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Philip Heying (BFA, Painting, KU) born 1959, Kansas City, Missouri; based in Lawrence, Kansas Repurposed billboard west of Salina, Kansas along I-70. 7/13/2014 – 1:40 PM, 2014 from A Visual Archaeology of the Anthropocene inkjet print Museum purchase: Elmer F. Pierson Fund, 2018.0180
Philip Heying’s photographic projects are characterized by ecological responsibility and research-driven investigation. In his series A Visual Archaeology of the Anthropocene, Heying highlights a pattern of connections between human activity and environmental changes. Repurposed billboard presents a view of Kansas grasslands near Salina and a lone billboard at the center of the horizon line. Local citizen Jim Nelson painted the sign in 2013 with the words “I need a kidney” in hopes of finding a kidney donor for his wife Sharon Plucar. Though they received a few leads and many well wishes, Plucar passed away in 2014 after Heying made this photograph. Nelson apparently painted over the billboard a short time later.
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Philip Heying (BFA, Painting, KU) born 1959, Kansas City, Missouri; based in Lawrence, Kansas Lee Kindle salvages a pickup truck destroyed by an F4 tornado in a region that had to be evacuated due to toxic mining waste near Treece, Kansas. 2/19/2009 – 2:04 PM, 2009 from A Visual Archaeology of the Anthropocene inkjet print Museum purchase: Elmer F. Pierson Fund, 2018.0182
This photograph by Philip Heying captures the aftermath of a deadly F4 tornado that devastated towns along the Kansas– Oklahoma border on May 10, 2008. The region is notable for its location near the Environmental Protection Agency’s Tar Creek Superfund site, which had a long history of mining lead and zinc until around 1970. The leftover lead dust that blows around the region, as well as the lead and zinc that seeped into groundwater, ponds, and lakes, has led to elevated levels of lead in the bodies of local children. This has resulted in increased rates of children with learning disabilities and physical disabilities. Heying noted that the owner of the truck depicted in Lee Kindle salvages had recently received chemotherapy treatment for colon cancer at the time this photograph was taken, and his daughter had a severe speech impediment. Heying was in awe of their determination and attachment to such a hostile, toxic place.
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Sue Ashline (BFA, Painting, KU) born 1947 Keokuk, Iowa; based in Lawrence, Kansas Alice goes to the Art Prom, 2010–2016 gouache, acrylic, ink, sumi ink, gesso, collage Museum purchase: Peter T. Bohan Art Acquisition Fund, 2019.0002
This painting features important qualities of Sue Ashline’s artistic approach, which often includes a whimsical arrangement of still life objects, a combination of abstract and representational elements, and a subtle use of color. This work was inspired by a German woodcut print in the Museum’s collection. Ashline also created and wore a shirt inspired by this print when she rode on a Spencer Museum float in a downtown Lawrence parade in 2010. Beyond her time in the studio, Ashline worked as the matter and framer at the Spencer Museum until her retirement in August 2018.
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Ann Hamilton (BFA, Textile Design, KU) born 1956, Lima, Ohio; based in Columbus, Ohio
(left and right) Robin Hood against the bad barons, 2018 paperback book slices, wood, book binder’s adhesive
on the day the war had ended, 2018 paperback book slices, wood, book binder’s adhesive Courtesy of Ann Hamilton Studio, EL2018.141, EL2018.142
Books are a recurring material and theme in Ann Hamilton’s practice, particularly the ways in which they influence readers and transmit information across languages and cultures. In both of these works Hamilton uses cross-sections of books to create physical alignments between different texts. Her work suggests that meanings are created when texts are put in conversation with one another, which alludes to the hybrid spaces books provide for readers to inhabit. In the words of writer Rebecca Solnit, a frequent collaborator with Hamilton, “Books are solitudes in which we meet.”
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Ann Hamilton (BFA, Textile Design, KU) born 1956, Lima, Ohio; based in Columbus, Ohio draw, 2003–2012 video, color, sound (loop); LCD screen; media player, two 15-inch open-frame monitors Museum purchase: R. Charles and Mary Margaret Clevenger Art Acquisition Fund, 2014.0005
This video work shows a moving line of red thread. Untouched by human hands, the line moves on its own and creates a place by drawing thread through surfaces. The red line also echoes a work by renowned weaver Cynthia Schira, who was Ann Hamilton’s mentor when she was a student at KU. Schira was an influential mentor to many artists featured in this exhibition, including Hamilton and Bhakti Ziek.
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Ann Hamilton (BFA, Textile Design, KU) born 1956, Lima, Ohio; based in Columbus, Ohio figura 23, 2012–2013 archival pigment print, digitally printed on Japanese Gampi paper bonded to cheesecloth Museum purchase: R. Charles and Mary Margaret Clevenger Art Acquisition Fund, 2014.0007.a,b
In 2010, the Spencer Museum of Art commissioned artist Ann Hamilton and her former KU professor Cynthia Schira to create works of art for the two-person exhibition An Errant Line: Ann Hamilton / Cynthia Schira (2013). Using digital technologies to express the essential nature of cloth and the ways museums organize and communicate the histories of objects, Hamilton and Schira transformed multiple galleries with their monumental installations. Both artists used images and objects from the Museum’s collection, evoking the stored collection and the Spencer Museum as a place, creating a rich and surprising tapestry that revealed the unique landscape of the collection.
For figura 23, Hamilton used a scanning process to capture the bottom half of a presepio figure, an object made in 18th-century Italy to be displayed in a public nativity scene. This large digital print mounted on fine gauge cheesecloth draws our attention to the present-day object and evokes the object’s native home, which is both thousands of miles and hundreds of years apart from us.
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Ann Hamilton (BFA, Textile Design, KU) born 1956, Lima, Ohio; based in Columbus, Ohio O N E E V E R Y O N E directory, 2017 paper Gift of the artist, T2018.111
In her O N E E V E R Y O N E series, Ann Hamilton photographed volunteers through a semi-transparent membrane that focused on each place where the body made contact. Commissioned by Landmarks for the Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin, the project began with more than 500 portraits of Austin community members. In addition to the series’ photographic prints and newspapers, Hamilton produced this 900-page book, which includes all of the photographs.
Please feel free to flip through the book, but leave it in the gallery.
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Ann Hamilton (BFA, Textile Design, KU) born 1956, Lima, Ohio; based in Columbus, Ohio O N E E V E R Y O N E newspaper, 2017 paper Gift of the artist, T2018.112
As part of Ann Hamilton’s O N E E V E R Y O N E series, she created these freely circulating newspapers to explore issues that were central to her project, such as touch, empathy, and seeing and being seen. The discussions of these issues are paired with images.
