Review

Kansas City, Lawrence, Wichita, Paola, Omaha, Oklahoma City

Fourth Friday might make you wish you could be in three cities at once. Mel Chin is in Lawrence this weekend with his Fundred Dollar Bill Project (then pops over to Wichita on Monday; the Ulrich Museum opens a new Gordon Parks exhibition on Saturday, too). Signs of Life Gallery (more images here) opens a new group exhibition Friday night (more Lawrence), while up in Omaha at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, a group exhibition featuring some Kansas City artists opens alongside Review Studios artist James Woodfill's solo exhibition of Stations.  It's also opening night on Grand Boulevard in St. Louis.

There is a new gallery opening at the Kansas City Public Library next week, and we have listed Kansas City metro-area exhibitions that close this month.  Find your place on the visual arts map and enjoy! More images from upcoming exhibitions here.

Friday special events and openings:

Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts
724 South 12th Street (at Leavenworth)
Omaha, Nebraska
402-341-7130
Tuesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. and opening nights

Borderland Abstraction
Nils Folke Anderson, Tim Bavington, Nate Boyce, Michelle Grabner, Amy
Granat, Mary Heilmann, Matthew Kluber, Takeshi Murata, Ara Peterson, Eli Ping, Eric Sall, Colin C. Smith, and Wendy White
&
James Woodfill: Stations
Opening reception: January 22, 6-9 p.m.
Gallery talk with the artists: January 23, noon-2 p.m. (both exhibitions; more information here, Woodfill, and here, B.A.)
January 22 — May 8
______

Bruno David Gallery
3721 Washington Boulevard
St. Louis, Missouri
314-531-3030

Shelf Life: selected work by Buzz Spector
&
Shawn Burkhard: Phantasmagoria
&
Beverly Fishman: Pharmako — Xanadu
&
Maya Escobar: el es frida kahlo
Opening reception: January 22, 6-9 p.m., more infomation here.
January 22 — March 6
______

Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis
3750 Washington Boulevard
St. Louis, Missouri
314-535-4660
Wednesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Sunday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.

Sean Landers: 1991-1994, Improbable History
&
Stephen Prina: Modern Movie Pop
Opening night: January 22, 6-9 p.m.
Artist lecture: January 23, 1 p.m. Contemporary Conversations Join Director Paul Ha and artist Sean Landers for a discussion about the artist’s work.
January 22 — April 11

Front Room:
Xavier Cha
January 22 — 31

Torbjørn Rødland
January 22 — February 28
______

Lawrence Art Center
940 New Hampshire Street
Lawrence, Kansas
785-843-2787
Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-9 p.m., Friday-Sunday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

January 22, 7 p.m. Fundred Dollar Bill Project Mel Chin comes to Lawrence to present a special lecture about his present and past work and unique conceptual approach. Most recently Chin has gained national attention for his Fundred Dollar Bill Project, an innovative artwork made of millions of drawings. It is the largest project he has ever initiated that is not about him, but dedicated to the delivery of the art of 3,000,000 participants, of scientific solution, and of pragmatic environmental recovery. This creative, collective action is intended to support Operation Paydirt, an extraordinary art/science project uniting three million children and other community members to make safe the lead polluted soil of New Orleans that places thousands of children at risk for severe learning disabilities and behavioral problems, including violent crime. A reception will follow the lecture and the special armored truck will be in attendance. (Free and open to all.)

January 23, 10-11 a.m. Operative Workshop Chin and his team facilitate an opportunity for the community to participate in the project. (Free and open to all.)
More information is at www.fundred.org and via this clip from CNN. Chin was also featured on PBS's Art 21.
______

PSTL Gallery
Pace Framing
3842 Washington Boulevard
St. Louis, Missouri
314-531-4304
Tuesday-Saturday, 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m. and opening nights

Peter Pranschke: Commission Release Party
Opening reception: January 22, 6-9 p.m.
January 22 — February 27
______

Signs of Life Gallery
722 Massachusetts Street
Lawrence, Kansas
785-830-8030

The New Show
featuring Janet Bailey, Margaret Buie, Ann Ann Kuckelman Cobb, Missy Hamilton, John and Elli Milan, Doug Osa, Ruthie Osa, Jean Terry, Stephen Johnson, Michael Walsh, and Darin White, with new work also by im Brothers, Kim Casebeer, Justin Marable, Charlotte Seifert, Heather Smith-Jones, and Mark Weber
Opening reception: January 22, 7-9 p.m.
January 22 —

Media feature:

Cindy Kane, whose The Helmet Project is at Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art in Kansas City's Crossroads Art District through February 27, was featured in an interview by Laura Spencer on KCUR FM (during NPR Morning Edition January 22). It can be heard through streaming audio on the station's site.

