 Currently on view at the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park through Sunday, September 21, 2025, “Busted: Contemporary Sculpture Busts” showcases this ancient sculpture genre as…){kind=link}
GRAND RAPIDS, MI (AAPNW) Currently on view at the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park through Sunday, September 21, 2025, “Busted: Contemporary Sculpture Busts” showcases this ancient sculpture genre as radically transformed by 21st-century artists.
Featuring work in diverse materials, from marble to fabric, and made by artists from various cultural backgrounds, the exhibition invites viewers to reflect on vital questions in art history and human representation. Together these sculpture busts demonstrate the continued vitality of figural art as a means of addressing both timeless concerns and the most pressing issues of today.
‘Busted’ spotlights this ancient genre as transformed by artists in the 21st century. The exhibition offers diverse and engaging human representations by 16 exceptional artists: Elia Alba, Dean Allison, Radcliffe Bailey, Barry X. Ball, Sanford Biggers, Layo Bright, Michael Ferris Jr., Salvador Jiménez-Flores, Leonid Lerman, Sebastian Martorana, Paul McCarthy, Jonathan Monk, Jaume Plensa, Elise Siegel, Rose B. Simpson and Jessica Stoller. Together, their works bring us face-to-face with a rich array of human types and identities.
Throughout history, sculpted busts have served to commemorate and preserve the likeness of distinguished individuals, and to celebrate divinity or nobility. In recent years the bust format has experienced a revival among contemporary artists, as they’ve found it a compelling means to address issues tied to identity, mortality, power and history.
Upcoming programming include “Exhibition Explorations: Busted Exquisite Corpses” on Sunday, August 17, 2025 at 2:00 pm with a Meijer Gardens educator for an engaging exploration of the bust sculptures, followed by a collaborative Surrealist art game where participants contribute to a figure drawing one section at a time, without seeing what the previous person added, resulting in a fun and unexpected final product that’s perfect for all ages. Tap into your creative side as we bring these sculptures to life together!
“The Psychology of Emotion Expression” on Sunday, September 7, 2025 at 2:00 pm with Dr. Wolfgang Friedlmeier, Professor of Developmental and Cross-Cultural Psychology at Grand Valley State University, for an engaging lecture on the psychology of emotion expressions. Dr. Friedlmeier will examine how facial expressions, feelings, and emotion regulation across cultures shape our interpretations of emotions, partly drawing from his research on how emotion socialization influences children’s emotional development in various cultures. Discover how these insights come to life in sculpture and reveal deeper truths about human emotion.