Kennedy Browne: The Special Relationship
October 4, 2018–February 9, 2019
Kennedy Browne is a collaboration of Irish artists Gareth Kennedy and Sarah Browne. Based in Dublin and working together since 2005, Kennedy Browne’s videos, workshops, and sculptural installations have probed common stories of global capital: the effects on workers of relocating companies, the visionary boyhood narratives of tech company founders, and struggles over privacy in the age of the internet.
The Special Relationship is Kennedy Browne’s first US museum survey and will debut “The Redaction Trilogy,” a complete series of video installations with accompanying sculptural elements, including 360-degree video on Oculus. The artists produced this work over the last seven years in response to unfolding neoliberal systems of labor, technology and politics.
Curated by Amy L. Powell, curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, with research assistance from Alyssa Bralower, doctoral student in Art History at Illinois
Between the Buildings: Art from Chicago
August 30, 2018–March 23, 2019
By highlighting KAM’s strong holdings of work from artists practicing in Chicago in the mid-to-late 20th century, this exhibition considers the problematic nature of art historical categories and explores what other stories are missed by perpetuating a single narrative.
Between the Buildings, as a collections-based exhibition, cannot fully tell the stories of political activism, feminist art, mural and street art, or experiments in new media that were vital to artistic practice in mid-century Chicago. But by decentering the prevailing “Chicago School” canon, the exhibition reveals the many stories that unfolded between the buildings—the structure of neighborhoods, artistic collaborations, and connections made through educational and fine arts institutions—creating a more inclusive, varied, and dynamic history of art in Chicago.
Curated by Kathryn Koca Polite, assistant curator
Blue and White Ceramics: An Enduring Global Obsession
August 30, 2018–May 12, 2019
Blue and White explores the technological advances, trade networks, and shared aesthetics that sustain a global appetite for blue-and-white ceramics. The exhibition centers on Chinese blue-and-white porcelain, which has been collected and emulated around the world since the Yuan Dynasty, as well as the many ceramic traditions inspired by these wares. The exhibition features American, Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Japanese, Mexican, Swedish, and Turkish ceramics from the Ming Dynasty to the present day.
Curated by Maureen Warren, curator of European and American Art
About Krannert Art Museum
Krannert Art Museum (KAM) promotes a vibrant exchange of ideas in the visual arts. The museum’s permanent collection contains works of art dating from the fourth millennium BCE to the present, representing a broad range of cultures and varied modes of artistic expression. Located at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, KAM is the second-largest general fine arts museum in Illinois.
Exhibition Sponsors
Krannert Art Museum exhibitions are made possible in part by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Kennedy Browne: The Special Relationship is co-sponsored by Culture Ireland and the European Union Center at the University of Illinois. The production of “The Redaction Trilogy” and other works in the exhibition has been supported by The Arts Council / An Comhairle Ealaíon.
Between the Buildings: Art from Chicago is sponsored in part by Fred and Donna Giertz and is presented as part of Art Design Chicago, an initiative of the Terra Foundation for American Art that explores Chicago’s art and design legacy with its presenting partner The Richard H. Dreihaus Foundation.
Blue and White Ceramics: An Enduring Global Obsession is co-sponsored by the Center for East Asian & Pacific Studies at Illinois.