Short Reviews
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Short Reviews *
Dress Code: Black Only Informs Without Qualifying
The Black Student Union (BSU) at the Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI) presents Dress Code: Black Only, the 4th annual Black History Month exhibition hosted by Kansas City’s Leedy- Voulkos Art Center.
Staff Reductions at Nelson-Atkins Spotlights Need for Restructuring of Exhibitions and Programming
Kansas City’s Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art announced they are reducing their budget by 25% to around $26 million. In turn, this necessitated a staff reduction of 15%, or 36 positions, across the entire Museum.
Kansas City Art Institute Responds to Student Group KCAI Solidarity
Informality is an organization dedicated to informal and informative dialogue around art in the Kansas City region.
Office of Culture and Creative Services Eliminated in Budget Crunch
While not too surprising, Kansas City’s Office of Culture and Creative Services was eliminated from the fiscal year 2021 budget.
Making Masks, Artists Respond to the Social Imperative
Museums and cultural institutions are currently shuttered during the global pandemic and subsequent stay at home orders.
Eye of the Tiger, Belly of the Beast. Jessercise at UCM Gallery of Art & Design
Humorous cliches were abound in Jessica Frelinghuysen’s installation Jessercise Gymnasium, which recently closed at the University of Central Missouri Art Gallery in Warrensburg, Missouri.
To Each Their Own: A Look at Survey Shows Through the Lens of queer abstraction
queer abstraction at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art in Overland Park, Kansas is a traveling survey show of queer artists
An Embodied Encounter With queer abstraction
It is difficult to make value judgments on works of queer abstraction; in fact, it is antithetical to do so. Instead, I offer an entanglement of sensory observations and visual/textual relationalities for readers to dis- and re-entangle as they see fit.
Charlotte Street Announces Visual Artist Awards and Generative Performing Artist Awards for 2020
Charlotte Street Foundation (CSF) announces the 2020 Visual Artist and Generative Performing Artist Awards from the Kansas City region. A milestone on CSF’s giving is this year also marks the 100th Visual Artist Award granted.
Studio Inc Announces Four Artists Selected for Residency Program
Kansas City’s Studio Inc announces the arrival of four artists selected for their three-year residency program at its East Crossroads location.
KCAI, End of Semester Show Highlights
At the end of every semester, the Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI) has the End of Semester Show, a series of shows organized by each department/major. I want to highlight a selection of artists and works from the most recent edition. I went to the final two days of the show, Saturday and Sunday.
Rocket Grants Director Julia Cole Exits Program
Rocket Grants Director Julia Cole has vacated her position after a decade in that role.
Denim’s Social Construction: William Toney at Kiosk Gallery
Denim is a baseline of modern history. As much a part of the Western canon as television or sugar, it is the underlying current through which trend, comfort, work, protest, and desire runs.
Same, Pero Diferente at Open House
“Except for a few medallions stamped with the likeness of our ancestors, our child-memory contains only worn coins. It is on the plane of the daydream and not on that of facts that childhood remains alive and poetically useful within us.”
Short Review of Still in Motion
Before I went into the basement at 820 to see Annie Woodfill and Garry Noland’s show, Still in Motion, I was feeling a little antsy.
A Closer Look at Philanthropy and the Kemper Museum Controversy
The history of charitable donation philanthropy in the United States is a mixed bag; either a sincere altruistic gesture (Pioneering American philanthropist Andrew Carnegie said: “The man who dies rich dies disgraced.”) or burnishing tarnished names with extravagant public giving.
Convergence on a Center
Oblique Phases at Walter Maciel Gallery extends Barry Anderson’s ongoing series of immersive digital animations, introducing audiences to new forms of conceptual audio manipulation by this Kansas City based media artist.
The Tivoli, Beloved Arthouse Movie Theatre, to Reopen at Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
Tivoli Cinemas in Westport, which shuttered in April after nearly four decades of continuous operation, will reopen at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City.
I did wonder…is this thing working?
Carter Floyd and RJ Junger’s exhibition, …is this thing working?, was one of the last exhibits at Front/Space before shutting down their location in the Crossroads, which they occupied for nine years.