Joe Quesada

From Mucha to Marvel

Czech artist Alphonse Mucha (1860–1939) defined the look of Art Nouveau with his sinuous lines, radiant color, and elegant figures that transformed posters, advertisements, and everyday design.

Legendary comic artist and former Marvel Editor-in-Chief, Joe Quesada, explores Mucha’s lasting impact on visual storytelling. Drawing on his own career and artistic perspective, Quesada offers a fresh lens on Mucha’s legacy.

Quesada will be joined in conversation by Dr. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, the Senior Curator of European Art at the Nelson-Atkins and site curator for the exhibition, Timeless Mucha: The Magic of Line.

Timeless Mucha: The Magic of Line celebrates the artist’s revolutionary graphic work—the medium that made him an international sensation. Featuring more than 100 works from the Mucha Trust Collection, the exhibition traces his rise in Paris through his iconic designs and his influence across illustration, design, and popular culture.

From the swirling psychedelia of the 1960s to the expressive dynamism of Japanese manga, and American comics, Mucha’s visual language continues to captivate artists, designers, and audiences alike, proving that the magic of his line is truly timeless.

KC Design Week is thrilled to collaborate with the Nelson-Atkins Museum for this exciting event! KCDW and the Museum have enjoyed a long and fruitful partnership since 2010.

We encourage you to visit the Museum’s exhibition “Timeless Mucha: The Magic of Line” open April 18-August 30, 2026.

Registration for this event is directly through the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

Day Nine - April 30

Apr 30, 2026 | 5:30-7:30pm

5:30pm | Registration
6:00pm | Lecture

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Atkins Auditorium
4525 Oak Street
Kansas City, MO 64111
United States

$25 Public | $21 Museum Member | $14 Student, Ticketing is through the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

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ABOUT

Joe Quesada

Joe Quesada is the C.E.O. and Chief Creative Officer of Amazing Comics, his independent comic company, where he continues a legacy of transformative storytelling in the comic book industry.

Born in Jackson Heights, Queens, to Cuban immigrant parents, Joe discovered comics at age eight when his father bought him his first issue of The Amazing Spider-Man, sparking a love for the medium that led him to the School of Visual Arts. Joe graduated in 1984 with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts. In 1989, he launched his career at Valiant Comics before co-founding Event Comics.

Widely recognized as one of his generation’s top sequential storytellers and cover artists, Joe co-founded Event Comics and launched Marvel Knights in 1998 with his creative partner, Jimmy Palmiotti, revitalizing Marvel Comics and helping to rescue the company from bankruptcy with mature, character-driven stories.

His success with Marvel Knights led to his roles as Editor-in-Chief and later Chief Creative Officer, where he’s credited with Marvel’s resurgence across comics, film, television, and animation with projects like ABC’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Netflix’s Daredevil.

Over his career, Joe has earned accolades including a Peabody, an Emmy, a Harvey, a Ringo, a Saturn, a Webby, and the 2021 Hero Initiative Lifetime Achievement Award. After 24 years with Marvel, Joe departed in 2022, signing a first-look deal with Amazon Studios and launching his Substack newsletter, “Joe Quesada’s Drawing The Line Somewhere.” Now, with Amazing Comics and his latest creator-owned project, Disciple, Joe continues to craft impactful stories driven by his lifelong passion for storytelling.

Dr. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan

Senior Curator of European Art at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

Dr. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan serves as the Louis L. and Adelaide C. Ward Senior Curator of European Arts at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, where she leads the department’s curatorial vision and scholarship across collections ranging from the medieval to the modern. A specialist in British and French 18th- and 19th-century painting, her work explores the intersections of artistic practice, materiality, and cultural exchange in Europe. An alumna of the Center for Curatorial Leadership, she has held posts at the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Dayton Art Institute, and the University of Vermont. Her publications and exhibitions have advanced new perspectives on European art, and she currently directs the Nelson-Atkins’s digital scholarly catalogues of its Portrait Miniatures and French Paintings collections.