Category Archives: Permanent Collection

Works back on view in Regnier Center

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Diego Romero, Dancing Coyotes, 2007, earthenware, 6 1/2 x 15 1/2 in. Collection Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, KS. Photo: EG Schempf

The Regnier Center 2nd floor focus area artworks that were temporarily de-installed for their safety during recarpeting of those hallways are back on view!

We are so happy to have almost all of the works in the American Indian Art and Latino Art focus areas back up to use in tours and to enjoy each day. There were a couple of works that did not go back on view – please note that the Linda Haukaas Commodification of Indian Art drawing remains off-view to give it time to rest (reduce UV exposure). Marilou Shultz’s Untitled (computer chip weaving) also remains off-view as it continues to be on loan for other exhibitions.

Linda Haukaas, Commodification of Indian Art, 2009, graphite on paper bag, 16 x 16 x 5 in. Collection Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, KS. Photo: EG Schempf

 

And another update! The Polly Apfelbaum work that was on the 2nd floor (near the Jeffrey Gibson American Girl (punching bag work)) has been removed and replaced with the work by Zachari Logan.

Zachari Logan, Pride Blooms Ditch Flowers, from Eunuch Tapestries, 2020, pastel on black paper, 59 x 65 in. Collection Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, KS. Photo: EG Schempf

 

 

Rashawn Griffin’s Apparatus 15 (Internal Fixation) now on view in Regnier Center

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Rashawn Griffin’s work has been placed in the Regnier Center on the 2nd floor, just outside the room that is affectionately called “the cube” (a glass walled meeting room). It takes the place of the Roberto Lugo ceramic Kobe Urn, which is on loan to SFMOMA for their Get in the Game exhibition all about sports: Get in the Game: Sports, Art, Culture · SFMOMA. 

Prior to Lugo’s work being in this location, Wendy Red Star’s Untitled (silver) [Jingle Dress] was in this spot, and that work is also on loan (along with many other works from our collection), to the Spencer Museum in Lawrence for their Native Fashion exhibition: Native Fashion | Spencer Museum of Art. Check that one out before it closes Jan 5!

Here is the label info for Rashawn’s work:

Rashawn Griffin (b. 1980)

Apparatus 15 (Internal Fixation)

Clay, glaze

Collection Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, 2024.026, Acquired with funds provided by the Barton P. and Mary D. Cohen Art Acquisition Endowment at the JCCC Foundation

For the exhibition Sun Drinks White at the Nerman Museum in 2023, Rashawn Griffin created immersive environments that were simultaneously spaces, sculptures, and paintings. This included a room-like structure The Interior Fixation with a mirrored inside, which was filled with ephemera as well as ceramic sculptures, such as Apparatus 15 (Internal Fixation), seen here in isolation. With twisting, attenuated forms that recall limbs or organs, the organic nature of the clay sculptures calls to mind the possible dual meanings of ‘interior’ – the inside of a room but also of a body or a mind.

Rashawn Griffin earned an MFA from Yale University, New Haven, CT, and a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore.

Other MacArthur Fellows associated with JCCC and the Nerman Museum

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Did you know that aside from 2024 MacArthur Fellows Ebony G. Patterson and Wendy Red Star, and 2023 MacArthur Fellows Dyani White Hawk and Raven Chacon, the museum has works by several other Fellows in our collection, and have exhibited or hosted several more? Check them out below!

Martin Puryear – 1989 Fellow

Martin Puryear, Untitled, 1999, etching and aquatint on chine collé, 27 x 32 in. Collection Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, KS

In addition to having Puryear’s Untitled being part of our collection, this artist was also part of additions/editions in 2000, in JCCC’s Former Gallery of Art.

Guillermo Gómez-Peña – 1991 Fellow

The Nerman Museum, in collaboration with Charlotte Street, hosted Gomez-Peña’s La Pocha Nostra for The Mex Files: A Divination Ritual in 2023.

Wendy Ewald – 1992 Fellow and Dawoud Bey – 2017 Fellow

Bey and Ewald were featured in the 1997 exhibition, Portraits, at JCCC’s Former Gallery of Art.

