KG, Reutlingen, Germany — Industrial Knitting, M1 Plus

2013 Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI — Bachelor of Fine Arts, Textiles

2008 Perpich Center for Arts Education, Golden Valley, MN — Visual Arts

Experience

2014 - Present Owner and Designer — Makwa Studio, Minneapolis, MN

2026 Instructor — Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Snowmass, CO

2017 - 2019 Board Member — Minnesota Textile Center, Minneapolis, MN

2017 -2019 Youth Guild Instructor — Minnesota Textile Center, Minneapolis, MN

2015 - 2018 Gallery Manager — Two Rivers Gallery of the Minneapolis American Indian Center, Minneapolis, MN

2013 - 2015 Production Assistant — Custom Woven Interiors, Minneapolis, MN

2013 American Indian Museum Fellow — Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, MN

Solo Exhibitions

2026 Encounters - Bockley Gallery, Minneapolis, MN

2025 Interactions - Museum of Contemporary Native Art, Institute of American Indian Art, Santa Fe, NM

2023 Loves Me, Loves Me Not — Franconia Sculpture Park, Shafer, MN

2022 Just Friends — Bockley Gallery, Minneapolis, MN

2021 Dakobijige “She Ties Things Together” — Watermark Art Center, Bemidji, MN

2016 On Borrowed Time — Minnesota Textile Center, Minneapolis, MN

2016 Mending — Fogstand Gallery, Hualien, Taiwan

2014 Where I Fit — All My Relations Arts, Minneapolis, MN

Selected Group Exhibitions

2026 Hold To This Earth - Yorkshire Sculpture Part, West Bretton, UK

2025 Heavy Hitters - Hair and Nails Gallery, Minneapolis, MN

2025 Resist and Reclaim - Goldstein Museum, St. Paul, MN

2025 Loan Stars: Beading Back our Manidoo - Union Gallery, Kingston, ON, Canada

2025 Anishinaabe Contemporary Art: A Continuation - Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI

2025 Moving Tradition into the Future - North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks, ND

2025 Text: Textile - Broodthaers Society of America, New York, NY

2024 The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture - National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC

2024 Here, Now - Minnesota Museum of American Art, St. Paul, MN

2024 The Country I Come From is Called the Midwest - Clatsop Community College, Astoria, OR

2024 Firsthand - Goldstein Museum, St. Paul, MN

2024 Deathpower - Law Warschaw Gallery, ST. Paul, MN

2023 Through Line — Cara Romero Photography, Sante Fe, NM

2023 Sharing Honors and Burdens Renwick Invitational — Renwick Gallery, Washington, DC

2022 Carriers for Posterity — Law Warschaw Gallery, St. Paul, MN

2022 Reclaiming Identity — Trout Museum, Appleton, WI

2021 The Human Scale — Rochester Art Center, Rochester, MN

2019 Anxiety About the Precise Significance of the Present and Uncertainty About the Future — Film North, St. Paul, MN

2019 MN Artists Presents: Anat Shiner and Amal Rogers — Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN

2019 How to Become Lost — Waiting Room, Edina, MN

2019 Waasamoo-Beshizi (Power Lines) — Plains Art Museum, Fargo, ND

2018 Artists in the Kitchen — Minnesota Textile Center, Minneapolis, MN

2017 Then A Cunning Voice and A Night We Spend Gazing at Stars — Abrons Art Center and Randalls Island, New York, NY

2016 Observe. Record. Relate. — Minnesota Textile Center, Minneapolis, MN

2016 Skin(s) — Intermedia Arts, Minneapolis, MN

2016, 2017 Sinew: Female Native Artists of the Twin Cities — Bloomington Arts Center, Bloomington, MN; Tweed Museum of Art, Duluth, MN

2015, 2016 Arriving at Fresh Water: Contemporary Native Artists from Our Great Lakes — Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN;

