Under Construction
Churchman-Fehsenfeld Gallery & Frank M. Basile Exhibition Hall June 7 – August 4

This group show highlights artists dealing with the idea of construction from a material sense, a literal sense and beyond. Look for compelling uses of both traditional and non-traditional mediums. Artists include Scott Hazard, Garry Noland, Margi Weir and Katie Vota.

by Tracy Abeln
The Pitch
Posted May 21, 2013

Barry Anderson is known for his bright, colorful video works: bars and diagonals and bubbles, light-rich abstractions that act as moving collages. His art features regularly in group exhibitions around the country and is in a number of museum and private collections, and recently he has collaborated with bands such as the U.K.’s Written in Waters, making abstract videos for their music.

With his new The Janus Restraint: The Ascension, at Studios Inc., Anderson expands beyond what he has called “a video mindset.” Yes, there’s video here, as well as sound and still photography and sculpture. It’s the beginning of a bigger project (including some online-only aspects, visible at thejanusrestraint.com), he told a group gathered for a gallery talk May 11. And part of the      impetus for it is simple enough: His   son, Finn, is growing up.

We see that for ourselves just inside the cavernous exhibition space, where a single-channel video plays on a movable wall. In “Finnean,” a portrait of Anderson’s 9-year-old son, the boy looks directly at the camera, at us, and we see him split prismatically into patterns, mostly horizontal diamonds moving downward. Sometimes layers from other scenes of him slide by, and the green of a lawn in the background suggests summer afternoons of play. There is a vision of him sleeping, onto which Anderson has painted a few glimpses that suggest the unknown thoughts behind an innocent gaze, the changes to come. At one point, the vivid green of a Halloween mask is spliced in — a Frankenstein’s creature set upon the world to find an identity.

A narrative about the passage of time is universal, but Anderson spares us what could have been, under less skillful orchestration, so intensely personal as to be irrelevant. Janus isn’t someone foisting family photographs on you or hijacking a conversation with rambling stories about his child’s accomplishments.

For one, the sheer beauty of Anderson’s crisp images is seductive. And we identify with the boy, imagine what he might be thinking (the direction effectively takes us to the idealized rather than to the actual — this version of Finn is a fiction), remember what it was like on the cusp of adolescence.

Janus is the Roman god of beginnings and transitions, usually represented with two faces, one looking to the past and the other anticipating the future. It’s a symbol that Anderson uses to straddle, among other things, that cusp, that middle ground between youth and adulthood.

In this show’s four “Totemic Sonar” single-channel videos, for example, circular screens are set into solid wooden box frames and arranged vertically on the wall, and we see arrow shapes and expanding circles pulse by quickly. Catching the images in the bits behind the more solid-colored shapes offers its own intrigue. Is this the Earth from orbit? The woods? The arrows split the space, and the circles corral it back again, endlessly.

Tinged by ambient music coming from “Fragments of Space [ST2],” which is projected hugely on another wall, are the chanting tones of a child reading … something. That voice, in an effect that, at least in terms of sound, recalls Hugo Ball’s lobster-suit dada performance, is reciting Icelandic historian and poet Snorri Sturluson’s 13th-century Prose Edda Gylfaginning. The child’s voice, played through 24 little round speakers piled together on the floor, is charming but also feels a little distant, perhaps owing to the language and the mythology outlined in the story. Sturluson composed his Gylfaginning to reconcile the Icelandic Christian society of the time with its earlier culture; its narrator talks about the journey from the mainland, about gods and kings, and he quotes the older sagas.

One of the stories recounted is about Hjúki and Bil, two children taken up into the sky by the gods as they were coming from a well called Byrgir. This could be an origin of the Jack and Jill nursery rhyme. For Anderson, it’s a piece of the prism through which we find contemporary rites of passage.

The urge to capture and repurpose myth, while finding a way to spend time with his son, is not new for Anderson, but much of the raw visual material he’s using here is. Almost all of this work was created in the past two months, thanks to the experimental freedom afforded by the Studios Inc. program. Part of his recent palette is Iceland itself; he spent February at the Nes Artist Residency in Skagaströnd.

