‘Bold Women’: Spencer Museum of Art exhibition thrills
Expansive exhibition explores powerful art that has much to say.
As she guides her visitor through a series of images of the art to be featured in the then-upcoming “Bold Women” exhibition—varied in format, style, size, medium and message—Spencer Museum of Art curator Susan Earle gains energy with each passing slide. Her enthusiasm makes clear that “Bold Women” will likely require numerous visits for museumgoers to even begin comprehending its depth and expanse.
Pausing on a series of photographs by Canadian artist Sandra Brewster, Earle points out the “gel transfer” technique that Brewster used to imply both motion and anonymity. Brewster, Earle explains, was raised in Ontario, Canada, by her Guyanese immigrant family, and offers her art as commentary on Black migrants and the Caribbean diaspora.
“This is a whole new approach to a kind of portraiture and artists sharing their own identities or others’ identities,” Earle says during the winter-break interview with Kansas Alumni. “She calls the series ‘Blur,’ and the whole idea is to obscure people’s identities so they don’t feel like they’re being watched. It’s inspiring to see how an artist has been innovative with materials, and their whole approach to create space for people to not be subjected to the gaze of others, or the gaze of colonialism.”
“Bold Women,” which runs through July 6, has been years in planning and perhaps represents something of a career capstone for Earle, curator of European and American Art, who for three decades has helped the Spencer Museum evolve and mature in the art it chooses to acquire and exhibit and the thoughtful discussions it hopes to foster within a campus art museum.
With about 80 works by 40 artists—most of whom are contemporary women of color from diverse global backgrounds—“Bold Women” will grace the Spencer’s three third-floor galleries and the fourth-floor Marshall Balcony. A rich calendar of spring and summer programs includes a gallery talk by South African artist-in-residence Mary Sibande—whose stunning work “Sophie-Ntombikayise,” a resin and fiberglass sculpture draped in brilliant textiles—is already a highlight of the museum’s permanent collection.
Large-scale pieces certain to grab visitors’ attention include “Twister #2,” by Lawrence resident Hong Chun Zhang. Earle describes the work as an “East meets West hair tornado, with a wonderful sense of both the landscape of Kansas but also her exploration of hair as personal identity.” A floor-to-ceiling work, Faye HeavyShield’s “blood” speaks to the artist’s connections to the land and her ancestors in Canada’s Blood Tribe.
“This has been about looking for bold visions, artists who are visionaries and who represent themes of justice in a variety of ways,” Earle says. “We’re trying to center on the work of women of color, because we feel they have been the innovators. They are the ones who are keeping knowledge. They are the ones who are passing down wisdom and justice, and they are trying to enact that while the patriarchy, or something, keeps crowding it out. You know, even in a museum setting, it often is still getting crowded out.
“I think the boldness of the work, the visual strength of the work, is a mirror of its message and its power.”
Earle was assisted in planning “Bold Women” by a diverse group of advisers, including Lawrence textile artist Marla Jackson, ’87, whose work will be included in the show; Kansas City arts advocate Rose Bryant; Kimberli Gant, curator of modern and contemporary art at the Brooklyn Museum; and Toronto-based Anishinaabe-kwe Indigenous art curator and artist Wanda Nanibush, along with graduate interns and other KU students. Her work was also supported by numerous grants from varied organizations, including the National Endowment for the Arts and the RC Kemper Jr. Charitable Trust and Foundation.
Those planning to visit the exhibition during its extended run should take note that KU now offers free museum parking on the first level of the Mississippi Street garage, immediately to the right of the garage entrance. Take your license plate number to the museum’s welcome desk to get your parking validated.
Chris Lazzarino, j’86, is associate editor of Kansas Alumni magazine.
Images courtesy of Spencer Museum of Art
Susan Earle photo by Ryan Waggoner/Spencer Museum of Art
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