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
Cityscapes and Indoor Spaces contrasts the bustling energy of the city with the quiet intimacy of indoor spaces, as depicted in selected works of art from Kemper Museum’s Permanent Collection. This exhibition highlights works that emphasize the personalities of the architectures of popular cities and interior spaces.
Well-Read: Artists Inspired by Literature highlights works of art in Kemper Museum’s Permanent Collection with a notable literary influence. American artists Romare Bearden (American, 1911–1988) and Ed Blackburn (American, born 1940) both find inspiration from the first book in the Bible: Genesis. Bearden’s collage Noah, The Third Day/Prevalence of Ritual (1974) illuminates the story of Noah, who created a vessel to preserve the world’s animals and his own family from a devastating flood.
Now, Then, and Tomorrow explores themes of past and future in response to the year 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic. Curated by the Kemper Teen Arts Council, this virtual exhibition explores connections among works in Kemper Museum’s Permanent Collection that speak to our past and current realities as well as our hopes for the future.
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Kemper Museum’s fifth commissioned installation in the Atrium Projects series is Divergences by Dominican Republic-raised New York-based Black Latinx artist Joiri Minaya (born 1990). Minaya’s work often focuses on decolonizing imposed histories, cultures, and ideas. For this Atrium Project installation, she was inspired by the idealized Midwest, complete with lush greenery and river scenes, having made a site visit to Quindaro Townsite in January 2020.
Please note that Kemper East is currently closed to the public due to COVID-19.
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?”
Speaking to Relatives is a major solo exhibition of mixed-media works by Minneapolis-based artist Dyani White Hawk (Sičáŋǧu Lakota, born 1976). This ten-year survey of painting, sculpture, photography, video, and installation presents White Hawk’s unique merging of the visual language of abstraction with Lakota art forms. Her work expresses a shared formal and conceptual practice and acknowledges the significance of Indigenous art as American art.
Abstract Expressionism is a form of abstract art developed by American painters in the 1940s and 1950s with several different subcategories, including Action painting and what would later be called Color Field painting. Pop art was an American movement that emerged in the 1950s and 1960s, drawing inspiration from sources in commercial and popular culture. Dan Budnik (American, 1933–2020) photographed Abstract Expressionists and Pop artists in their studios during the height of these artistic movements.
Photographer Dan Budnik (American, 1933–2020) was known for his documentary photography, especially of changes taking root in America in the 1960s civil rights movement. He studied at the Art Students League in New York with Charles Alston (American, 1907–1977), the first African American supervisor for the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project. Budnik credited Alston for his interest in documentary photography.
Past Exhibitions
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