Kerry James Marshall – 1997 Fellow

Kerry James Marshall, Untitled (Altgeld Gardens), 1995, acrylic and collage on canvas, 79 x 103 in. Collection Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, KS. Photo: EG Schempf

Kerry James Marshall, Studies for Untitled (Altgeld Gardens), 1995, pencil on paper, 11 x 15 1/2 in. and 8 1/2 x 11 in. Collection Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, KS, Gift of Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, NY

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In addition to Marshall’s Untitled (Altgeld Gardens) and Studies for Untitled (Altgeld Gardens) being part of our collection, this artist was also part of several exhibitions at JCCC’s Former Gallery of Art:

Elizabeth Murray – 1999 Fellow

Elizabeth Murray, Landing, 1999, oil on canvas, 115 x 138 in. Collection Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, KS, Gift of JCCC Gallery Associates

In addition to Murray’s Landing being part of our collection, this artist was also part of several exhibitions at JCCC’s Former Gallery of Art:

In March of 2024, we also hosted a gallery talk about Landing with Jason Andrews, who worked for Murray’s estate.

Toba Khedoori – 2002 Fellow

JCCC’s Former Gallery of Art presented Khedoori’s first institutional exhibition in 1996.

Josiah McElheny – 2006 Fellow

JCCC’s Former Gallery of Art presented Josiah McElheny · Works 1994-2000 in 2001.

Mark Bradford – 2009 Fellow

Bradford was part of queer abstraction in 2019-2020.

Uta Barth – 2012 Fellow

Uta Barth, Untitled (aot 5) from … and of time, 2000, triptych, color photographs, 35 1/4 x 44 1/4 in. Collection Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, , Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, KS, Gift of Marti and Tony Oppenheimer and the Oppenheimer Brothers Foundation

In addition to Barth’s Untitled (aot 5) from … and of time being part of our collection, this artist was also part of several exhibitions at JCCC’s Former Gallery of Art and at the Nerman Museum:

Nicole Eisenman – 2015 Fellow

Nicole Eisenman, Ouija, 2014, charcoal, ink, graphite on paper, 36 1/4 x 17 in. Collection Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, KS, Gift of the H Tony and Marti Oppenheimer Foundation

Eisenman was also part of the Nerman Museum’s REVEAL · Works from the Collection exhibition, which was on view in 2014-2015.

Jeffrey Gibson – 2019 Fellow

Jeffrey Gibson, American Girl, 2013, found punching bag, wool blanket, glass beads, steel studs, artificial sinew, tin jingles and chain, 43 x 16 x 16 in. Collection Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, KS, Gift of the H Tony and Marti Oppenheimer Foundation. Photo: EG Schempf

Jeffrey Gibson, Shield, number 1, 2012, found wood ironing board, deer hide, nails, acrylic paint, 58 x 15 3/4 in. Collection Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, KS, Acquired with funds provided by the Barton P. and Mary D. Cohen Art Acquisition Endowment of the JCCC Foundation. Photo: EG Schempf

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In addition to Gibson’s American Girl and Shield, number 1 being part of our collection, this artist was also part of several exhibitions at the Nerman Museum:

We also have a NMOCA InSight video about Shield, number 1.

Wendy Red Star Announced as 2024 MacArthur Fellow

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Wendy Red Star was recently announced as one of the 2024 MacArthur Fellows, sometimes also referred to as the “genius grant.” The Nerman Museum owns several of her works:

Red Star has also been featured in a some of our exhibitions!

Wendy Red Star also gave an artist talk at the Museum:

Learn more about her MacArthur Fellow award:

Ebony G. Patterson Announced as 2024 MacArthur Fellow

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Ebony G. Patterson was recently announced as one of the 2024 MacArthur Fellows, sometimes also referred to as the “genius grant.” The Nerman Museum owns one of her pieces:

Ebony G. Patterson, Untitled Lightz II, 2013, mixed media on paper, 75 x 100 in. Collection Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Gift of the H Tony and Marti Oppenheimer Foundation. Photo: EG Schempf

Patterson has also been featured in a some of our exhibitions!

Listen to Patterson discuss Untitled Lightz II:

Learn more about her MacArthur Fellow award:

Stories on Tours – incorporating picture books

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We love using storybooks to discuss art!

