Wednesday, February 29, 2012

TAC-KC: 02.29.12

Tracy's Art Calendar — Kansas City for Leap Day, 2012
March into KC Design Week


Public artwork in the UMB Bank downtown headquarters plaza, as seen from near 11th and Walnut Streets in May 2011. Artist unknown … sometimes what you see from afar is all you'll see unless you happen to gain access through employment or an appointment. Public space and how we define it is one topic planners and architects grapple with.
Image: photo by author

A friend was telling me this morning about her little daughter: "She said she 'wanted to build things' when she grows up." First it was "want to be a teacher," then "piano teacher," then "maybe a lawyer," and now—"What do you call people who build things?"

Architects.

When I was a kid, I thought maybe I'd become a veterinarian, but only because one thing I was sure of was that I liked animals. Later, a love of cetaceans gave me hints I'd thrive as a marine biologist, but, of course, my love of writing prevailed.

Besides, my mathematical skills are not strong, and biochemistry would have floored me; likewise, I don't have what it takes to be an architect, but I have a huge attraction to the art and science of creating the built environment. One of my best memories of working with Review magazine was getting to partner with the American Institute of Architects-Kansas City, when they hosted a regional AIA conference here in October 2009.

Starting today is Kansas City Design Week, when all of us can sidle up to the questions of how we deliberately shape our environment or what it means to build "sustainable" homes, workplaces, and structural communities: we get to see what our local architects are doing on the cutting edge of their profession. A list of events is here (most are free, but register ASAP).

Another opportunity the AIA-KC gave me was to present a Pecha Kucha slideshow about public art to their members and later at a public PK-KC event at the former Crosstown Station. If you haven't heard of Pecha Kucha, not to worry. It's an onomatopoeic Japanese phrase that means "chitter chatter," or, the sound of people talking. The talk is generated by presenters who tell stories about something, often related to their profession, using a series of 20 slides.

It's not the usual PowerPoint yawn-fest, though—each slide is up for a mere 20 seconds. The pace is lively, and the atmosphere is fun. (I've only ever seen one PK presentation that felt as if the 6.67 minutes were 30.99 : )

Tomorrow night, as part of KC Design Week, the nine presentations are at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and include the design finalists for the museum's upcoming temporary pavillion being built in conjunction with their World's Fair exhibition.

If you can't get a ticket (free) in time, there are other art-related options March 1st, too.

Thursday:

Artisan Thursdays
Work from three years by Krista Gagelman
at Boozefish Wine Bar, 1511 Westport Road, Kansas City, Missouri: 816-561-5995

Artisan Thursday Reception: March 1, 6-8 p.m., with light hors d'oeuvres and cash bar
Open Tuesday-Thursday: 11 a.m.-2 p.m., 4 p.m.-12:30 a.m.; Friday: until 1:30 a.m.; Saturday: 11 a.m.-1:30 a.m. (artwork changes monthly)
______

Current Perspectives Lecture Series
Hong Chun Zhang, whose work is in Hay Wire, on view at the Lawrence Arts Center through March 8, 2012
at Kansas City Art Institute, Epperson Auditorium in Vanderslice Hall, 
4415 Warwick Boulevard, 
Kansas City, Missouri; usual events contact: 816-802-3423

Thursdays during school semester: March 1, 7 p.m.
Free and open to the public; no tickets required
______

Pecha Kucha Night Kansas City #15
Presenters include: May Tveit (artist and art industrial design professor at University of Kansas); Jack Wagner (urban design professor at University of Missouri-Kansas City); Moltyn Decadence and Tajma Steton (female impersonators); Dawn Taylor (non-proft executive); Phil Gayter (painter); and the finalists in The Nelson-Atkins Museum's World's Fair Pavillion design competition: Ashley Hand; Dan Brown and CJ Armstrong; David Dowell and his KU design studio; and Mike Kress
at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Atkins Auditorium, 4525 Oak Street, Kansas City, Missouri: 816-751-1278

Doors Open for PK: March 1, 7:30 p.m., with presentations beginning promptly at 8:20 p.m.
Admission is free (parking in the garage is $5 unless you are a member), but please register here to reserve your space in the auditorium (you'll get a PDF ticket to print out).
______

Vanguards and Visionaries
Hosted by the UMKC Women's Center, a reception honoring past leadership, including former Women's Center directors, staff, and advisory board members; featuring dance performances by Amanda McMaster and Amy Gardner-Wooddell from the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance, music by folk rock artist Elaine McMilian, and guest speaker Senator Jolie Justus (Missouri Dist. 10). Other speakers include Dean of UMKC Conservatory of Dance and Music Peter Witte, Co-Chair of the Women's Center's 40th Anniversary Committee Sloane Simmons, and Assistant Director of the Women's Center Arzie Umali; preview artwork in Vanguards and Visionaries: Kansas City Women in the arts, with Philomene Bennett, Rita Blitt, Shea Gordon-Festoff, Janet Kuemmerlein, Jane Booth, Cheryl Toh, Karen McCoy, and Jessica Kincaid

at Leedy-Voulkos Art Center, 2012 Baltimore Avenue, Kansas City, Missouri: 816-474-1919; for more information about this event, contact the Women's Center at 816-235-1638
Reception: March 1, 5:30-7:30 p.m.
Admission is free and open to all, but please RSVP here

PS, All opinions here are my own, and no one edits this, so any errors are also solely mine. Corrections are appreciated: needsaneditor@gmail.com

Friday, February 24, 2012

TAC-KC: 02.24.12

Tracy's Art Calendar — Kansas City for February 24-26, 2012
Downtown Lawrence's Final Friday, Intentions, and Bread!KC


Lee Piechocki, sketch for I've Been Crazy This Week, 2012; part of Chop Chop with Matt Jacobs at Wonder Fair in Lawrence, opening 6-9 p.m. for Final Friday.
Image: courtesy of the artist, via the gallery for press purposes; may not be reproduced without artist's permission

"Intention" is a powerful tool. It's also tricky. We rumble through the week, working on projects that put food on the table, keep the roof over our heads literally from falling in—from mundane housecleaning to major repairs and renovations—or, if blessed with both a creative spirit and time, that fulfill our human need to make things of beauty. In these cases, are we really doing what we intend?

Sometimes what we believe to be our intentions are masking a deeper truth. It's not necessarily deliberate, but we start turning obligations into intentions, as a way to make ourselves more content with carrying them out. "I don't have to, I want to" becomes a little fib. Obligations are things you have to do—they run you. If you call them intentions, then you're in control.

