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

In 2019, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art celebrated twenty-five years of extraordinary collecting, exhibitions, and programs. As the only collecting contemporary art museum in the state of Missouri, Kemper Museum is grateful to those who have helped grow and enhance the Permanent Collection through generous gifts of art. The exhibition, Gifts of Art: 2019 Acquisitions, debuts a selection of gifts received in the past year, celebrating the artists who created them and recognizing their generous donors.

Selections from The Last Supper presents eleven works from the eponymous series of thirteen large-scale prints (1999) by Damien Hirst (British, born 1965). These label-like images are derived from pharmaceutical packaging––a theme Hirst has employed since the late 1980s––where he uses the names of foods traditional to working class British cafe culture, such as "beans and chips" or "steak and kidney" to replace the names of various medicines. Hirst transforms the food into his own brand by adding decorative logos containing variations on his name.

Diario is the debut of a new, commissioned installation by New York-based artist Angel Otero (b. 1981), the fourth in a series of Atrium Projects at Kemper Museum. The artist’s largest painting to date, Diario underscores the personal and universal significance of leaving a mark somewhere.