Hamilton states:
“The O N E E V E R Y O N E series began when a chemist placed a skin-like film into my hand with a note: ‘I think you will find this interesting.’ I did. Its soft rubber-like membrane was thin but extremely tough. I was immediately captured by this paradox, as well as the optical quality of its milky surface rendering only what touches it—in this case, my fingertips—in focus while obscuring everything else…The way it makes touch visible seemed magic to me.”
Please feel free to flip through the newspaper, but leave it in the gallery.
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Anne Austin Pearce (BFA, Printmaking, KU) born 1968, Lawrence, Kansas; based in Kansas City, Missouri Animals Don’t Take Vows: Tortuga, 2012 ink, acrylic on board Museum purchase: Helen Foresman Spencer Art Acquisition Fund, 2013.0036
This painting reflects Anne Austin Pearce’s memories of coastal Mexico, where she was struck by the contrast between the organic rhythms of nature and the organized structure of civilization. The word tortuga in the title can refer to either an island off the coast of Mexico or the Spanish word for turtle.
Pearce states:
“While in Mexico for the first time, I was afforded a most private and magical opportunity to observe a green turtle emerging from the moonlit sea, climbing her ancestral beach, laced with phosphorescent matter and digging a nest in the middle of the night. This trip was led by a scientist and turtle expert; we did not disrupt her process. Seeing the eggs drop from her body into the vast hole transfixed me. It was especially difficult knowing how few of these 120 would make it back to the sea, but the few that make it carry on and for that I am delighted. This trip and others to remote natural spaces continue to inform my work. The utter resilience and fragility of the natural world and the necessity of the artist/literary/scientific world continue to work as one to preserve our magical, valuable spaces on the planet.”
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Bhakti Ziek (BFA, Textile Design, KU) born 1946, New York, New York; based in Randolph, Vermont Rain, 2013 silk, cotton, rayon, metallic yarn, indigo dye, handwoven satin-based weft-backed Jacquard weaving Courtesy of the artist, EL2018.127.a,b,c
In Rain, Bhakti Ziek creates an interplay between visual elements and letters, using an indigo palette.
Ziek states:
“Rain is part of my Continuum series, in which I have woven sky, water, clouds, and rain in attempts to understand place and where I fit in the world. ForRain , using charts of yearly rain accumulation for Vermont and New Mexico (both places I have called home), I imposed one above the other and plotted mutual points for my woven letters. When finished, information that had meaning became meaningless. I think this is a good metaphor for the current phenomenon where people feel at liberty to bend and twist facts any way that is convenient for their own beliefs.”
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Bhakti Ziek (BFA, Textile Design, KU) born 1946, New York, New York; based in Randolph, Vermont House, 2008 cotton, linen, handwoven weft-backed Jacquard weaving Courtesy of the artist, EL2018.125
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Bhakti Ziek (BFA, Textile Design, KU) born 1946, New York, New York; based in Randolph, Vermont Focused Distraction, 2010 silk, tencel, bamboo, handwoven weft-backed weaving Courtesy of the artist, EL2018.126
This weaving is part of Bhakti Ziek’s Continuum series. It suggests the “placeless” space that many of us inhabit today when we stare at our phones or other electronic screens. These spaces can both distract us and focus our attention. They represent nowhere and everywhere.
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Brian Hawkins (MFA, Printmaking, KU) born 1987, Kansas City, Missouri; based in Harrisonville, Missouri There We Were, Holding Hands, 2017 from Images from Home digital photograph (inkjet print) Courtesy of the artist, EL2018.131
H is for, 2017 from Images from Home digital photograph (inkjet print) Courtesy of the artist, EL2018.133
My sisters and I stand, years apart, transfixed by a pinpoint, 2017 from Images from Home digital photograph (inkjet print) Courtesy of the artist, EL2018.132
…And yet it’s so warm, 2017 from Images from Home digital photograph (inkjet print) Courtesy of the artist, EL2018.130
This photograph, as well as the other photographs by Brian Hawkins displayed here, are part of the artist’s Images from Home series, which is making its debut in The Power of Place: KU Alumni Artists. The titles of the works suggest the ways that ordinary places come to have personal meanings through their associations with memories.
Hawkins states:
“As the title of the series suggests, each of the photographs is taken on the property where I was raised and where I currently reside, once again. With each passing year, my connection to these spaces becomes deeper and they are imbued with even more meaning. I began taking these photos one year ago just as a family member started showing signs of memory loss. She has developed a complicated relationship to the property, no longer capable of perceiving it as her actual home but, rather, a facsimile of home, at once comforting and disconcerting. The act of making the photographs in this series has been a way for me to process these events, which have forced me to contemplate my own relationship to the place I call home.”
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Brian Hawkins (MFA, Printmaking, KU) born 1987, Kansas City, Missouri; based in Harrisonville, Missouri Traces, 2017 cut-paper animation, 1 minute 33 seconds, 8 minutes 2 seconds loop Courtesy of the artist, EL2018.134
Hawkins described this cut-paper animation as follows: “Traces takes place within a replica of my former studio at KU. It is concerned with the variety of ways we struggle to remember people and places.”
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Cary Leibowitz (BFA, Visual Art, KU) born 1963, New York, New York; based in New York, New York I’m Sick of Making Art, 2005 Get Up You Lazy Bum, 2005 letterpress, blend roll Gift of Cary Leibowitz, 2010.0130.a,b
These works give voice to Leibowitz’s sense of everyday boredom and frustration, particularly concerning his ambivalent participation in the exclusive space of the art world.
mug, 2008 ceramic Gift of Cary Leibowitz, 2010.0133
Eat in / Take out, 2009 Disco Fever!, 2009 bumper stickers Anonymous gift, 2010.0022, 2010.0023
Cary Leibowitz has been known since the 1990s for his sarcastic, self-effacing, and playful text-based works. His practice often pairs popular culture and fine art references with social commentary. In some of the works displayed here, Leibowitz focuses his attention on the spaces of culture and consumerism that capture the popular imagination. These two bumper stickers suggest references to urban places, such as restaurants that provide take- out food and social dancing spaces.
pennants from the series Misery Pennants, 1990 screen print, felt Gift of Cary Leibowitz, 2010.0132
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Catherine Reinhart (MFA, Textiles, KU) born 1986, Osceola, Iowa; based in Ames, Iowa Patience Corners, 2016 from Carrie Hall constructed cloth Courtesy of the artist, EL2018.121
Patience Corners is part of Catherine Reinhart’s Carrie Hall project, a series of works inspired by the collection of 850 quilt blocks by Carrie Hall at the Spencer Museum. After viewing this collection and researching the life of dressmaker, quilter, lecturer, and collector Carrie Hall, Reinhart created contemporary fiber works and paper collages influenced by Hall’s experiences. The title suggests that patience can be a place that is shaped like a corner. Reinhart discovered Hall’s quilt blocks while she was assisting visiting artists Ann Hamilton and Cynthia Schira in their creation of the Spencer exhibition An Errant Line: Ann Hamilton & Cynthia Schira (2013).