We're quick to abandon "our intentions" when things go wrong, though: "Oh, I didn't intend to offend anyone;" "I didn't intend to spend $100 at Target the other day …."

Well, guess what? You did come off as ridiculously thoughtless, and you did drop a thousand dimes at the, um, dime store.

"The Power of Intention" is also a buzz-word right now; it's in advertising as well as in the spiritual communities' parlance.

For artist Maria Calderon, it's a way of life. Her work is about, in her words, connecting with the individual through ritual and visual experience. She writes in an artist statement on her website:
"My goal is to awaken and heighten universal consciousness within the viewer through various modes of engaging the senses."
Tonight, I'm torn, as usual for a Final Friday, between taking in the array of great offerings in Lawrence or going to Maria's closing ceremony of The Power of Intention, at Mattie Rhodes Art Center.

You are lucky and don't have to make this choice if you happened to be at the opening. I'm sure I had intended to go, but … (you're laughing with me, right now, I hope : )

Rachel Scribner's drawings at Teller's look interesting; I'm not sure if these are single-line contour works, but I'm intrigued. Natale Collar's first solo exhibition—Trash Lion—is at one of my favorite places to spend time sipping wine or getting coffee with my friend, Diane, The Bourgeois Pig.

At the Lawrence Arts Center, a new site-specific installation by Hong Chun Zhang awaits, and Jennifer Crupi's The Articulate Body asks whether we are losing touch of our sensitivity to nonverbal communication, using her hand-crafted aluminum and sterling silver interactive objects for us to contemplate the meanings of our gestures and postures. A bit like intentions:
"An old proverb rightfully claims, 'Actions speak louder than words.' Although our body movements may be mute to the ears, they are inevitably far more revealing than the spoken word which often disguises."
There's more at the LAC, but be sure to get up to the second floor, too, to see Rex Hausmann's painting and the other "left-behind" works that have been made there during the Dannon Art Project living studio (January 23-March 3).

Finally (for me; full list=click below), I know I would be energized to witness Chop Chop at Wonder Fair, where the genuine and talented Matt Jacobs and Lee Piechocki are showing work together. The statement on the Lawrence Final Friday site is a hoot.

Friday, February 24:

Final Fridays in Downtown Lawrence
Exhibits and performing arts
Click above for a full listing, including images
______


The Power of Intention
A series of spatially engaging portraits and interactive sculpture by Maria Calderon; opening night, expect an Energetic Ceremony, Messengers of Light, and full sensory awareness stations: Stephen Bushman (handmade chai), Maria Calderon (root/herbal medicinal tea), Pedro Calderon (improvisational Andean pan flute), Dalton Carter and Jim Button (astrological sash distribution), and Lacey Wozny (Palo Santo smoke immersions), with live music also by Andean Express
at Mattie Rhodes Art Center and Gallery, 919 West 17th Street, Kansas City, Missouri: 816-221-2349

Opening Reception and Performances First Friday: February 3, 2012, 6-9 p.m.
Closing Reception Ceremony: February 24, 6-9 p.m., with all the ritual described above (though astrological signs will be noted by loops of yarn in lieu of sashes)
Open: Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturday: 10 a.m.-4 p.m., through February 24, 2012

Sunday, February 26:


BREAD!

Based on Sunday Soups, "Bread! is a public dinner designed to use community-driven financial support to democratically fund new and emerging projects." In exchange for $10, you receive a meal and the opportunity to choose which of (usually) three presenters' projects you'd like to see the money go to, right then and there. For February, the Bread! KC team has chosen a menu based entirely on aprhodisiacs.
at Cameron Gee Photographee, 2010 Baltimore Avenue, #305, Kansas City, Missouri

Presentations and Dinner: February 26, 5-8 p.m. Reservations are very necessary to ensure the right amount of food is prepared. Please email breadkc@gmail.com or reply on the Facebook event page.


Note: I a defining beauty broadly. I don't care if you think your painting is terrible, for example. At its core, the act of creating something because you wanted to create it or because you felt the fundamental burning of needing to express a thought, feeling, memory, dream, etc., is beautiful.

PS, All opinions here are my own, and no one edits this, so any errors are also solely mine. Corrections are appreciated.

Friday, February 17, 2012

TAC-KC: 02.17.12

Tracy's Art Calendar — Kansas City for February 17 and 18, 2012
West Bottoms Resurgence/Convergence Friday;
KCAC Auction on Saturday

Archie Scott Gobber, I Am Too High, painting, 2012, is part of the group exhibition, I Aim Too High, opening this evening at Dolphin.
Image: courtesy of the artist and gallery and photographed by E.G. Schempf; may not be reproduced without permission

The Green Door, Post Office, Dirt Gallery, and even a bit later, one of the locations of Fahrenheit—these are the spaces* that formed the core of the West Bottoms galleries in the late 1990s and early 2000s during my introduction to the Kansas City art scene.

*(among others that I have either forgotten the names of and/or, admittedly, am not going to spend 40 minutes digging through old postcard to recall; sadly, the Internet traces of them are all but gone)

Back then, the 12th Street Bridge was literally hazardous. Back then, you could feel "quite edgy and cool" going down, down into the "maybe it will flood," "it sure smells of sewage," "isn't there a prison-release center just around the corner?" West Bottoms (Obviously, we all were younger, so, at least for me, everything was fun, fresh, and new.)

Back then, that's where the Valentine's Day Ball and some Mardi Gras events were. Back then, you could buy a Jesse Small bullet-riddled ceramic ship for less than $50.

Granted, in the West Bottoms, there are still a few sort-of raw-type spaces, studios, and shops on the north side of the tracks. I'm being literal again: a trip to the openings then meant fun street parties where the law was absent and where you were playing only a few feet away from the railways, with freight cars churning past that punctuated the conversation or blocked you from crossing. Graffiti art still rolls by on a regular basis.

Tonight, though, when you come down to witness back-from-New-York Bill Brady's inaugural exhibition at his new Kansas City gallery (covered in The Kansas City Star not only just a few days ago on the 15th, but also on February 10th and last October when he announced it); to see the latest two exhibitions at (also white-cube) Dolphin, a deliberate Crossroads gallery transplant in 2009 by one of the Crossroads District's founders, Jim O'Brien; or to see how the younger-set's plucky and relevant Plug Projects's first solo (and transforming) exhibition is coming along, you won't have to cross any rails. All of this is south of 12th Street, close to the Kemper Arena.

