ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Historical and Contemporary HMong Textile Stories is a 2-person Hmong art exhibition featuring Tshab Her in contemporary textile art (paj ntaub) and Mama Suzanne in traditional textile art (paj ntaub).
OPENING RECEPTION
East Side Arts Council
977 Payne Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55130
September 17, 2026 | 6-7:30PM
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Tshab Her is a textile artist currently residing in Columbia Heights, Minnesota. She is a daughter of Hmong refugees who fled the “secret war” in Laos and was raised in the suburbs of Chicago. Within the context of immigration, displacement, war, statelessness, and colonial religion, Her’s work grapples with the tension of belonging as a second generation Hmong American woman searching for personal agency, cultural autonomy, and communal sensibility. She has exhibited work at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Public Functionary, Chicago Art Department, Trout Museum of Art, Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, 6018North, and has led arts programming in collaboration with the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Walker Art Center, Amherst H. Wilder Foundation, Franconia Sculpture Garden, Chicago Public Library, and Paper Lantern Project. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Suzanne Thao (Mama Suzanne), 68, was born "Xyo Mim (in reference to the first star next to the moon) Vaj” in Phou Mou, Long Cheng, Laos. Suzanne learned Hmong paj ntaub (Hmong embroidery) at the age of six from her paternal grandmother Mee Xiong and mother Chia Lo. Mama Suzanne received the McKnight Cultural Bearer Fellowship in 2022 to recognize and honor the work she does to retain, preserve and expand the cultural knowledge and practice of Hmong paj ntaub needlework.
In the exhibit, three main original stitches of Hmong paj ntaub: cross-stitch, appliqué and reverse appliqué. Hmong paj ntaub designs are influenced by the families and regions they are created. Each piece is uniquely connected back to a place and a Hmong woman in time.
*This work is funded in part by MHC with money from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund that was created with the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008.