Jaime Muñoz, Evocations: Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS.

See dozens of “new to view” works in three of our first floor exhibition galleries. Evocations addresses the museum's long commitment to diversity, with numerous major works by African-American, Latinx, Native American, LGBTQ, and women artists highlighted. The exhibit also emphasizes a great range of mediums and expressions.

Originally slated to open in the spring of 2020, Evocations was postponed due to the pandemic of the past year. During the college's and museum's ensuing Covid 19-related closure, founding Executive Director and Chief Curator Bruce Hartman pursued a number of acquisitions for the collection. Of the 39 artists featured in the exhibition, 28 are represented by new, never-before-exhibited works. Additionally, four works directly pertain to the pandemic.

Evocations addresses the museum's long commitment to diversity, with numerous major works by African-American, Latinx, Native American, LGBTQ, and women artists highlighted. The exhibit also emphasizes a great range of mediums and expressions. Paintings, sculptures, ceramics, photographs, works on paper, and textiles are on view. Each work elicits a feeling, a memory, a narrative, or a conscious image.

Evocations also represents one of the parting exhibits organized by Bruce Hartman, prior to his retirement on December 31, 2020. Over the course of more than 30 years, Hartman curated over 200 exhibitions for the college's former Gallery of Art, and later, the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art. During this period, he also grew the art collection from approximately 50 works to almost 2,000 amazing pieces. The museum's renowned collection now enjoys international recognition and routinely loans works to museums nationally and abroad.

Finally, Evocations is a tribute to the patrons, donors, and foundations who have so generously made the acquisitions possible. The H Tony and Marti Oppenheimer Foundation, the Barton P. and Mary D. Cohen Charitable Trust and Art Acquisition Endowment of the JCCC Foundation, the Jedel Family Foundation, Beyond Bounds Fundraisers, Lewis and Sue Nerman, Richard and Gloria Anderson, Dr. Mary Davidson, and Alex Schmelzer and Lisa Rotmil donated artworks or provided the funds to acquire many of the works on view in the exhibition, the museum, and throughout campus. In doing so, they helped create an extraordinary collection for Johnson County, Kansas, the region, and the nation. The museum is indebted to them.

Painting

Based in Pomona, California, Jaime Munoz was born in 1987 in Los Angeles and he graduated in 2016 with a BFA from the University of California, Los Angeles.