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

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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.

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KANSAS CITY, MO–Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art announced five exhibitions it will present in 2024, as the museum celebrates its 30th Anniversary. 

Hangama Amiri: A Homage to Home | January 25–August 11, 2024

Thread: Making Patterns | March 8, 2024–February 16, 2025

New Acquisitions: In Celebration of Thirty Years of Kemper Museum | March 22, 2024–March 5, 2025

2024 Atrium Project: Lucía Vidales | September 2024–July 2025

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: Forging Relationships Through Ceramics | September 13, 2024–January 5, 2025 UPDATE: This exhibition has been moved to Fall 2025.

In addition to these new exhibitions, two 2023 shows will extend into early 2024: Spandita Malik: Jāḷī—Meshes of Resistance and Beyond Ninth Street: Legacies of Women in Abstraction. The 2023 Atrium Project, Sarah Zapata: so the roots be known will also be on view through July 2024.

All exhibitions are included with free admission to the museum and accompanied by free public programming for all ages.


Hangama Amiri: A Homage to Home | January 25–August 11, 2024

Hangama Amiri (Afghan-Canadian, born 1989), Departure, 2022, muslin, cotton, polyester, clear vinyl, iridescent paper, faux leather, chiffon, and found fabric, 68 ½ x 85 inches. Courtesy of the artist and T293, Rome. © Hangama Amiri. Photo: Jason Mandella.

Afghan Canadian artist Hangama Amiri combines painting and printmaking techniques with textiles, weaving together stories based on memories of her homeland and diasporic experience. Amiri fled Kabul with her family in 1996 when she was seven years old. Moving through numerous countries over several years, they immigrated to Canada in 2005 when Amiri was a teenager. Large-scaled with frayed edges, Amiri’s textile works are made from layering fabrics, piecing and sewing them together, so the fragments collectively characterize her home from a distance. Amiri’s work is centered on the lives of women. She often builds interiors that capture her protagonists within domestic and entrepreneurial spaces and amplify a collective struggle for women’s rights in Afghanistan and around the world. Hangama Amiri: A Homage to Home is organized by Amy Smith-Stewart, chief curator, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, where it debuted in February 2023.

Bisa Butler (American, born 1975), A Man's Worth, 2019, quilted and appliqued cotton, wool, and chiffon, 89 x 50 inches. Promised gift of Bill and Christy Gautreaux, PG.2019.09.01. Art and photo © Bisa Butler, courtesy of Claire Oliver Gallery.

Pattern is a common thread that connects these works from Kemper Museum’s Permanent Collection. Whether as imbedded designs in Polly Apfelbaum’s Squiggles (2018) and Thomasin Grim’s Deck (1990) or as a display configuration in Gio Swaby’s multi-panel Together We Bloom 2 (2023), these works draw on elements of pattern to convey a range of ideas and perspectives. This exhibition directly connects to other fiber-based works on view throughout the museum, in dialogue with Hangama Amiri: A Homage to Home in the Charlotte Crosby Kemper Gallery and Sarah Zapata’s “So the roots be known,” the eighth annual commissioned Atrium Project. Thread: Making Patterns is curated by Erin Dziedzic, former director of curatorial affairs at Kemper Museum.

Frederick James Brown, Untitled, 1974, oil and acrylic on canvas, 36 x 60 inches. Collection of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri, To Arnold Thall, who recognized Fred Brown's talent early on, and was gifted this work of art, 2023.5. © Frederick J. Brown Trust. Photo: E.G. Schempf, 2023.

2024 marks Kemper Museum’s 30th anniversary. In March, the museum will present an exhibition highlighting new acquisitions since 2022 to celebrate the history of the Permanent Collection and signal its future. Artists who have been integral parts of the museum’s collection since its inception are represented including Frederick James Brown, whose site-specific painting installation History of Art was commissioned for the museum’s Café Sebastienne when it opened. Some works on view speak to the museum’s history of collecting work from its special exhibitions, including three paintings from artist Aliza Nisenbaum’s 2021 Atrium Project Installation, Aliza Nisenbaum: Aquí Se Puede (Here You Can), featuring portraits of individuals connected to Kansas City’s salsa music and dance communities. Others demonstrate the museum’s longstanding commitment to collecting work by artists who are still early in their careers, including emerging artist Reginald Sylvester II. Together, these works celebrate the history of the museum and signal its future. This exhibition is organized by Erin Dziedzic, former director of curatorial affairs, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art.

Lucia Vidales, Contagios, 2023. Oil and acrylic on canvas. 200 x 160 cm / 78.7 x 62.9 inches.

The ninth annual Atrium Project will feature a large-scale commissioned installation by Mexico City-based artist Lucia Vidales. Vidales’s layered paintings engage themes of materiality, the body, and the consequences of historical and colonial imaginaries. The beings that populate her paintings suggest the potential for confrontation, but seldom follow through. Instead they play with humor or anxiety, or seek consolation from ancient wounds. The Atrium Project is an annual series of commissioned projects that presents the work of emerging and mid-career Hispanic and Latinx artists. Featured artists included José Lerma (2016), Firelei Báez (2017), Paul Henry Ramirez (2018), Angel Otero (2019), Joiri Minaya (2020), Aliza Nisenbaum (2021), Pepe Mar (2022), and Sarah Zapata (2023). These site-responsive projects involve artists visits to Kansas City, inspiration from which is often incorporated into the projects. This exhibition is organized by Erin Dziedzic, former director of curatorial affairs, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art.

Aryel René Jackson (American, born 1991), still from Doubt & Imagination, 2019-2020, single-channel video, 00:05:57. Courtesy of the artist. © Aryel René Jackson.

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: Forging Relationships Through Ceramics unites an intergenerational group of contemporary artists who explore links between the past and present through dynamic ceramic processes. The exhibition celebrates the material power of ceramics, a historically marginalized medium within fine art, while centering artists of color and women artists in particular, who embrace ceramic processes to express cultural traditions, oppose colonial and extractive frameworks, and connect with their own identity and chosen communities. This distinct cohort will demonstrate how clay and ceramics inspire artists and scholars to engage critically with history, social memory, and our relationships to each other and with the land. The exhibition will highlight a range of works from national and international artists, including a number of artists with ties to the Midwest and Great Plains regions. Smoke Gets in Your Eyes is organized by Krista Alba, assistant curator, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art.

Located in Kansas City, Missouri, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art is a leading presenter of global modern and contemporary art in the region. As the first contemporary art museum in the state, Kemper Museum has connected Midwest communities with the artists of our time since 1994. The museum cares for nearly 1,500 artworks by hundreds of artists in its growing Permanent Collection. A rotating selection of these works are on view in the museum’s Gunnar Birkerts-designed building, alongside rotating special exhibitions. Each year, the museum presents eight to ten exhibitions and major projects, with a special focus on emerging, mid-career artists, as well as artists from historically excluded groups. An active calendar of creative public programs provides meaningful engagement opportunities for visitors of all ages and backgrounds.

Kemper Museum is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Admission, parking, and public programs are always free, thanks to the generosity of members and other donors.

Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art Announces 2024 Exhibitions