Returning to Wonder opens January 16, 2026, at Kimball Art Center featuring Pipilotti Rist, Josiah McElheny, Katie Paterson, and more. Experience world-class contemporary art at Park City’s premier cultural destination.
Returning To Wonder
January 16–May 3, 2026
Kimball Art Center, Park City
With its multidisciplinary lineup of celebrated artists, Returning to Wonder, opening January 16, 2026, at Kimball Art Center, reaffirms Park City as a destination for expansive ideas and contemporary expression.
Nestled in the mountains of Park City, the Kimball Art Center has long served as a cultural anchor for art and community. Since its founding in 1976, the Center has grown from a grassroots creative hub into a contemporary arts institution with national reach and international ambitions. This winter, KAC debuts Returning to Wonder, an exhibition featuring artists recognized around the globe, including Pipilotti Rist, Josiah McElheny, Katie Paterson, Lia Halloran, and Erika Blumenfeld, among others.
For its relatively small footprint, the caliber of artists the Kimball Art Center attracts rivals that of major metropolitan institutions. It’s part of what makes Park City’s nonprofit contemporary art museum so distinct: a mountain-town institution consistently bringing world-class art to an intimate scale. And, as the Sundance Film Festival prepares to leave Park City for Boulder, Colorado, in 2027, the Center is sending a powerful reminder: Park City remains a cultural destination for those who value serious contemporary art and the conversations it sparks.
Returning to Wonder embraces that idea with an exhibition centered on rekindling awe in our relationship with the natural world. Conceived of by KAC curator Nancy Stoaks, the exhibition gathers artists whose practices span photography, installation, painting, sculpture, conceptual work, and light-based media. Together, they explore natural phenomena ranging from the microscopic to the cosmic, guiding viewers through questions of self, place, perception, and reverence.
“Returning to Wonder brings into focus the complex, dynamic world we inhabit—one that is constantly shifting and full of phenomena we often overlook,” says Stoaks. “These artists remind us that the natural world is not separate from us; it’s an interconnected system of which we are an essential part.”
Rather than offering a single thesis, the exhibition creates a constellation of perspectives, with meditations on scale and perceived significance. By creating poetic dialogues between art and science, the artists in Returning to Wonder invite audiences to pause, recalibrate, and consider the interconnectedness of all living systems.
The exhibition also reflects the broader evolution of Kimball Art Center itself. With a new purpose-built facility planned in its future, the Center is expanding its capacity to host larger exhibitions, educational programs, and community events. Its year-round slate, which includes rotating contemporary exhibitions, the annual Kimball Arts Festival, artist talks, and art classes for all ages, continues to shape Park City’s cultural identity.
The message is clear: while Sundance shifts its geographical center, Park City’s creative momentum endures. Travelers seeking culture will continue to find a vibrant arts ecosystem anchored by Kimball Art Center, a museum committed to amplifying the voices and visions shaping contemporary art today.
More information on exhibitions, programs, and events is available at kimballartcenter.org.
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