The Kokomo Gallery

Open Mon-Sat  May 1st - Oct 1.

HOURS 10 AM - 3 PM 

We are happy to open for anyone that can’t come during open hours. 605 209 0954

The need for a gallery to house the permanent collection of sculptor John Lopez’s works has come to life through the renovation of the Kokomo building which is accidentally but rightfully positioned to serve that purpose. With this in place, visitors will have a real life experience of John Lopez sculptures captured in a single space. A top attraction in Lemmon, SD.

The choice of Kokomo was unplanned but John’s creative expedition led him to the building. The initial idea was to create a park to immortalize the Legendary Ed Lemmon and to which he purchased the two lots that are now Boss Cowman Square. After spending the entire summer of 2016 transforming the empty lot into a world class park, John’s visiting friends from Nigeria, Dotun Popoola and Jonathan Imafidor painted a mural against the long south wall of the Kokomo building. The mural is supposed to serve as a background for John Lopez sculpture of Ed Lemmon. In a bid to save the park and the beautiful mural from the ageing wall of the empty Kokomo building that was bedeviled with neglect and faced with plodding decay, John decided to turn the ‘stone the builders rejected, to a chief corner stone’. The Kokomo will now serve as the official gallery of John Lopez sculptures. Dotun Popoola and Jonathan Imafidor’s ‘Diary of Two Visual Anthropologists’ will be the maiden exhibition of the Kokomo.  If your are looking for things to do on the way to the musical in Medora, North Dakota this is the perfect stop for you and your roadies.

Sculpture Garden

The Boss Cowman Square and sculpture garden are open year round. The Gallery is seasonal.

A favorite in the Sculpture Garden is the Tree of Life.

The latest addition to the Sculpture Garden is the Humpback Whale made from an old airplane gas tank.

What's happening...

In April 2015, John flew to Paris, France to select items from a Hermès workshop that would be used in a new sculpture for a window display in Houston. Hermès International S.A., Hermes of Paris, is a French manufacturer established in 1837. Today it specializes in leather, lifestyle accessories, perfumery, luxury goods, and ready-to-wear clothing.

During the summer of 2015, John was joined in the his studio by Dotun Popoola, an art student from Nigeria. Dotun saw John's work on pinterest, and decided to come to South Dakota and learn some of Lopez's welding techniques. To view the work Dotun did in South Dakota while at the John Lopez Studio, go to http://dotunstudio.com/

 The life-size sculpture of Hugh Glass was parked in front of the Palace Theatre in Lemmon during the special pre-release screening of the movie "The Revenant," starring Leonardo DiCaprio. The sculpture shows Hugh Glass being mauled by a sow grizzly bear. It is permanently on display at the Grand River Museum in Lemmon, South Dakota on U.S. Highway 12.