August 2018
In the Studio with Wilbur Niewald
In the Studio with Wilbur Niewald, a career-spanning solo exhibition by Wilbur Niewald, professor emeritus of painting at KCAI, opens August 8 at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Wilbur studied, taught, and for twenty-eight years, served as chair of the painting and printmaking departments. Exhibition location within the museum is Bloch Galleries, P30. Wilbur will also be giving a talk/gallery tour on the below two dates/times. Mark your calendars! Thurs. Sept. 27 6-7 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 21 2-3 p.m. The paintings of Wilbur Niewald have a deep and persistent connection to his lifetime home of Kansas City, and in a larger sense, to the history of painting itself. After developing a unique abstract language for his paintings in the fifties and sixties, Niewald began to paint in the representational style in 1970, and has continued exclusively in that vein in the decades since. His timeless still lifes, studio portraits, and landscapes are invariably executed through direct observation in a persistent endeavor to render familiar scenes with new clarity through repetition. Niewald’s devotion to his craft, and to the tradition of painting, is axiomatic in the 16 works included in his career-spanning solo exhibition, In the Studio with Wilbur Niewald, at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of…
Find out more »September 2018
Inside/Out Mixed Media Works by Jason Pollen
INSIDE/OUT is comprised of Portals, Outliers, Descendants, Oracles, and Nomads. These series of works were inspired by a fascination with how surfaces can both conceal and reveal. Our skin acts as an envelope, hiding its precious contents; the earth we live on hides the fathomless depths of its molten core. Former KCAI Fiber Chair and world-renowned fiber artist Jason Pollen strives to make works whose surfaces intimate the deeper animating force that is the creative process. During a lifetime of dedicated practice, Jason has focused on the phenomena of color, light and shadow, movement and stillness. The works are successful if they prove to be thought- and feeling-provoking, and communicate fascination and delight. Opening Receptions: Friday, September 7 from 11:30 am - 1:00 p.m. & 5:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Find out more »Insight
Artists are the cultural equivalent of the proverbial canary in the coal mine. As sentinel species, artists are out front, alert and hypersensitive to the world around them. They re-contextualize almost everything, and in so doing reveal surprising ways of thinking about art, our world and the status quo. Artists speak in the language of art using color, form, line and material to discover something new, unexpected and true. Form and meaning are inseparably bound and content ranges from nuanced visual poetry to bold calls to action and everything in between. The exhibition, IN/SIGHT, focuses on artists and artwork that demonstrate the broad range of engagement with material and content taking place in Kansas City and the region. Participating Artists: Tom Huck, Judy Onofrio, Mary Ann Strandell, Roger Shimomura, Ana Maria Hernando, Sarah Sense, Tom Jones, Patty Carroll, Art Miller, Anne Austin Pearce, Tanya Hartman, Marcus Cain ('98 Painting), Ky Anderson ('95 Fiber), Billy Hassell, KCAI Chair of Ceramics Cary Esser, Norman Akers ('82 Painting), Brandon Reese ('92 Sculpture), Annie Helmericks-Louder, Vincent Falsetta.
Find out more »October 2018
A Periodic Table: Imagined Spaces
A Periodic Table: Imagined Spaces is a group exhibition highlighting the work of 10 artists who engage in a process of investigation, research and experimentation in the production and presentation of their work. A Periodic Table examines the phenomena of the tabletop tableau in contemporary art. It is presented in conjunction with Open Spaces 2018: A Kansas City Experience and Opens Spaces Expanded Field Aug. 25-Oct. 28, 2018, hosted in Swope Park and at sites throughout Kansas City. KCAI Artists Participating include: Marcus Cain ('98 Painting); Chair of Sculpture Jill Downen ('89 Painting); Marcie Miller Gross ('88 Fiber); Kahlil Irving ('15 Ceramics); Anne Austin Pearce (Attended '86-'88); Sculpture Faculty Member Jarrett Mellenbruch; and Painting Visiting Assistant Professor S.E. Nash.
Find out more »2018 Charlotte Street Foundation Visual Artist Awards
The H&R Block Artspace at the Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI) opens its fall season with the 2018 Charlotte Street Foundation Visual Artist Awards exhibition, featuring new work by the 2018 Fellows: KCAI Assistant Professor of Fiber Marie Bannerot McInerney, Adjunct Faculty Member Jarrett Mellenbruch and Alumna Jillian Youngbird. Artspace is hosting this exhibition for the eighth time in the award’s 21-year history. Since 1997, Charlotte Street’s Visual Artist Award has supported outstanding visual artists living in Kansas City through annual, unrestricted cash awards distributed directly to visual artists. These competitive awards recognize local artists who are creating outstanding artwork and show great accomplishment and promise by providing financial support, critical attention, and increased exposure with the aim of fostering their continued artistic and professional development. Join us for the Opening Reception on Thursday, October 11 from 6-8 p.m.
