Upcoming Exhibitions at the KIA

Curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, do it began in Paris in 1993 as a conversation about how exhibition formats could be rendered more flexible and open-ended. This discussion led to the question of whether written instructions by artists, as a point of departure, could be interpreted anew every time they were enacted. Nearly 20 years later, do it has been featured in at least 50 different locations worldwide. Each do it exhibition is uniquely site-specific because it engages the local community in a dialogue that responds to and adds a new set of instructions, while it remains global in the scope of its ever-expanding repertoire. This open exhibition model has become the longest-running and most far-reaching exhibition to ever take place, giving new meaning to the concept of the "Exhibition in Progress."

Japanese publisher Shozaburo Watanabe started his business in the early 20th century, studying the traditions of Japanese woodcuts by artists like Hokusai and Hiroshige and hiring printers who could master the old techniques. To distinguish his prints, Watanabe coined the term "shin hanga" or new prints, and hired designers capable of combining traditional subjects with the new style. Like the prints of the previous century, his were colorful images of Japan's people and natural beauty. However, Watanabe actively courted the international market with a fresh, western-influenced style so that the prints he published appealed to European and American art-lovers. Combining Japanese techniques with subjects with Western sensibilities, they established a new aesthetic in the print market.

Abstract Expressionism, first developed in the 1940s, garnered an almost immediate reaction from a group of painters who began reintroducing the figure into this high-energy postwar movement. The Expressionist Figure examines a large group of the leading artists of the time, including important women painters and their contributions to mid-twentieth century expressionist painting. The exhibition includes prominent artists, from Deborah Remington (who co-founded the legendary Six Gallery in San Francisco), to the leading feminist painter of the late 20th century, Nancy Spero. During a self-imposed exile to Paris, Spero completed the important series, the Black Paris Paintings, and established herself as one of the important social and political artists of her time.

Other notable artists include Mary Abbott (a contemporary and close associate of Willem DeKooning and Milton Avery), whose career was influenced by early 20th-century German Expressionists and Color Field painting of the 1950 s. Bob Thompson s artistic goal was to reinterpret themes and subjects from the Old Masters. By synthesizing Baroque and Renaissance masterpieces with the jazz-influenced Abstract Expressionist movement, Thompson was able to make the art of the past more relevant for contemporary " and particularly, African-American " audiences. While the exhibition borrows from important collections in the United States, The Expressionist Figure also showcases a number of works from the collection of the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts by Richard Diebenkorn, Hughie Lee-Smith, David Park, Lester Johnson, and Charles Alston.