Please join us on Sunday, May 11th from 2-4pm in Chalmers Hall to view work from our current Visual Art students as they showcase their talents.

Refreshments will be provided.

Each year the Department of Visual Art awards scholarships to continuing students majoring in Visual Art. This is an important opportunity for students to exhibit their work and possibly earn a scholarship. Participating students are required to submit a body of work for the jurying process. The exhibition is open to the public and students are encouraged to invite friends and family to the exhibition. Visitors are invited to tour all the studios to see the exceptional quality and variety of creative work being made at KU.

Gathering: a queer ecologies symposium is a one-night event on Tues, April 29th from 6-8:30pm, where we will discuss the emerging concept of "queer ecology" and how it influences a variety of scholarship including the field of science, social sciences and the arts and humanities. 

Art Exhibition (Office Gallery of Chalmers Hall)

Panel Discussion (6-7:15pm in The Forum of Marvin Hall)

Reception will follow directly after Panel (3rd Floor Chalmers)

**Live music from singer-song writer duo, Babylon King 

**Food provided by the incredible Locavore based out of KC 

Open to the public! 

This event is supported by KU Visual Art Department and The Commons

Karen Ondracek: Hot Box Time Machine

MFA Thesis Exhibition Closing Reception

MFA Thesis Exhibition Closing Reception!

HOT BOX TIME MACHINE

A SHED CLOSING PROJECT BY KAREN ONDRACEK

Chalmers Hall / outdoors / south side

Wednesday, April 30, 2025 / 7:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. / light refreshments

beware the fog

Follow Karen on Instagram @karenondracek 

Reception tonight, Apr. 25th 5-8pm

Allie Martinez: The Mary's

The Mary’s is a body of visual work exploring my experience being raised by a generation of strong-minded women in my family. Encapsulating nostalgia, intergenerational relationships, womanhood, financial hardship, and resilience. There are five generations of Mary's in my family: Mary Mabel; Great-great-grandmother, Mary Merlene; Great-grandmother, Mary Beth; Grandma, Mary Elizabeth; Mother, and Mary-Alicia; Myself. The show is centralized around my relationship with each Mary. In 1956 Mary Mabel passed away, therefore I did not get the opportunity to meet her, but I wanted to honor her memory as well. This show is in honor of Mary Merlene who passed away in 2020. 

I aim to translate the feelings and emotions of my upbringing into mixed-media bodies of work, specifically paintings and sculptures. The emphasis will focus on the relationship aspects between the generations of Mary’s as well as discussing the challenges of my upbringing such as financial struggles and domestic hardship. All of the Mary's have practiced with the artists, they have worked with textiles such as embroidery, crochet, sewing, quilting and gardening flower beds. Practices such as crochet are typically socially classified as craft, however I aim to show the polarity of craft to the arts by bringing in these elements into the gallery space - I will blend textile design elements into drawing and painting forms

Charlotte Street Visual Artist Resident Juan Diego in his studio during Open Studios 2024. Diego recieved his MFA in Painting from KU in 2020.

Charlotte Street’s Residency Program opens its doors on Saturday, April 26, 2025, for its much-anticipated annual Open Studios event. This free, one-day-only community program takes place from 3:00–10:00 PM at Charlotte Street’s headquarters at 3333 Wyoming Street, Kansas City, MO 64111. Open Studios highlights recent work of the 31 visual artists, writers, and performers currently in Charlotte Street’s Studio Residency Program, along with the 3 emerging art entities in the StartUp Residency Program.

Open Studios is an open invitation to the community to step into the creative process—explore studios, meet the artists, watch performances, listen to writers read new work, and see how artists are experimenting, collaborating, and evolving their practice.

Featuring the work of MFA Alums, Juan Diego and Tommy Lomeli, and KU Visual Art lecturer and staff member, Merry Sun!

KU International Affairs has awarded more than $72,000 in travel grants to 28 KU faculty members and six graduate students to support research and collaboration abroad.

"Sunyoung Cheong, assistant professor of visual art, will travel to South Korea to examine the synergy between ottchil, Korean traditional lacquer, and digital technology."

"Benjamin Rosenthal, associate professor of expanded media, will travel to Brazil for an artist's residency at FoNTÉ and to Argentina to conduct research on how colonial and white-supremacist imagery shapes LGBTQIA2S+ discourse."

Benjamin Rosenthal, photo by photo by Jim Barcus for KC Studio Magazine. 

Visual Art Senior, Teresa Wright, has a solo show at 1900 Barker on Mass. It will be on view for the month of May. Make sure to stop by and see her work!