You might be at odds to find parking spaces, though, so carpooling is recommended.

And you can even find a very nice restaurant* nearby and visit artists' studios in the Livestock Exchange Building, all within a stone's throw of each other.

*(R Bar; there are at least three nice spots, but the Genessee Royale is not open at night; I have never been to the Golden Ox, though I have met the owner, and he meets my instincts as being quite straightforward and trustworthy.)

Times have changed, and I welcome the solidification of Kansas City's visual artists' community, even if the owners of Art Chicago (who also bought out the NEXT fair) decided to ditch it at the last minute because buyers are (I'm paraphrasing) seemingly only concentrated on the coasts. Let's go, Midwest!

Maybe the actual near-center of the country will be the next and longer-lasting Chicago? We both have institutes of art, after all (though theirs has a graduate program. I'm curious whether anyone has opinions on such, but for now: why we're here or skimmed down to read—the calendar : )

Friday:

Alien Contact and Cultural Imagination
Electromediascope Film Series: Baltimore by Isaac Julien and The Changing Same, Dark Matter 1, The Green Dress, and The Fullness of Time by Cauleen Smith
at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, in Atkins Auditorium, 4525 Oak Street, Kansas City, Missouri: 816-751-1278

Showing: February 17, 7 p.m.
Admission is free, but tickets are required; please click here to sign up
Winter series: February 10, 17, and 24
______

East West Shift to the Middle
Part 1: Donald Beachler, Katherine Bernhardt, Huma Bhabha, Julia Chiang, Anne Eastmen, Brian Fahlstrom, Jason Fox, Tomoo Gokita, Rashawn Griffin, KAWS, Michael Lazarus, Art Miller, Erik Parker, Alexander Ross, Jaimie Warren, Wallace Whitney, and Michael Williams
at Bill Brady / KC, 1505 Gennessee Street, Kansas City, Missouri: 816-527-0090

Inagural Exhibition Opening Reception: February 16,
Open Wednesday-Saturday: 11 a.m.-6 p.m., through April 7, 2012
______

I Aim Too High
Anthony Baab, Laura Berman, Robert Josiah Bingaman, James Brisfield, Mike Erickson, Archie Scott Gobber, Tom Gregg, Chris Johnason, Wilbur Niewald, Lee Piechocki, Eric Sall, Aaron Storck, Matt Wycoff, and Andrzej Zielinski, curated by John O'Brien and David Collins
at Dolphin, 1600 Liberty Street, Kansas City, Missouri: 816-842-4415

Opening Reception: February 17, 5-10 p.m.
Open Tuesday-Friday: 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturday: noon-5 p.m., through April 17, 2012
______

MULTI-CHANNEL: an exhibition in flux
Andrew Jacob Schell
at Plug Projects, 1613 Genessee Street, Kansas City, Missouri: 646-535-7584

Intermediate Opening: February 17, 6-9 p.m.
Open Saturday: 10 a.m.-5 p.m., through March 3, 2012
______

Now Showing: Winter Happy Hour
with featured artists John Freeman and Deborah Drake Huff
at the offices of the Arts Council of Metropolitan Kansas City, pARTnership Place, 906 Grand Boulevard, Suite 10B, Kansas City, Missouri

Winter Happy Hour: February 14, 5-7 p.m.
Free and includes refreshments: Please RSVP at this link
Complementary parking available in the 928 UMB garage, south of Arts Council building
______

Open Studios: mariauroraMaria Creyts
in Livestock Exchange Building, 1600 Genessee, #516, Kansas City, Missouri: 816-221-4501

Open February 17, noon-7:30 p.m.
______

Public Domain
Michael Sinclair
at Dolphin, 1600 Liberty Street, Kansas City, Missouri: 816-842-4415

Opening Reception: February 17, 5-10 p.m.
Open Tuesday-Friday: 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturday: noon-5 p.m., through April 17, 2012

Saturday:

2012 Annual Art Auction
at Kansas City Artists Coalition, 201 Wyandotte Street, Kansas City, Missouri: 816-421-5222

Auction Night: February 18, doors open at 6 p.m. and starts the silent auction, which runs through 7:45 p.m.; the live auction begins at 8 p.m.
Tickets: $25; reserve seat tickets can be purchased for an additional $100
______

And, of course, you remember, that Saturday, plenty of other places with exhibitions opened on last First Friday (and others) are open; some galleries, such as the Belger Arts Center (and Red Star Studios on the ground floor), Leedy-Voulkos Art Center, and Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art, are open either daily or starting Thursdays into the weekend. Everyone (except, on non-research-recall, the Unity Temple's hall gallery, which, I have lost touch with, sadly, are closed Sunday and Monday as a rule).

PS, All opinions here are my own, and no one edits this, so any errors are also solely mine. Corrections are appreciated: needsaneditor@gmail.com

Thursday, February 16, 2012

TAC-KC: 02.16.12

Tracy's Art Calendar — KC for February 16-18, 2012
Midtown Thursday; West Bottoms Friday

Promotional image for CEPH love YOU too, provided by UMKC

I have a weakness for cephalopods. I tend to have an unexplained attraction to all mollusks, even the slimy slug, a creature that used to plague me as a child by suddenly getting stuck on my shoes or even skin whenever I would play in piles of oak leaves in the back yard. Found all over the planet, gastropods like slugs and snails are also a gardener's enemy.

But the cephalopods—the shy and lovely octopus, the chambered nautilus of Oliver Wendall Holmes's poem, the squiggly squid (which are also so amazing in the way that certain species can grow so incredibly huge), and, to me, the charming cuttlefish—are attractive for their intelligence, which recent scientific research has started to reveal. They show that they can learn. They also have chromatophores, or thousands of pigment-filled sacs in their skin, which allow them to change colors rapidly. If you have ever watched a public television show about them, you know that this phenomenon is beautiful; it's like a light-show, and the variety of patterns and pulsing colors is remarkable, especially since it functions as a form of communication, not just for the purpose of blending in to the creatures' surroundings.

Ryuta Nakajima's artwork explores the way cuttlefish use color for camouflage. He is in town from Minnesota, where he is an associate professor of art at the University of Minnesota Duluth; his exhibition, CEPH love YOU too, opens at the UMKC Gallery of Art this evening.

