Review

Valerie Doran Bashaw, "Autumn," detail from panel, part of "Four Seasons," resist-dyed silk, assembled, top-quilted, stretched; Bashaw is the featured artist for December's Kansas City, Kansas, Second Friday Art Walk at Kaw Valley Arts & Humanities. Bashaw holds a master's degree in fine arts from the University of Michigan and teaches at Accessible Arts, the Kansas School for the Blind, Barstow School and ARTichokes Gallery. Her new series of work revolves around themes of weather — thunderstorms, sunshine, and other aspects. Of her work, the artist says, "I am also showing a variety of mixed media collages. These pieces tend to be quiet, reflective, a place to rest in an overwhelmingly busy world. Take a deep breath, sit for a moment, and enjoy.” Image and quoted text: courtesy of the artist and gallery

Jessica Owings, "Go there, closer," graphite drawing, 6" x 11", 2009, is part of "Proximity," one of three solo exhibitions opening at the Kansas City Artists Coalition December 11. Also featured are Thomas Swanson and Piotr Chizinski, the latter of whom is giving a talk December 10 at the gallery about his experiences in Germany through the Lighton International Artists Exchange Program. Image: courtesy of the artist

Kendra Marable, from "What Remains to be Seen," a solo exhibition opening December 12 at Wonder Fair Art Gallery in Lawrence, Kansas. Marable holds an MFA from the University of Kansas and collects cabinet card photographs and daguerreotypes from the late 1800s that offer, she says, few clues of personal identity. Her mixed-media works offer speculation and invention to the lives portrayed. She says, "I am moved by the way that found objects resonate, carrying messages and traces from other worlds or realms within them. I am the medium, setting the stage for stories and secrets to unravel, unfold, and reveal. Perfume bottles, bird nests, broken toys, religious icons, rusty spoons, feathers and teeth settle in together allowing their meaning to shift within the poetry of relation. I apply layers of paint, wallpaper, dirt, sequins and pigment to suggest the possibility that these things have lived before; perhaps now being rediscovered in an attic, basement or garage.… By collecting the experience and the evidence, I become both the collector, and the collection — accumulating what remains to be seen." Image and quoted text: courtesy of the gallery

Joshua Hoffine, "Hands", limited edition archival print, 24" x 26", is among his horror photography featured at Mercy Seat Gallery and opening December 11. Hoffine's work has been published in The London Times, Rue Morgue and the Russian version of Playboy. He states: "I believe that the horror story is ultimately concerned with the imminence and randomness of death, and the implication that there is no certainty to existence. The experience of horror resides in this confrontation with uncertainty. Horror tells us that our belief in security is delusional, and that the monsters are all around us." Image and quoted text: courtesy of the artist and gallery

A new exhibition of work chosen by volunteers of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art opens December 11 and features work by Leslie Dill, Bruce Nauman, Louise Nevelson, Wayne Thiebaud and others, chosen from the collection. A photograph by Diana Blok, "Portrait of My Mother and Father," for example, has never been on view. The Museum relies on its volunteers to provide educational tours and programming and assist with museum administration. About 30 chose nearly 50 works and offered personal stories for the wall tags, intended to inspire conversation. Veteran docent Jill Norden selected this sculpture because of its dichotomies. She writes that she likes how "Lucero has combined old with new (the head is pre-Columbian), found and fabricated, sculpture with painting, abstraction and realism, black and white and color.” Image: Michael Lucero, "Anthropomorphic Form with Hen," from "Reclamation;" white earthenware, glazes, pre-Columbian head, 15" x 13" x 7 1/2", 1997; Collection of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Bebe and Crosby Kemper Collection, Gift of the Enid and Crosby Kemper Foundation, 1997

Robert Quackenbush, "Help Me!," 6" x 9", limited edition print of 20 (five artist's proofs), 2008, is part of the 15-year retrospective exhibition of prints (21) by members of Hand Print Press, opening with a reception at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art on December 11. Professor Craig A. Subler, teaching artist at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, will give a lecture about the work at 7 p.m. in the Hudson Auditorium at the museum. Image: courtesy of the artist

Joanne Schiller, "Nature Calls," acrylic on canvas, 24" x 38", 2008, is in the group exhibition, "The Coffee Show," at S2 Studios, where Kansas City, Kansas-area artists gather Friday mornings for coffee and conversation about the arts. Image: courtesy of the gallery and artist

Deana Winter, "Industrial Beauty," is part of a solo exhibition of work from "Delicate Manufacturing," which opens December 10 with a public reception at Gould Evans Associates. The architecture firm in Westport uses the unique layout of its offices to host visual art. Winter says that her works' inspiration comes from her surroundings — from the overall skyline to the geometrical shapes of buildings. She is inspired by the way they rise up from gridded streets and sometimes display oxidized copper roof tops. "I am partial to utilizing nature's own elements in my work," she says. Winter is a native of Lincoln, Nebraska, who has lived in Kansas City since attending the Kansas City Art Institute (where she received her fine arts degree in fiber in 1998). Image and quoted text/information: courtesy of the gallery

Joel Schlotterer, "Massuko," oil on panel, 24" x 24", 2003, is part of a group of more than 30 of his paintings and other works from 2001 to 2008 featured at the Czar Bar and Bulldog Bar & Grill during the month of December. Image: courtesy of the artist