Inside a new Kansas City art exhibit inspired by World Cup & KC’s immigrants
A new exhibit at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art is celebrating the mix of cultural communities who have built Kansas City in honor of the World Cup.
Jessica Hong, chief curator, has been assembling this collection for about a year. The World in Kansas City, which opens Friday, features artists from around the world who have had meaningful experiences — and in many cases built their lives — in Kansas City.
“I want people to really celebrate and be proud of this incredibly rich cultural community,” she said. “I’m thrilled and delighted to be a part of it, and I’m so honored to be able to share these incredible artists’ work.”
When Hong started the role last year, she met with as many artists as possible and asked them what they loved about living here and what they were excited about. Their resounding answer: the upcoming World Cup, and the throngs of international visitors who will be coming.
“I thought it was important, with the context of the World Cup, which is so exciting, we’re bringing these incredible cultural communities from all over the world and convening around this sport. And I also want to celebrate the very rich cultural communities that already exist here,” she said.
While learning about the history of immigration in the area, Hong started to see how different neighborhoods were shaped by the immigrants who settled in Kansas City and created communities . She thought the exhibit would be a great way to unpack that through the lens of soccer being a worldwide sport that was popularized in the Kansas City area by immigrant communities.
“I really think this emphasizes interconnectedness,” Hong said. “ We’re all intertwined in these really complicated ways, and I actually think that’s a really important and beautiful thing to remember.”
Some of the pieces seen in the exhibit were made specifically for it and others are collection works that fit the premise. Several artists featured studied at the Kansas City Art Institute, including Paul Anthony Smith, who is originally from Jamaica.
Smith is known for pioneering the picotage technique, according to Hong, where he punctures the image with wooden needles, creating what appears to be tiny white dots from far away, but adds dimension and texture.
Smith’s work, “Untitled” (2022), shows several images of Caribbeans celebrating Carnival in Brooklyn and London. On top lies the picotage technique as well as a pattern of overlapping black circles, that is both enclosing and creating space while also keeping out.
“You can see if you look a little and then if you kind of zoom out, the kind of motif that he’s using is almost fence-like,” Hong said about Smith. “However, there is this interplay of both a celebration and getting a sense of or participating as well as this barrier.”
Juan Diego Gaucin, originally from Mexico, still lives in Kansas City. He was previously part of a group exhibition at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and taught at both Johnson County Community College and Haskell Indian Nations University.
The work he made for the exhibition was inspired by the famous Normal Rockwell painting, “The Spirit of Kansas City.” The original features a man holding architectural drawings with the urban landscape in the background.
Gaucin took the idea and gave it a twist. In “The Soul of Kansas City” (2026), he paints the humble figures he believes make Kansas City strong, including migrant workers. His painting shows a maid and two blue collar workers in the foreground with the modern city skyline behind them.
“It’s intended to be this uplifting symbolic painting and in reference to something that is directly inspired by Kansas City,” Hong said.
The World in Kansas City will be on display at the Kemper through Aug. 9. Many of the artists who still reside in Kansas City will be doing events throughout the exhibition, according to Hong.
Tickets to the Kemper are always free. The museum at 4420 Warwick Blvd. is open Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Thursdays until 9 p.m.
This story was originally published March 6, 2026 at 1:30 PM.
