“Brothers Keeper” by Kwanza Humphrey, former football player, now a well-known artist (from the artist)
A new exhibit explores links between art and sports through the works of six Kansas City artist/athletes
Artists who are athletes possess two seemingly disparate yet undeniably connected talents. This apparent duality, which is actually a self-realized unity, however conscious or subconscious, is intriguingly illuminated in “Personal Best,” a free exhibition highlighting six such Kansas City artist/athletes at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.
Take portrait painter Kwanza Humphrey, a former football player at Lincoln Academy high school and Missouri Western State University. His three “Personal Best” oil paintings — “Inextricably Connected,” “See, Understand” and “Brothers Keeper” — are vividly infused with timeless elements of the natural world and populated by enigmatic figures with an implicit power to probe the past, inform the present and contemplate the future, even as they apparently belie any suggestion of the football gridiron.
But look closer at Humphrey’s work and see the curious link: At least one individual in each painting is wearing a telling mask.
“In my art, I try to get through to the authentic self,” Humphrey says. “When you meet someone for the first time, typically, you’re guarded. You wear a mask. Football players wear a helmet. They’re guarded. They’re protecting themselves. It’s kind of playing on that concept.”
Humphrey’s association between art and football goes even deeper, to the way his artistry and athleticism are fundamentally intertwined.
“I actually started out as an artist, but became known as a football player,” he says. “For me, football was about the act of doing. I didn’t want to come off the field, because I enjoyed that physicality and that expression. And with art, I find that same thing. I’m constantly working and crafting and building and creating. It’s the act of producing it. That’s where I gain the joy.”
Abstract painter and rock climber Samantha Haan’s two contributions to “Personal Best” — “Pages (Discover)” and “Pages (You Might)” — are intended to be viewed in sequence. Together they echo the problem-solving precision and open-ended possibility with which the artist approaches both her art and athletic climbs.
Painted on metal panels also used in architectural facades, the works incorporate geometric patterns and elements of the rapid-writing method of shorthand to investigate the malleability and form of language, Haan says, by “looking at the space between what we mean and what we say.” Her aim is to build an understanding of human communication and potential that incorporates non-traditional notions of success.
“I think that ‘Discover’ and ‘You Might’ are very appropriate words for the idea of personal best,” Haan says. “Progress is something that leads to discovery and is something where you may or may not achieve something.
“I don’t believe in winning. If this Nelson exhibition is perceived as a win from the outside, I think that this is just a step in a very long series of wins and losses. If I’m looking at each win, then I also have to look at each loss. So to just have this be an event that is leading to more progress is healthier.”
Interdisciplinary artist and long-distance cyclist Tj Templeton is all about mind and body health in “Come Ride with Me,” his “Personal Best” mixed-media installation that balances figurative and geometric shapes and engineering design. It takes the form of an autobiographical journey that utilizes silkscreen images of Templeton on his bicycle and a sped-up point-of-view video of one of his 40-mile bike rides around Kansas City. To Templeton, cycling and artmaking are part of the same yet always surprising excursion.
“It is the process, definitely,” Templeton says. “I don’t make art with the intent of making one final piece. Just like I’m not riding to a destination. I’m riding in a loop, just for the sake of riding.
“It’s the same route every time, but it’s always 100 percent different. Sometimes there’s wildlife that is not shy at all and they’ll just be on the trail next to you. And sometimes you’ll just see something really weird. And sometimes you almost get killed and sometimes you don’t. Every ride is completely different.”
The other contributing artist/athletes to “Personal Best” are no less in pursuit of their own destinations of excellence: Glass installation artist and distance runner Kate Clements’ monumental yet fragile “Acanthus” artwork immediately calls to mind the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Multidisciplinary artist and mixed martial arts fighter Thea Wolfe’s unflinching close-up collage portraits of fellow fighters “Rose,” “Nick,” “Nate” and “Tim” are as thoughtful as they are brutal. Post-digital printmaker and Shotokan karate practitioner Mike Lyon’s spiral-happy evocation of “Tulips” abstractly references an iPhone snapshot, and his enticingly unreliable portraits of “Danielle,” “Lucy” and “Jessica” are best viewed both very closely and as far away as possible to be fully appreciated.
So which artist/athlete’s personal best is best? Pardon the silly question.
“To show up and do, even if it’s not working — that’s the personal best,” says artist/footballer Humphrey. “That’s part of the art. That’s part of the sport. To be able to push and continue to practice. I don’t think it’s anything that I will ever perfect, but I feel like I’m constantly getting closer and the better that end product will be.”
“Personal Best” continues at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art through Jan. 10, 2027. (Note: the exhibit will be closed from March through the summer of 2026, due to gallery rejuvenation ahead of the museum expansion.) Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Saturday and Sunday and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday and Friday. Admission is free. For more information, 816.751.1278 or visit nelson-atkins.org.