Plains Art Museum, Fargo, ND

2015 On Fertile Ground — All My Relations Arts, Minneapolis, MN

2012 DED UŋK’UŋPI—WE ARE HERE — All My Relations Arts, Minneapolis, MN

Curatorial Projects

2020 Passages — Minneapolis-St.Paul International Airport, Minneapolis, MN

2017 We the People — Minnesota Museum of American Art, St. Paul, MN

2017 Anishinaabe Arts Initiative — McKnight Foundation, Minneapolis, MN

2016 Reframe MN: Art Beyond A Single Story — All My Relations Arts, Minneapolis, MN

Residencies

2025 Ford Museum, Dearborn, MI

2018 Institute of American Indian Arts, Sante Fe, NM

2016 Fogstand Gallery, Hualien, Taiwan

2013 Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT

Selected Press

2024 Roxanne Hoorn — Team Kwe honors their Anishinaabe roots in the art and sport of snow sculpting, Atlas Obscura, Brooklyn, NY

2023 Vincent Schilling — Sharing Honors and Burdens: Smithsonian Exhibition Shows Indigenous Artists Carrying Their Ancestors’

Messages Forward, Vol. 24 No. 4, American Indian Magazine, Washington, D.C.

2023 Katherine Boyce — Maggie Thompson exhibits in the Renwick Invitational in Washington, D.C., Northeaster, Minneapolis, MN

2023 Chadd Scott — Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Invitational Features Six Contemporary Indigenous Artists, Forbes

Magazine, Jersey City, NJ

2023 Murat Cem Mengüç — 10 Art Shows to See in Washington, DC, This Summer, Hyperallergic, New York, NY

2023 Mark Jenkins — The Renwick Invitational showcases contemporary Native craft, Washington Post, Washington D.C.

2018 Lauren Sauer — Bridging the Gap, The Growler, St. Paul, MN

2017 Megan Guerber — American Craft Magazine, American Craft Council, Minneapolis, MN

2017 Gia Kourlas — Under the Stars and Quilts, With Randalls Island as Her Stage, New York Times, New York, NY

2017 Shelia Regan — Redefining American Art Through an Intersectional Lens, Hyperallergic, New York, NY

2016 Twin Cities PBS — Minnesota Original, St. Paul, MN

2016 Andrea Carlson — Art Review - On Borrowed Time: Postponing the Inevitable, The Circle News, Minneapolis, MN

2014 Mary Abbe — Artists Weave their Stories into Textiles at Two Minneapolis Galleries, Star Tribune, MN

Collections

2025 Fuck This Tampon Earrings - Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS

2024 Knitwear — Goldstein Museum, Falcon Heights, MN

2023 On Loving — Tia Collection, Sante Fe, NM

2023 Loves Me, Loves Me Not — Tia Collection, Sante Fe, NM

2023 Departure — North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks, ND

2022 In Gratitude — Hood Museum of Art, Hanover, NH

2022 Quantum Entanglement — Minnesota Museum of American Art, St. Paul, MN

2022 Intentions — Private Collector, Minneapolis, MN

2020 Ribbon and Protest Masks — Field Museum, Chicago, IL

2020 Ribbon Mask — Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, MN

2015 Family Portrait — Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN

2015 Assumptions — Private Collector, Minneapolis, MN

2012 Weight on My Shoulders — Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, MN

Selected Awards

2025 First Peoples Fund Artists in Business Leadership Grant

2024 Tiwahe Foundation American Indian Family Empowerment Program Grant

2023 All My Relations and Bockley Gallery Jim Denomie Scholarship

2023 Jerome Foundation Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship

2023 First Peoples Fund Seeding Cultural Treasures Grant

2016 Minnesota State Arts Board Cultural Community Partnership Grant

2015 Minnesota Textile Center Jerome Fiber Arts Grant

2015 Native Arts and Cultures Foundation Regional Fellowship

2013 Textile Center Award for Excellence and Innovation

2008 - 2012 Fond Du Lac Tribal Scholarship Award

2008 - 2012 Rhode Island School of Design Scholarship Award

makwastudio@gmail.com