Review

"Print 10", Print Collage.

Steph Toth Kates
Suspended Narratives: Stories in Oil and Silk

11 a.m.-4 p.m.

Beggars Table Church & Gallery
2009 Baltimore
Kansas City, MO
913.558.9039

Hours: 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday
Runs through: Dec. 31.

Artist's site: http://www.stephtothkates.com
Gallery site: http://www.beggarstablechurch.org

Ordinarily, you wouldn't expect to find pictures of  marine invertebrates in the sanctuary of a church. But when the church in question is the Crossroads' Beggars Table Church & Gallery, it makes much more sense.

Steph Toth Kates' portion of the Suspended Narratives: Stories in Oil and Silk show, which she shares with silk artist Christy L. Berry, is largely -- but not entirely -- given over to repeated motifs of aquatic life, both flora and fauna. (Kates is the "oil" -- and printmaking -- half.) Jellyfish are frequent subjects, as in the print collage above.

The out-of-water pieces are no less organic in construction or feeling, however. They share the same sense of fluidity and motion as the aquatic works. 

Kates has given the "suspended" part of Suspended Narratives more than one layer of meaning: Her central images appear suspended not only in water (or another liquid medium -- she'll explain below), but also in the middle of some significant action.

In my current work I am creating body mythologies, Kates writes. Throughout time humans have developed myths seeking to make sense of a confusing universe. My paintings also seek to do this but on a more intimate level. They are interior landscapes – that delve into remote inner corners where body and consciousness combine.

Her creatures, then, swim the interior oceans of the body -- which, after all, is mostly seawater.

I am exploring ideas of the body as a universe and a home, she writes. Inhabiting this inner expanse are animals familiar from children's storybooks, cells, veins and neurons lifted from medical diagrams, and insects and plants gathered from backyards. In the tradition of Greek pottery painting, I capture my stories in the midst of unfolding. The paintings speak of creation, processes and growth.

And because Kates incorporates familiar elements into her stories, the painted and printed narratives -- while still conveying her private vision -- become more accessible to all.

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