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Created over the past 12 years, the works in Life Altering: Selections from a Kansas City Collection, explore a rich array of meaning relevant to our present time. Artists investigate the global inequity of wealth and power, social justice, race, slavery, colonialism, the experience of exile and the diaspora, identity, the important role of the body, LGBTQ+ issues, popular culture, the precarious balance between progress and technology, climate change, and the environment. Some artists draw from the traditions of their cultural heritage—African, American, Caribbean, Indian, Iranian, Iraqi, and Native American. These artists celebrate their heritage by reclaiming ownership of, and pride in, their cultural origins. Above all, the artists here express hope, courage, resilience, and determination in the service of a better future.
The exhibition features a selection of art from the collection of Bill and Christy Gautreaux, who for the last 25 years have embarked on what Bill calls “a journey of learning and awareness that has been life-altering.” Artists who are women, Black or people of color, and those working internationally and/or are part of the diaspora are the primary focus of their collection. While the names of many artists in the collection are widely recognized today, they were often emerging or underrepresented when the Gautreauxes acquired their work. According to Bill, “contemporary art has changed our view of the world and the way that we live.”