Archive for September, 2010
Floral Arrangements: Pat Thomson
Color and light, detail and composition all come together in realistic depictions of leaves, buds and petals.
Controlled Burns: Louis Copt
Copt’s fire pieces carry a sense of cyclical renewal rather than one of destruction, even as the flames leave swaths of scorched earth in their wake. There is a serenity to each painting — a feeling that there is nothing to worry about, that all of this has happened before and will happen again.
THE WORLD IS IN FOR A ‘SJAAK’
The art of living fully engaged is traced through one man’s journey across thousands of miles around the world in “Sjaak the World.” Kansas City filmmaker Brandon Green brings his work documenting a long motorcycle vacation back for its world premiere on October 1 at Screenland Armour Theatre and joins solo world traveler Sjaak Lucassen — and hopefully you — there.
Beautilitarian: Paul Donnelly
Donnelly’s clean-lined, carefully crafted work incorporates the visual, intellectual and emotional aspects of art … and adds to that a practicality which broadens its impact on those who go beyond viewing to becoming users of his pieces.
Spots, Spiders and Sweepings: Kati Toivanen
Decontextualized and digitally manipulated, with some elements fuzzed and some in hyper-sharp focus, Toivanen’s debris takes on an almost surreal life of its own.
Step by Steps: Rita Blitt
The interplay of elements within each piece is critical; they support and complement each other, “moving” to inner and implied rhythms that give even the darkest works a flowing grace … and, yes, hope and bravvery.
Land Life and Stillscape: James Borger
Borger’s juxtaposition of two traditional subjects, landscape and still life, puts a fresh twist on both of them to produces a whole greater than the sum of its already appealing parts.
Night of the Painted Dead: Chico Buehler
Buehler’s portraits mix zombie-movie truisms with the sociopolitical commentary which has always underlaid the best examples of the genre.
FOURTH/FINAL FRIDAY CALENDAR DIGEST, SEPTEMBER 2010
The fourth Friday of the month brings openings all over the map, from Lawrence’s second Final Fridays, to openings at the Dolphin and Leopold galleries in KC and at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art in Overland Park. (There are lots of Final Friday openings in Wichita that we hope to add soon). Thursday, a new exhibition opens at the University of Central Missouri, there is a closing reception at Thornhill, and it’s time for the weekly Current Perspectives lecture at KCAI. Two new major exhibitions open at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art on Saturday, and there are openings and events throughout next week.
Expressions of Faith: Faith Bilyeu
Faith Bilyeu incorporates text into her work — sometimes as punctuation, sometimes as exhortation, sometimes as heartfelt praise, and always as a key visual element.
REALITY MY WAY
The art of Wayne Propst is scripted by real life; he says that true outsider art is not eccentricity but truth. Tom King catches up with the 64-year-old Lawrence, Kansas, artist whose exhibitions have a reputation both for being highly provocative and for enjoying good sales. King’s interview was conducted the day before Propst’s latest show, “Baby Heads 02,” which is being changed out at the Bourgeois Pig for the coming Final Friday openings.
Two Media, One Vision: Beverly Owen
Beverly Owen draws from travels outer (to China and Bali) and inner, merging her inspirations with an eye for color and design to create work that reflects a wide range of life experiences.
MOMENTS OF INSTANTANEOUS DISCOVERY
Laurent Grasso’s “Lex Oiseaux” (“The Birds”) is an eight-minute video playing at The Saint Louis Art Museum through October 10 and offers a humble elevation of the natural world amidst an artificial, man-made reality. Assuming the roles of documentarian, biologist, and amateur videographer, Grasso creates an enthralling veneration of nature that also draws upon the aura and history of cinema — with starlings.
TAKING IT TO THE TREES
Did you have a tree house when you were young? Do you wish you could still live in one? “Architect to the Sky” premieres in the KC-metro area September 29 at 7:45 p.m. at the Glenwood Arts theatre. Directed by Kansas City native, Joseph Hendrickson, it presents an intimate vision of a man, artist/musician Roderick Romero, who pushes the boundaries of tree house design aesthetics and redefines what it means to be living with nature.
New Age of Opulence : George Timock
Timock’s works fairly cry out for high ceilings, gilded woodwork and crystal chandeliers, for the sound of string quartets and carriage wheels and whispered palace intrigues. That said, they are perfectly lovely in their present surroundings.
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