Welcome to the UK Art Museum

The University of Kentucky Art Museum, part of the UK College of Fine Arts, promotes the understanding and appreciation of art from diverse cultures and historical periods, providing meaningful encounters for audiences of all ages. Through our temporary exhibitions, educational programs, and permanent collection of approximately 5000 objects, we are a resource for the campus community and a cultural destination for citizens of the Commonwealth and beyond. Our Free Admission policy removes any financial obstacle that might stand in the way of opportunities for contemplation and connection.

We are proud to be accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, meeting standards for excellence and professional practices.

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Digital Learning Gallery

Detail view of Jay Bolotin, still image of the Carnival set. Black and white photograph of geometric, modernistic town square.

Jay Bolotin: A Jackleg Testament

Jay Bolotin was an ambitious and exacting artist who regularly crossed disciplines including visual art, literature, theatre, music, and film. Weaving together personal musings and universal myths, he formed epic narratives requiring years of labor-intensive studio activity and the mastering of…

re:museum: RE:TRACE

The re:museum exhibition evolves once again, updating artworks and informational displays while continuing to promote a welcoming engagement with art and offering a peek behind-the-curtain at how our Museum operates. re:museum ∙ RE:TRACE maintains this education-forward approach while applying a…

A-Tisket, A-Tasket 

This exhibition celebrates Black girls’ complex emotional lives as portrayed in a range of artworks, from portraits painted in the 1930s to twenty-first-century photographs. Resistance, hope, anger, defiance, curiosity, joy, anxiety, vulnerability, and exhaustion are some of the feelings seen on…

Tim Davis: Upstate Event Horizon

“I enter the classroom as an evangelist for the idea that photography is the most complex, important form of communication in our culture, and that it takes energy, will, humor, pathos, research, and legwork to learn to use the medium effectively.” This statement by artist, educator, and…

Touchstones (for Jay)

Dear Jay, When we spoke about this exhibition, neither of us knew that you would not live to see it. While deeply sorrowful, I am buoyed by bringing together a handful of touchstones—artists whose printmaking and drawing you held in high regard. A few of them we never discussed, but I think…

Focus on Lexington

The five groups of photographers in this exhibition worked collectively to capture the unique people, landscapes, and pace of life that distinguish Lexington, Kentucky. Maurice Strider collaborated with his students at Dunbar High School between 1934 and 1966 to create a rich archive of Black…

Zhang Huan: Ordinary Life

Zhang Huan’s work across multiple media is inspired by the everyday processes of life— from breathing and eating to hopes and dreams. In 2006, Zhang began a series of paintings made from ash collected in Buddhist temples…

Self and Others: Japanese Photography after 1968

The first issue of Provoke magazine, published in Tokyo in November 1968, declared that “we as photographers must capture with our own eyes the fragments of reality that can no longer be grasped through existing language.” With this manifesto, Provoke encapsulated the energy of a time in which…

re:museum ∙ RE:FORM

The re:museum exhibition enters its eighth edition with re:museum ∙ RE:FORM, continuing to promote a welcoming engagement with art while offering a peek behind-the-curtain at Museum operations. This latest re:museum applies “reform” as a thematic umbrella to exhibit artworks that employ the concept…

A (Very) Brief History of Music

A (Very) Brief History of Music takes as a given that any attempt to tell the history of a discipline in one exhibition is impossible.  So, we've decided to present a mix of works that reference traditional ballads, jazz, rock and roll, and punk in the Museum's smallest gallery space.  The…

In a Social Landscape: Photography in the United States after 1966

In 1966, the George Eastman House of Photography in Rochester, New York, hosted a pivotal exhibition curated by Nathan Lyons called Toward a Social Landscape. The slim, accompanying catalog was shared amongst photographers who were especially encouraged by Duane Michals’s observation that “when a…

Between Structure and Chaos

The artists in this exhibition let go of their impulse to control compositions by allowing chaotic elements of chance, circumstance, and contingency to influence their processes. Drips, scratches, pours, and bleeds move across the surfaces of their artworks seemingly at random, and yet clear forms…

Agnes Denes: Fragmentations

This exhibition highlights Fragmentations, a series of etchings created by conceptual artist Agnes Denes. Born in Budapest in 1931, raised in Sweden, and later educated in the United States, she began displaying her work in the early 1960s. Her artwork discussed the socio-political climate of the…

Geometric Rhythms

The UK Art Museum collection includes an eclectic group of paintings, prints, textiles, and sculptures that use repeated shapes to create a sense of driving rhythms, syncopations, and melodic phrases—from a ninth-century BCE Greek vase to a painting by University of Kentucky Professor Emeritus…

UK Art Museum announces Rachel Hooper as Curator

After an extensive and rewarding search process, the University of Kentucky Art Museum and the College of Fine Arts are pleased to announce that Rachel Hooper will start her new position as the Museum’s Curator on August 12, 2024.

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