Review

A review of Sorry for the Miscommunication: A carnivale of dialogue between artists and the public

"Sorry for the Miscommunication" included a film response to SOLVE's story by Kansas City filmmaker Lisa Marie Evans (above; projected during the opening April 3) and a portable mural created by Kansas City artists including Lori Raye Erickson, Héctor Casanova, Adrian Halpern, Sha9agin, Matt Lou Ruzich, Noah Moore, Jeremy McConnell, and Jessica Manco, and Chicago artists. A discussion of the influence and importance of street art is planned for tomorrow's Walt Bodine Show on KCUR, and on Saturday afternoon, documenter and author of "Spraycan Art," Jim Prigoff is joined again by Kansas City artists and others for a keynote presentation — "Museum of the Streets" — and public dialogue at the Leedy-Voulkos Art Center. Photo: T. Abeln. Click the image to see more photos from April 3 and "Sorry for the Miscommunication" by Cara LeFebvre.

by Cara LeFebvre

First Friday in April brought a celebration to Baltimore Avenue. Held at both Third Eye Productions and the Leedy-Voulkos Art Center, it was produced by local artist Nicole Emanuel and composed of over two-dozen artists from Kansas City, Chicago, California, and Wisconsin. Emanuel describes Sorry for the Miscommunication as a show that “reveals and explores our inner and outer dialogues as a bridge across the gaps between divergent social constructions: street artists, fine artists, visual artists, the viewer, consumer, and the public.”

The show and exhibitions originated in memory of Brendan "SOLVE" Scanlon, a Chicago-based street artist and graphic designer, who, at a party last year (in Chicago) was stabbed in the heart and killed. Scanlon is Emmanuel's nephew, and in January of 2009, the Country Club Gallery in Chicago held a memorial show titled, Who is SOLVE? It was sponsored by the American Institute of Graphic Design and organized by students and artists from the Illinois Institute of Art in Chicago. After this Kansas City exposure, Emanuel is hoping to take the show on tour, to Wisconsin, where SOLVE was born.

At the opening and carnivale, outside of Third Eye Productions Gallery a group of boys in flannel and cutoffs were playing music. When I asked how they heard about the show, the one on the left, Rick Hibbert, said they were a traveling group from Nashville, Tennessee, and that “Some random dude at a street corner yelled ‘Come down here, there’s a bunch of folk bands playing!’”

The connection between artists, art, and  audience seems to be changing now. Artists are working for a more visceral need of communication. It is no longer just the art and the gallery — rather it the art, the artist, the community, and the gallery that make up the space together in which everyone creates and shares.

Kenrick Thompson, a break-dancer from Jamaica, told me “The Kansas City art scene is beautiful the way people bring things. I am here, just bringing another form of art, showing different techniques. I appreciate it around here.”

It’s a different thing to show art in the streets than in your home, in a gallery, or on Facebook. In the street, people talk to each other, especially in Kansas City. It’s OK to introduce yourself in 10-inch heels from Cirilla’s. And it’s encouraged to get a group of strangers together to draw on someone’s car. The scene that night cultivated an environment for introductions and first impressions. Everything meshed together and became one again. The myriad of invited artists included Swiv, Tiptoe, Thomas Woodward, Héctor Casanova, Jason the Performer, DJ Leo Night Us, the KC Roller Warriors, Danny Staton, KC Chalk & Walk, Chris Doolittle, Usborne Books, Myrna Minnis, and many others. -re-

Upcoming related events:

On Saturday, April 25, from 1 to 3 p.m., a public discussion forum will be held at the Leedy-Voulkos Art Center, 2012 Baltimore Avenue. The Master of Ceremonies will be Glen North, spoken word artist from the Kansas City Jazz Museum. Jim Prigoff, world renown author, will be giving a lecture titled, “Museum of the Streets: The History of International Street Art.” Author and community organizer, Arlene Goldbard, will kick off the discussion with a lecture about the role of arts in the economy. The panel is composed of Kansas City artist David Ford, Director of the Mattie Rhodes Art Center Jenny Mendez, and arts activist and father of the late Brendan "SOLVE" Scanlon, Bill Scanlon. The forum welcomes and encourages the public to discuss issues such as sanctioned and unsanctioned art, the avant-garde, and the establishment.

A preview of the discussion about street art will be part of the Walt Bodine Show tomorrow on KCUR 89.3 FM (Wednesday, April 22, from 10 to 11 a.m.): Prigoff (via telephone from Sacramento, California) will be joined  in the studios by Gear, a Kansas City-based graffiti writer and artist who curated the work for Sorry for the Miscommunication at Third Eye Productions Gallery.

To continue the Sorry for the Miscommunication exhibition at Leedy-Voulkos Art Center, on the next First Friday in the Crossroads, May 1st, from 6 to 9 p.m., students from the Shawnee Mission school district will be presenting Avant Garb. The student fashion designers and models will be showcasing their designs on a catwalk made of crime scene tape. The DJ for the fashion show will be DJ Leo Night Us, who made an excellent impression at Third Eye Productions at the exhibition's opening in April.

Learn more:

See Brendan talking about street art and his involvement with it on YouTube, or see his photos at Flickr.