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Catherine Reinhart (MFA, Textiles, KU) born 1986, Osceola, Iowa; based in Ames, Iowa Manifold Landscapes, 2018 Japanese paper, screen print, graphite, ink, colored pencil Courtesy of the artist, EL2018.120
In her works on paper, Catherine Reinhart has said that she is concerned with the “real,” specifically land topography and weavings, and the “ideal,” such as the systems used in cartography and draft drawings for woven textiles. Manifold Landscapes explores the ways that data is translated visually. For this work, Reinhart began with silkscreens made from her textile works and then drew on them while she was immersed in the landscape of western Nebraska, specifically in the braided river systems and the Sandhills. She completed the work using patterns she observed and felt as she braided her daughter’s hair.
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Cris Bruch (BFA, Ceramics and Sculpture, KU) born 1957, Sugarcreek, Missouri; based in Vashon Island, Washington Weathermap, 2016 ink on Mylar Courtesy of the artist and Greg Kucera Gallery, EL2018.112.a-bb
This is the largest drawing that Cris Bruch has ever attempted. The process of this work’s creation included making pools of water and ink, waiting for them to dry, creating accidents, and then responding to them. This work is inspired by weather maps, which overlay the geographic features of a place with the wind and water in the air. Bruch said that he was interested in them because as soon as they are made, they become obsolete. Weather events and formations quickly move on and dissipate, while the land below has a much longer lifespan.
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Cris Bruch (BFA, Ceramics and Sculpture, KU) born 1957, Sugarcreek, Missouri; based in Vashon Island, Washington Weldona, 2018 fiber cement, steel base Courtesy of the artist and Greg Kucera Gallery, EL2018.109.a,b
The ghost-like form of Weldona, which was created for this exhibition, resembles a shrouded grain elevator. It also has visual similarities to cathedrals and headstones. Cris Bruch calls the work a memorial to cash-crop agriculture. He named it after a small community in Morgan County, Colorado, although it does not depict that town’s grain elevator. Weldona served as a tank town for the railroad, and like many similar settlements, the history of the place and those who settled there has been largely lost.
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Cris Bruch (BFA, Ceramics and Sculpture, KU) born 1957, Sugarcreek, Missouri; based in Vashon Island, Washington Pent, 2016 wood, hinges Courtesy of the artist and Greg Kucera Gallery, EL2018.110.01-20
Please feel welcome to enter and explore this work. Note that some pathways narrow and may not be accessible.
Cris Bruch’s practice is informed by his observations of the Great Plains and his deep-rooted family history there. His works transform architecture and utilitarian objects associated with the Midwest to honor the lives shaped by the Plains. Pent is influenced by the standard geometry of livestock pens. Bruch has called this work a “people sorter” that invites visitors to choose a path.
“Many of the Europeans who took over the Plains were escaping confines of various sorts, and wanted the freedom of having some land. Even though a lot of them ended up as transient tenant farmers, most people wanted the freedom to exploit the land and make as much money as they could. Some of the most financially successful people, for a short period, were cattle ranchers.” —Cris Bruch
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Cris Bruch (BFA, Ceramics and Sculpture, KU) born 1957, Sugarcreek, Missouri; based in Vashon Island, Washington Harbinger, 2004 paper, resin, epoxy, pigment Courtesy of the artist and Greg Kucera Gallery, EL2018.111
Cris Bruch created Harbinger from a single strip of paper, which he estimates to be about 1.5 inches wide by about 500 feet long. This coiled paper sculpture arrived at its final form through a process of repeated and varied manipulations. The funnel shape of this one is reminiscent of a tornado, a catastrophic weather event widely associated with the Midwest.
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Dan R. Kirchhefer (MFA, Printmaking, KU) born 1947, Hastings, Nebraska; based in Topeka, Kansas Shoup Glacier, Alaska, 2013 watercolor Museum purchase: Letha Churchill Walker Memorial Art Fund, 2015.0173
Dan R. Kirchhefer finds inspiration for his work in both the fragile qualities of human life and the beauty of the natural world. His travels around the globe inform his practice. Like many of his works, Shoup Glacier, Alaska is small and invites an intimate viewing experience. Kirchhefer depicts a snowy vista in the Shoup Bay State Marine Park of Alaska with a cool, muted palette and horizontally symmetrical composition, instilling the scene with tranquility and stillness.
John Decker, printer (born 1967) “The morning of the third day dawned fair and fresh…”, 2002 etching, hand coloring Gift of the artist, 2006.0028
Iguazu Falls, 2009 watercolor Museum purchase: Letha Churchill Walker Memorial Art Fund, 2015.0172
Iguazu Falls is a waterfall on the border of Argentina and Brazil. Dan Kirchhefer visited the site and painted it as part of an ongoing series of works that focus on the theme of water in different regions. His working technique is to create a pencil rendering at the site and to take color photographs for reference. He completes the final watercolors in his studio, a process that can take up to a year. As a student at KU, Kirchhefer served as a print study assistant and catalogued many objects in the Museum’s collection.
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David B. Brackett (MFA, Textile Design, KU) born 1956, Detroit, Michigan; based in Lawrence, Kansas Point of View, 2015 cotton, hand-woven and Jacquard woven, piecing, quilting Museum purchase: Peter T. Bohan Art Acquisition Fund, 2019.0003
David Brackett began his career path with a degree in zoology before coming to KU to study weaving. He said he “loved the math of the loom,” explaining that principles of the loom were used to design the first computers. Point of View combines jacquard woven elements in the center of the work with hand weaving on the side panels. Brackett uses hand-dyed yarns for the handwoven elements of his textiles, and creates these on his own loom. He uses a computer to digitally create the Jacquard weaving designs, working from photographs from his travels, natural forms, and people he knows as inspiration. Point of View, like many of his works, is quilted and includes a cotton batting, making the work a quilt as well as a weaving. Brackett is currently a faculty member at the University of Kansas in the Department of Visual Art.
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David Reisman (BFA, Painting, KU) born 1958, Chicago, Illinois; based in New York, New York Untitled (re-working 1996 dream, “I see a huge circular hole that goes all the way through a mountain”), 2017 colored pencil on paper Museum purchase: Letha Churchill Walker Memorial Art Fund, 2018.0042
Much of David Reisman’s art is inspired by his dreams, which he thinks of as found material. Reisman states that “… while we are asleep ordinary places like bars, movie theaters, schools, amusement parks, workplaces, and childhood neighborhoods become strangely unfamiliar.” Reisman began keeping a daily record of his dreams i n the 1990s as a way of finding new sources of subject matter for his work. This drawing is from a recent series of artworks that reinterpret entries from Reisman’s dream journals, selections of which were published in Foreign Objects: Dream Drawings (2004).
