Drawing 
FROM MIAMI, WITH LOVE(0)
November 30, 2011 —
December 1st through 4th: It’s time for the nation’s hottest art fair, Art Basel Miami, Beach, which draws artists, gallerists, collectors, and others from around the world to a balmy, frenetic art-overdose. Darin White provides an entertaining and detailed look at last year’s fair. Along with a number of other KC/Lawrence artists, he’s there again for 2011.
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Comfortable in His Skin: Kent Van Dusseldorp
For all the appreciation of the female nude, male full frontalism does tend to draw more askance glances, and Kent Van Dusseldorp’s show is a straightforward, if good-natured, confrontation of that outlook.
Summer Sun, Something’s Begun: Susan Wilson
Susan Wilson’s work, part of the group show opening tonight at Images Art Gallery, is infused with warmth both visual and emotional.
SOOTHSAYERS!
The latest exhibition at the Spray Booth Gallery continues a welcome risk-taking trend; titled literally, “Paintings and Drawings: New Works by Max Crutcher and Brook Hsu” show us the talents of two recent Kansas City Art Institute painting department graduates (2010) who both express their personal explorations into the processes of painting and drawing. In this way, they present their aesthetic and conceptual inheritance of the original modernist tradition.
Two Streets, One Destination: Matthew Kube
Even without his signature red-brick hues, Matthew Kube’s drawings show off his affinity for the older parts of the city and for the architectural treasures found there. (And rest assured, there are plenty of his cityscape paintings as well in Kube’s current show at Engel Bindery.)
The Fine, Strong Ties that Bind: Jessica Simorte
Small though Jessica Simorte’s pieces might be, there’s a strength in them which resists any efforts to pat them on the head and dismiss them with an indulgent “Awwww …”
The Basketball Tapes: Sean Thomas Blott
Sean Thomas Blott’s basketball drawings reflect his struggle to refine his influences and combine them with his own vision. They don’t look unified; in this, he succeeds in conveying the difficulty of finding one’s own way.
Warts, Wrinkles and All: Jodi Brown
Jodi Brown has deliberately injected the unsettling and borderline grotesque into her graphite and gouache images, all of which are based on authors’ photos from book jackets.
BLUE CHIPS AND BIG TRUCKS
It’s now then-and-gone for “America: Now and Here,” which honored KC with being its first national venue on what is hoped to be a years-long project journey. It provided a month’s-worth of discussions, of music, film, poetry, and theatre events to inspire — from Eric Fischl’s colleague “blue chip” artists and our equally brilliant pool of local talent.
SAN ANTONIO, MEET LAWRENCE; LAWRENCE, MEET …
“The New Old San Antonio: Tales from the Little Big Town” showcases works by 33 artists who have strong ties to the city of San Antonio. They vary in theme, approach, and level of experience — but the pieces selected pieces work together as a whole. The resulting exhibition, which showed in San Antonio last month and is at the Lawrence Arts Center through June 17, is a mix of work that paints the city as a diverse and vibrant arts community.
THE SPARKLE THAT FEEDS
“Bread and Glitter” is a local arts journal (online and in print) providing a forum where the “relationship between art, faith, cultural renewal, and local community can be celebrated.” Stemming from the Kansas City Boiler Room / Monarch Gallery artists’ interests and open to anyone, “B & G” hosted a release party and exhibition for its Volume 1, Issue 2 edition this spring. The resulting presentation provided a variety of thought-provoking, fascinating, and even humorous works — a show of glimmering stuff to feed an art-hungry soul.
Hot/Cool Combo: Kwanza Humphrey
There’s a good deal of both warmth and “cool” in Kwanza Humphrey’s work, which makes it entirely fitting to the subject matter.
OUTLINING OUR COLLECTIVE FOOTPRINT
“Humanature,” curated by B.j. Vogt and including the work of seven artists, draws humans into and out of nature. The artists show how we divide and conquer, how we imitate and commune with our environment. The work poses playful questions about how we do, can — and should — relate to our world. “Humanature” is on view at La Esquina through April 16.
Monstrous Fun: Joanna Underwood
Joanna Underwood’s creations range in impression from the cuddly to the creepy, proving that art can be fun, thoughtful, a tiny touch unsettling … and wearable, all at the same time.
Strength in Diversity: Loreta Feeback
One common thread running through all of Loreta Feeback’s work — representational or abstract, flat or in the round — is her command of structure.