Exhibitions

Dinner and a Mid-night Snack: Gifts of Contemporary Art from Donald J. Mrozek and R. Scott Dorman

February 3 - July 12, 2015

Donald J. Mrozek and R. Scott Dorman have donated close to 300 works on paper to the Beach Museum of Art. "Dinner and a Mid-night Snack," a selection of works from Mrozek and Dorman’s gift, reflects the collectors’ shared love of music, literature, postmodern art, and mid-20th century modernist architecture.

Katie Kingery-Page, associate professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional and Community Planning, and Thomas Bell, associate professor and librarian for faculty and graduate services, guest curated this exhibition. Featured are over 60 works, primarily prints, dating from the late 1960s through the 2010s. The exhibition title is drawn from a translation of the Chinese text in Chryssa's Calligraphy III, which may have originally appeared on a restaurant advertisement.

Bell and Kingery-Page were drawn to the title’s mealtime reference. “Don and Scott enjoyed these works in the context of their home, and spoke with us about the experience of living with contemporary art in the kitchen, around the dining table, throughout the house,” Kingery-Page explains.

The curators approached their roles from their own unique backgrounds in design and music. Drawing inspiration from her work as a landscape architect in the beautifully austere Flint Hills, Kingery-Page focused on the way the collection “bridges quiet, minimalist and more frenetic, post-modern moments in late twentieth century art.”

Bell looked to similarities between visual art and music, which “speak to those parts of ourselves we are unable to describe but are nonetheless real and vital.” For Bell, art “takes ideas and intense intellectual rigor and translates the depths of our humanity into a wordless, unutterable language, communication beyond words.”

A series of in-gallery performances, conversations, and readings by K-State faculty and students will link the works on display to contemporaneous developments in music and literature.

Related Programs

All programs take place at the Beach Museum of Art and are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.

Dinner and Mid-night Snack Opening Reception

February 5, 2015, 5-7 p.m.

Join us for the opening reception of the exhibition featuring a special in-gallery musical performance by Topeka, Kansas, native Aaron Martin.

Dinner and Mid-night Snack Salon

February 12, 2015, 6:30-7:30 p.m.

Join guest curators Thomas Bell and Katie Kingery-Page as they host special performances by KSU faculty and student saxophone players.

Dinner and Mid-night Snack Salon

March 12, 2015, 6:30-7:30 p.m.

Join guest curators Thomas Bell and Katie Kingery-Page as they host special poetry readings by Drip Torch and a vocal performance by David Wood.

Dinner and Mid-night Snack Salon

April 9, 2015, 6:30-7:30 p.m.

Join guest curators Thomas Bell and Katie Kingery-Page as they host special performances by KSU Theater and Dance students.