Reisman states:
“Humor is an important part of dreams, and a huge circular hole that goes all the way through a mountain is ridiculous at first. At the same time, the idea also suggests ambitious earthworks like Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty and James Turrell’s Roden Crater. It’s possible that with the right set of circumstances, commitment, and money, a dream like this could become a reality. There are also natural formations that are similar—for example, Torghatten in Norway, and Tianmen Mountain in China.”
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Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds (BFA, Painting, KU) born 1954, Wichita, Kansas; based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma enrolled citizen of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Nations of Oklahoma Landfall Press, publisher For Arizona Denials, 2001 from Lasting Impressions portfolio and the artist’s Neuf series color lithograph Museum purchase: Peter T. Bohan Art Acquisition Fund, 2001.0204.02
Since the mid-1990s, Edgar Heap of Birds has created compositions in prints, paintings, and other materials that take a form similar to the work displayed here. These works are connected to the artist’s Neuf series. Neuf is the Cheyenne word for the number four, and a key concept in Cheyenne culture, relating to the four seasons and the four directions. Nearly all of the works in the Neuf series use the same type of pattern seen here.
Heap of Birds describes how he began making these forms: “I started walking in the canyons. I started becoming a creature of the woods, observing cedar trees, juniper trees, the rock outcroppings, the water running off those rocks, the birds I was hunting. The Neuf series came out of all these moving shapes.”
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Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds (BFA, Painting, KU) born 1954, Wichita, Kansas; based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma enrolled citizen of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Nations of Oklahoma Dead Indian Stories, 2015 monoprint series, 16 prints on rag paper Collection of the artist, EL2018.116.a-p
Artist Edgar Heap of Birds describes this series:
“The welcoming freedom of ‘Miss Liberty’ is not a positive offering for Indigenous peoples of this continent; it is an invitation and act to plunder the natural resources and end Indigenous lives. The genocide of Native peoples on this continent has been and continues to be an ongoing raid and pillage that we must endure. One hundred million Native lives have been lost, hemisphere wide, from so-called Euro contact.
The monoprints titled Dead Indian Stories are made in the face of unending Indigenous poverty, deficient educational opportunities, poor housing, police injustice, very high rates of suicide, lack of political representation, and dishonored treaties of promise. Native nations lost their viability and harmonious human birthright in coexisting with this Earth after violence of so-called ‘liberty and democracy’ was perpetrated upon countless Indigenous families of these once kind lands. Today Native communities are at a severe status of recovery from U.S. / Euro brutality and loss. Will Native peoples ever truly recuperate and heal from such profound harm in the name of ‘Freedom’?”
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Emily Hanako Momohara (MFA, Expanded Media, KU) born 1974, Seattle, Washington; based in Cincinnati, Ohio (left to right) Angel Island #4, 2014 Angel Island #2, 2014 Angel Island #5, 2014 archival pigment prints Courtesy of the artist, created with support from the Ohio Art Council and Headlands Center for the Arts, EL2018.122, EL 2018.123, EL 2018.124
These three photographs are from Emily Hanako Momohara’s Angel Island series, which reflects on her family history. Momohara’s great-grandparents passed through the Angel Island Immigration Station on their way from Japan to the United States. In the early 20th century, migrants were held in cramped temporary housing at the Immigration Station for periods ranging from a few days to months.
Momohara states:
“Much likes its sister Ellis Island in New York, Angel Island processed immigrants based on national origin, gender, and politics. My great-grandfather passed through Angel Island when entering the U.S. and later went back to Japan to get my great- grandmother… In my quest to understand my great-grandparents’ experience, I camped on the island for three days and two nights. I hiked with my gear up to the campsite and noticed the beauty of the landscape, the lush green of our U.S. West Coast, evergreen trees, and the untamed wilderness of the island. During my days, I wandered the small island and collected bits of nature that I then used to created tiny landscapes and islands of my own. The still lifes reference ikebana, traditional Japanese flower arrangement, and the format of the photographs point to Japanese hanging scrolls… In the evenings, I photographed the still lifes on the picnic table with a flashlight. The spotlight on the objects calls attention to the cultural past in these created memories.”
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Gina Adams (MFA, Painting and Drawing, KU) born 1965, Groton, Connecticut; based in Longmont, Colorado Ojibwe, Lakota, Irish, Lithuanian Broken Treaty Quilt #5, 2014 cotton, calico, quilting, dyeing Museum purchase: Gift of Roger Ward, B.A. 1976 in memory of Ralph E. (“Ted”) Coe; Peter T. Bohan Art Acquisition Fund and Judith M. Cooke Native American Art Fund, 2015.0069
For her Broken Treaty Quilts series, Gina Adams hand-cut letters from calico fabric and appliquéd them onto antique quilts. These works use language from treaties written by the United States government that were signed by Native American tribes. The intentionally vague treaties promised tribes peace, money, and sovereignty in exchange for their homelands. In most cases, the United States government willfully broke their promises to the Native peoples. Broken Treaty Quilt #5 encourages viewers to reflect on both the past betrayals and the continuing marginalization of Native Americans within the United States.
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Gina Adams (MFA, Painting and Drawing, KU) born 1965, Groton, Connecticut; based in Longmont, Colorado Ojibwe, Lakota, Irish, Lithuanian Honoring Modern Unidentified .3, 2013 Honoring Modern Unidentified .9, 2013 encaustic, oil, ceramic Museum purchase: Peter T. Bohan Art Acquisition Fund, 2014.0033, 2014.0036
For her Honoring Modern Unidentified series, Gina Adams responded to the anonymous ways that many Native peoples are represented in museum collections. Adams’s work honors the unknown makers, as well as the countless other Native peoples whose names, cultural identities, and homelands have been lost because of colonialism and oppression. For these works Adams etched Native beadwork designs from the Spencer’s collection onto ceramic basketballs. Originally taught at boarding schools as part of assimilation attempts, basketball has since been reappropriated by Native communities and is now viewed as a source of resistance, opportunity, and means for survival.
Adams states:
“The form of the basketball was specifically chosen for many reasons. First and foremost, James Naismith was the University of Kansas’s first basketball coach. Second, Naismith pioneered the KU basketball program, which today has become an athletic enterprise. Nearby, Haskell Indian Nations University was once a Native American Bureau of Indian Affairs Children’s Boarding School. Today, Haskell is one of the only four-year accredited Native American colleges in the United States, and continues the Naismith tradition, with a strong basketball program for Native athletes. For many Native Americans, basketball, as well as many other sports, is considered an extremely viable way towards survival, both monetarily and physically. It is also a way to achieve excellent educational opportunities through athletic scholarships. Choosing the basketball to make a ceramic cast was deliberate; I wanted to bring the game into these post-colonial issues. The ceramic body represents the idea of craft that would have been passed down to me by my ancestors, were their way of life and well-being not purposely divided and conquered. To ancient peoples, clay was a means of survival; here I purposely use it to signify survival that continues, despite the Dawes Act and the assimilation practices that occurred.”
