Andy Warhol “Lana Turner” (1976–1986), gelatin silver prints with thread, 27 5/16 x 21 1/2” (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, © Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)
This fall, Kansas City’s visual arts scene comes alive with standout exhibitions that showcase everything from emerging local artists to celebrated national names. Here are the highlights you won’t want to miss.
More is More: Reinventing Photography Beyond the Frame, Aug. 2, 2025 – Jan. 18, 2026, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, www.nelson-atkins.org
This August, the Nelson-Atkins will feature “More is More: Reinventing Photography Beyond the Frame.” Curated by Marijana Rayl, the exhibition contains works by some of the late 20th century’s biggest artists, and not just those known for their photography: painter David Hockney, performance artist Vito Acconci, filmmaker Eleanor Antin, conceptual artist John Baldessari, site-specific artist Gordon Matta-Clark, photographer Barbara Crane and of course Andy Warhol. All the works in the exhibition comprise multiple photographs, exploring the use of layout and sequence.
“More is More” will focus on the period of the 1960s to the 1980s, a time when photography started becoming accessible to everyday people, though still requiring expensive equipment. While photography had been an important feature of the 1920s’ and ’30s’ Surrealist and Dada movements, the conceptual artists, pop artists and performance artists of the 1970s brought the medium back into the mainstream of art culture. Alongside the main exhibition, a side gallery will feature some of the Nelson-Atkin’s most famous photographs, including photos by the pioneering 19th-century artist, Eadweard Muybridge. Many of the works will be on display for the first time at the Nelson-Atkins, and the exhibition will run through January. — Neil Thrun
Kate Clements: Nocturnes, Aug. 18 – Nov. 14, Kansas City Kansas Community College Gallery, www.masakc.art
Kate Clements’ exhibition “Nocturnes” is one not to miss. In large installation format, Clements encourages her viewers to closely investigate the delicate and ornate details in her glass works. Clements innovatively uses “frit,” a type of crushed glass typically considered an accessory glass, to explore ideas of “beauty, taste and impermanence.” In this exhibition, viewers will witness the results of Clements’ actions in scattering and pushing the sugar-like glass substance on a kiln shelf to form dimensional drawings.
References to moth wings and poisonous minerals in a Rorschach style make their presence known throughout the installation, conjuring psychological and spiritual questions. In many of Clements’ installations and sculptures, the artist emphasizes organic lines in a rococo or Art Nouveau style via swirling arabesques and whiplash lines. Texture and dimension beg to be discovered in the wafer-thin naturalistic designs.
With a BFA in painting from the Kansas City Art Institute and an MFA in Glass from the Tyler School of Art & Architecture in Philadelphia, Clements has supplemented her education with local, national and international residencies including at the Charlotte Street Foundation, the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City, Pilchuck Glass School, and S12 Gallery in Bergen, Norway. — Ashley Lindeman
Life on Land, Emily & Todd Voth Artspace at the Kansas City Art Institute, opening this fall; dates TBD, kcai.edu/artspace/
“Life on Land” is the third part of a trilogy of group exhibitions at the Kansas City Art Institute Emily & Todd Voth Artspace (formerly H&R Block Artspace), that “reimagine how we perceive and represent the natural world.” “Finding Ground” in 2023 studied prairie ecologies, and in 2024 “Material World” investigated materials connected to the natural world.
The upcoming exhibit will include photography, film, drawing, textiles and paintings.
The artists chosen for this show “challenge traditional views of landscape by highlighting cultural narratives, lived experience and ecological awareness.”
At a time when complex subjects such as the environment are too often reduced to political and/or simplistic viewpoints, The Artspace’s first two exhibits scrutinizing differing aspects of the natural world allowed for complexity of thought and experience. These are not simple times, and “Life on Land” promises to push the envelope even more. — Elisabeth Kirsch
Painted Worlds: Color and Culture in Mesoamerican Art, Nov. 1, 2025 – Feb. 8, 2026, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, www.nelson-atkins.org
“Color is Life” reads The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art website describing the upcoming Mesoamerican exhibition, spanning 3,000 years of Indigenous Mesoamerican artistic practice. Mesoamerica, which was located primarily in modern-day Mexico and Central America, has a rich artistic history that was central to religious, cultural and cosmological beliefs, of which vibrant colors play a crucial role. “Painted Worlds” delves into the vastness of Mesoamerican creative practices, highlighting the refinement and skill through historical sources and modern science.
For the first time in 40 years, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art will feature some 250 ancient Mesoamerican works from collections around the globe. These objects include “brilliantly colored ceramics, glittering mosaics, sparkling mural fragments from Teotihuacan, and vibrant, intricate textiles.” Additionally, audiences will be able to experience pieces that have rarely been seen in the U.S., including the prehispanic book of divination, the Codex Laud. — Emily Spradling
Linda Lighton: Love & War, A Fifty-Year Survey, 1975-2025, Dec. 13, 2025 – May 3, 2026, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, www.nermanmuseum.org
Kansas City native Linda Lighton has been subverting expectations throughout her life, from her early rejection of traditional social norms to her yearslong creation of thought-provoking ceramic sculptures. Her prolific, internationally recognized work, spanning 50 years of creation, will be on display at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, and will be accompanied by an exhibition catalogue published by Hirmer.
“Love & War” highlights Lighton’s career arc, including critiques of gender inequality from the early 1980s to contemporary commentary on the decimation of women’s rights in the present day.
The exhibition will be accompanied by the “Love & War” book launch from 5 to 7 p.m. Sept. 17, and an artist talk from 6 to 8 p.m. Dec. 12. “Love & War” will be on display in the Oppenheimer, Thompson and Anonymous Galleries, first floor. — Emily Spradling
Visionary: The Work of Michael Brantley (curated by Harold Smith), Dec. 13, 2025 – May 3, 2026, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, www.nermanmuseum.org
From the sweat dripping from Ella Fitzgerald’s brow as she is lost in song to the visceral emotion of protest scenes, Michael Brantley captures both the immaculate detail of human figures and their emotional depth. His work “elegantly and engagingly encapsulates the love, fears, hopes and dreams within the Black experience,” according to the exhibition statement. Brantley’s large-scale monochromatic figurative oil paintings deftly capture life and provoke thought and conversation.
Guest curated by Harold Smith, “Visionary” highlights a broad swath of Brantley’s work, including his latest and earlier works. “Visionary” will be on display in the McCaffree Gallery on the second floor of the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art. — Emily Spradling
Angeline Rivas, Dec. 13, 2025 – May 3, 2026, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, www.nermanmuseum.org
Born in Kansas City, Angeline Rivas now lives and works in Los Angeles, drawing much inspiration from California. Her airbrushed paintings on wood panels and canvas are fluorescent swirls of color, drawing inspiration from transcendentalist imagery, cults and even Star Trek. These pieces of western Americana highlight the juxtapositions of California; as her artist statement mentions, both the humanistic Esalen Institute and the suicidal cult Heaven’s Gate were born in California. Her statement explains, “It is precisely this space of paradox, where the utopian meets the dystopian, which fascinates and motivates Rivas in her formal and ethnographic investigations.” The Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art will host Rivas’ first institutional solo exhibition in the Kansas Focus Gallery, first floor. — Emily Spradling