From UMKC:
"Ryuta investigates the effect and implication of visual culture through an exploration of cuttlefish camouflage patterns. He substitutes natural elements with digital images of major 20th century paintings, photographs and videos, and records the information provided by the cuttlefish."
My best guess from his website, is that we will be seeing something like these images. If you click around, you will see he has a fascination with mollusks, particularly cephalopods, and he has other styles of work; his training and his teaching is in painting. The reception is from 5 to 8 p.m., and usually, there is an artist's talk about the work around 5:30 or 6 p.m.

Kansas City is lucky to have two high-profile guests in town.

Tonight is also the Thursday Current Perspectives lecture series at KCAI. The presentation at 7 p.m. would be difficult to pass up: David B. Levy is showing a selection of his award-winning animation work, with commentary about what it's like to work in that industry. It sounds like a dream-job, working for companies like Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and National Geographic, and I expect his talk to be interesting.

Levy is also an author of three books about the business, and his sixth animated short film, Grandpa Looked Like William Powell, came out last year. Having seen the 2012 Oscar® Nominated Animated Short Films at the Tivoli Cinema last Saturday, I was reminded of how much I respect this form of artwork and of how far the technology has come during my lifetime. (You can still see these through next week.)


Thursday:

CEPH love YOU too
Ryuta Nakajima
at UMKC Gallery of Art, Department of Art and Art History, University of Missouri-Kansas City, 203 Fine Arts Building (between Nichols Library and the main student center), 5100 Rockhill Road / 5015 Holmes Street, Kansas City, Missouri: 816-235-1502

Opening Reception: February 16, 5-8 p.m.
Open Tuesday: 11 a.m.-4 p.m.; Wednesday: 1-6 p.m.; Thursday: 1-7 p.m.; Friday: 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m., through March 31, 2012
______

Current Perspectives Lecture Series
David B. Levy
at Kansas City Art Institute, Epperson Auditorium in Vanderslice Hall, 
4415 Warwick Boulevard, 
Kansas City, Missouri; usual events contact: 816-802-3423

Thursdays during school semester: February 16, 7 p.m.
______

The Oscar ® Nominated Short Films 2012
Animated, Live Action Program, and Short Documentaries
at Tivoli Cinemas, 
Westport Manor Square, 
4050 Pennsylvania Avenue, 
Kansas City, Missouri
: 913-383-7756 (showtimes); 816-561-5222 (tickets)

Showing: various times through February 23, 2012; please click to see schedule

PS, All opinions here are my own, and no one edits this, so any errors are also solely mine. Corrections are appreciated: needsaneditor@gmail.com

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

TAC-KC: 02.15.12

Tracy's Art Calendar — Kansas City for February 15-18, 2012

From last year's Kansas City Artists Coalition Art Auction: artists Phil Marak and Philomene Bennett pose with the 2011 Honorary Chairperson Director/CEO of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Julián Zugazagoitia. The 2012 Honorary Chairperson is University of Kansas Hospital Vice President and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Lee Norman.
Image: courtesy of KCAC for publicity; may not be reproduced without permission

Tonight is the preview, Sweet Art Reception, for the Kansas City Artists Coalition's 29th Annual Art Auction (on Saturday). As with many organizations, it's the largest fund-raising event for KCAC and allows exhibitions, artist residencies, and educational workshops and lectures to continue.

The 2012 auction includes work by Philomene Bennett, Cathy Broski, Tom Corbin, Bowie Croisant, Peregrine Honig, Anne Lindberg, Lou Marak, Jim Sajovic, Mark Southerland, and many more such respected artists. A full list can be seen here.

Thursday, UMKC's gallery opens CEPH love YOU too by visiting artist Ryuta Nakajima, who is a master of Japanese Esoteric Buddhism and an Associate Professor of Art at the University of Minnesota Duluth. He holds a master's of fine art degree from the University of California, and his work involves investigating the "effect and implication of visual culture through an exploration of cuttlefish camouflage patterns." Cuttlefish are those cepholapods (related to squid and octopii), which have the remarkable ability to change their colors very rapidly for communication, concealment, and courtship.

Of course, during the school season, Thursday night is also Current Perspectives lecture time at the Kansas City Art Institute: February 16th's guest is David B. Levy, animation director and writer who has produced work for Cartoon Network, Disney, Fox Broadcasting Company, National Geographic, Nickelodeon, and the Sesame Workshop.

Current Perspectives is at 7 p.m., and UMKC's reception is from 5 to 8 p.m., so you can make both.

Friday, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art presents another installment of Electromediascope, and it's a big night for the West Bottoms, where Bill Brady opens his new gallery with East West Shift to the Middle (part #1); the Dolphin opens a group exhibition, I Aim Too High and a solo show by photographer Michael Sinclair, Public Domain; and Plug Projects hosts a mid-exhibition event for the evolving exhibition by Andrew Jacob Schnell, Multi-Channel: An Exhibition in Flux.

Please check back tomorrow for more details, (though you can find out most things with the links provided already).

Thursday & Saturday:

Sweet Art Reception
to honor the contributing artists and patrons of the 2012 Annual Art Auction
Refreshments, desserts and the opportunity to preview and bid on silent auction works or to place absentee bids or buy out works (should you be unable to attend Saturday's main event)
at Kansas City Artists Coalition, 201 Wyandotte Street, Kansas City, Missouri: 816-421-5222

Artist and Patron Reception: February 15, 7-10 p.m.
Tickets: $12.50 at the door; open to the public

Auction Night: February 18, doors open at 6 p.m. and starts the silent auction, which runs through 7:45 p.m.; the live auction begins at 8 p.m.
Tickets: $25; reserve seat tickets can be purchased for an additional $100

PS, All opinions here are my own, and no one edits this, so any errors are also solely mine. Corrections are appreciated: needsaneditor@gmail.com

Friday, February 10, 2012

TAC-KC: 02.10.12

Tracy's Art Calendar — Kansas City for February 10, 2012
Second Friday is Midtown Night

Nicolas Provost, Plot Point, video projection with sound (15 min.), 2007
Image: courtesy of the artist, via Kansas City Art Institute / H&R Block Artspace; may not be reproduced without permission

On Watch
six artists and an open-source project teamexploring surveillance: Jananne Al-Ani, Taysir Batniji, Hasan Elahi, Mark Lombardi, Nicolas Provost, and Ushahidi
at H&R Block Artspace, 16 East 43 Street, Kansas City, Missouri: 816-561-5563

Opening Reception: February 10, 6-9 p.m.
Open Tuesday-Friday: noon-5 p.m.; Saturday: 11 a.m.-5 p.m., through March 31, 2012
______

