CHAMPAIGN, ILL.- Five new exhibitions kick off Krannert Art Museum’s fall season, several highlighting the breadth of KAM’s permanent collection.

Featuring faculty artists at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, the annual School of Art + Design Faculty Exhibition (August 31 through September 23, 2012) is one of the most visible aspects of the rich collaborative relationship between KAM and the School of Art + Design. This ongoing exhibition provides the community an opportunity to view new work by the school’s world-class artists and designers.

Fields of Indigo: Installation by Rowland Ricketts with Sound by Norbert Herber (August 31 through December 30, 2012) leads visitors through the process of making indigo. Through this collaboration between textile artist Rowland Ricketts and sound designer Norbert Herber, visitors in the gallery will learn how indigo is grown, composted, decomposed, and concocted into a pungent dye.

To complement the exhibition Fields of Indigo, Fashioning Traditions of Japan (August 31 through December 30, 2012) includes works from the museum’s collection that demonstrate how Japanese artists appropriated iconographical motifs common to Chinese objects to invent traditions that acquired an authenticity that is uniquely theirs.

Highlighting modern American and European works from the museum’s permanent collection, Expressions in Color (August 31 through December 30, 2012) considers not only the expressive language of color, but particularly how color carries the potential to alter our experiences—perceptually, emotionally, and spiritually. Meant as an overview of different techniques and approaches to using color, the exhibition includes works by Karel Appel, Max Beckmann, Hans Hofmann, Gabriele Münter, David Park, Mark Rothko, among others.

Egúngún! Power Concealed (August 31 through December 30, 2012) is based upon research recently completed in the West African nation of Benin, where egúngún are powerful Yorùbá ancestors who are periodically summoned by their descendants to bring blessings and counsel to the world of the living. The exhibition features a lavishly sequined, full body egúngún costume, undergarments, and a video of an egúngún in performance.