Review

Rachel Epp Buller, "Family Quilt," relief print / montage with hand stitching, approximately 34" x 45", is part of "Expanded Identities" opening January 8 at the INKubator Press in the Crossroads. Dr. Buller is a contributor to Review and "is a feminist-art historian-printmaker-mama of three whose recent art and scholarship examine this balancing act. She returned to printmaking in 2007 after a ten-year hiatus and through her prints seeks to define some overlap between her personal and professional worlds. She has lectured and published widely on issues of motherhood and the maternal body in contemporary art. " He art writing and criticism has appeared in several publications, and she currently teaches at Bethel College in North Newton, Kansas. Image and quoted text: courtesy of the artist

Tanya Hartman, "Prayer Paddle #3 (To Accept Mortality)," (front and back views), wood, wire, fabric, oil paint and collage, 11.5" x 6.75" x 3/4", 2008, is featured in "Rhyming the Lines," opening at Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art January 8, along with work by Cindy Kane. "Hartman’s grandparents were Jews forced from Germany during the Second World War who spent their lives in permanent nostalgia for their lost homeland. Just as her family had to put various cultural traditions together to create a sense of home, Tanya Hartman has combined the expansive possibilities inherent in oil painting with less traditional techniques to create her own artistic sense of place. Hartman’s art practice mirrors her spirited life and is sustained by her dedication, intelligence, imagination and belief in the power of art." Image and quoted text: courtesy of the gallery

Cindy Kane , "The Helmet Project, " installation view, a version of which opens at Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art January 8, along with work by Tanya Hartman. About the project: "In 2007, Kane began work on 'The Helmet Project' that evolved as a natural progression of her respect for journalists and the desire to create a visual tribute to their work. Kane envisioned a memorial monument created by an installation circle of 50 used steel military helmets, suspended, floating in space, each a stand-in portrait for a specific journalist. She invited journalists who had covered conflicts from WWII to Iraq to collaborate with her and they mostly agreed, generously sending her their handwritten notes and travel artifacts. Kane in turn collaged these evocative materials onto used military helmets and layered on her painting practice, transforming each helmet from sorrowful reminder to intimate precious object, a relic. In the process Kane changed the ephemera of travel detritus into poignant conceptual portraits of individual writers and created an encircling community of journalism itself. The visual impact of 'The Helmet Project' brings home the reality of danger, risk and vulnerability that each of these individual journalists has experienced and the remarkable lives that they have led." Image and quoted text: courtesy of the gallery

Lesley Dill, "Homage to N.S.," photolithograph, screen print and etching, 34" x 34" 1997, is part of "The Strange Experience of Beauty" opening January 8 at the Byron Cohen gallery in the Crossroads. The artist states: Radiance is a fierce word for me, not a soft one. When we breathe and when we speak we divide light. Speech is given out of our mouths and off of our bodies as a kind of radiance. These human rays of targeted meaning reach out and allow for a separation of the physical luminous heat. Radiance implies a concentration of energy in an object, or person, that by nature of its intensity must fling out, must expand so it is discernible as deserving this word. I find I think or say this to myself a few times a day." Image and quoted text: courtesy of the gallery

John Nelson is featured in the "Ark of Friends: a Look at Outsider Art" exhibition at the 6th Street Gallery at the YWCA of Greater Kansas City in Kansas City, Kansas, open January 8 for Second Friday Art Walk and Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Ark of Friends board member and artist Jennifer Field, organized the exhibition and provided canvases to visitors to the Ark of Friends drop-in-center (4245 Walnut St., Kansas City, Missouri). Established five years ago, the non-profit center’s mission is to "provide education, support and advocacy for people with severe or persistent mental illness. Mental health consumers who attend the drop in center have the opportunity to focus on wellness and recovery. Ark of Friends is an ideal setting for people to relax, listen to music, attend group discussions and create art." Image and quoted text: courtesy of the gallery

Pamela Scott's digital images on tile are part of a three-person exhibition at Kaw Valley Arts & Humanities, open for Second Friday Art Walk January 8. Other artists included are Antonette Nicoterra and Ron Smith. Image: courtesy of the gallery

Diane DeMint's work is part of the "New Vibrations in 2010" Wyandot Art Association exhibition at Lacey Lewis's Red Door Studio in Kansas City, Kansas, January 8. The Second Friday Art Walk show includes an open meeting and the work of Marie Bohndorf, Jan Kobe, Ada Mahmud, George E. Morris, Betty Selbe and Donna Suther. "The Wyandot Art Association is a non-profit organization founded July 8, 1965 by a small group of local artists who share common interests and goals in the Kansas City area. Today, the Association operates on the same premise with emphasis on promoting fine art and to encourage the individual artist, while advancing visual arts in general." Image and quoted text: courtesy of Wyandot Art Association

Aileen Chong, "Barrido del Fuego," oil and mixed media on canvas, 48" x 60". The artist states: "My background as a female Chinese Peruvian growing up in Long Island, New York, has played a significant role in my body of work. The experience of these multi-cultural dichotomies and its customs and traditions with the values of American life brought a fractured sense of identity. The question of which side I identify with more has been a recurring issue. The majority of my grandparents are from China, but I identify with Peruvian customs and Spanish was the primary language spoken while growing up. Outside the household, expectations of dominant American culture built a divergent sense of self. My comfort level alters with certain situations that I am faced with and I find resolution in my work. Through my paintings, I am able to communicate a visual representation of my thoughts and feelings." Image and quoted text: courtesy of Blue Gallery

April Marie Mai, from "Internal Documents," opening January 9, with a reception from 6 to 9 p.m., at the Writer's Place in Kansas City. This exhibition is "an intimate look at information normally intended to remain personal or in limited circulation. This display of over thirty books shows the variability of the medium; from notations and listings of daily events, doodles, preparatory drawings for future projects and inner explorations into the human psyche. The sketchbooks, journals and diaries in the exhibition have been hung butterflied, allowing visitors to peek at two pages a week." Other participating artists include Stephen Bushman, Joe Bussell, Cori O’Connell, Greg Crawford, Sharon Eiker, Lynley Farris, Anne Gagel, Colleen Maynard, J. D. McGuire, Lisa Jacobs, Sonja Benskin Mesher, Samantha Persons, Sean Semones, Mikey Shultz, Daniel Spottswood, and Allen Winkler. Image and quoted text: courtesy of the curator