Troost Art Hop
Second Friday "Art Meets Green": art, live painting, music, spoken word, dance, and sustainability: a mixture of shops, arts, and community
generally located on Troost Avenue near 44th Street, Kansas City, Missouri; one site in particular is at 4332 Troost, Emerald City, where Linda Leonard shows 140x140 Project installation

Open February 10, 6-10 p.m.
______

Unearthed
Mark Cowardin and Michael Krueger
at Greenlease Gallery (on campus of Rockhurst University, between Van Ackeren and Sedgwick halls), 1100 Rockhurst Road (enter parking from Troost at 54th Street), Kansas City, Missouri: 816-501-4407
Opening Reception: February 10, 6:30-9 p.m., beginning with artists' talk
Open Thursday-Saturday: noon-5 p.m., through March 17, 2012
______

Saturday & Sunday:

The Sweet Life
Chandra DeBuse, Jana Evans, Jenny Gawronski, and Courtney Murphy
at Red Star Studios, inside Belger Arts Center, 2100 Walnut Street, Kansas City, Missouri: 816-474-7316

Valentine's Day Shopping: Sweetheart Saturday, February 11, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
Exhibition is open Wednesday-Friday: 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Saturday: 10 a.m.-4 p.m., through March 24, 2012
______

Great Art Needs Great Collectors
From Tom Deatherage, curator, offering special discounts on most work in his gallery: "February First Friday was flat …if you've ever been interested in any of these artists, now is a great time to add to your collection. Serious buyers only. This is not a party! Let's move some art from my walls to yours." Artists include Marci Aylward, Skip Bailey, John Davis Carroll, Jesse Christopher, Lori Raye Erickson, Davey Gant, Nora Othic, and others; also showing: the annual Valentine's Day show, Heartbreak, in the west gallery, and:

Devices and Desires
Featuring William Philyaw, with Paula Frankel, Doug Schwietert, and Colby K Smith
at The Late Show Gallery, 1600 Cherry Street, Kansas City, Missouri: 816-474-1300
Open special hours: February 10 & 11, 11 a.m.-6 p.m.
Open Wednesday-Saturday: 11 a.m.-6 p.m., (shows listed are through February 25, 2012)

PS, All opinions here are my own, and no one edits this, so any errors are also solely mine. Corrections are appreciated.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Following First Friday

Reaction to last night's short, select exhibition-seeing
Jonah Criswell, The Problem, oil on paper, 11"x13", 2011
Image: courtesy of the artist via curator Andrew Lyles; may not be reproduced without permission


Thanks to Alison, someone I know from her writing when I was at the magazine and from her role with a local gallery, I took up the prompt to download my impressions from the three exhibitions I visited last night. Read her thoughts at The Junk Revival; we went to two of the same shows, and I saw two others she didn't, and vice versa.

For me and my mate, it was west Crossroads only—and only the block of 18th and Wyandotte.

We went out early, as in 5 o'clock. Just off work, we Started at Spray Booth Gallery and had the luxury of being able to see every single piece (118) unobstructed and up close. The manipulated photocollage motif, as well as the rough, color-block abstract painting-type seemed to be repeated in a number of works. There were amid too many pieces overall to say that such styles dominated, of course, but I know they represent a trend to which I can't articulate any critical response: I do not see beauty, and sometimes I don't even see craft; I see Idea. I need more discussions with artists—or for you to point me to some articles/new books.

I do "get" the idea of sculptural installations made of pieced-together bits, I think—I enjoy the voice of cheer I feel in them and in their careful assembly: Cory Imig's yellow balloon taped to the wall under stripes of blue, Christina D. Prestidge's presentation of a little one of her acrylic, mylar, and monofilament creations, Matt Jacob's Spectrum of the rainbow's colors put together as a prisim wedge with the open end a masonry of white Tic Tac candies.

The 2D items I wished to purchase fall outside my current budget (Lee Piechocki, Caleb Taylor, Paul Anthony Smith, Waseem Touma, Gabrieila Castanedo, Nicholas Naughton, Ryan Haralson), and even Julia Icicle's crisp charming print, Time Flies like a Banana, at a mere $100, is beyond what I can afford at this time. To be honest, for a lot of us, employment these past four years has been rough!

That's a shame, though, because Andrew Lyles does a great job with that space—in the back of a bicycle shop—and I want him to be able to continue curating there. Maybe I can let the Visa bill linger a tiny bit longer to ensure he gets some money from me? I'm sure Julia wouldn't mind the receipt either. Kansas City artists have a well-worn refrain that selling here is difficult.

The list of "faves" above is not complete, please note, and even as I continue, it won't be: with 118 things to see, a great many of them deserve a critique.

Jonah Criswell's The Problem, pictured above, for example, was not for sale, but we were quite drawn to it. Julia Cole's attractive sculptural triptych All, Nothing, which is also a DIY instructional for carrying out a wish-making ritual, was likewise unpriced but drew me to covet it. The reason might have been the comforting framed presentation of the Job's Tears (coixseed), under glass and with what appeared to be embroidery. Textiles apparently attract me. (I sure could use a wish-come-true, too.)

Textiles: Until I had read through the whole exhibition list, it didn't occur to me that the low, footed ottoman in the middle of the floor was a work of art and not a mere "This is a French salon" prop. Of course it would be made by Ayla Rexroth, an artist and curator whose practice is built around hosting a gallery in her own living space, where works of visual art are "couched" amid furniture and the other quotidian elements of domestic life. And, it would be upholstered in a pleasing light blue fabric that made me fall in love: Alya always wears the most tasteful and put-together outfits. As long as it sounds like I'm gushing, I'll take a plunge further and mention that it's time to get tickets to the Subterranean Gallery's Hot Tub Dialogues series; the first installment is February 11, but it and the February 25th one are already sold out: your only chance is for February 18.

Next stop, across the street:

I am a big fan of Reilly Hoffman's work and of his artistic vision. Transfiguration of St. Bartholomew, when I saw it perched on the hill above Bartle Hall (when it was part of the 10th anniversary 2009 Avenue of the Arts), struck me with a power: tension and transformation, indeed. Since then, we've had some great little conversations about his work and process, and I was pleased that Todd Weiner's new gallery hosted a solo exhibition of Reilly's "fire-painted" metals.

