Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park announces that the exhibition BUSTED: Contemporary Sculpture Busts will be on view April 4 through September 20. This eye-opening exhibition showcases the ancient sculpture tradition of the bust as radically transformed by 21st-century artists.
Busts—partial renderings featuring the head and shoulders—are central within sculpture history, having ancient origins in Egyptian funerary masks and Greek herms (square stone pillar with a carved head). For millennia, the main function of sculpture busts has been to aggrandize nobility and divinity, and to preserve the likeness of distinguished figures. While the bust genre fell out of favor within 20th-century art, it has experienced a revival among contemporary artists who enlist it to grapple with themes of identity, mortality, power and history.
“Throughout art history, the sculpture bust has proven to be a uniquely potent format for capturing and celebrating individuals,” said Suzanne Ramljak, the exhibition’s curator and Vice President of Collections & Curatorial Affairs at Meijer Gardens. “As the exhibition title suggests, contemporary artists have cracked open this ancient tradition, activating a critical dialogue about who we are, how we are remembered, and the ways in which bodies carry meaning.”
BUSTED offers engaging human representations by 15 exceptional artists from around the world, many of whom have never exhibited at Meijer Gardens: Elia Alba, Dean Allison, Radcliffe Bailey, Barry X. Ball, Sanford Biggers, Layo Bright, Michael Ferris Jr., Salvador Jimenez-Flores, Leonid Lerman, Sebastian Martorana, Paul McCarthy, Jonathan Monk, Elise Siegal, Rose B. Simpson and Jessica Stoller. Together their works bring guests face to face with a rich array of human types and identities.
This ambitious and inclusive exhibition, part of Meijer Gardens’ 30th anniversary programming, will feature dozens of works by artists from diverse cultural backgrounds, using materials ranging from traditional marble and bronze to less conventional media like fabric, glass, and holography. Guests will encounter striking interpretations of the genre, from historical revisionism to intimate portraits of friends and family to poignant meditations on mortality.
Regardless of material or approach, all the sculptures in BUSTED encourage viewers to consider the nuance and variation in individual countenance and to reflect on what truly makes people human. The exhibition’s dynamic selection also demonstrates the continued vitality of figural art as a means of addressing both timeless concerns and today’s most pressing issues.
Exhibition Programming:
Unveiling BUSTED: A Curator's Tour
April 13, 2–3 pm
Join exhibition curator Suzanne Ramljak for an insightful tour of BUSTED, as she delves into the exhibition’s diversity of materials and styles, while probing key themes in art history, identity, and human representation.
Exhibition Explorations: Contemporary Sculpture Busts
May 25, 2–4 pm
Join a Meijer Gardens educator for an engaging exploration of sculpted busts, followed by a lively hands-on interpretive activity ideal for all ages.
Gallery Activity: Thought Bubble
Every day during the exhibition
Stop by our creativity station and find images of key sculpture busts. Imagine what the figures might be thinking, jot down your ideas, and place your thought bubble on the matching image.
For more programming and information about BUSTED: Contemporary Sculpture Busts, visit MeijerGardens.org/BUSTED
BUSTED: Contemporary Sculpture Busts is made possible by:
The Meijer Foundation
Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Foundation
Botanic and Sculpture Societies of Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park
About Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park
Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, one of the world’s most significant botanic and sculpture experiences, was named the 2023 and 2024 Best Sculpture Park in the United States by USA Today’s 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards and listed as the 90th-most-visited museum in the world by The Art Newspaper, the leading global art news publication. Education programs welcome 80,000 students and guests each year. Culinary Arts & Events offerings include weddings, corporate meetings and award-winning catering. The 158-acre main campus features Michigan’s largest tropical conservatory; one of the country’s largest interactive children’s gardens; arid and Victorian gardens with bronze sculptures by Edgar Degas and Auguste Rodin; a carnivorous plant house; outdoor gardens, including a replica 1930s-era farm garden; an 8-acre Japanese garden featuring contemporary sculpture; and a 1,900-seat outdoor amphitheater garden, showcasing an eclectic mix of world-renowned touring musicians each summer. The permanent collection highlights hundreds of sculptures from internationally acclaimed artists Magdalena Abakanowicz, El Anatsui, Louise Bourgeois, Alexander Calder, Mark di Suvero, Marshall Fredericks, Henry Moore, Michele Oka Donor, Beverly Pepper, Jaume Plensa, Auguste Rodin, Richard Serra, Yinka Shonibare CBE and Ai Weiwei, among others. Indoor galleries with changing sculpture exhibitions have presented shows by Jonathan Borofsky, Edgar Degas, Jim Dine, Richard Hunt, Cristina Iglesias, Rebecca Louise Law, George Segal, David Smith, and others.
