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Kemper
Museum of Contemporary Art
Julia
Oschatz: Where Else
April
4 – July 6

Julia Oschatz, untitled (01-08), 2007;
acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 25 5/8 x 17 3/4 inches;
Courtesy of the artist and Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects,
New York
Exhibition’s
Lone Figure Searches
for Meaning at Kansas City’s Kemper Museum
of Contemporary Art
Show
is German Artist’s First Solo Museum Exhibition in US
Julia
Oschatz’s room-size installations, comprising paintings, drawings,
and videos housed in cardboard constructions, chart the eternal
odyssey of the artist’s fictitious protagonist. Part animal
and part human, this wayward being stars in short, looping videos
that blend performance, animation, and painted imagery, and in otherworldly
landscape paintings. The exhibition Julia Oschatz: Where Else, on
view April 4–July 6, 2008, at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary
Art, is the first solo museum exhibition in the United States for
the Berlin-based artist.
The
exhibition Julia Oschatz: Where Else opens with a free, public reception
Friday, April 4, 5:30–7:30 p.m. Oschatz will speak about her
work at 6:30 p.m. in the Museum’s meeting room. The talk is
free, and seating is first come, first served.

Julia
Oschatz, untitled (122-07), 2007;
oil, acrylic, spray paint on canvas, 21 5/8 x 29 1/8 inches;
Courtesy of the artist and Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects ,
New York
Whether
dancing to German pop music or meandering through an unearthly landscape,
Oschatz’s benign, and at times comical, character embodies
the existential quest for meaning and transcendence. Oschatz’s
figure or “Wesen” (German for “being”) is
a genderless hybrid with a long snout and doglike ears, a drab gray
suit, and oversized, clunky shoes. The “Wesen” is also
without eyes and struggles to find its way through the artist’s
precarious world of mountainous terrains, endless oceans, erupting
volcanoes, and more. In many of the exhibition’s 25 paintings,
the “Wesen” is dwarfed by the daunting and overwhelming
landscape.
Born
1973 in Darmstadt, Germany, Oschatz holds a degree in studio art
from Hochschule für Gestaltung, Offenbach, Germany, and conducted
postgraduate studies at the École des beaux-arts, Bourges,
France, and Myndlistaskólinn, Reykjavik, Iceland. She has
had solo exhibitions in Germany, Spain, and the United States. Her
works have been in group exhibitions in Germany and will be part
of the upcoming exhibition Damaged Romanticism: A Mirror of Modern
Emotion at the Blaffer Gallery at the University of Houston. She
will have a gallery exhibition at Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects,
New York (April 12–May 31, 2008).
Thank
you
The exhibition is made possible by M&I Bank, the Kemper Museum
2008 Exhibition Series Sponsor.
The
Kemper Museum acknowledges the generous support of ArtsKC Fund—Arts
Council of Metropolitan Kansas City; Francis Family Foundation;
Arvin Gottlieb Charitable Foundation, UMB Bank, n.a., Trustee; Hallmark
Corporate Foundation; Muriel McBrien Kauffman Foundation; and the
Missouri Arts Council, a state agency. Financial assistance has
been provided by William T. Kemper Foundation—Commerce Bank,
Trustee. Generous in-kind support is provided by Kansas City Marriott
Country Club Plaza and Midwest Airlines.
About
the Kemper Museum
Kansas City’s renowned free modern and contemporary art museum,
the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art opened in October 1994 and
draws more than 120,000 visitors each year. The Museum boasts a
rapidly growing permanent collection of modern and contemporary
works of artists from around the world. Permanent collection artists
include Louise Bourgeois, Dale Chihuly, Petah Coyne, Willem de Kooning,
Morris Louis, Joan Mitchell, Georgia O’Keeffe, Tom Otterness,
Jaume Plensa, Matthew Ritchie, and Wayne Thiebaud. The Museum hosts
temporary exhibitions, installations, performance work, film and
video series, lectures, concerts, children’s workshops, and
other creative programs.
The
Museum is open 10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m., Tuesday–Thursday;
10:00 a.m.–9:00 p.m., Friday–Saturday; and 11:00 a.m.–5:00
p.m., Sunday. The galleries at Kemper East (200 E. 44th Street)
are open 10:00 a.m.–4 p.m., Tuesday–Friday. Café
Sebastienne serves lunch 11:00 a.m.–2:30 p.m., Tuesday–Sunday;
and dinner 5:30–9:30 p.m., Friday–Saturday. The Museum
and Café are closed on Mondays and major holidays.
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