His alms bowls in Alms Matara look as if some god had taken a little spoon and scooped out smooth patterns as easily as a person might etch out little paths in a bowl of ice cream. The marks are deliberate and vibrant. When you look directly at one of the concave discs hanging on the walls and dancing with dozens of light/shadows in all directions, you get the sense that the piece is still moving, that the patterns certainly can't be fixed in time but might come alive again and continue to transform. To me, artwork you literally could spend hours in front of, at a time and repeatedly throughout time, is successful. Seeing them all together tended to diminish them just a bit; there is a tendancy to feel that they are mere multiples while seeking to compare them to each other to detect the differences in the patterns. Each is hand-made individually, though, and the way some were created while being rotated, is evident and exciting to behold.

Reilly was not at the gallery yet, but Todd let me know that the discs are very manageable from a collection standpoint: the large ones weigh about 40 pounds, for example. As alms bowls, they rest equally well on table surfaces, and the presentation of them on solid, rough-hewn wooden ones is a very good choice. There was other furniture there, a tall, thin metal table crafted by painter Robert Quackenbush, who has been collaborating with Reilly for some time.

There were a few smaller angular works on this metal table and on another large table (or maybe flat file) a horizontal triangular set or single work that, I confess, I did not note the title of. It was relegated toward the back, and maybe there were things on the table when we first came in that distracted me.

We were early, after all. Todd did move the reception flowers a bit later, I noticed, and he shared a glimpse of his collection in the office (local artists like Davey Gant … and I forget, because I was being a "regular gallery person," not a journalist taking notes. There was a triptych video column of Richard Welnowski's images from Iceland). Suffice it to say that he's functioning like the Byron Cohen and Dolphin do, for example, in representing certain people, whose work you can see on hand at any time. The main gallery space has been cleanly closed off and built out to erase most reminders that this used to be the Cocoon Gallery of the Arts Incubator, and in the little hallway hang an accessible selection of original prints for sale, including 19th century hand-colored German etchings, as well as items of Dali, Miró, Calder, and other heavyweights.

My husband was tired from a long day of installing a vinyl wrap on a truck, so we headed back to the car instead of over to Baltimore Ave. The spider paintings I saw through the window at Apex Gallery (Crossroads Dentistry—another commercial+art promo combination), though, were too intriguing to pass up. Some of you may know a thing or two about my thing about spiders …

Keith Russell's Arachnévolution: Spiders and Stuff was a colorful experience. Not sure why his show title includes "stuff," for the other non-spider subjects are from his "made up faces" series: semi-grotesque bubbly folks with wide-awake eyes.

He's been painting spiders since his time at the Kansas City Art Institute (class of ‘08) and told me people used to bring him live spider models all the time. He paints from live/dead models and from photo books. His craft is fairly well developed in oils, and his technique is straightforward, no matter what surface he's using—aluminum, wood, or canvas.

The choice to find one subject and repeat it in a variety of forms (he does sculptural spiders, too) can be a pitfall, and unlike, say, Peregrine Honig's wispy watercolor-and-ink girls, Keith's spiders are not carrying a socio-political message. The painting titles do tend to express that his spiders are other-worldly, almost spiritual. Spiders, of course, have long figured in Greek, Native American, and other cultural cosmologies.

Their role in life as a somewhat creepy necessity, as artists who spin technical and beautiful webs, as a predator that, in some cases, can inflict deadly wounds to us personally, and as a creature whose secreted product is among the lightest yet strongest material on earth demonstrates that the arachnid is a push-pull of light and dark elements, and powerful.

A deep subject after all. My favorite painting was, Keith told me, his very latest: a vertical composition in mostly whites, with the spider folded up into a triangle, head-down, descending as that one kind of fattish spider does from a thread—but dropping toward a blueish black opening almost like a vortex or surreal portal amid misty clouds.

He had one work there made back in 2009, and I could tell his paint-handling ability, though quite good then, is continuing to grow. I look forward to seeing where the "spirit-spider" goes.

The back part of the space was hung with large paintings by J.T. Daniels, mostly striking portraits (which are not represented on his site) of black men and women; they are very visceral and communicate clearly what I imagine to be real people's personalities, in posed moments that are not really poses, because you have the sense that the same gestures are frequently repeated elements of their geniune character. It was like walking in on a conversation but being held mute by the reality that, after all, these are paintings, and to talk to them literally, you would have to be a bit touched in the head.

That was our night; even at 6:30, Crossroads looked a bit deserted, but I heard from others that things picked up later on. Snow & Company, on that same block of Wyandotte, was absolutely packed. Who would have thought that frozen adult beverages would be so popular on a chilly rainy night?
______

Notes in addition to the usual PS, All opinions here are my own, and no one edits this, so any errors are also solely mine. Corrections are appreciated:

Since I'm likely considered a "blogger" and not operating under a sanctioned publication, I did not include Alison's last name or places of employment, since her site does not, even though on Facebook, where I first saw her link to her First Friday post, obviously, we all know who we are.

The discussion about what "is" a journalist and what private information is fair to share is one that will never end. Let's talk about it sometime?

I make no bones about the fact that I am not really an art critic; I have been a writer my entire life, and I have a long history of viewing art in the Kansas City area, as well as a long history of being a writing instructor and editor. I did spend a few semesters in art history classes at UMKC in the not-too-distant past. This is not really "a review."

I am well aware that some sentences I choose to write are indeed SENTENCE FRAGMENTS. Shudder. As a respected professor once told us, you can break the rules when you know them.

RE: Peregrine—yes, she does much more than paint images of distraught or maligned young women. You know I know that; I was just using that as a springboard example : )

If you know of any artists/places above who do, in fact, have a web presense to link to, I'd be glad to know. I do my best to search.

This post is mad-long, and anyone who actually read the whole thing is a better person than I.



Friday, February 3, 2012

TAC-KC: 02.03.12

Tracy's Art Calendar — Kansas City for February 3, 2012
First Friday in the Crossroads



Lee Piechocki,  No One Would Survive The Foolish Prank, oil enamel, acrylic panel, 14"x11", 2012, part of the XOXO salon show at Spray Booth Gallery, with 118 works.
Image: courtesy of the artist via curator Andrew Lyles; may not be reproduced without permission

It's raining. That never stopped us before. Admittedly, I was out far too late last night with the folks from Art Practical, their hosts, and other artists/arts professionals, and my former "life skill" of not being able to go to sleep at a reasonable hour when I get home at midnight or 2 or 5 a.m. kicked in.

Someone recently said that, "There are plenty of art calendars, and no one needs another one." Someone else also recently said that, "If only there were a single trusted site to learn about everything going on [in arts] …."