Raven: A Trickster Tale from the Pacific Northwest is a great picture book to use when discussing Preston Singletary’s Raven Steals the Moon:

Preston Singletary (b. 1963)
Raven Steals the Moon, 2007
Glass, blown and sand carved

 

Ish is a lovely book to use to introduce the idea that art doesn’t have to be perfect or representational, and that we all see art in our own way. We often read it near the Elizabeth Murray painting Landing:  Ish picture book read aloud

 

Elizabeth Murray (1940 – 2007), Landing, 1999, Oil on four canvases

 

The Pot that Juan Built is all about Juan Quezada Celado and his process, check in out!: The Pot that Juan Built read aloud (this one looks long, but the 2nd half is reading the afterward about the artist, which we don’t do on tours, but is worth watching for your own knowledge)

Juan Quezada Celado (b. 1940)
Red on Black Jar, 1999
Polychrome clay, 12 x 11.75″

These are just a few of the books we use regularly on our tours for children, especially groups that are K-2nd grade.

We are often able to find picture books that relate to special installations and temporary exhibitions as well. Right now in Actions for the Earth we have several picture books in the exhibition space itself, so families can read while they visit:

 

Judith Shea, Between Thought and Feeling

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A sculpture that is sometimes overlooked on campus because of its location tucked between the Library and the Classroom and Lab Building, Judith Shea’s Between Thought and Feeling offers a quiet moment of reflection for those who stop to look.

Judith Shea (b. 1948)
Between Thought and Feeling, 1988
Bronze and cast stone

The artists website here: Judith Shea

An essay on the piece by KU Art History Professor David Cateforis: Judith Shea essay by David Cateforis

An article here in artforum that discusses her work and also specifically addresses this sculpture: JUDITH SHEA’S CONTEMPORARY KOREA (artforum.com)

A quote from the article linked above: “In Between Thought and Feeling, 1988, the same bronze sheath form—more clearly than ever identified with the artist—again sits Madonna-like on a large cube, holding an antique head of Alexander the Great that springs up like a phallus from her lap. This once-powerful male ruler is decapitated, however, reduced here to an item of display subordinate to the maternal figure. Here it is the artist/mother who has both mastered and assimilated the past, which can now be offered lovingly but somewhat poignantly as a kind of trophy.”

Kukuli Velarde

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Kukuli Velarde (b. 1962), A La Cholitranca se le Salio el Indio! Savage Aboriginal Bitch, Moche Peru AD 200, 2009, Terracotta with engobes and wax

Watch the video we have with Kukuli speaking about the work in our collection:

And here is a link to the portion of her website where she talks about that series of works: Plunder Me, Baby – Kukuli Velarde

Here’s some scholarship about her work in relation to mochi pottery:

Playing with Things Mary Weismantel Kukuli Velarde objects (PDF Document) 

Jim Leedy: Abstract Expressionist

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We are so honored to have several works by revolutionary ceramicist Jim Leedy:

Jim Leedy, Crossroads Arts District visionary and longtime Kansas City Art Institute professor, dies at 91 | KCUR – Kansas City news and NPR

Lakeside Plate, 1990, Stoneware, porcelain, glaze, 22.5 x 23.75 x 7″

Watch Jim Leedy work on a platter and vessel similar to the work we have in the collection

This work is included in our Bloomberg Connects guide tour Serve, Protect, Create: A Tour for Veterans because of the references how art can be a vehicle for processing and expressing emotion. Jim Leedy served in the U.S. Army from 1951 to 1952 during the Korean War as a photojournalist.

Article about Jim Leedy’s works about war – Grand Arts

 

 

Do Ho Suh Some/One

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large metal robe with red interior

Do Ho Suh (b. 1962), Some/One, 2004, Stainless steel military dog tags, steel structure, fiberglass resin, fabric

front image of the Nerman Museum

This work is an iconic piece for the museum. For many of our visitors it is the artwork that they remember most from their visit. Given its impact and success, we might assume that this artist has made works that mostly address military themes. However, Do Ho Suh has a wide-ranging repertoire of sculptural works that address a broad range of themes.

An article in Art21 includes an interview in which the artist specifically discusses his military service and how he started making works that incorporate dog tags: “Some/One” and the Korean Military — Art21

There are more videos and educational resources about Suh’s work Do Ho Suh | Art21