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John L. Newman (BA, Art Education, KU; MFA, Painting and Printmaking, KU) born 1948, Rohwer, Arkansas; based in Fayetteville, Arkansas Rohwer Internees #2, 2006 from Both Sides of the Barbed Wire Fence color lithograph Museum purchase: Museum of Art Acquisition Fund, 2007.0051
This lithograph portrays life in the Rohwer Japanese American Relocation Center in Rohwer, Arkansas, the city where John L. Newman was born and lived as a child. Newman portrays activities taking place inside the internment camp, observed through the barbed wire fence that surrounded it.
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John L. Newman (BA, Art Education, KU; MFA, Painting and Printmaking, KU) born 1948, Rohwer, Arkansas; based in Fayetteville, Arkansas Front Porch Therapy, 1987 acrylic on canvas Bequest of Richard M. Hollander, 1991.0164
“Where I grew up, the front porch was a place used for therapy for African Americans. It was a space for gathering, talking, and relaxing. Residents of the property invited friends, neighbors, relatives, and sometimes complete strangers to participate in discussions on a variety of topics—finding a job, politics, the ‘hood,’ family strife, religion, finances, love, death, race, etc. Advice was given, chewed on, and sometimes accepted. Interruptions were frequent, ideas challenged, and arguments erupted. You needed to be thick-skinned because criticism was rampant. Problems were never completely resolved, but emotions were soothed for a moment, front porch therapy to resume later.” —John L. Newman
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John L. Newman (BA, Art Education, KU; MFA, Painting and Printmaking, KU) born 1948, Rohwer, Arkansas; based in Fayetteville, Arkansas Front Yard, 1982 oil on canvas Courtesy of the artist, EL2018.118
“A number of my works reflect my children in their safe spaces: in the front yard, on the front porch, sitting on the front steps, or playing on the sidewalk in front of their childhood home. So innocent, so unaware of possible dangers. Protected by caring parents, the legions of family members, and the African village. Left to remain innocent, left to enjoy their childhood in safe spaces, in the heart of the ‘ghetto, the hood.’” —John L. Newman
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John L. Newman (BA, Art Education, KU; MFA, Painting and Printmaking, KU) born 1948, Rohwer, Arkansas; based in Fayetteville, Arkansas Hostage, 1997 oil on canvas Courtesy of the artist, EL2018.119
“This scene takes place on the front porch of our family home after a funeral. One of my cousins is holding the wife of another cousin ‘hostage’ in a conversation that she clearly had no interest in. She seemed caught between wanting to leave and wanting to be polite. Should she re-enter the house where it was hot and full of people, or should she remain on the porch in this one-sided conversation?” —John L. Newman
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Julie Green (BFA, Visual Arts, KU; MFA, Painting, KU) born 1961, Yokosuka, Japan; based in Corvallis, Oregon
(left to right) Kansas 14 April 1965 (2 of 2), 2017 Kansas 30 November 1962, 2017 Kansas 14 April 1965 (1 of 2), 2017 from The Last Supper ceramic Courtesy of the artist, EL2018.114.01.02, EL2018.114.01.03, EL2018.114.01
These plates are part of Julie Green’s ongoing project The Last Supper, which documents death row inmates’ last meals. There are currently 800 works in the series, which is grouped by state and generally exhibited all together. Final meal requests can provide poignant clues about an inmate, illuminating the state of mind of a person facing death. Green renders their stories in cobalt blue paint fired onto ceramic plates. On the two plates for Kansas 14 April 1965, she painted French fries, garlic bread, ice cream, and strawberries with whipped cream. These plates illustrate the final meals of Richard Hickock and Perry Smith, whose stories are detailed by Truman Capote in his non-fiction novel In Cold Blood about murders that occurred in Kansas.
Green states: “These two Kansas meals are identical. This is because rather than a final meal request, the two men were simply provided a meal. This is often the case in historical menus, as well as in Texas, where since 2011 inmates are not given a choice and instead are served the standard prison meal of the day.”
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Julie Green (BFA, Visual Arts, KU; MFA, Painting, KU) born 1961, Yokosuka, Japan; based in Corvallis, Oregon
(top to bottom) Gossip Bridle, 2017 Too Sad to Tell You, 2018 Gossip Bridles, 2017 from Fashion Plate acrylic, day glow paint, on Chinet paper plate Courtesy of the artist and UPFOR Gallery, EL2018.115.01, EL2018.115.03, EL2018.115.02
Julie Green’s Fashion Plate series takes its decorative style from the artist’s collection of European flow blue ceramic plates. However, there are a few added twists. Green incorporates personal, historical, and political details in the margins of the paper plates, and she uses industrial strength glow-in-the-dark paint to embed imagery.
Green writes that her Fashion Plate series “focuses on content related to domesticity, identity, security, and bias. While some themes overlap with The Last Supper, Fashion Plate’s focus on women’s experiences also provides balance. The Last Supper necessarily prioritizes male experience because men are almost exclusively subjects of capital punishment in the U.S.”
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Julie Green (BFA, Visual Arts, KU; MFA, Painting, KU) born 1961, Yokosuka, Japan; based in Corvallis, Oregon The Last Supper: Final Meals of U.S. Death Row Inmates, 2005 digital video with audio, 54 minutes 11 seconds Courtesy of the artist and UPFOR Gallery, EL2018.113
This video documents artist Julie Green’s ongoing series The Last Supper, which features ceramic plates that depict painted representations of death-row inmates’ last meals. Please feel welcome to sit and enjoy the video.
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Julie Green (BFA, Visual Arts, KU; MFA, Painting, KU) born 1961, Yokosuka, Japan; based in Corvallis, Oregon Lawrence Lithography Workshop (based in 2001–present) After, 2009 from Causality color lithograph Gift of Michael Sims, The Lawrence Lithography Workshop, 2009.0208
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Keith Jacobshagen (MFA, Visual Arts, KU) born 1941, Wichita, Kansas; based in Lincoln, Nebraska Evening, Near Walton, 1987 monotype Gift of Virginia Jennings Nadeau and Richard Pierre Nadeau, 1998.0033
In Keith Jacobshagen’s landscapes, long stretches of the Nebraska countryside often meet a seemingly endless expanse of sky. The colossal sky, clouds, and topography seem at once too beautiful to be real and instinctively authentic. The liquid quality of this monoprint prompts associations of memories blurred by time and details stripped to the essence of a particular place and moment.
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Keith Jacobshagen (MFA, Visual Arts, KU) born 1941, Wichita, Kansas; based in Lincoln, Nebraska N.W. 84th & Agnew Road July 31, 1983, 1983 graphite on paper Gift of Virginia Jennings Nadeau and Richard Pierre Nadeau, 1998.0038
Like many of Keith Jacobshagen’s works, N.W. 84th & Agnew Road July 31, 1983 portrays a Nebraska landscape. The drawing represents a quiet, true-to-life view of an intersection in Walton, Nebraska, not far from where the artist currently works in Lincoln, Nebraska. The plunging one-point perspective of the road gives way to a spacious clear sky, creating a sense of expansive openness.