True, Alice Thorson's First Friday article that came out Wednesday in The Kansas City Star is more or less comprehensive. True, Review magazine (online) had the most visual and even more inclusive calendar every Friday but perhaps was not marketed as well as it could have been.

Regardless, these are the places I personally know about and aim to go to tonight (given time and transport; albeit walking from Mattie Rhodes to Plenum is quite the hike, even if one doesn't stop to see anything along the way or talk to anyone; I have already seen a couple of the shows, and Saturday is a great time to catch up, too):

Alms Matara
offerings of iron and breath by Reilly Hoffman
at Todd Weiner Gallery, 115 West 18th Street, Ground Floor, Kansas City, Missouri: 816-984-8538

Opening Reception First Friday: February 3, 5-10 p.m.
(Artist's presentation was February 2, 6-9 p.m.; apologies for missing that!)
Open Wednesday-Friday: 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m.; Saturday: 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
______

Arachnévolution: Spiders and Stuff
paintings by Keith Russell
at Apex Gallery, 1819 Wyandotte Street, Kansas City, Missouri: 816-841-0206

Opening Reception First Friday: February 3, 6-9 p.m.
Second Reception First Friday: March 2, 6-9 p.m.
Open during Crossroads Dentisty business hours, though March 30, 2012
______

Beauty Under Scrutiny

Stephanie Diani
at Leedy-Voulkos Art Center, 2012 Baltimore Avenue, Kansas City, Missouri: 816-474-1919
Open First Friday: February 3, 6-9 p.m.
Open Thursday-Saturday: 11 a.m.-5 p.m., through February 25, 2012

Below the Surface

Steve Gorman
at Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art, 2004 Baltimore Avenue, Kansas City, Missouri: 816-221-2626

Open First Friday: February 3, 7-9 p.m.
Open Tuesday-Saturday: 11 a.m.-5 p.m., through February 25, 2012
______

Earth: Language and Symbols
Rex Hausmann and Jimmy Greenfield, with "Artists in Resonnance" Gina Adams, TR Ericsson, Matthew Farley, Jane Flanders, John Hachmeister, Elden Tefft, Maria Velasco, Baruch Vergara, and Shannon White; curated by Darin M. White
at Cara and Cabezas Contemporary, 1714 Holmes Street, Kansas City, Missouri

Open First Friday: 6-9 p.m.; Saturday: 11 a.m.-5 p.m., through March 10, 2012
______

The Power of Intention
A series of spatially engaging portraits and interactive sculpture by Maria Calderon; opening night, expect an Energetic Ceremony, Messengers of Light, and full sensory awareness stations: Stephen Bushman (handmade chai), Maria Calderon (root/herbal medicinal tea), Pedro Calderon (improvisational Andean pan flute), Dalton Carter and Jim Button (astrological sash distribution), and Lacey Wozny (Palo Santo smoke immersions), with live music also by Andean Express
at Mattie Rhodes Art Center and Gallery, 919 West 17th Street, Kansas City, Missouri: 816-221-2349

Opening Reception and Performances First Friday: February 3, 2012, 6-9 p.m.
Closing Reception Ceremony: February 24, 6-9 p.m.
Open: Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturday: 10 a.m.-4 p.m., through February 24, 2012
______
 

Eric Fertman: Here's Your Hat, What's Your Hurry?
at Kemper in the Crossroads, 33 West 19th Street, Kansas City, Missouri: 816-753-5784

Opening First Friday: February 3, 6-10 p.m., with the artist until 8 p.m.
Artist's Talk: February 4, 2 p.m.

Open Friday: noon-8 p.m., Saturday: noon-6 p.m., thorugh July 28, 2012
______

Graphic
large-scale drawings and prints by Jim Sajovic
at Leedy-Voulkos Art Center, 2012 Baltimore Avenue, Kansas City, Missouri: 816-474-1919

Opening First Friday: February 3, 2012
Open Thursday-Saturday: 11 a.m.-5 p.m., through February 25, 2012
______

Handmade
Sara Cramer
at Plenum Space, 504 East 18th Street, Second Floor, Kansas City, Missouri: 913-963-7411

Open First Friday: February 3, 6-10 p.m.
Open by appointment, through February 24, 2012
______

High Seas, Low Planes

an installation by Ari Fish intended to serve as "a 'temporary temple,' a sacred space for people of all kinds to congregate. Groups and individuals are invited and encouraged to use the space as they wish, including for such activities as a class, performance, sermon, meditation, spiritual practice, ritual, or conversation." More information from the Charlotte Street Foundation, which runs this space is here.
at La Esquina, 1000 West 25 Street, Kansas City, Missouri:

Opening Reception First Friday: February 3, 2012, 6-9 p.m.
Open Friday-Sunday: noon-6 p.m., through March 10, 2012
______

Made and Connected

new work by Garry Noland, in memory of Louis Cicitello (1940-2011)
at City Arts Project, 2015 Campbell Street, Kansas City, Missouri: 816-820-4105

Open First Friday: February 3, 6-9 p.m.; Thursday-Saturday: noon-5 p.m., thorugh February 18, 2012
Also featuring a pop shop and work by La Cucaracha Press (including Peregrine Honig's poster for this year's annual Valentine's Day ball)
______

I am an Indian First and an Artist Second

Tom Jones
at Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art, 2004 Baltimore Avenue, Kansas City, Missouri: 816-221-2626

Open First Friday: February 3, 7-9 p.m.
Open Tuesday-Saturday: 11 a.m.-5 p.m., through February 25, 2012
______

The Mind's Eye: Landscapes from the Belger Collection

2D and 3D work in many media from American aritsts spanning the 1970s to 2010
at the Belger Arts Center, 2100 Walnut Street, Kansas City, Missouri: 816-474-3250

Opening First Friday: February 3, 10 a.m.-9 p.m.
Open Wednesday-Friday: 10 a.m.-4 p.m.; Saturday: noon-4 p.m., through April 6, 2012

also:
For Some Must Watch, While Some Must Sleep, So Runs the World Away
Extended through March 2, 2012 
______

Often, All that Remains

Jane Deschner
at Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art, 2004 Baltimore Avenue, Kansas City, Missouri: 816-221-2626

Open First Friday: February 3, 7-9 p.m.
Open Tuesday-Saturday: 11 a.m.-5 p.m., through February 25, 2012
______

Open Studios

work by Carlos Duarte, Jason Meara, Jason Sierra, and Doc Snyder
at Blue Dijin Gallery, 1400 Union Avenue, Kansas City, Missouri: 816-518-4649

