Painting
At KCAI, you won’t be defined by one medium. Step into the painting program's studio to explore ideas, experiment, and take risks. Learn all about visual language and how it fits in your journey. Cultivate a studio practice that’s uniquely your own.
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Painting
Give meaning to every stroke
Painting can be more than still life or self-portrait. More than brushstrokes and canvas.
It’s perception and backstories. Bold and unfettered ideas. Depth and meaning.
Learn through the exploration of materials and methods, both traditional and contemporary. Create your own style, voice, and genre. Work with figuration or abstraction. Performance or installation. Extend media and context. Collaborate with others and test things out in critique. Curate a gallery exhibit and explore public art.
Double major in Creative Writing or Art History. Intern at the Nelson-Atkins Museum. Work-study in gallery preparation, curation, or communications.
Be free to get inspired. Feel free to make a mess.
Ready to discover what’s behind the canvas?
Each student in the painting program has their own studio space where they can develop their individual voice, create, collaborate, and share their work with peers and faculty.
Classes + Course Requirements
Major painting studios, drawing electives in perceptual drawing, figure drawing and painting, book-making, color theory, social practice, the expanded field, and thematically based classes.
1st year
Your journey starts in the Foundation program where you will explore new techniques and find passions that you never knew you had.
2nd year
- Drawing Elective
- Studio Electives from any major
3rd year
- Junior Painting I
- Professional Practice
- Junior Painting II
4th year
- Senior Painting I
- Senior Painting II
Student Work
“Unlike some of my other art school experiences, KCAI taught me that there’s no singular way to create.”
Painting Faculty
KCAI faculty are artists, designers and scholars in their fields.
William T. Kemper Painting Studios
Observe, paint and practice all within our studio walls.
Mix your colors and prep your palette with our:
- Gallery space with student curators
- Preparators and communications staff
- Individual studio space
- Fully-equipped computer lab with Adobe Suite
- Department library / media center
- Camera, light kit, projectors, and other equipment
- Large multipurpose studio spaces
- And more
Career Paths + Career Outcomes
KCAI painting Program alumni work as Fine Artists, Curators, Professors, Graphic Designers, Art Critics, Arts Administrators, Non-Profit Arts Leaders, Museum Staff, Gallery Directors, Art Therapists and UX/UI Designers. They work at Google, Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kemper Museum of Art, Garmin, Hallmark, Hallmark Cards, Dimensional Innovations and Johnson County Community College.
KCAI's Professional Practice Center will help you prepare for your career.
Lester Goldman Gallery
At the heart of the William T. Kemper Painting Studios is the Lester Goldman Gallery. A light-filled, professional gallery space where students can exhibit their work and flex their curatorial muscles to produce shows of student work for the KCAI community.
