September First Friday

 

Hung Liu at Sherry Leedy

September's First Friday was my first since being back, and it was a good one.

The two highlights of the evening were Hung Liu at Sherry Leedy and the various shows at the Belger, including Wordplay, Shae Bishop and Emily Duke, and William Christenberry (open since February, about to close). 

Hung Liu's work was powerful and visually striking- especially her multi-layered paintings which use glass to create three dimensionality and a recession of space (above). I also enjoyed her use of gender, class, and history- the juxtaposition of historic signs of Chinese culture with the varied figures found in society created an interesting statement on the turmoil of the twentieth century and the interplay of the many faces found within said society.

 

 

Hung Liu at Sherry Leedy 

 

 

Joe on a lovely KC evening

  

The Belger Wordplay exhibition included a fantastic variety of art, all organized around the theme of text and image, much of which had interesting political content.

 

Wordplay at the Belger 

April First Friday

 

This weekend brought fantastic weather to the KC area. We took the opportunity to do some gallery hopping on Friday evening in the Crossroads.

Sprout was interested in the graffiti, or as he referred to it, "the painted walls." He informed us that he would like to paint the walls when he gets big...... hmmmm.....

  

 One of our first stops was Simlandscape 5 at Vulpes Bastille, an exhibition of Derek Dobbins' work (one of my former students).

 

Lots of galleries in the East Crossroads were full, and the weather perfect. Food trucks were out, people were using lots to play disk golf, and we even saw a pop up outdoor restaurant.

 

 

Another show that we enjoyed was Beneath the Respirator, showing photography work seen below.

 

May First Friday

With perfect weather and great art, this month's First Friday was fantastic. We started our evening at KCAI for the end of semester exhibition and sale. After seeing some interesting student work, we hopped on the bus up to the crossroads to see the opening of the America: Now and Here exhibition at Leedy-Voulkos. The exhibition was really well done and very well received, with a variety of important contemporary artists represented. The show continues to other cities after a one month run in KC and is a great conversation starter about contemporary America.

First Fridays and a data loss

April's First Friday was fun. We didn't see any extraordinary art, but Blue Gallery was nice and we bought a sweet card at Hammerpress. We also had a fantastic time with friends at our own late night after party. The great part about this month's First Friday was the weather. Sunny and warm, it was the first one of the year with lots of people walking the Crossroads, and more than a few bands and street vendors were out.
I had a few photos of the bands and the crowds of people, but my phone crashed on Sunday and I lost all my data. A crushing blow, but a solid reminder to back up data and that a smart phone is more like a computer than a phone. I have been able to re-create most of my photos, but April's First Friday will live on in memory alone.