A rendering of the expanded Kemper museum by KieranTimberlake/studioAMD
The string of blockbuster art exhibits coming to St. Louis continues with the recent news that when the expanded Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University reopens in September, it will feature the inaugural exhibit “Ai Weiwei: Bare Life.” Artforum was first to report the news on Thursday. More than 35 of the Chinese artist-activist's works, created over the past 20 years, will be on display through January 5, 2020.
Part of Wash U.'s Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, the Kemper is currently closed for the university's major $280 million expansion, part of the East End Transformation. The museum's makeover is led by architecture firm KieranTimberlake.
The Kemper is increasing exhibition space by about 50 percent. Artforum reported that, once completed, the museum will have a new 30-foot-tall polished stainless steel façade, and the lobby will hold an installation by artist Tomás Saraceno. "The new 2,700-square-foot James M. Kemper Gallery, with its double-height walls, will showcase a range of postwar and contemporary art, and the reconfigured Gertrude Bernoudy Gallery, on the second floor, will provide a more intimate viewing experience for works from the institution’s collection of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century European and American artists," the piece said.
Ai is probably one of the best-known contemporary artists today, and his works often comment on human rights, the imbalance of power, and culture. From 1981 to 1993, he lived in the United States, and he attended the Parsons School of Design. Last year, the Marciano Art Foundation in Los Angeles displayed his "Ai Weiwei: Life Cycle," which was his first major exhibit in the California city.
Ai, as an activist, has been critical of the Chinese government's stance on human rights, and in 2011, the artist was arrested in Beijing and held for 81 days without being charged for a crime. The next year, filmmaker Alison Klayman documented the artist's career in her popular Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry.
The artist is now based in Berlin.