Geologic time is self-evident in Iceland, where the landscape has been shaped by thousands of years of volcanic activity. It has the world’s oldest known geyser and as recently as June 1967 added a new, mile-wide island to its southern coast, the result of an underwater eruption that lasted more than three and a half years. It also bears the marks of human time. When settlers arrived in the late 800s, the place was one-fourth trees; today only 1 percent of the land is forested, and erosion caused by farming and grazing over the years makes it difficult to add to those numbers.

For non-natives, though, Iceland’s vast rocky sweeps, volcanic peaks, ocean cliffs and glaciers offer inspiration. And the metaphors inherent in the landscape gave an outline to Anderson’s quest.

Three of Anderson’s single-channel videos here use only his Iceland footage. “Kristalsform” addresses transience by dramatizing the melting of ice. “Mývatn” (named for the shallow lake created by a volcanic eruption 2,300 years ago) shows a fissure spewing geothermic steam in symmetrical formations manipulated by the artist. “Spákonufell,” named for the mountain it depicts, recalls a character in Skagaströnd’s sagas, a prophet-witch who climbed the peak daily and hid her gold there using a spell. Anderson centers the mountain in the frame and splits it into a blue, snow-capped reflection of itself, shimmering under a layer of surreal water droplets.

There’s also a periscope titled “Bifröst,” a large white viewing apparatus that requires you to kneel on a silver pillow and look up into the green, zooming Northern Lights. Anderson believes that everyone should see the aurora borealis. (“It’s transformative,” he told the May 11 audience.) Even captured on video, it’s stunning.

Leaning closest to narrative is the video “Entries,” which begins with a boy (Finn, in acting mode) chipping at a tree stump. He and another boy dig with sticks in the mud. Images of Finn entering an overturned hollow tree suggest a journey. Later we see him asleep as Icelandic landscapes sweep by, and then swinging a baseball bat before the foggy fields and the sea return.

The actual baseball bat is installed, midswing, in a surreal interaction with a mirror. Called “9 Is the Key,” it acts as a “through the looking glass,” “break into the next thing” summary. And whatever Thor’s-hammer notion might be at work, baseball includes its own mythology, one that includes the ties between father and son.

Anderson says he plans to continue the project over the summer. Steep yourself in this introduction, this enchanting thoughtscape, to be ready for the next chapter.

On exhibit: The Janus Restraint: The Ascension continues at The Studios Inc Exhibition Space, 1708 Campbell St., through 06.24.13. Hours are 10 AM – 4PM Tues-Friday and 12 – 4 PM Saturday. For more information, call 816.994.7134.

 The 2013 – 2014 Exhibition Series has been made possible through the generous financial support of Jane Hunt-Meade and Benjamin Meade.  Financial assistance for this project has been provided by the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency

a cage went in search of a bird
Opening Reception: May 10th 7-9pm
May 10th – June 19th 2013

Radiatorarts | 10-61 Jackson Ave, Long Island City, NY 11106

Eve Bailey, Rachel Bernstein, Ryan V Brennan, Diana Heise, Roxanne Jackson, Coralina Meyer, Sono Osato, Malingering Uvula (Camilla Ha and Michael Merck) Gabriela Vainsencher.
Curated by Sarah Walko

The exhibition “The City of K. Franz Kafka and Prague” permanently on display at the KafkaMuseum was the impetus for this exhibition. Kafka’s relationship with cities through his surreal lens coupled with his imagination and during the context of his time brought the simultaneous nightmare/dreamscape of the budding technological age into the realm of the real in his stories, projecting super psyches onto our cities.

The artists in this exhibition are all exploring the surreal space of our time now. Large cultural and philosophical shifts due to massive environmental and economic challenges and the level of technology we are reaching and working with daily is all ushering in new branches of consciousness and new approaches to how we live. The artists, like Kafka did, address our current cosmic predicament in various ways; our relationship with nature, our relationship to self within today’s technological tools, and with objects of alchemical/shamanic ritual and ceremony. They are writing out the dreamscapes of our now and a vision of the future that lacks the pasts’ patriarchal aesthetic and imagines the opening up of a future with more feminine traits, including acts of reclamation and the healing of our past and ourselves within our cities.

Bifröst, still from a time-lapse animation, 2013

Studios Inc Exhibition Space is pleased to present The Janus Restraint: The Ascension, an exhibition featuring resident artist Barry Anderson, on view from 5.10.13 to 6.21.13 with an opening reception Friday, 5.10.13 from 6:00 – 9:00 PM. The opening night of the exhibition will feature a special live performance by Kansas City-based electronic artists Gemini Revolution.