Saturday:

Gas Light Gallery & Studio
12 East Peoria, Suite 200
Paola, Kansas
913-963-4201
Monday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m.-4 p.m. and opening nights

Visual Expressions
with Jaime Aguirre, Bailey Barney, Steve Brisendine, Hal Gottfried, Heather Gottfried, Chris Ortiz, Rhoda J Powers, Jill Putzier, Robert Quackenbush, Jennifer Rivera, George Rousis, Victoria Rum, Jenna Tomlin, Doug Whitney, and Elle Young
Opening reception: January 23, 5-9:30 p.m.
January 23 — February 26
______

Leedy-Voulkos Art Center
2012 Baltimore Avenue
Kansas City, Missouri
816-474-1919
Wednesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m., First Fridays, 6-9 p.m., events and by appointment

January 23, 6-9 p.m. Fundred Dollar Bill Project Reception Mel Chin is in the Midwest, and tonight he and his team are hosting a presentation and kick-off for Kansas City's participation in the Fundred Dollar Bill Project, which seeks to motivate the U.S. Congress to appropriate $300,000,000 to lead pollution remediation in New Orleans, by presenting them 3,000,000 pieces of artwork, "Fundred Dollar Bills" (templates that will be available at the event and are online for artists, teachers and anyone who wishes to be a part of the cause), along with a methodology for putting the soil-cleaning work into practice. This nation-wide large-scale project is dedicated to the delivery of the art of 3,000,000 participants, of scientific solution, and of pragmatic environmental recovery in July. They have collected about 1,790,000 Fundreds so far. The creative, collective action is intended to support Operation Paydirt, an extraordinary art/science project uniting 3,000,000 and other community members to make safe the lead polluted soil of New Orleans that places thousands of children at risk for severe learning disabilities and behavioral problems, including violent crime. This free public event includes a reception and entertainment and the appearance of the special armored truck that will ultimately bring the bills — the artwork-petitions, as it were — to Washington, D.C. (Free and open to all.)
______

Ulrich Museum of Art
Wichita State University
1845 Fairmount Street
Wichita, Kansas
316-978-3664
Tuesday-Friday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m., Saturday & Sunday, 1-5 p.m.; closed Mondays and major/university holidays

Crossroads: The Art of Gordon Parks
This nationally touring exhibition celebrates the life work of one of America's most accomplished 20th-century artists. Photographer, poet, novelist, composer, musician, and filmmaker, Parks spent a lifetime shattering barriers in his pursuit of truth, beauty, social justice, and artistic expression. This retrospective includes examples of Parks's photography paired with highlights from the Gordon Parks Papers, the artist's archive recently acquired by Wichita State University.
Opening reception: January 23, 7-9 p.m. ($7 general admission)
January 23 — April 11

Next week:

Corridor Art Space
Office of Gould Evans Associates
4041 Mill Street
(Westport Road and Pennsylvania)
Kansas City, Missouri
Art is visible when Manor Square (which also houses the Tivoli Theatre) is open, daily 8 a.m.-10 p.m. To request a private showing, please contact Julie Hendrix at 816-931-6655.