Wright is majoring in visual art education and minoring in the history of art. She plans to pursue a master’s degree in fine arts and envisions a career that applies her knowledge and experience in both art and education to foster creative expression in diverse learners and contexts. Wright is the co-president of the Visual Art Education Club, an ambassador for the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences and a member of the National Art Education Association. She is also on the Dean’s Honor Roll and is working toward a certificate in service learning. Wright interned at the Georgia O’Keefe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in the Art and Leadership Program. Wright is a practicing artist who recently completed a mural inside Eudora Elementary School.

Through & Between: Photo Exhibition in Edgar Heap of Birds Gallery

KU's Photography program has a current exhibit on display at the Edgar Heap of Birds Gallery in Chalmers Hall. Exhibition runs from April 21st to May 1st

Closing Reception: Thursday, May 1st from 5-7pm.

Art and American Demonologies in the Age of Trump

Maya Gurantz 
WED MAY, 7:00 PM
Hall Center Conference Hall (and online via Crowdcast)

The story of American democracy is often told as a history of movement towards enfranchisement and justice—increased access for more kinds of Americans to more rights, more choices—more life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Simons Public Humanities Fellow Maya Gurantz asks: What if this counter-subversive moment we’re living through—marked by rising proto-fascist politics, increasingly authoritarian controls over education and the body, and raging backlashes against the March for Black Lives and #MeToo—what if that was always American democracy?

In this talk, Gurantz will share her research, inspired by Michael Rogin’s Ronald Reagan, The Movie: And Other Episodes in Political Demonology. Rogin’s book examines how American cultural history has used images, songs, literature, films, and rhetoric to justify political repression in the service of capitalist expansion. Central to this analysis is the creation of “demons”—symbolic figures such as the Indian cannibal, the Black rapist, the demon rum, the bomb-throwing anarchist, the Communist pod-people of 1950s sci-fi, the monstrous mother, and the international terrorist. These figures, Rogin argues, represent recurring performances of the same fears propagated by those in power.

Gurantz, an artist specializing in performance, video, and installation, is reimagining Rogin’s work as an immersive experience. In this presentation, she will explore the process of translating research into artistic production and trace how the counter-subversive, demonological impulse has evolved in our culture since Rogin’s book was first published in 1987. She will highlight its most recent manifestations, including imagery surrounding migrant caravans and trans panic.

"In a public-driven effort to help Haskell Indian Nations University since its federal layoffs, an art auction next month will raise funds to support cultural programs at the university.

The Haskell Cultural Preservation Art Auction is a first-time event that will be at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, May 3, in the regency ballroom of the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel, 200 McDonald Drive. There is no charge to enter the auction, and the event will include both a silent and a live auction. All of the proceeds from the event will be given to the university.

There are many local and national artists that have been donating to the event, and a call to artists is underway for additional donations, according to a press release from Tamara Werth. All art forms are welcome to include custom commissions, and there is no age of art, artist, and no value of art restriction for participation.

Artists who are interested in submitting artwork for the auction can contact Werth by calling 785-393-4966."

Lunch

by F.S. Flint

FRAIL beauty,
green, gold and incandescent whiteness,
narcissi, daffodils,
you have brought me Spring and longing,
wistfulness,
in your irradiance.

Therefore, I sit here
among the people,
dreaming,
and my heart arches
with all the hawthorn blossom,
the bees humming,
the light wind upon the poplars,
and your warmth and your love
and your eyes . . .
they smile and know me.

Learn more and apply here!

Calling All Student Artists & Scientists!

Deadline: May 1, 2025

The Midwestern Journal of Undergraduate Sciences is looking for an eye-catching cover for our next issue, and we want to put YOUR creativity on display! We’re holding a cover art competition open to students at any level who can create a compelling visual representation of this issue’s theme: Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T Cell Immunotherapy. Whether you're a budding scientist with a passion for design or an artist fascinated by the power of biotechnology, we want to see your interpretation of this groundbreaking cancer therapy!   Winning Submission: The selected artwork will be featured on the cover of the latest MJUS edition, and the winner will be credited for their art and also highlighted with a photo and bio in the journal.

Eligibility: Open to all students, regardless of field or institution 

How to Submit: Email your high-resolution artwork (with a title and brief description of your inspiration) to jtreml@ku.edu This is a fantastic opportunity to merge art and science while contributing to an undergraduate research publication. 

Foundation for Contemporary Arts
Emergency Grants

These monthly grants range from $500–$3,000, with the average amount being $1,700. Visual and performing artists whose work is of a contemporary, experimental nature and who have a US Tax ID number can apply.
Deadline: Rolling | foundationforcontemporaryarts.org