The Janus Restraint: The Ascension is the first entry in an ambitious new multi-faceted work Barry will be pursuing over the coming year. Using Janus, the Roman deity of crossroads and passageways, as a reference point, the artworks incorporate video, sound, social media, performance, photography, and sculpture to focus on themes of identity, adolescence, storytelling, ritual, and cosmology.

Barry works in video art, and his creations have recently been featured in Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco, Chicago, St. Louis, and Kansas City as well as internationally in England, Finland, Dubai, Thailand, Canada, and Cuba. His last solo exhibition at Studios Inc was in March 2010. In 2009, his animations, along with monograph of the animations, were featured in a large-scale city-wide project for Light Work in Syracuse, NY. His videos can be found in the permanent collections of the Everson Museum of Art, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art.

Barry grew up in a small town in Texas. In 1991, he earned a BFA in photography from the University of Texas at Austin, and in 2002, he earned a MFA in photography and digital media from Indiana University Bloomington.  During the time between degrees, he worked as an editorial photographer and graphic designer in Austin, TX. Currently, he is an Associate Professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City where he teaches courses in motion design, video art, portfolio development, and professional practices.

Barry Anderson is a resident artist at Studios Inc. Studios Inc provides studio space, professional development, networking, and exhibitions for mid-career artists in Greater Kansas City.

 The 2013 – 2014 Exhibition Series has been made possible through the generous financial support of Jane Hunt-Meade and Benjamin Meade.  Financial assistance for this project has been provided by the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency

Floor Samples
Noland’s tapestries torn and taped from the fabric of life and art

By Michael J. Krainak
The Reader, April 1st 2013

The walls of the first floor gallery at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts haven’t seen anything quite like this. It is doubtful viewers have either. A current exhibit, The Unorganized Territory, features primarily large-scale tapestry forms by Kansas City artist Garry Noland, who was awarded this solo show as a 2012 Bemis Regional Juried Exhibition winner. But unless you saw that show last year, there is little to prepare you for Noland’s spin on fabric art in this exhibit, which continues through May 4.

Bemis viewers familiar with artist Mary Zicafoose’s delicately and elegantly woven work, oft seen on the venue’s walls, are in for an attitude adjustment in The Unorganized Territory. Noland’s variation on the medium is created solely of duct tape that combines the de-saturated palette of this material with the accumulated detritus stuck to it from his studio floor.

Hesse McGraw, Bemis chief curator, describes the artist’s visual vocabulary as akin to Modernist paintings, ‘80s pop culture and Coogi sweaters among other references, complimentary or not. Regardless of its influence, Noland’s aesthetic makes an immediate impression. And like some contemporary abstract art on display, first viewer impressions may not be trusted.

What at first may look no more appealing than indeed Noland’s studio floor or discards from a kitchen demo that unearthed a maze of multi-colored tile or linoleum, deserves a second look and even a second thought. It’s no coincidence that this seemingly unrecognizable and unorganized territory was first witnessed in the experimental and now dormant Bemis Underground.

Both former Underground curator Joel Damon and McGraw made it their mission below and above ground to question and challenge concepts of contemporary art as well as the curatorial process itself. Past Underground shows such as Brittain Rosendahl: What Goes Down Must Come Up: Trial Ascension, Requisite, and Kan Seidel: Performing Human made that abundantly clear.

Furthermore, Noland’s exhibit is yet another welcomed nod to McGraw’s continuing mission to examine and redefine notions of abstraction. His 2010 exhibition Borderland Abstraction set the stage for that investigation. More current fare such as Placemakers, nine artists who in multiple media “engaged in interventionist and transformative acts” and Nate Boyce: Plinth Inhibitor, sculpture and video, continue that conversation.

In his artist statement, Noland says art for him is a “primary problem-solving communicative tactic. Each of us as artists and (viewers) has a responsibility to solve individual problems in the studio and…societal problems outside the studio.” Despite his altruistic and slightly pretentious tone, his counterintuitive, taped tapestries do make a statement on more than one level while managing to appeal visually on their own.

As for “studio problem solving,” Noland’s fabric art has a green point of view with its mix of repurposed materials and recycled found objects, all of which have been stacked, layered or collaged. Though the work does seem “unorganized” and spontaneous, the large wall hangings that dominate the show are actually carefully composed as well.