Sticks and Stones
Steve Rimmer
Opening reception: January 28, 5-7 p.m.
January 28 — March 9
______

Kansas City Art Institute
4415 Warwick Boulevard
Kansas City, Missouri
Usual events contact: 816-802-3423

Learn to Teach: Community Arts
Starts January 28: Artists, learn how to teach and share what you know. This public lecture series is part of a course at KCAI (in which each student will design, plan, and teach a short workshop at the Southeast Community Center in Swope Park, Kansas City, Missouri). The overall goal is to teach artists how to be excellent teachers in a community setting, though some lectures will focus on more general classroom basics). These Thursday sessions are open to the public, so all artists are encouraged to learn about sharing their talents with the community at large. More information about the course's instructors is posted the week of their lectures here on the KCAI site. All lectures are free and take place on Thursdays at 11:30 a.m. in the Epperson Auditorium of Vanderslice Hall on the KCAI campus (except for February 11th's lecture, which will be at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art). Funded by a KCAI Outstanding Project Award and an ArtsKC Fund Inspiration Grant.

January 28, 11:30 a.m. Considerations of different learning patterns and teaching methods, by Kriss Miller
February 4, 11:30 a.m. Diverse communities and how difference influences classroom motivation
February 11, 11:30 a.m. Time and classroom management (held at Kemper Museum's main site)
February 25, 11:30 a.m. Teens and at-risk populations
March 4, 11:30 a.m. Working with adults and seniors and disabled communities
March 11, 11:30 a.m. The power of art in communities
______

The Kansas City Public Library — Central
14 West 10th Street
Kansas City, Missouri
816-701-3400
Monday-Wednesday, 9 a.m.-9 p.m., Thursday, 9 a.m.-6 p.m., Friday, 9 a.m.- 5 p.m., Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Sunday, 1-5 p.m.; free parking is available in the Library District Parking Garage at 10th and Baltimore (limited hours)

Opening of new Orval Hixon Gallery
Shooting Stars: The Celebrity Photography of Orval Hixon
Opening presentation: January 27, 6:30 p.m., with author and photography expert David Shields, Ph.D.; reception at 6 p.m. is open to all (please call to RSVP: 816-701-3407). Hixon's studios in the Brady Building (11th and Main) and then in the Baltimore Hotel welcomed thousands of patrons in the 1910s and 1920s in Kansas City. Learn how he transformed the field of portrait photography and celebrate the new gallery at the library made possible by the Hixon family, Richard J. Stern Foundation for the Arts-Commerce Bank Trustee. More information here.
January 27 —
______

Lawrence Art Center
940 New Hampshire Street
Lawrence, Kansas
785-843-2787
Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-9 p.m., Friday-Sunday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

New Work by Andrea Fuhrman
(inkjet digital prints taking a dynamic look at graffiti on railroad cars, exploring the notions of vandalism)
January 26 — February 15

January 28, 7 p.m. Gallery Talk Shawn Bitters speaks about his work in To and From, on display at the Lawrence Art Center through February 6.
______

Oklahoma City Museum of Art
415 Couch Drive
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
405-236-3100
Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Thursday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. (May-October; only on final Thursday of the month January-April), Sunday, noon-5 p.m. Closed Mondays, New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas Day

Jason Peters: Anti.Gravity.Material.Light
Exhibition preview and lecture: January 27, 6-8 p.m., with artist's talk at 5:30 p.m., in conjunction with New Frontiers: Series for Contemporary Art in the auditorium; seating is limited to 250, first-come, first-served basis (free and open to the public)
Family Day: February 27, noon-4 p.m.
Last Call Thursday: April 8, 5-10 p.m.
January 28 — April 11
______

Ulrich Museum of Art
Wichita State University
1845 Fairmount Street
Wichita, Kansas
316-978-3664
Follow Ulrich on Facebook and Twitter
Tuesday-Friday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m., Saturday & Sunday, 1-5 p.m.; closed Mondays and major/university holidays

January 25, 3:30 p.m. Fundred Update Mel Chin, who visited the museum in March and developed Fundred, a national, creative performance art venture to extract lead from New Orleans soil, will update Wichitans on the project. The afternoon starts with a screening of Chin's animated short film 9-11/9-11. Chin will answer audience questions and then join them for a reception at 5 p.m. at the Ulrich Museum where the Sous Terre truck fueled by recycled veggie oil will be. The truck is making a stop at WSU on its cross-country trek to pick up Fundred bills and deliver them to Washington, D.C., for real federal dollars to help New Orleans. The screening and reception are free and open to the public. (The film is being screened at 210 McKnight Center West, WSU School of Art and Design).

