Shelly
Mosman
Fine-art portraits made in Northeast Minneapolis. Painterly, theatrical, a little haunted.
Portraiture · Animal Child · Music
Fine-art portraits made in Northeast Minneapolis. Painterly, theatrical, a little haunted.
Shelly Mosman makes photographs that behave like paintings.
She works from a studio in the Casket Arts Building in Northeast Minneapolis, where she stages portraits as constructed tableaux: a single sitter, vintage clothing, a hand-painted or chenille-tapestry backdrop, controlled light, and often a live animal that genuinely belongs to the person in the frame. Her subjects rarely smile. The result is solemn and still, closer to a 19th-century portrait than a contemporary photograph.
Trained as a painter (BFA, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, 1995), Mosman spent nearly two decades in commercial and wedding photography before turning to fine art around 2011 with Animal Child, the signature series that pairs children with the creatures they love. Critics have called her portraits "casually surreal," carrying "the depth and mystery associated with the Old World Masters."
Her photographs have been published across Europe, Australia, South America, and the United States, and acquired by the Plains Art Museum, the Rockford Art Museum, and the Eiteljorg Museum. In 2025 the Minnesota Marine Art Museum presented Currents, a solo exhibition of her water-inspired portraits. Alongside her gallery work she photographs musicians and cultural figures, including album photography for the Minneapolis rapper Prof. City Pages named her Artist of the Year in 2014.
A rotating selection of original prints, including pieces from the Currents exhibition at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum, is available by inquiry. Sizes, editions, and availability shared privately.
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