Since the early 1990s, Chakaia Booker has worked almost exclusively with recycled tires. Through a physically demanding process of twisting, slicing, and weaving found rubber tires (primarily from bikes, cars, and farm equipment), she forms dynamic, whimsical sculptures that fuse ecological concerns with questions about racial and economic differences, globalization, and existing sociopolitical power structures. Featuring more than twenty sculptures, this exhibition surveys the past seven years of production by one of today’s leading African-American artists.

Please join us Friday, June 6 for the free opening reception, 5:30–7:30 p.m.

Above, left: Chakaia Booker, Sugar in my Bowl, 2003; rubber tire and steel, 95 x 110 x 57 3/4 inches; Courtesy of the artist and Marlborough Gallery, New York

Staged in a gallery full of chairs, tables, and a microphone, Conversation Pieces fuses eleven works of art from the Kemper Museum’s permanent collection with eleven public talks. For each week of the exhibition, a different painting, sculpture, or photograph will be on view and the focus of an informal presentation, facilitating numerous opportunities for informative exchange, lively discussion, and new discovery of the Museum’s rich holdings.

Above, left: Jane Freilicher, Red Ground, 1989; oil paint on canvas, 70 x 76 inches; Bebe and Crosby Kemper Collection; Gift of the William T. Kemper Charitable Trust, UMB Bank, n.a., Trustee, 1995.33

The extraordinary and, at times, magical emerge from Anthony Lepore’s color photographs as he intuitively examines people’s desires to connect, relate, and possess the world around them. Lepore’s exhibition at the Kemper Museum will focus on his latest body of work that explores people's well-intentioned, yet seemingly futile, attempts to preserve or recreate natural states. This is the Los Angeles-based artist’s first solo museum exhibition.

Above, left: Anthony Lepore, Wolf Sanctuary, 2004; archival pigment print, 40 x 50 inches; Courtesy of the artist and Marvelli Gallery, New York

Swedish artist and founder of the independent music label Make it Happen, Johanna Billing creates breathtaking, poignant videos and films that address issues of individuality, isolation, public performance, and decisive action (or inaction) in the context of collective endeavors. For each film, Billing invites people to participate in contrived situations that often involve mundane, group activities, such packing and moving anonymous belongings from an apartment, learning to sail, or engaging in dance rehearsals. Through her documentary-style fictions, Billing captures the subtle nuances between individuals during social engagements.

Above, left: Johanna Billing, This Is How We Walk on the Moon, 2007; Courtesy of the artist and Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago, Illinois