The kaleidoscopic and scale-like strips get all the attention until one notices that each piece’s uniquely colorful and informal pattern adheres to the same Tattersall background of pastel pinks, greens and blues, both a structural and visual motif that unites the entire show. Consequently, the exhibit is a form of conceptual abstraction whose whole is greater than the some of its parts, though individual works may appeal more than others.

A holistic analysis and symbolic assessment may be appropriate here as Nolan’s conceptual POV is decidedly humanistic. “People are accumulations of genetic information,” he said. Following that, one could interpret his work as the quilting of one’s genetic make-up via the individual strands woven on the same DNA structure, the pastel grid mentioned above, that we all share.

But the artist also allows that “layers and stacks of information and experience shape us” also. We are unique collages of nature and nurture, he implies. Which would allow for the assemblage-like quality of his work as well as its dualistic mix of geometric and organic patterns. In a last bit of interpretation curator McGraw contends that Noland’s quilting comments on his camaraderie with colleagues in the region where he has “often traded works with other artists…in this sense his work aligns with the history of gift economies and serve to authentically build community.” Yet another connection to Bemis’s own outreach mission via such projects as the Carver Bank residency program, which officially opened last weekend.

If all the above sounds like a bit of a stretch for abstract art in general, then explore The Unorganized Territory for its clever sophistication. Whereas folk art and traditional quilts might seem out of place in this urban setting, Noland’s fabric art seems right at home with the gallery’s exposed mechanicals, beams and columns, bare windows and concrete floor. His colorful, contemporary tapestries light up the otherwise spare surroundings not as ornaments but as part of the fabric, like a vein of gold or quartz in bedrock.

Live in the space for a while and absorb the ambiance. View the work from a distance first and notice the ragged edges of each piece as if each were a remnant torn from a larger tapestry layered beneath the surface. Venture closer and the dense mix of organic and geometric quilting begins to interest individually.

Titles are of little help here, either prosaic as with “The Blue Ramp” sculpture in the middle of the gallery, subtle as in the “Ticket” or humorously expressive with “KA-Pow’s” cartoon graphics. Instead, pay more attention to the palette and pattern in each work that at first caught your attention and then drew you in, opening up your imagination as well as your senses like a flower. That’s the nature of abstract art that in its own way is no less representational when the design is this deliberate and fetching.

Perhaps the purest and most recognizable abstract form in this show is the op art #4, “Repeated Pattern,” as if other pieces weren’t as well. It’s a very crafty work not only because of its illusion of floating white blocks on a blue and whitish, checked background but because of its ironic command of its surroundings despite its relative small size. It’s a phenomenon consistent with Noland’s belief that “one cannot tell A, B and C apart if there is no space between them.” Thus some creative curatorial hanging results in an asymmetrical balance when looking at the south wall of the gallery as a whole, an effect often overlooked by viewers.

Equally compelling are the less definitive, more expressive #s 7 and 8, “Drape” and “Billet” and the companion 5 and 6, “Large Zipper” and “Zipper.” “Billet is an effective blend of paisley and geometric in pink, green, blue and gray while “Drape” frames two strips of hounds tooth and herringbone in earth tones around the familiar grid with a strip of silver and a lattice of pink, gray and beige slicing in for relief.

But it is with “large Zipper” and “Zipper” that Noland offers the most satisfying blend of his many influences and references. The title motif in both opens up a dazzling display of bits and pieces of pure color that suggest July 4^th fireworks, a peacock in full-feathered bloom or even the fabric of a Gustav Klimt landscape or a Whistler nocturne.

There is some irony then in this exhibit’s name, for as “unorganized’ as they may appear given their source material, Noland’s tapestries are nonetheless harmonious abstractions, torn and taped remnants of industry, nature and art.

By Tracy Abeln
The Pitch March 26, 2013

Until you read their titles, you might mistake the claw-shaped chandeliers, studded with old-fashioned Christmas lights, for alien helmets or some device ready to take over your mind. But go ahead, step under them. Dylan Mortimer’s “Motion-Sensor Halo (with Rays)” lights up, producing a twinkly aura that surrounds you with light. Anyone looking at you can see you glow, as if from within.

