In his portraits, contemporary artist Robert Peterson renders African American life beautifully and joyfully, rejecting stereotypes to celebrate the “Black experience as [he] knows it.” The artist’s first major museum exhibition, Somewhere In America features key paintings from Peterson’s existing works, as well as over 20 new works, many painted on a monumental scale. Each painting—loving depictions of individuals, couples, and families in everyday moments—commemorates Peterson’s community in small-town Oklahoma, his wider circle of friends and family throughout the country, and the people he encounters that spark memories of those he has known, both past and present. Self-taught, Peterson picked up a paintbrush for the first time in 2012 to distract himself from an upcoming hip replacement. He had his first solo exhibition in New York City less than a year later. Today, his work sells out at art fairs and galleries and is collected by museums, with works at the Philbrook Museum of Art, Weisman Art Museum, and Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg. Somewhere in America tells a deeply personal— yet widely recognizable—story of family, community, and legacy.

Tickets available online or at the Welcome Desk

Image credit: Robert Peterson, Head in the Clouds, 2022. Oil on canvas, 48 x 72 inches. Collection of Yvonne Cook and family

Robert Peterson Somewhere in America is organized by the Wichita Art Museum.
This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

PRESENTING SPONSOR
National Endowment for the Arts

PRINCIPAL SPONSORS
DeVore Foundation
Emprise Bank
Shaw Family Foundation
Dwane L. and Velma Lunt Wallace Foundation

DISTINGUISHED SPONSORS
Connie Bonfy
Damon and Lai-L Daugherty
Lou and Terry Heldman
Kristin and Will Price

2024 exhibitions and public programs are generously supported by the Downing Foundation.
All museum exhibitions receive generous sponsorship from the Friends of the Wichita Art Museum and the City of Wichita.