LAURA MCPHEE IN ‘SECOND NATURE: PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE AGE OF ANTHROPOCENE’ AT KEMPER MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART

On view May 22 - September 23, 2026

"Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art (Kansas City, MO) presents Second Nature: Photography in the Age of the Anthropocene. It is the first major exhibition to examine the Anthropocene through the lens of contemporary photography, comprised of some 40 photo-based artists working in a variety of artistic methods from studios and sites across the globe.  

These artists offer compelling visual imagery necessary for picturing the Anthropocene: aerial views of beautiful but toxic sites, collages that incorporate archival photographs to counter colonial narratives, depictions of urbanism on an unimaginable scale, and imagined yet precarious futures. In doing so, they address urgent issues such as vanishing ice, rising waters, and increasing resource extraction, as well as the deeply rooted and painful legacies of colonialism, forced climate migration, and socio-environmental trauma.

Explains Jessica May, Executive Director of Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art and co-curator of the exhibition, "Second Nature arrives at the Kemper Museum as our city prepares to host a truly global event, the World Cup, with its attendant visitors and a shared dialogue about what globalism really means at this complicated moment. The exhibition allows us to see a changing world through the perspective of artists from all over the world."