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Keith Jacobshagen (MFA, Illustration and Painting, KU) born 1941, Wichita, Kansas; based in Lincoln, Nebraska Near Emerald, 1987 monotype Gift of Virginia Jennings Nadeau and Richard Pierre Nadeau, 1998.0027
Jacobshagen celebrates Midwestern landscapes by combining his intimate reflections of the region with his appreciation for nature. Near Emerald’s low horizon and dominant sky evoke a variety of emotions inspired by the Nebraska countryside. Jacobshagen states: “I’m a Midwesterner who has stayed put to make sense of where I live. My interest in the land is crystallized in my paintings about it.”
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Keith Jacobshagen (MFA, Illustration and Painting, KU) born 1941, Wichita, Kansas; based in Lincoln, Nebraska Cut Brush Fire-Platte River Valley Near Yutan, 1989 oil on paper Museum purchase: Gift of C. David Henry, 1990.0024
A native of Wichita, Kansas, Keith Jacobshagen paints landscapes of Kansas and Nebraska. Cut Brush Fire-Platte River Valley Near Yutan goes beyond a documentary treatment of place, taking on the characteristics of personal biography through the text Jacobshagen wrote directly on the painting. This inscription, which details the specific time, place, and circumstances of this work, enhances the viewer’s sense of the surroundings the artist experienced.
Painting inscription, bottom left: “Cut Brush Fire Platte River Valley Near Yutan 21 Nov. 1989—Pie and Coffee at Fremont—53̊ Light N.W. Wind”
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Larry Schwarm (BFA, Design and Sculpture, KU; MFA, Design and Photography, KU) born 1944, Greensburg, Kansas; based in Wichita, Kansas Blue SUV on South Main Street, Greensburg, Kansas May 5, 2007, 2007 chromogenic color print Museum purchase: R. Charles and Mary Margaret Clevenger Fund, 2008.0278
Larry Schwarm grew up in Greensburg, Kansas—a town that may now be best-known for its devastation after a F5 tornado on May 5, 2007. Schwarm made photographs of the storm’s aftermath that help us understand the power of nature and how Greensburg and its citizens’ lives were drastically altered by this storm.
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Larry Schwarm (BFA, Design and Sculpture, KU; MFA, Design and Photography, KU) born 1944, Greensburg, Kansas; based in Wichita, Kansas Earth, Fire, and Water, Z-Bar Ranch, Chase County, Kansas, 1994 chromogenic color print (Ektacolor) Museum purchase: Terry and Sam Evans Fund, 1998.0052
A native of Kansas, Larry Schwarm is perhaps best known for the significant work he has done photographing the practice of burning parts of the prairie in the early spring to spur the best plant growth. This cycle of spring burning is essential to maintaining the grassland ecosystem and stimulates early plant growth for grazing. Schwarm explores the formal and spiritual potential of this process through his simple compositions that maximize intensity of color and contrast. This photograph was made at the Z Bar Ranch, a national preserve for the Tallgrass Prairie.
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Lisa Grossman (BFA, Painting, KU) born 1967, Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania; based in Lawrence, Kansas 86 Bends of the Kaw, 2004 relief-roll woodcut, silk tissue, mulberry paper, wood panel, rice paste, PVA glue, chine collé Museum purchase: Gift of Elizabeth Schultz and Peter T. Bohan Art Acquisition Fund, 2004.0050.a-f
In this work, Lisa Grossman ambitiously documents the 86 bends in the Kansas River, or Kaw, as seen at sunset from a low-flying airplane. The Kaw River runs through much of northeast Kansas, reflecting on the variation of water levels within a single season, through drought and flood, and the constant movement of water eastward, ultimately emptying into the Missouri River at Kansas City. She later mounted the series of small woodcuts onto wood panels, conveying the bends and shapes of the Kaw River valley.
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Lisa Grossman (BFA, Painting, KU) born 1967, Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania; based in Lawrence, Kansas Kansas River - Moonlight, 2008 relief-roll woodcut, silk tissue on tinted mulberry paper Gift of the artist, 2013.0023
In 2004, Lisa Grossman took a series of aerial digital photographs and videos as she flew along the Kansas River, or Kaw, from Kansas City to Junction City, following the sun as it set on the western horizon. This series of prints provides viewers a transformative way to experience the Kaw. After creating woodblocks from photographs and video stills taken during her sunset flight, Grossman used an innovative printmaking process to create ghostly negative images of the Kaw as it meanders through the landscape. The portions of the river shown here chart its course in Lecompton, Topeka, Eudora, and Linwood, Kansas.
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Lisa Grossman (BFA, Painting, KU) born 1967, Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania; based in Lawrence, Kansas Navigating, 2018 oil on canvas Museum purchase: Peter T. Bohan Art Acquisition Fund, 2018.0205
“I revel in the lyrical sweep of the Kansas River, particularly an oblique, aerial view of the floodplain stretching to the prairie horizon. Certain sections have an abstract asymmetry that makes it easy to compose a canvas. There’s a rhythm, a cadence of the curvilinear river unfurling across the vast floodplain and bouncing off of ancient bluffs that captivates me. Each section has its own character and the floodplain is written with evidence of ancient meanderings we see today as oxbows, floodplain scrolling, and scars… There’s nothing like painting to really see and develop affection for places, and, for me, it was a way to honor the river as a whole, one painting at a time.” — Lisa Grossman
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Marcie Miller Gross (BFA, Design, KU) born 1958, Kansas City, Kansas; based in Kansas City, Missouri Beyond the Wall, 2018 wool industrial felt Courtesy of the artist and Haw Contemporary, EL2018.129
Marcie Miller Gross’s installations are often studies of repetition, mass and void, physicality and weight, compression and release. She works with materials that she has a visceral connection with, and uses gestures like folding, stacking, and cutting to incrementally develop forms. Created specifically for this exhibition, Beyond the Wall takes its inspiration from a photograph made by the artist during time she spent in Berlin, Germany, a place she has considered extensively in her work since her GlogauAIR Art Residency there in 2016. This sculpture made of industrial felt recalls aspects of the Berlin Wall Memorial, and also the mass of dark green trees located in the cemetery beyond.
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Mark Goodwin (BFA, Sculpture and Painting, KU) born 1956, Lyons, Kansas; based in Randolph, Vermont Star System, 2012 mixed media, milk paint, shellac, and pigment on paper Courtesy of the artist, EL2018.128
The features of Mark Goodwin’s works reflect his process of working on both sides of the paper. Folding and drawing on the back side of the paper creates raised lines on the front, which he responds to with a variety of mediums. Goodwin has said that the marks of color create energy points that accumulate and grow into memories of space. In Star System, the marks are like asterisks, suspended moments that are meant to feel both mysterious and transformative.
