KANSAS CITY, MO.- Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art is presenting “Aliza Nisenbaum: Aquí Se Puede (Here You Can),” the sixth annual Atrium Project exhibition. For nearly a year, New York-based Mexican-American artist Aliza Nisenbaum has been getting to know four individuals connected to Kansas City’s salsa dance and music communities virtually, which informed the three newly commissioned portraits that depict them in their creative environments.

Aliza Nisenbaum is known for her brightly-colored paintings and community-based approach to portraiture. Nisenbaum has exhibited her work across the world, working with locals in each city—from Immigrant Movement International members in Queens, NY to staff of the Liverpool Alder Hey Children’s Hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The opportunity to connect Nisenbaum with key voices from the Greater Kansas City salsa community created energized discussions and have resulted in a fantastic group of paintings that speak to the importance of music, dance, and community during times of joy and especially during difficult moments,” said Erin Dziedzic, director of curatorial affairs at Kemper Museum. “These individuals, so beautifully depicted by Nisenbaum with tremendous painting techniques and a virtuosic eye for color, held the history, spirit, and desire for dance and music close throughout the global pandemic. Together, they demonstrate moments of appreciation, joy, and love for salsa in their lives and the practice of sharing it on many platforms.”

The Kansas City-based individuals portrayed in this series include a DJ from El Salvador, a pair of partners who met in one’s home city of Havana, Cuba where the other was studying the Cuban Tres guitar, and a longtime dancer, teacher, and mentor to new people on the Kansas City dance scene who are drawn to salsa. Their eight months of virtual conversations with the artist have resulted in portraits that embody the personality, interests, and energy of each individual and their relationship to salsa dance and music.

This exhibition is organized by Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art and curated by Erin Dziedzic, director of curatorial affairs at Kemper Museum.

Aliza Nisenbaum (born 1977, Mexico City) is known for her brightly-colored paintings and community-based approach to portraiture. Nisenbaum has exhibited her work across the world, working with locals in each city—from Immigrant Movement International members in Queens, NY to staff of the Liverpool Alder Hey Children’s Hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Tate Liverpool and the Minneapolis Institute of Art and group exhibitions at The Drawing Center, New York, NY; Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP), São Paulo, Brazil; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; and Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, NY. Major public commissions include the Art of the Underground Public Commission in London, United Kingdom. Nisenbaum attended the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico, and earned her B.F.A. and M.F.A. degrees from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.