Collection focus exhibitions are pulled from the Museum’s permanent collection of over 10,000 objects and aim to create a deeper understanding and connection with select artists, artistic media, genre, or art period.
Ahead of the 2024 Presidential election, this special exhibition re-engages with the central question posed to 12 American artists by the Kent Bicentennial Program in 1976, “What does independence mean to you?”
This solo exhibition with New York-based artist Jordan Eagles focuses on his work with queer blood. This exhibit features the monumental work "Blood Mirror," a large resin sculpture made with 59 individual human blood donations from PrEP advocates, along with additional resin sculptures, film, and a textile work.
These special exhibitions are the result of collaborations between Museum staff, and staff and students at Missouri State University in several departments.
An exhibition of American Art pulled from the permanent collection ranging from the 18th century to the present day. These works reveal the ways in which artists respond to and reveal our cultural identity as Americans.
Southwest Missouri has a historically strong community of ceramicists. Ranging from the functional to the sculptural and experimental, these works represent not only a chronological cross-section of the collection but also a wide trajectory of the transition of clay from its more functional origins into a fully-fledged studio art movement.
In June 2016, Artist Anne Lindberg was commissioned to create a site-specific installation in the King Gallery. The work, "tilted sky," is composed of Egyptian cotton thread and staples. The work will remain on long-term view as part of the Museum's collection.
