After critically acclaimed stops at UCLA’s Fowler Museum and New York’s El Museo del Barrio, “Nkame: A Retrospective of Cuban Printmaker Belkis Ayón (1967-1999)” is now on view at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. In seductively powerful compositions, Ayón magnetizes with bold, yet ethereal, mask-like human and animal forms that share an enigmatic narrative, most often related to human questioning or suffering.

Except for the few collectors among us, most people know little about the work of fine art appraisers and the prominence in the profession of Kansas City’s Rachael Blackburn Cozad. Cozad, the daughter of two artists, the holder of bachelor’s and master’s degrees in art history has been prominent in Kansas City art circles since her arrival in 2001 to begin an 11-year tenure as executive director of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art.