Find out more »H&R Block Announces Fall Exhibitions
The H&R Block Artspace at the Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI) opens its fall season with the 2018 Charlotte Street Foundation Visual Artist Awards exhibition, featuring new work by the 2018 Fellows: KCAI Assistant Professor of Fiber Marie Bannerot McInerney, Adjunct Faculty Member Jarrett Mellenbruch and Alumna Jillian Youngbird. Artspace is hosting this exhibition for the eighth time in the award’s 21-year history. Since 1997, Charlotte Street’s Visual Artist Award has supported outstanding visual artists living in Kansas City through annual, unrestricted cash awards distributed directly to visual artists. These competitive awards recognize local artists who are creating outstanding artwork and show great accomplishment and promise by providing financial support, critical attention, and increased exposure with the aim of fostering their continued artistic and professional development. The Artspace will continue to dedicate the Studio Gallery upstairs to Commonspace. Modeled as an exhibition of community action, Commonspace facilitates “do-it-together” programs and events in collaboration with other institutions that consider how creativity, action, and information intersect. This project aims to create new bodies of knowledge, engage audiences around issues of urgency and resonance, address media literacy and bring together artists, scholars, activists, librarians, students and political and cultural leaders for in-depth exploration into how information…
Find out more »Carved
Celebrate fall with live music and artful pumpkins carved by Kansas City Art Institute students at Carved, a festive family event at the Crestwood Shops from 5 – 8 p.m. on Thursday, October 25. A portion of all the proceeds from shop and restaurant sales will benefit KCAI student scholarships. For years, KCAI freshman Foundation students have put their carving prowess to work by taking lowly pumpkins and gourds and turning them into intricate art. From frightening to fabulous to funny…these are not your typical jack-o-lanterns! Students will be on site carving and their astonishing pumpkin creations will be available for a $50 donation. Visitors to Carved can get retail therapy at eleven locally-owned shops and enjoy delectable fare at Café Europa and Aixios. The Crestwood Shops, located on 55th Street between Brookside Boulevard and Oak Street, were established in 1922 and is Kansas City’s first neighborhood shopping area.
Find out more »Ghostly Gala
The Fireside Committee Invites you to the Ghostly Gala on October 27 at Blue Hills Country Club. Proceeds benefit the Student Scholarship Fund KCAI. 6 PM Appetizers, Cocktails, Silent Auction and Raffle 7 PM Dinner Music by Multiphonic Jazz Band. Costumes Encouraged For more information or tickets contact jmsharp5@hotmail.com or jlweilert@aol.com
Find out more »November 2018
Current Perspectives: Sarah Hennies
Join us for a special performance by Sarah Hennies, a composer and percussionist based in Ithaca, NY. Her work utilizes an often grueling, endurance-based performance practice in a subversive examination of psychoacoustics, queer identity, and performance art. She has presented her work in a variety of contexts including Café Oto (London), cave12 (Geneva), Ende Tymes (New York), Festival Cable (Nantes), the Johns Hopkins Digital Media Center, O’ Art Space (Milan), and Second Edition (Stockholm) and has received commissions for new work from Cristian Alvear, Beethoven, Bent Frequency, R. Andrew Lee, LIMINAR, Qubit Music, and the Thin Edge New Music Collective. Her work has been supported by the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, New Music USA, New York State Council on the Arts, and in 2016 was awarded a fellowship in music/sound from the New York Foundation for the Arts. Hennies is currently a member of improvised music group Meridian with Greg Stuart and Tim Feeney, a duo with sound/performance artist Jason Zeh, and the Queer Percussion Research Group with Jerry Pergolesi, Bill Solomon, and Jennifer Torrence. In late 2017 she premiered the groundbreaking work, Contralto at Issue Project Room (New York), a film featuring a cast of transgender women with a live…
Find out more »End of the Semester Sale
Art lovers and art collectors - start your holiday shopping at the Kansas City Art Institute’s (KCAI) End-of-Semester Exhibition and Sale, Nov. 30 through Dec. 2. Find a treasure trove of original artwork and goods made by KCAI’s talented students in ceramics, filmmaking, fiber, illustration, painting, printmaking, graphic design, sculpture and photography. New this year - you can also view a display of student-designed wedding dresses. All proceeds benefit individual students and KCAI studios. You can start shopping at 5 p.m. on Friday, but in some cases, the artwork will stay on display until Sunday when it must be picked up. For a map of KCAI, located at 4415 Warwick in Kansas City, Mo., visit http://kcai.edu/campus-life/campus/. Don’t miss this opportunity to explore the End-of-Semester Exhibition and Sale at KCAI from 5-8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 30; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 1 and from noon-5 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 2.
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