The artist made this painting in Vermont—where he now resides— and he said that this work evokes a longing for other places, such as New Mexico, where he has lived in the past.
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Rena L. Detrixhe (BFA, Expanded Media, KU) born 1986, Russell, Kansas; based in Tulsa, Oklahoma grass/roots, 2018 wheat sprouted into handmade cotton paper, dried and pressed Courtesy of the artist, EL2018.143.a-l
Rena L. Detrixhe is drawn to materials that retain stories from their original sources. The artist has said that she seeks a poetic understanding of time, material, history, and place, and her practice tries to reckon the human impact on and cultural relationships to the land. For grass/roots, Detrixhe planted wheat seeds in handmade, cotton paper and grew sprouts. She then dried and pressed the sprouts and their roots to display them as drawings rather than as a live-wheat installation. One row in the work shows the sprout side, while the other reveals the root side. The work invites the viewer to contemplate the lifecycle and history of a crop commonly associated with Kansas.
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Richard Mawdsley (MFA, Metalsmithing, KU) born 1945, Winfield, Kansas; based in Carterville, Illinois Alpha-Omega: Water Tower #5, 1995–1999 sterling silver, gold and rhodium plating, pearls, mahogany Museum purchase: Peter T. Bohan Art Acquisition Fund, 2000.0120
Fabricated entirely by hand, this work pays homage to the many water towers that dot the Midwestern prairie landscape. The primary role of a water tower is to create pressure to circulate a town’s water supply, making the tower the heart of its community. The richly detailed surface of Richard Mawdsley’s Water Tower suggests the importance of this rural monument. At the same time, the base of the tower is littered with trash. A visual tension is created between the water tower as a symbol of small-town civic achievement and as a forgotten urban monument.
Mawdsley also incorporated a range of religious imagery into this piece. The pipes of an organ, Christian crosses, and church tower bells serve as symbols for various people and events from the artist’s life. Mawdsley based the work’s form on a standing cup, a footed vessel that represented a high-point of luxury during the late Renaissance.
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Robert W. Ebendorf (BFA, KU; MFA, KU) born 1938, Topeka, Kansas; based in Greenville, North Carolina (left) Colored Smoke Machine, 1974–1975 copper, gold plating, silver, pearl Museum purchase: Peter T. Bohan Art Acquisition Fund, 1993.0299
Robert Ebendorf has long been a leader in the studio jewelry movement, in part due to his innovative use of found materials. Colored Smoke Machine, featuring hammered metals and plastic tubing, demonstrates his interest in combining traditional metalworking techniques with non-precious everyday items. He seeks to create works that both visually engage the viewer and challenge traditional notions about what creates value. Ebendorf evokes senses of place by incorporating found materials and combining elements from disparate locations.
My Brother and I, 1969–1970 copper, brass, photograph, mixed media Museum purchase: Peter T. Bohan Art Acquisition Fund, 1993.0300
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Ryan RedCorn (BFA, Visual Communications, KU) born 1979, Tahlequah, Oklahoma; based in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, Osage Reservation member of the Osage Nation Portrait of Chantelle Keshaye Pahtayken & Shay Pahtayken, Plains Cree, 2018 digital photograph printed on SEG fabric Courtesy of the artist, EL2018.144
Ryan RedCorn describes this work:
“In this portrait, my goal was to capture the emblematic love and strength between a mother and daughter–a form of familial love and expression of value that can be recognized by all peoples regardless of language or cultural background. Chantelle and Shay collaborated with me to execute a photographic strategy of undermining tropes Americans have about Indigenous people. The volume of color present is an intentional counterweight to the black and white photographs the American subconscious inherited from previous generations and textbooks. This work forcibly places Indigenous people in the present with dignity and respect.”
RedCorn’s photographs displayed here relate to his research into the murders of Osage women in the 1920s for their land rights. RedCorn developed these large-scale photographs to honor modern-day Native women and their stories of strength and resilience. The grand scale and extraordinary quality of the photographs evoke visual sovereignty and self-expression. Most importantly for RedCorn, these works “reclaim large amounts of wall space on behalf of Indigenous peoples.”
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Ryan RedCorn (BFA, Visual Communications, KU) born 1979, Tahlequah, Oklahoma; based in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, Osage Reservation member of the Osage Nation Portrait of Portlyn Harjo, Creek/Seminole, 2018 digital photograph printed on SEG fabric Courtesy of the artist, EL2018.145
Ryan RedCorn collaborated with aspiring poet and rock musician Portlyn Harjo to create a portrait that conveys a level of grace, power, and visual rhyming that elevates this photograph to the realm of myth. This is a senior portrait to celebrate Harjo’s graduation from high school and was taken in her dad Sterlin’s unkempt backyard in Tulsa, Oklahoma, suggesting ties to current places and also the places where Harjo may be heading. Harjo is Creek/Seminole, descended from Indigenous Nations that were forced from their native Florida through several wars in the 1700s. Most of the displaced descendants now live in Oklahoma.
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Stephen T. Johnson (BFA, Design and Illustration, KU; BFA, Painting, KU) born 1964, Madison, Wisconsin; based in Lawrence, Kansas The Number “13”, 1998 pastel, watercolor, gouache, charcoal, paper Museum purchase: Peter T. Bohan Art Acquisition Fund, 2005.0060
“City by Numbers reflects my continuing attraction to cities for their wealth of visual possibilities. In these urban landscapes are wonderful images waiting to be transformed into paintings... Cities are one of our greatest human assets, for they embody and embrace diversity, connecting us with our past and linking us to our future. As the 21st century unfolds, it may be an appropriate time to reflect on the past century with its prodigious urban achievements and ask ourselves how we can preserve buildings, neighborhoods, and areas that have unique character and charm. It is also a time to marvel at our innovations as we move into this wondrous new era.” — Stephen T. Johnson, City by Numbers (1998)
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Stephen T. Johnson (BFA, Design and Illustration, KU; BFA, Painting, KU) born 1964, Madison, Wisconsin; based in Lawrence, Kansas The Letter “N”, 1995 pastel, watercolor, gouache, charcoal, paper Museum purchase: Peter T. Bohan Art Acquisition Fund, 2005.0059
Stephen Johnson’s work often forges connections between words, objects, and ideas. In 1995, he published an alphabet book that won the Caldecott Medal and was a New York Times Best Illustrated Book of the Year. Alphabet City is based on letters hidden in the urban environment.