It’s a Sign! is Dylan Mortimer’s first solo exhibition as a resident of the Studios Inc, and he makes it a crisp and blocky expression of bold design. The show’s title shouts out at least two meanings. One is a plain announcement that these objects are merely signs, sharing a bloodline with every other ubiquitous indicator of shops, services and situations. And, considering Mortimer’s open-faced Christian faith, there’s also the suggestion that a higher power stands ready to convey a message through some symbolic presentation. (His artist’s statement leans this way, saying this body of work shows “signs” of his “journeys and struggles with faith, health and life.”)

A young pastor who is also an artist, Mortimer is too articulate and unassuming to force a belief system on the viewer. He told people at a March 9 talk that this is simply “a show where [he could] chill out a little bit.” He’s a seeker who knows that there are no solid answers, and Sign is open to interpretation.

Mortimer has studied the history of art depicting holy persons with halos — ancient, Asian, Christian, Western. ” You are the light of the world’ is a potentially confusing statement,” he told his March 9 group. “My perception of that whole chapter starts with ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit.’ But what about being poor in spirit is blessed? I take it as Jesus is coming to you. So even if you are poor in spirit, you are the light, you have worth enough to deserve glorification in that sense to the creator.”

Mortimer said that turning that idea over and over reveals “the messiness of the Gospel.” There’s free will, after all, and the audience that day shared a fairly lengthy discussion about the concept of being enlightened, projecting light, choosing paths in life. This was also Mortimer’s work revealing its broad relevance.

Sign disperses nine constructions, each of substantial size, around the cavernous gallery space in a way that allows each to be viewed and considered individually. The halos find a natural background here, suspended over the concrete floor against cinder-block walls, with industrial lights towering above. The white walls provide plain backgrounds for Mortimer’s signs, erasing any visual static that would come if they were attached to some building’s exterior. Inside the gallery, without the clutter of unwanted context, the ideas on display can be contemplated purely.

After 15 years of earlier work that incorporated words and phrases, Mortimer here goes with the concept of selling an idea (or sharing one’s deeper convictions and beliefs). To execute these ideas, which he has selected from sketches in Adobe Illustrator, he has engaged a host of assistants for the fabrication. (The credits section of his statement includes about 50 people who helped launch this show in some way.) The slight variations in craftsmanship reflect different skill levels as well as some experimentation and learning, and the pieces hold up well as a whole.

They are, in part, functioning as sketches for public art that Mortimer would like to see take shape in the future. His process this time started with arrows, a reference to a phrase from Chapter 3 of the Gospel of John — in which the wind is said to blow where it chooses and has a sound but is something we can neither source nor predict. “In a sense,” he said March 9, “you’re being guided to some degree, though you have no idea what’s to come or even necessarily an understanding of what was before.” The arrow forms suggest this feeling. “All these different directions are happening, but it’s being held together,” he explained. “There’s a sense of direction in the seeming directionlessness of it.” This, he added, represents how he feels about life and all its craziness.

There are two signs made of these interweaving arrows, painted to look almost like burnished gold. Welded aluminum frames are inset with round, incandescent white light bulbs, running the length of the gilt arms. The effect evokes nostalgia — for the old Las Vegas strip, mid-20th-century Times Square, carnival rides.

“Pneuma”

“Pneuma” is a stack of six swooping arrows, each pointing in a slightly different direction. The word is Greek for breath, but through years of religious interpretations has come to mean soul or spirit. Its companion work, “Ruach,” is named for the Hebrew word for the same thing, and its eight arrows jut out in straight, stiff projections. The subtle curve of some light bulbs at the center keeps the piece from perfection, allowing the suggestion of organic variation, of uncertainty.

One of the largest works is an aluminum-frame sign representing a cartoonish spatter of blood, blinking with a Lichtenstein-dot fill of red bulbs in a hue of the most oxygen-rich blood. Mortimer knows that blood has as many possible connotations as light, but he has been clear that his aim here is not to glorify violence or ill health but to express the sheer reality of those things.

A companion piece is easy to read as an exclamation point of dripping life (echoing the show title’s punctuation), a reminder that there can be meaning in spilled blood. What the body spends need not be lost in vain.

