Past Exhibitions
Artists exhibited include Polly Apfelbaum, Ken Aptekar, Christian Boltanski, Petah Coyne, Russell Crotty, Naomi Fisher, Till Freiwald, Jim Hodges, Alex Katz, Nikki S. Lee, Marco Maggi, Fairfield Porter, Lezley Saar, Shahzia Sikander, Do-Ho Suh, Robert Therrien, Wayne Thiebaud, Phoebe Washburn, Bruce Yonemoto, and many others.
Last 6 Months
All first-year medical students from Kansas City University participate in the Art, Observation, and Medicine (AOM) course at Kemper Museum. Guided by volunteer docents, students analyze select works of art using the Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) method. VTS uses research-based methodology prompting viewers to work together to solve complicated visual puzzles, beginning with the question, “What is going on in this work of art?”
In Blood, Sweat, and Tears, artist Summer Wheat’s vibrantly colored paintings depict a community of heroic females doing the “heavy lifting and running things.” Using an inventive process of pushing paint through aluminum mesh, Wheat’s large-scale paintings resemble medieval tapestries showing female figures as hunters, fishers, and beekeepers. These women rewrite historical imagery through themes such as labor, discovery, and expressions of joy where traditionally only men were present.
Misunderstood highlights work from the Kemper Museum Permanent Collection in conversation with themes from the current iteration of Prospect New Orleans, a citywide contemporary art triennial. Prospect.5, which opens in October 2020, is titled Yesterday we said tomorrow, and addresses the social body and the individual, the deferral of structural and political change, and a polyvocal retelling of history that is attuned to our complex era.
This/That brings to light ways of understanding art by methods of comparing and contrasting. Curated by the Kemper Teen Arts Council, the exhibition displays works of art from Kemper Museum’s Permanent Collection in pairs to encourage purposeful analyses and conversations. The Kemper Teen Arts Council has worked to create a space within the gallery that encourages questions and includes interactive elements that allow viewers to analyze these works of art in a meaningful and accessible way.
Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art is pleased to host the 2019 Charlotte Street Visual Artist Awards exhibition, presenting recent works by three Kansas City-based artists: Boi Boy, Megan Pobywajlo, and Fatimah Tuggar. A jury of arts professionals selected the artists to receive this prestigious award as a testament to their practice and achievements in the visual arts. Each artist has risen to the challenge of presenting a selection of new work and expanding individual presentation methods at Kemper Museum.
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.
Past Exhibitions
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