Exhibitions & Events:
Vanguards and Visionaries:
Kansas City Women in the Arts
March 2 - April 21, 2012
Overview
In celebration of the UMKC Women’s Center’s 40th Anniversary, this exhibit honors some of the local women artists who have been instrumental in shaping the visual arts landscape of Kansas City. Featured artists include Philomene Bennett, Rita Blitt, Shea Gordon-Festoff, and Janet Kuemmerlein – four women who have all made a strong impression on the visual arts in Kansas City for the past four decades. Each of these seasoned artists was asked to select another artist whose work she feels embodies the same artistic voice that she has. Exhibiting side-by-side with these artists will be Jane Booth, Cheryl Toh, Karen McCoy, and Jessica Kincaid. In keeping with the Women’s Center’s 40th Anniversary theme, Telling Our Stories for 40 Years, the Vanguards and Visionaries exhibit celebrates the woman’s voice in the visual arts – its past, present, and future. This exhibit was curated by Sonié Joi Ruffin.
Co-Sponsors
The Her Art Project, Annedore’s Fine Chocolates, Print Time, M&M Graphics, Office Port Network, Hoop Dog Studios, The Roasterie, STUFF, Moxie Catering, World’s Window, and the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance.
Featured Artists
Philomene Bennett
Jane Booth
Rita Blitt
Cheryl Toh
Shea Gordon-Festoff
Karen McCoy
Janet Kuemmerlein
Jessica Kincaid
Lynn Benson
Acid Wash: Playing with Consequences
March 2 - April 27, 2012
Artist Statement
Born not far from the Atlantic Ocean I have always felt a tug to explore and be near water...a primary focus in my current work. Upon learning about the increasing acidification of the world oceans, I continued to educate myself about the problem and it captured my heart and mind. Seeking a way to carry that story into my artwork I chose vintage acid-washed denim garments and slowly deconstructed them, evaluating the resulting shapes and lines for design, aesthetic, and conceptual possibilities, where “acid-wash” has multiple meanings and cultural references are at play. The intriguing elements of garment construction and the beauty and variety of textures, colors and patterning in the denim “washes” were central in inspiring the reconstruction process. You’ll find shapes from pockets, wavy lines of undersea plants created with stitched seams turned on edges, as well as threads, pebbles and coral within these works.
This series was produced with reverence for, and in reference to, our oceans, waterways, and water sources, with special concern for the increasing acidification of our oceans as they absorb extra carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Bio
Benson left the corporate world in 2010 in order to pursue her work as an artist in the Kansas City region. She established her studio at that time in the West Bottoms’ Livestock Exchange Building (and very near the confluence of Kansas City’s major rivers.) Benson’s formal training includes coursework at Stephens College and DePauw University, as well as graduate level work at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Her work and previous studio experiences have fed and been supported by her creative instincts, including teaching art, printmaking, retail artist materials, creative research sleuth, window design, and curator of gallery exhibits. She has previously exhibited her work in solo and group shows in northeast Ohio. Her work can be found in private collections throughout the country.
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David Goodrich
Lucifer Rising
April 6 - May 26, 2012
Artist Statement
Artistically, I may be less interested than many in what is current in our culture so much as what’s constant. Political matters and technological
advances are all worthy of commentary, but too often represent temporary situations which retain little significance after a period. What I choose to
concentrate on includes an interaction with the established artistic and
symbolic language of our majority culture. It is my belief that the arts from
culture to culture throughout history are generally interwoven with that
culture’s mythological inheritance, positioning that society within the context
of a super-reality, or in contact with a realm of the fantastic.
We may live in a scientifically advanced society, yet I maintain that the
cultural mythologies of our society are still significant to us and effect our
vocabulary, thoughts, and philosophies. At the very least, they are certainly
effective as regards artistic communications, the symbolic language being well
established and recognizable.
Artist Bio
David Goodrich is originally from Oklahoma City, and he
received a BFA in painting from the University of Science
and Arts of Oklahoma. Since 1985 he has lived in Kansas
City, MO, and his artistic pursuits have mainly been centered
there and in Chicago. He has shown throughout the
Midwest and has artwork in collections across the nation and
abroad.
Upcoming Exhibits:
Joshua von Nonn
Immured by Memories
May 4 - June 23, 2012
Front Gallery
Lad
LX-12
May 4 - June 30, 2012
Back Gallery
Undergrads Underground:
KCAI at the LVAC
Let Me Bring Light to the Situation
an installation by Ashley Lugo
May 4 - May 25, 2012
Lower Level Gallery
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The Leedy-Voulkos Art Center Shop hosts a variety of work from more than 25 artists – most of who are from the Kansas City area. The intent is for the shop to be accessible in both format and price. We seek to promote the Leedy-Voulkos Art Center Shop and the Crossroads district as a shopping destination, both during the First Friday Events and beyond.
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Undergrads Underground: KCAI at the LVAC
Autumn Randell, senior in printmaking
Parts
April 6 - April 28, 2012
Artist Statement
One of the things most terrifying to me about death is that the people I love will die. Almost always death feels so far away from us, like it will never happen. The first time I really became aware of death was when I noticed my parents aging. My parents are getting old and they will die and I have to imagine my life without them. We push death down and away as much as possible. The way we deal with death in such a repressed manner has made it into almost a societal taboo. There is a huge effort in our culture to try and sterilize death. Funeral homes are expected to make the dead seem as they were alive, as if we are trying to hide what is inevitable. The media rarely mentions or depicts death unless it is violent. We handle death, something that evokes such strong, jarring emotions, by hiding and ignoring it.
My work is an effort to better understand the affects of death on a personal level, as well as a larger, societal level. Two styles of drawings came out of this effort, one uses charcoal the other graphite. The charcoal series expresses my anxieties and fear of death. The marks are more expressive and the materials are not archival. I am using newsprint and resin because they will disintegrate over time, just as our bodies are. The graphite drawings are on clean, white paper and the image is contained and sterile. Both sets are images of different parts of the female body. After a person dies there body becomes like an object and sectioning off the body turns them into that. I am using the female body because these drawings, although dealing with societal issues, are also personal, reflecting my anxieties, so I am using my form.
StoneLion Puppet Theater
Heather Nisbett-Loewenstein, Founding Artistic Director
April 6 - May 26, 2012
…dedicated to expanding the horizons of the young and young-at-heart
through the art of puppetry in an interdisciplinary community
of ethnic and cultural diversity.
Overview
Community Puppetry Art; art created by the community, for the community to raise awareness of our community’s issues and spur creative solutions and involvement.
Community Here
- A series of free environmental art festivals in inner city neighborhoods to create art, spread knowledge and propose real world green actions to make our neighborhoods a better place to live.
- Mother’s Day for Mother Earth puppet play held each spring in a local park using puppets the community helped to make alongside Heather’s creations.
Community There
- Heather was asked to join a group of international artists led by UK Puppeteer Jig Cochrane and Cambodian Ex-Pat Bina Hanely to journey to Cambodia and assist the Giant Puppet Project of Siem Reap’s sixth event February 25, 2012. This community art project was created with a three-fold mission to train young Khmer artists from the Pong Lue Selapk in Battanbang, raise awareness of social issues such as the environment and safety and to help the economy of Siem Reap with a major tourist event. This event has grown into the largest community arts project in the country with 450 students from local NGO’s participating, artists from five countries assisting and over 50,000 watching the giant light up parade of puppets the children built and carried.
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