Forming an exhibition like this animates our mission; creating exchanges among art, artists, and audiences that reveal life. Now, we invite you to enter this exhibition in process by adding your insights and reflections, experiencing first-hand the way art takes shape.

CO-CURATOR

Roger Shimomura
Artist
Distinguished Professor of Art
University of Kansas

“This is a show I would have enjoyed being in. As one who has spent a lifetime working in many mediums, I had often thought that some of the most interesting moments I have experienced while traveling the creative path to the finished artwork, were regrettably never shared with the viewer. Indeed, this pathway was frequently more interesting than the finished work itself. This exhibition offers a glimpse into some of those unseen processes that is sure to reveal some artist’s secrets to its viewers, and will provide clues to the unlimited potential for art that lies in every day objects, materials, and life styles.”

CO-CURATOR

Annette Carlozzi
Curator of Contemporary & American Art
Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas

“As a curator, I’m always drawing lines of connection between artists and audiences, objects and viewers. It’s a fascinating problem, a somewhat presumptuous experiment, really, trying to take the results of what is an essentially private process and create with them a forum for shared, public experience. I feel like it’s a big responsibility – and I worry about being truthful, staying clear, finding the balance between my own interests and relevance to a wide variety of people. Working closely with artists, as the Art Center and I have done here, is a good place to start in addressing those concerns. What better way to test curatorial assumptions than to bring the artist’s studio to the art center, making the creative process itself more visible and taking you inside the evolution of a work of art from initial concept to finished state?

In Taking Shape, we’re turning the exhibition-making process on its head and sharing with you our privileged, behind-the-scenes perspectives, asking you to consider what the artist and curator both ask themselves again and again: Does the finished work of art communicate with intelligence, perceptiveness, skill, force, and vision?”