Virginia Jaramillo: Principle of Equivalence
On View February 8, 2025 – June 8, 2025
Virginia Jaramillo: Principle of Equivalence is the first retrospective devoted to the Mexican American artist’s work. The exhibition traces Jaramillo’s (b. 1939) practice from the mid-1960s to the present, featuring examples of her early work, paintings from her breakthrough Curvilinear series, her handmade paper works, and a selection of recent paintings, which together reveal her enduring engagement with and significant contributions to abstraction. Drawing on her ongoing study of subjects as wide-ranging as physics, the cosmos, archaeology, mythology, and modernist design philosophies, Jaramillo’s work examines the relationship between the earthly and the metaphysical and explores the potential for abstraction to offer alternate ways of understanding our world.
Virginia Jaramillo: Principle of Equivalence is organized by the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri, and curated by Erin Dziedzic, former Director of Curatorial Affairs. The Bechtler’s presentation is organized by Bechtler Curator Katia Zavistovski.
Meret Oppenheim, Near Brasilia from Parapapillonneries portfolio, 1975, lithograph on paper.
© 2024 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ProLitteris, Zürich. Collection of the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, 2005.1051.
Chance Encounters:
Surrealism Then and Now
On View August 31, 2024 – March 30, 2025
Surrealism was a revolutionary artistic and literary movement that was founded in Paris in 1924 but soon spread across the globe. Emphasizing the fantastical, dream imagery, and subconscious thought, Surrealism privileged experimentation and uninhibited modes of expression, producing radical new techniques and visual forms that continue to inspire artists today. Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the movement, Chance Encounters: Surrealism Then and Now pairs examples of historical Surrealism from the museum’s collection with works by contemporary artists whose practices extend the legacies of Surrealist exploration. Paying tribute to the inclusive and international scope of the movement, the exhibition includes works by Jean Arp, Max Ernst, Joan Miró, Meret Oppenheim, Germaine Richier, and Rufino Tamayo alongside that of Julie Curtiss, Marcel Dzama, Heri Dono, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Thomas Lerooy, Wangechi Mutu, Naudline Pierre, and Shoshanna Weinberger.