BY ELISABETH KIRSCH
Special to The Star
March 20, 2013

Artist Dylan Mortimer stands below “Halo #2” one of the religious-themed artworks in his exhibit, “Dylan Mortimer: It’s a Sign!” at the Studios Inc

In the past, Dylan Mortimer has plunked down artfully designed, plastic Bible-dispensing machines in such places as Westport. He has installed Prayer Booths with knee pads throughout the New York City park system; he has placed road signs that read “Prayer Allowed for 40 Yards” around the country.

He has designed hip-hop jewelry, with enough bling to blind you, which includes sayings such as “God hooks my ass up!” in reference to the 23rd Psalm. Mortimer graduated from the Kansas City Art Institute in 2002 and received a master’s in fine arts from the School of the Visual Arts in New York in 2006. His art has been shown around the country, including at Columbia and the David Zwirner Gallery in NYC. He has been profiled in the New York Times and on National Public Radio.

“Religion,” he noted then, “is just one of those topics you don’t bring up at the dinner table. My hope and dream would be that there will be a respectful way to engage in dialogue.”

In his current show “It’s a Sign!” with its mix of religiosity and Vegas-style billboards, Mortimer once again produces eye-popping artworks that even Andy Warhol, the art world’s P.T. Barnum, would support. Nine sculptures and wall works dealing with the Christian themes of halos and Jesus’ crown of thorns, complete with blood splatters, adorn the walls and hang from the ceiling of The Studios Inc exhibition space.

“Pneuma” and “Ruach,” two wall works of arrows moving in multiple directions, are made from aluminum with neon lights. Their inspiration, Mortimer said in a recent interview, comes from a quote in John, chapter 3: “The wind blows where it will. You hear its sound but you can’t tell where it is coming from or where it is going. So it is with those born of the spirit.” Pneuma is the Greek word for wind and spirit; ruach is Hebrew for the same. Four monster halo sculptures, suspended from the ceiling, require the visitor to stand underneath them to activate the motion sensors that light the blinking bulbs attached to the arched halo forms. As Mortimer explains: “The Halo needs you to be in it in order to light up; you don’t have to go there, but it’s there if you want it.” As for the “Blood Drip” and “Blood Splatter” wall pieces, Mortimer says that he wanted them to have “the heaviness of a crucifix but with the approachability of a Times Square sign.” “I want to take something difficult and have beauty come out of that; I want to transform it, to recontextualize it. Jesus’ murder was a bad thing, but look what came out of that.”

This show is personal for Mortimer, who has a chronic illness. “I would love to give people what I’ve learned from being ill, because even when inflicted with suffering you can look at the crown of thorns and know you don’t have to get bogged down by it. There is beauty and joy even if the glass is half full.”

He is also a pastor whose talks include “God is Green” and “How to Argue With God.” Mortimer used professional sign makers and raised funds from Kickstarter to help assemble this show, which is a technical tour de force. It is also one of the most provocative, beautiful exhibits you are going to see in Kansas City or anywhere else this year.

Dylan Mortimer: It’s a Sign! continues at The Studios Inc exhibition space, 1708 Campbell St, Kansas City MO 64108 through April 19. Hours are 10 AM to 4 PM, Tuesday through Friday and noon to 4 PM Saturday. For more information, call 816.994.7134

The Studios Inc is pleased to announce that our selection committee has awarded the 2013-2015 artist residencies to

 The Studios Inc provides a three-year residency to competitively selected mid-career artists intent on moving to the next level of success. Expansive private studio space provides room to expand the scale of works. A patron underwrites each artist’s studio, building mutually meaningful relationships between local artists and new and seasoned collectors. The Studios’ programs support the symbiotic relationship between artists and collectors essential for a thriving visual art community. The Studios nurtures symbiosis at a micro level with focus on a select group of artists and the patrons who support them. Combined, The Studios Inc is a vital part of the visual art community’s unprecedented growth.

The Studios Inc would also like to acknowledge and wish the best to the three artists whose time as residents in the program has concluded: Julie Farstad, Peter Warren, and Davin Watne.  We wish them continued success in the art world and thank them for their time as resident artists at The Studios Inc.

With eight years behind us, our goal of promoting and providing the tools and resources to the most promising mid-career artists in our area has been extremely successful. Our three-year studio program continues to have a major impact within our local community and on a national and international level, promoting Kansas City as a leader in the visual arts.