Open First Friday: February 3, 7-10 p.m.
______

Studios: 2011

Barry Anderson, Julie Farstad, Andrea Flamini, Archie Scott Gobber, Marcie Miller Gross, Diana Heise, Beniah Leuschke, Dylan Mortimer, Garry Noland, Colby K Smith, Peter Warren, Davin Watne, and James Woodfill

at The Studios, Inc. 1708 Campbell Street (entrance on 17th), Kansas City, Missouri: 816-994-7134

Open First Friday: February 3, 6-9 p.m.
Open Tuesday-Friday: 10 a.m.-4 p.m.; Saturday: noon-4 p.m., through February 17, 2012
______

XOXO
A salon-style exhibition and benefit including work by the following artists (arranged alphabetically by first name instead of last, due to time constraints): Aaron Storck, Ah-ram Park, Alexandra Phillips, Alli Litwicki, Amanda Bowles, Amanda Gehin, Amanda Martinez, Andrew Erdrich, Anne Pearce, Annie Woodfill, Anthony Baab, Ashley Lugo, Ayla Rexroth, Blake Sidebottom, Brandon Briscoe, Brett Ginsburg, Brian Henkel, Calder Kamin, Chloe Mann, Chris Thomas, Christian Velasquez, Christina Dostaler, Christopher –Daharsh, Chuong Doan, Clayton Skidmore, Cody Gurley, Colleen Burner, Colleen Lucas, Cory Imig, Craig DeMoss, Cydney Ross, Daniel Reneau, David Rhoads, Dean Roper, Derek Combs, Diane Henk, Dusty Colyer, Emma Green, Eric Persson, Eric Wolever, Erica Mahinay, Erica Peterson, Erika Hanson, Evan Davies, Fred Byrd, Frederick Vorder-Bruegge, Gabrielle Costello, Hannah Lodwick, Heather Day, Jaclyn Senne, James Woodfill, Jane Sheldon, Jason Carron, Jay Canty, Jeff Schwenk, Jessica Dassing, Jonah Criswell, Julia Cole, Julia Icicle, Julie Lehenbauer, Julie Malen, Justin Beachler, Kahlil Irving, Kate Clements, Kate Ford, Kate Smithson, Katherine Novotny, Kelly Clark, Krystal Kuhn, Lee Piechocki, Leila Jean, Leslie Kinsman, Lexi Janezic, Lindsay Fernandez, Lindsay Iliene, Luke Firle, Madeline Gallucci, Marie Dougherty, Mary O’Brien, Matt Jacobs, Matteus Leonhard, Max Crutcher, Micah Lidberg, Misty Gamble, Molly Kaderka, Molly Ryan, Neil Thrun, Nicholas Naughton, Paul Anthony-Smith, Peter Granados, Philip Wilkerson, Rachel Gregor, Rachel Rolon, Rhiannon Birdsall, Ricky Allman, Roberto Lugo, Ronald Slowinski, Ruben Castillo, Ryan Haralson, Ryan Lawrence, Sarah Hazelwood, Sean Blott, Sean M. Starowitz, Stephen Proski, Stuart Scott Smith, Sunny Stanila, Terry L. Campbell, Todd Christiansen, Waseem Touma, Will Meier, and Zoë Pedziwiatr
at Spray Booth Gallery, 130 West Wyandotte Street, Kansas City, Missouri: 816-471-5555 (inside Volker Bicycles)

Opening Reception First Friday: February 3, 6-10 p.m.
Open Tuesday-Friday: noon-6 p.m.; Saturday: 10 a.m.-4 p.m., through March 17, 2012
______

On Saturday (when most of these galleries are open, too, if you would like to see the artwork sans crowds; other Saturday events are above with respective exhibitions):


Black Thorns in the White Cube

Alexander Binder, Vincent Como, Terence Hannum, Karlynn Holland, Elodie Lesourd, Aaron Metté, Grant Willing, and Tereza Zelenkova; curated by Amelia Ishmael
at Paragraph Gallery, 23 East 12th Street, Kansas City, Missouri: 816-221-5115

Public Collectors: February 4, 2 p.m. "Join us for an informal meeting in the gallery between metal lovers, collectors, and the curious. Our guests will include Metal archivist/scholar Brian Hickam (Assistant Director of Library Services at Benedictine University) and Metal & Gender scholar Amber Clifford-Napoleone (from the Anthropology Department at the University of Central Missouri). Bring stuff to share!"

(This exhibition will reopen at Western Exhibition afterward, in Chicago)
Open Wednesday, Friday, Saturday: noon-5 p.m.; Thursday: 11 a.m.-6 p.m., through March 3, 2012

PS, All opinions here are my own, and no one edits this, so any errors are also solely mine. Corrections are appreciated.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

TAC-KC: 02.02.12

Tracy's Art Calendar — Kansas City for February 2, 2012
San Francisco's online arts magazine is in town


Installation and mural at KCAI during the May, 2011 end-of-semester show/sale, on south-facing wall of sculpture department building; artist unknown (but I would like to know and be able to credit the work, if possible).
Image: photo by author

This evening, the typical Thursday visiting artists' presentation at KCAI has a different spin. Thanks to Rocket Grants (Warhol Foundation money managed locally by Charlotte Street Foundation and The Spencer Museum of Art at KU), Art Practical is presenting a public forum.

Loosed of Limits and Imaginary Lines is at 7 p.m. in the Epperson Auditorium (in Vanderslice Hall) on the main campus of the Kansas City Art Institute, 4415 Warwick Boulevard. Join the conversation.

Art Practical is a Bay Area-based online journal for visual arts criticism, and its director, Patricia Maloney; senior editor, Victoria Gannon; and contributors, Christian L. Frock and Elyse Mallouk are visiting Kansas City to gather material for their March 1st issue.

From Rocket Grant's blog:

They invite artists, arts professionals, and art students to join them in a lively public discussion about the unique ways our community invites artists and audiences to consider public spaces as sites for individual actions, as well as where we find points of commonality with issues and practices across the country and around the world.

You should come and talk about how we (and artists and arts professionals) reflect the culture we're in. Art Practical is also inviting us to contribute Shotgun Reviews to their March issue. Are you in?

Naturally, I'm specifically interested in these two questions they pose:

1. "How do we intervene in public space, with or without permission?"
2. "Are there regional differences in ideas around public space and what defines art?"

Get more details about the forum by clicking Rocket Grant above.

PS, All opinions here are my own, and no one edits this, so any errors are also solely mine. Corrections are appreciated.