Review

"Cageless Cage Match," Acrylic and Ink on Canvas

Ricky Allman

11 a.m.-5 p.m.

Byron C. Cohen Gallery For Contemporary Art
2020 Baltimore
Kansas City, MO
816.421.5665

Hours: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursday-Saturday
Runs through: Feb. 28

Artist's site: http://www.rickyallman.com
Gallery site: http://www.byroncohengallery.com

Ricky Allman seems like a cheerful guy. Maybe that's why the end of the world, as he paints it, is so much fun.

Allman, an assistant professor at Missouri-Kansas City, doesn't really believe we're about to sail the planet off the edge of the map. But with all the turmoil going on these days, he can understand how it might seem like the Apocalypse.

This is an excerpt from his statement for this untitled show, which can be found in the Cohen's Upper Gallery:

...the idea that everything we know about our life as it is right now can dramatically and cataclysmically change in an instant is undeniably fascinating. We can't escape the doom and gloom in the news right now but in many ways we are also at an extremely exciting point in time. We live in a world of extremes and that is irresistible.

You might recognize We Will Never Feel the Same Again (also in this show) as the cover art for the October 2008 Review. 

For all of his art, Allman draws on the landscapes and architecture of his native Utah and the End Times urgency of the Mormon faith in which he was raised. He plays those elements against incongruous geometric shapes and a a brighter color scheme than one might expect.

There's a lot of black, yes, but a lot of hot pink as well. That all fits with Allman's view of the perils and possibilities of this first decade of the new millennium. The picture, on canvas and off, is simultaneously dark and glowing with possibility.

The Byron C. Cohen Gallery, which is also showing works by Grant Miller (in the Lower Gallery) and Linnea Spransey (in the hallway) through February, has been a mainstay of the Crossroads art scene for 15 years. Founder Byron Cohen looks for regional artists he believes  are poised for national prominence. Given that Wallpaper magazine put Allman on its list of 110 MFA graduates to watch in 2008, Cohen isn't alone in his assessment.

Assuming the world doesn't end before then, that is.

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