Artist Ray Yoshida's Home on View at John Michael Kohler Arts Center

Ray Yoshida taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for four decades and was an icon of the Chicago arts scene. He influenced generations of artists, including the forward-thinking group known as the Chicago Imagists with his invitation for students to draw inspiration from their daily environment and develop their own unique practice.

This fall, visitors to the John Michael Kohler Arts Center will have the unprecedented opportunity to see where Yoshida received his own inspiration in the new exhibition Ray Yoshida's Museum of Extraordinary Values. Yoshida built a home collection, a kaleidoscopic mass of items assembled over his lifetime. His belief in leveling hierarchies in the art world and elevating the aesthetics of everyday life can be seen in the varied collection he amassed. The gallery is sectioned off into nine tableaux that recreate his Chicago apartment. The collection includes more than 2,600 pieces, spanning folk art, works by self-taught artists, African masks, manufactured goods, pop culture and much more.

In addition to his home collection, 60 of Yoshida's own workscollage, oils, prints and drawingsare on view for visitors to examine alongside his personal source material.

This is the first time Yoshida's home collection is on view since his death in 2009. The Arts Center received Yoshida's entire home collection because of its reputation as a leader in maintaining, preserving and presenting the work of vernacular art-environment builders. The acquisition of Yoshida's collection signals a time of scholarship into environments of a different type, the home environment.

Ray Yoshida's Museum of Extraordinary Values is part of the Arts Center's The Open Eye series. Four additional exhibitions in the series explore key interest areas found in Yoshida's collection: self-taught art, comic books, ethnographic art and his idea of a vocabulary of "place."

Admission to the Arts Center is free. The exhibitions begin closing February 2, 2014.

ABOUT THE JOHN MICHAEL KOHLER ARTS CENTER
Established in 1967, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center is a nationally acclaimed visual and performing arts complex in Sheboygan, Wis. Its exhibitions and collections focus on a wide range of contemporary art forms, with particular emphasis on the work of self-taught artists, folk artists and art-environment builders. Visit www.jmkac.org for more information.

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Video with caption: "Following Ray Yoshida's death in 2009, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center received his entire home collection of more than 2,600 objects and works of art. Ray Yoshida's Museum of Extraordinary Values presents the entirety of his finds together for the very first time. John Michael Kohler Arts Center. Pentimenti Productions 2013." Video available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6CdEG0Tr9A

Image with caption: "Ray Yoshida in his Chicago residence. Photo: c. 1974. Courtesy of Mary Baber." Image available at:http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20131030/CG07616-a

Image with caption: "Ray Yoshida's Museum of Extraordinary Values (Tableau 3) as installed at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, 2013. John Michael Kohler Arts Center Collection." Image available at: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20131030/CG07616-b

SOURCE John Michael Kohler Arts Center