Culture Mixmaster Zhang Hongtu
September 25-December 22, 2018
Zhang Hongtu trained as an artist in Beijing, China, lived through the Cultural Revolution between 1966 and 1976, and emigrated to New York City in 1982. Having now lived as long in the United States as in China, Zhang produces works that embody his hybrid cultural roots. His knowledgeable mash-ups of Chinese and Western cultures are sometimes amusing and always thought-provoking.
Picturing Kansas
October 5, 2018-June 1, 2019
From scenic prairies to bucolic farms to the architecture of Kansas’ agricultural industry, this exhibition features more than 100 years of works by Kansas artists that capture a sense of place. The exhibition is a cornerstone of the museum’s popular “Picturing Kansas” school tour program, which integrates art, history, environmental and agricultural science, and language arts.
Voices: Art Linking Asia and the West
December 4, 2018–December 21, 2019
A section of the permanent collection galleries will highlight the exchange of aesthetics and ideas between East and West through objects made by artists who traveled between the two regions. This project is a collaboration between curator Aileen June Wang and University of Kansas art history professors Sherry Fowler and Maki Kaneko.
Top image: Zhang Hongtu, Kekou-Kele (Coca-Cola), 2002, porcelain, 7 5/8 in. (H), courtesy of the artist. Middle image: Shirley Smith, Burning Field, 1994, oil on canvas, 56 x 56 in., gift of Shirley Smith Estate, 2014.42. Bottom image: Enrico Isamu Ōyama, FFIGURATI #198, 2017, acrylic on canvas, 96 x 144 in., Kansas State University, Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art, acquisition made possible by Little Apple Art Supply, 2018.91