Basil Kincaid, A Trail of Choices (detail), 2023, oil pastel, crayon and colored pencil on Arches hot press 100% cotton rag paper, 14 x 10 in. (photo courtesy the artist)
On view through October 26, 2025
McCaffree Gallery, second floor
Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Johnson County Community College
FREE and open to the public
Drawing is my artistic baseline.
It’s the primary instrument in the orchestra of my art practice. From childhood, drawing has been my place of peace and the epicenter of my world-building. Drawing teaches me how to see, while calibrating my inner eye, my hand, my heart, and my outer eyes.
Drawing is where I first remember feeling totally free.
It’s where I got validation as a kid. I was a quiet and reserved child. Within that silence lay a blossoming realm of abstraction, ethereal figuration, a potent reality of shape, color, and understanding.
Drawing is my mirror.
It helps me see and understand myself. Much like calisthenics, it is always with me. I can always practice my observational eye and my imaginative perception, even without paper record.
Drawing is my way of navigating reality and one tool I employ in manifesting future realities. I think of drawing like praying. It’s an act of gratitude. It’s a space where I shrink and expand simultaneously, while time melts and the universe mimics
my motion.
—Basil Kincaid
Learn more about this exhibition at nermanmuseum.org.