“… I hope that my paintings will inspire children and adults to look at their surroundings in a fresh and playful way. In doing so they will discover for themselves juxtapositions of scale, harmonies of shadows, rhythms, colorful patterns in surface textures, and joy in the most somber aspects of a city, by transcending the mundane and unearthing its hidden beauty.” — Stephen T. Johnson, Alphabet City (1996)
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Jean Mitchell (Virginia Jean Cox Mitchell) (BFA, Fine Arts, KU) born 1931, Kingman, Kansas; based in Lawrence, Kansas Of Thee I Sing quilt top, 1977 cotton, piecing, appliqué, stitching, embroidery Gift of Virginia Jean Cox Mitchell and Bill, 2013.0167
“To celebrate the bicentennial of the United States Revolution, I wanted to make a quilt that had an English ‘look’ to it but which was clearly American in spirit. The medallion center—a style popular 200 years ago—has George and Martha Washington under a Pine Tree block, surrounded by miniature quilt blocks that represent the history and quilt lore of our nation. The appliquéd flowers in the corner baskets stand for the principal countries whose people settled the American colonies: England, France, Spain, Germany, Sweden, and Holland. The border of the Variable Star pattern has the center of the star divided, symbolizing the division of the Union during the Civil War. The quilt’s name comes from the American adaptation of ‘God Save the King.’” —Jean Mitchell
Mitchell published a number of her quilt patterns in a book called Quilt Kansas! in two editions that appeared in 1978, proceeds from which were given to the Spencer Museum of Art to help build a quilt collection, which Mitchell also helped catalogue.
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Jean Mitchell (Virginia Jean Cox Mitchell) (BFA, Fine Arts, KU) born 1931, Kingman, Kansas; based in Lawrence, Kansas China Trade with Miss Liberty, U.S.A. quilt top, 1986 cotton, piecing, appliqué, stitching Gift of Virginia Jean Cox Mitchell and Bill, 2013.0173
This quilt commemorates the centennial of the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor in 1986 and the bicentennial of the China Trade in 1984. The United States had begun taking goods to China 200 years earlier in the hope of selling items there and bringing back tea; this began the “China Trade.” Halley’s Comet was also scheduled to return in 1985–1986, and the artist wanted to include this event in her quilt. The Statue of Liberty stands like a goddess on a trunk, which the artist has called “the emigrant’s chest of hope.” Liberty Island is connected to a French Star block in recognition of the gift of Lady Liberty from France. Even fireworks are included in recognition of their invention in China. The artist’s mastery of technique and her ability to turn multiple abstract ideas into textile form results in a rich, visually complex design. As author Marie Shirer has noted, “Jean has pushed needle through cloth more times than anyone could count.”
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Jean Mitchell (Virginia Jean Cox Mitchell) (BFA, Fine Arts, KU) born 1931, Kingman, Kansas; based in Lawrence, Kansas Rode to Phila. quilt, 1987–1988 cotton, piecing, appliqué, stitching, embroidery Gift of Virginia Jean Cox Mitchell and Bill, 2013.0185
This quilt celebrates the bicentennial of the United States Constitution. According to artist Jean Mitchell, it pays homage to the textile printer John Hewson, the folk painter Edward Hicks, ornithologist and painter John James Audubon, botanist John Bartram, and the colonial patriot Daniel Shays. All of these figures are connected to Philadelphia, the historic city where the Constitution was written. The ornate vase in the center refers to John Hewson, an English calico printer who moved to Philadelphia and was part of the procession to celebrate the adoption of the U.S. Constitution. The flowers in the vase symbolically refer to the colonies that participated. The artist created an image of a float made of fabric, pulled by a tiger to parade across this ambitiously ornate quilt. Philadelphia was a magnet for culture and inhabitants in the later 18th century. Figures such as Benjamin Franklin took the road to Philadelphia; or, they “Rode to Phila.”
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Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds (BFA, Painting, KU) born 1954, Wichita, Kansas; based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma enrolled citizen of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Nations of Oklahoma five metal sign panels from Native Host series, 2018 Kaw, Kickapoo, Potawatomi, Ne Me Ha Ha Ki, Ioway Museum purchase: Peter T. Bohan Art Acquisition Fund, 2018 .0 237, and collection of the artist, EL2018.137–.139, .146
The five signs displayed in front of the Spencer Museum are created by artist Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds as part of his Native Host series. Heap of Birds created these signs specifically for the Museum’s exhibition The Power of Place: KU Alumni Artists, which continues inside the Museum with works that explore ideas of place by artists who graduated from the University of Kansas. Heap of Birds often addresses issues of place, heritage, dominant culture, and memory through text-based artworks. These signs name the five Native tribes who originally inhabited the region that is now Kansas. On all the signs in the Native Host series, the colonial name of a location is printed backwards, while the name of the land’s original occupants is printed forwards. The visual tension that Heap of Birds creates between these names aims to remind viewers of the displacement of Native Americans from their homelands.
Heap of Birds states:
“The Kaw selection represents a historic tribe and river from the Lawrence area. The tribe has since been forcibly removed to Oklahoma Indian Territory near Ponca City, Oklahoma. The other four nations listed are the only tribes that have reservation status and land holdings in Kansas. Ne Me Ha Ha Ki is the preferred name of the Sac and Fox Nation of Kansas. With my project it is often fitting to offer an original tribal spelling of the Indigenous nation.”
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Rick Mitchell (BFA, Painting, KU) born 1949, Lawrence, Kansas; based in Lawrence, Kansas Adam in the Wetlands/Canal, 2017 inkjet print Museum purchase: Lucy Shaw Schultz Fund, 2017.0146
This photograph demonstrates artist Rick Mitchell’s ongoing engagement with the meaning of place in people’s lives. Mitchell taught photographic environmental documentation for 18 years at Rutgers University in New Jersey. He also taught drawing and painting at KU in 2009 and 2010. In addition, he helped found the Committee on Imagination & Place through the Lawrence Arts Center, which has convened national conferences and published books on many aspects of place.
Mitchell describes this work:
“This picture of my oldest son Adam in the Wakarusa Wetlands was made just prior to the beginning of construction of a controversial highway bypass. While it may capture aspects of my son’s character, for me it is also a lamentation for land and habitat that are being overwhelmed by human development.”
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Rick Mitchell (BFA, Painting, KU) born 1949, Lawrence, Kansas; based in Lawrence, Kansas Bottleneck, 2017 inkjet print Museum purchase: Lucy Shaw Schultz Fund, 2017.0144
Rick Mitchell describes the context of this work:
“This photograph of a window near the rear door of the Bottleneck, a bar and music venue in Lawrence, Kansas, was the first digital image I ever made. I started photographing alleys on film in New York City and Philadelphia during the 1970s. I also worked in similar locations in decaying Camden, New Jersey, and a transforming Atlantic City during that time. Alleys tell the unofficial and unexpurgated story of a city… For me, photographing is about investigation and discovery. A walk in an alley is a lucid dream, the theme of which is the unsupervised human occupation of space.”
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