Permanent Collection

4420 Warwick Boulevard
Kansas City, MO 64111

Contact

Kemper Museum Policies

The Kemper Museum website uses cookies. By continuing to use the site, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use.

Hours

Employment

Docent Portal

Policies

News

Atrium Project

Oil on Linen

Visit

Free Admission

Free Programs

Location & Directions

Plan Your Visit

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

Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art

Accessibility

Exhibitions

Exhibitions & Collection

Calendar

Groups & Tours

Volunteer

Public Programs

Programs

Mission

History

Architecture

Leadership

Community Partners

About

Memberships

Legacy Society

Gala

Annual Report

Support

Cafe

Museum Shop

Special Event Rentals

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.

Land Acknowledgement

Join

Celebrate

Shop

Hew Locke: Here’s the Thing is the most comprehensive exhibition to date of work by British artist Hew Locke and involves a wide range of media: painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, and installation. Locke explores the languages of colonial and postcolonial power and the symbols through which different cultures assume and assert identity. Activating his awareness of colonial impact, Locke modifies historical source material and artifacts to focus attention on the United Kingdom, its monarchy, and his (then newly independent) childhood home of Guyana in South America. 

By appropriating images of coats of arms and trophies, weaponry, naval warships, public statuary, and the costumes and regalia of state, Locke critiques governmental authority, its iconographies, and legacies. His Souvenir series of royal busts, including Souvenir 1 (Queen Victoria) (2018), is presented alongside reworkings of antique share certificates, obsolete documents referring to the exploitative nature, and turbulent history of colonial economies.

Images of ships and boats—important forms with countless possible meanings throughout the exhibition—evoke centuries of warfare, trade, and strategies of cultural imperialism, as well as personal significance for the artist: 

Here’s the thing: Guyana means ‘land of many waters’—you are constantly aware of boats. I went to Guyana as a five-year-old kid on a boat. I came back here [the UK] on a boat. So many things, good and bad, travel by sea. People want simple answers about what this work is about, but it doesn’t exist. Migration, trade, refugees, warfare, exploration, tourism … [are] extremely messy and interlinked. To whoever is asking, I say, come back tomorrow and I’ll have something different to say about it.

Hew Locke: Here’s the Thing is organized by Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK; Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri; and Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue published by Ikon Gallery, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, and Colby College Museum of Art.

Sustaining Sponsor
 Barbara and Peter Gattermeir

Hew Locke, Saturn, 2007, chromogenic color print on paper, 90 7/8 x 71 1/4 inches, edition 2 of 3.
 Collection of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri, Bebe and Crosby Kemper Collection,
 Museum purchase made possible by a gift from the R. C. Kemper Charitable Trust, 2008.27.
 © Hew Locke, courtesy Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS), London / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Installation view, Hew Locke: Here’s the Thing, March 8–June 2, 2019, at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham UK,
 courtesy the artist and Ikon Gallery. Photo: Stuart Whipps.

Exhibition Preview

Hew Locke: Here’s the Thing

Installation view, Hew Locke: Here’s the Thing, March 8–June 2, 2019, at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham UK,
 courtesy the artist and Ikon Gallery. Photo: Stuart Whipps.