Barbara Takenaga: Awestruck

Barbara Takenaga: Awestruck is the first comprehensive survey of the artist’s work in nearly a decade. Bringing together paintings made over the past 25 years, the exhibition highlights dazzling demonstrations of the many approaches to abstraction that have shaped Takenaga’s career. Featuring some 50 works from institutional and private collections, this exhibition includes paintings up to her most recent, revealing Takenaga’s continued expansion of her practice across increasingly ambitious canvases, opening new paths within her ongoing exploration of abstraction. Takenaga reminds us that painting is a discipline shaped by both action and chance, so too is looking and perceiving: we make the work through our active gaze. Known for her mesmerizing, intricate compositions, this exhibition examines Takenaga’s work through four thematic sections: an emphasis on process, a masterful confusion of scale, an embrace of illusion, and reverent nods to art history. Together, these strategies work to upend the viewer’s expectations, engaging imagination and stoking curiosity.

The exhibition is curated by Jessica May, Executive Director, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, and Tae Edell, Independent Curator.