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Kemper Museum is a free art museum in Kansas City, Missouri that presents global contemporary art.

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Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art acknowledges it resides on the ancestral territory of the Osage, Kaw, and Otoe-Missouria, among other tribal nations forcibly moved to the region such as the Shawnee, Wyandot, Delaware, Potawatomi, Sac and Fox and Kiikaapoi (Kickapoo) nations. We recognize and support the continued vibrancy of Native communities and cultures today who continue to thrive, as well as the inherent sovereignty of tribal nations. We are compelled to serve and advocate for these communities in accordance with our public mission.

Kemper Museum acknowledges and respects the diversity of Native people connected to this land today. Many recognize the land and all beings who live within it as relatives. We acknowledge the earth we inhabit, the waters of the Blue River, the Kansas River, the Missouri River, and the plants, animals, and people supported by them. 

We acknowledge our responsibility to be good caretakers of the land we occupy. 

Click here to learn more about our land acknowledgment process.

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Kemper Museum debuts the second in a series of commissioned atrium projects: a solo site-responsive installation by Firelei Báez (b. 1981, Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic; lives and works in New York). To See Beyond Its Walls (and access the places that lie beyond) combines a large-scale painting of a female figure with a reimagined interior of Sans-Souci Palace (1813) in northern Haiti, tracing conflicted histories and current political contexts of Hispaniola (the shared island of the Dominican Republic and Haiti) and America.

The silhouette of a woman washed in vibrant teal and magenta hues appears in three-quarter profile looking directly at the viewer. Her elaborate headdress, or tignon mandated by sumptuary law in Spanish colonial Louisiana to oppress women of African descent, is filled with historical and contemporary symbols. Black panthers, emblems of the American black power movement of the 1960s, and azabache, stones carved into fists and worn in Latin American cultures to protect from evil spirits, are embedded in the painted cloth. The indigo color recalls the deep blue-violet dye originated in India and traced throughout the African slave trade. Symbols in the painted wall surface include the royal seal of the early-nineteenth-century Haitian kingdom, delicate floral patterns, hair picks, and black power fists. Báez packs the painting and wall with symbols of Latin America, the Caribbean, and America that acknowledge the complex lineage of colonial construct, resistance, and protection. They activate a space beyond the walls (of both the gallery and the palace) to imagine renewed historical and social narratives. 

This commissioned project was organized by Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art and curated by Erin Dziedzic, director of curatorial affairs. Major support was provided by the following:

Lead Sponsors
 Christy and Bill Gautreaux

Premiere Benefactors
 Linda Lighton and Lynn Adkins

Sustaining Sponsors
 Tom and Jean McDonnell

Firelei Báez, To See Beyond Its Walls (and access the places that lie beyond), 2017 , installation view
 Bebe and Crosby Kemper Collection, Museum purchase made possible by a gift from the R. C. Kemper Charitable Trust, 2017.7.1 
 © Firelai Báez, courtesy Wendi Norris Gallery.

Firelei Báez, To See Beyond Its Walls (and access the places that lie beyond), 2017 , installation view
 Bebe and Crosby Kemper Collection, Museum purchase made possible by a gift from the R. C. Kemper Charitable Trust, 2017.7.1 
 © Firelai Báez, courtesy Wendi Norris Gallery.

Exhibition Preview

Firelei Báez: To See Beyond Its Walls (and access the places that lie beyond)

Firelei Báez, To See Beyond Its Walls (and access the places that lie beyond), 2017, installation view
 Bebe and Crosby Kemper Collection, Museum purchase made possible by a gift from the R. C. Kemper Charitable Trust, 2017.7.1 
 © Firelai Báez, courtesy Wendi Norris Gallery.