Urban Culture Project Space
21 East 12th Street
Kansas City, Missouri
816-221-5115
Thursday & Saturday, noon-5 p.m., opening Fridays, 6-9 p.m.

January 27, 7 p.m. Public program and tea party-conversation An open dialogue with Sammy Persons, Kurt Flecksing, Lynley Farris, and Robert Heishman in conjunction with the installation by Samantha Persons, Commodity, Commotion, Communication, on view through February 6; read full release from the Charlotte Street Foundation here.

Get tickets now:

Arts Council of Metropolitan Kansas City
906 Grand Avenue 10th Floor
Kansas City, Missouri
816-994-9226
Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

March 5, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. 7th Annual ArtsKC Awards Luncheon recognizing local businesses and volunteers for their extraordinary leadership in the arts in 2009. Held at Starlight Theatre Complex in Swope Park, with master of ceremonies Bryan Busby and performances by Heart of America Choirs, HYBRID: Theatre Collective, Wylliams-Henry Contemporary Dance Company, and introducing Percussion Group Kansas City. Awards created by Rain Harris. Sponsorship and tickets available through ArtsKC. Call 816-221-1777 for more information.

Closing soon:

Apex Art Space
(Crossroads Dentistry)
1819 Wyandotte Street
Kansas City, Missouri
816-841-0206
Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., First Fridays, 6-9 p.m., and by apppointment

Jennifer Rivera: 40
Thorugh January 31
______

Arts Incubator, Cocoon Gallery
115 West 18th Street
Kansas City, Missouri
816-421-2292
First Fridays, 5-9 p.m., Saturday, 11 a.m.-3 p.m., and by appointment

NTER CHNG
Drew Bolton, Jamie Burkart and Garrett Fuselier
Through January 29
______

Arts Incubator, INKubator Press
115 West 18th Street
Kansas City, Missouri
816-471-2629
Membership access 24/7, First Friday demonstrations, 6-9 p.m., Print Mondays open studio; other workshops

Expanded Identities
Rachel Epp Buller
Through January 31
______

Blue Gallery
118 Southwest Boulevard
Kansas City, Missouri
816-527-0823
Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m., and First Fridays until 9 p.m.

Aileen Chong: New works
Through January 30
______

Keyhole Gallery
1903 Wyandotte Avenue
Kansas City, Missouri
816-326-8851
First Fridays, 4-10 p.m. and by appointment (Please call to see current show through January 31)

Kansas City's Best and Brightest Stars
Matthew America, Jeran Avery, Noshaba Bakht, Betsy Barratt, Craig Demoss, Benjamin Fields, Jeff Helkenberg, Joshua Hoffine, Steph Toth Kates, Jessica Logsdon, James Osborn, Phil Peterson, Roger Ramjet, Grant Redwine, Chico San, Mikal Shapiro, Victoria Strong, Mark Szmanski, Ryan Tenney, and Mary Ware
Through January 31
______

The Late Show
1600 Cherry Street
Kansas City, Missouri
816-474-1300; 816-359-7174
Wednesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m., First Fridays until 10 p.m. and by appointment.

Ryan Drake
Through January 30
______

{:m Momentum Gallery
2014 Main Street
Kansas City, Missouri
816-560-1450
First Fridays, 6-9 p.m. and by appointment

Mark Raines presents
Celestial Peepshow: An Erotic Look at the Moon
Through January 31
______

Pi Art Gallery
419 East 18th Street
Kansas City, Missouri
816-210-6534
First Fridays, 6-9 p.m., Saturday, 8 a.m.-4 p.m., Sunday, 8 a.m.-2 p.m.

Richard Van Cleave: Retro
Through January 30
______

Spencer Museum of Art
The University of Kansas
1301 Mississippi Street
785-864-4710
Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Thursday until 8 p.m., Sunday, noon-4 p.m.
Winter break hours through January 14: Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Sunday, noon-4 p.m.

Big Shots: Andy Warhol, Celebrity Culture, and the 1980s
Through January 24

Popularity: 1% [?]