 A selection panel consisting of a variety of individuals from the Kansas City area is assembled and convenes and it is this selection panel that determined which applicants were awarded the three studio spaces in 2013. This year’s selection panel consisted of Elizabeth Amirahmadi, Kanon Cozad, Emily Eddins, Elisabeth Kirsch, Mike Lyon, Eric Negrete, and Davin Watne.

These residencies were open to all mid-career visual artists. The Studios Inc does not discriminate on the basis of age, ethnicity, gender, economic or social standing, political or religious beliefs, marital status, sexual orientation, or artistic expression.

It’s a Sign! is an exhibition of work created during the last two years in residence at The Studios Inc. This body of work deals with signage very directly, so they are literal signs but also “signs” of my journeys and struggles with faith, health, and life. Pieces will include wall-mounted signage and sculptural motion-sensor halos suspended from the ceiling that light up when you walk into them.

Dylan Mortimer graduated with a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and a MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York. He has created public art installations in eleven states including New York, Chicago, Baltimore, and Washington. Local awards include a 2009 recipient of the Charlotte Street Award, a current residency at The Studios Inc, Kansas City’s Best Artist by The Pitch in 2003, Avenue of the Arts in 2003, Art in the Loop in 2005, and ArtsKC Fund Inspiration Grant in 2008. His exhibition history includes David Zwirnir Gallery in New York, Columbia University, The Longwood Arts Gallery in the Bronx, the Dumbo Arts Center, PS 122 Gallery in New York, Boots Contemporary Art Space in St. Louis, the Aqua Art Fair in Miami, Benrimon Contemporary in New York, the Kansas City Jewish Museum, and the Leedy-Voulkos Art Gallery in Kansas City.

Dylan Mortimer is a resident artist at The Studios Inc. The Studios Inc provides studio space, professional development, networking, and exhibitions for mid-career artists in Greater Kansas City. The Studios Inc is located at 1708 Campbell in Kansas City, Missouri, and open Tuesday through through Friday 10:00 AM- 4:00 PM and Saturday 12:00 PM – 4:00 PM

The 2013 – 2014 Exhibition Series has been made possible through the generous financial support of Jane Hunt-Meade and Benjamin Meade. Financial assistance for this project has been provided by the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency.

By BRITTANY FICKEN
Special to The Bohemian
The Bohemian, March 2013

There’s a bottle of whiskey and an empty PBR can on the table. Garry Noland has just buzzed us into his top floor Crossroads studio at The Studios Inc. We step into the space as Noland shakes our hands and offers us coffee. In a dark corner of his studio, Noland shares insight on his older paintings with Anna and I. Thick layers of oil paint coat the surfaces of National Geographic magazines, creating a topographic texture. Noland carves borders in the paint to separate the positive and negative space between land and water. Which is land and which is water? These divides are not easy to distinguish. The borders of the countries mimic borders of all kinds. Noland explains how borders which exist between people are always changing and are never as clear as the borders on a map.

Play between positive and negative space is crucial to all of Noland’s work. “There is importance in negative space,” he says. Layered narrow strips of carefully cut tape hang on the wall. The strips hide a message of Morse code within the long and short colors of the tape. The piece reveals the importance of the space between each dot or dash: without it, no message could be conveyed. Noland brings us to the front of his studio where a giant tape and floor debris wall hanging exists. He says he just pulled this one up yesterday.

Noland covers the floor of his wooden studio in colored tape and peels it up from the floor one inch at a time. He says his fingers are still sore from yesterday. It was a late night for Noland. Wood grain and debris are picked up by the tape, forming a kind of terrain. Noland says once up on the wall, he stands back and looks at the piece for hours before deciding how to approach it. Noland chooses what parts of the sticky side to cover with pattern and tape and what spaces to leave bare as wood grain. He shows us the painterly strokes on the back of the tape.

On another wall, thin strips of paper and marbles are placed on tape in a way that appears as if they are floating. Noland says this is where he tests ideas and plays. Four April 1972 National Geographic magazines are cut to reveal this comical message: “If your six year old saw something like this, would he know how to phone for help?”.

Garry Noland is showing this month at La Esquina Gallery in the continuation of the Concept OK-KC exhibition. It features a combination of KC and Oklahoma artists. The exhibition will be curated in KC by Charlotte Street Curator-In-Residence Jamilee Polson Lacy. Check out Garry Noland’s work at the opening reception March 15th 6pm to 9pm. The show will be open until April 20th.