Generally Meant to Be Discarded - a Yoonmi Nam solo exhibition

Studios Inc presents “Generally Meant to Be Discarded”, a solo exhibition by Yoonmi Nam on view January 12 through February 24, 2024. 

Studios Inc will host an opening reception on Friday, January 12th from 5-8 pm.

Yoonmi Nam will give an artist talk in conversation with Aileen June Wang, Curator at the Beach Museum of Art, on Saturday, January 13th from 12-1 pm.

Exhibition hours: Wednesday through Friday from 10-4pm, Saturday from 12-4pm, and by appointment 

Location: 1708 Campbell Street, Kansas City, MO, 64108

Yoonmi Nam is an artist born in Seoul, South Korea, and has studied in Korea, Canada, US, and Japan. Yoonmi received her MFA degree from the Rhode Island School of Design and BFA degree from Hong-Ik University in Seoul, Korea. Her work is in the collections of the RISD Museum, RI; Spencer Museum of Art, KS; and the Hawai’i State Art Museum, HI; among others, and has shown her work in over 25 solo exhibitions and 200 group exhibitions both nationally and internationally. Yoonmi is a professor of printmaking at the University of Kansas, and was awarded the Studios Inc artist residency in 2020. 

Image: Ceramic piece from “Generally Meant to Be Discarded”, E.G. Schempf

Generally Meant to be Discarded

Artist Statement

Yoonmi Nam

I observe the things around me. I am deeply aware of the presence of objects that we handle, consume, display, and discard. I am drawn to them especially when they subtly suggest a sense of time that seems both temporary and lasting. There is truth and honesty in time, as all of us share the fate of impermanence. But the way we surround ourselves with collections of things, it is as if we feel a sense of permanence through these comforts and arrangements. In my work, I make images and forms that highlight everyday objects, spaces, events, and routines. While insignificant and mundane, they allow us to notice both the stillness and the passage of time.

Like many people during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, my husband and I stayed in our small house and relied on deliveries to sustain us. Every week, delivery boxes and plastic containers of varying sizes and shapes from local restaurants, shops, and online stores were left at our front door. I developed a routine of disinfecting them and then breaking down the boxes and other packaging materials to recycle them. It became a consuming part of my daily activity because if neglected, the boxes and plastic containers would start to take over the small space that we lived in. In the process of handling these objects for recycling, I noticed interesting shapes and began to collect them. 

I am a collector of trash. My collection of flattened-out boxes became templates that I traced onto Tyvek sheets. The Tyvek sheet surfaces were first painted with Sumi ink and sprayed with the alcohol-based sanitizers that I had used to disinfect the surfaces of our deliveries. When the mist of this spray landed on the Sumi ink surface, it reacted with the still-wet ink and made visible the trace of my disinfecting action. Using my various box templates, I traced their shapes and made the necessary cuts and folds to imitate the original boxes. Using these ink and alcohol-stained cut-out shapes, I made studies of different arrangements and conditions. This body of work is collectively titled Delivered and Discarded. At times the box shape remains tethered to the rest of the Tyvek sheet, and at other times, different shapes of flatted-out boxes are stacked in a small pile, as if they were to be taken out to be discarded.

I continue to explore these discarded materials as a print matrix. In my work, there is a direct relationship between the subject matter and the materials. Unfolding is a series of monotype prints using the technique of pressure printing. Pressure printing is a method of printing that allows a direct imprint of my collection of boxes onto paper. I place several layers of flattened-out boxes behind a sheet of Japanese paper positioned on top of a fully inked Plexiglass plate. When this is run through the press, the physical presence of the boxes behind the paper applies more pressure onto the paper, picking up more ink, and creating an impression of the stacked boxes. 

The plastic containers are designed to be useful for very specific and brief tasks. They are designed to keep fragile or temporary items protected, such as eggs, COVID tests, take-out food, and Girl Scout cookies. I am interested in these objects as cultural artifacts of our present time. I am also interested in the contradicting sense of time that these objects inherently possess as materials and in their functions. Keeping is a collection of ceramic objects that are direct castings of the negative spaces of various plastic packages, and they become indexical signs of these disposable objects. Another series titled Cairn consists of porcelain takeout containers stacked neatly and placed on tables that are inspired by Soban, a traditional Korean dining table. These cast porcelain pieces are glazed with traditional Korean celadon glaze to further the conversation with history, culture, time, and identity.

Studios Inc presents Peregrine Honig’s "Player": seven paintings, two years in residence - Friday, November 17, 2023.

Where:  Studios Inc Exhibit Hall

1708 Campbell Street, Kansas City, MO, 64108

When:

• 5:30pm, Board & Collectors preview 

• 6:30pm, Open to the public

• 7pm Show

• Artist Talk: Saturday Nov. 18 at 12pm

"Player" directs the audience into seven theater sets by Peregrine Honig. Each 6x9 foot oil painting presents life size characters in pigment layered backgrounds waiting for their light. Staring out from the woods, swinging from the moon, hanging by their ankle, the viewer is invited into and out of the dark. The characters and audience are players being played.

Peregrine Honig began the series "Player" in 2021 after receiving The Studios Inc Studio Exchange, a competitive residency curating mid-career artists into accessible downtown production spaces. Studios Inc is programmed by curators and collectors and includes a five week public solo exhibition.

Preview the process on social media: #everylayerisaplayer

Understudies and Auditions will be on display in conjunction with Player November 17th through December 30th at Blue Gallery. This body of oil paintings on wooden panels, vintage floral linen and canvas paper present cameos and backdrops to Peregrine Honig’s largest paintings to date. Two years in production during her residence at Studios Inc, each piece is a cameo of fairytales, mythology and theater sets. Please join us in meeting the artist after experiencing her installation at Studios Inc. Drinks and light fair will be provided in celebration.

Admission to the premiere of and Artist Talk for “Player” are free, but reservations are encouraged. Reserve your spot for the premiere at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/player-tickets-716939103157. 
Reserve your spot for the artist talk: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/artist-talk-peregrine-honig-tickets-732231613467?aff=oddtdtcreator

“Player” will be on display at Studios Inc thru Saturday, December 23rd. To schedule a private walkthrough with the artist or for more information, please contact mallory@thestudiosinc.org. 

Exhibition hours: Wednesday through Friday from 10-4pm, Saturday from 12-4pm, and by appointment 

Location: 1708 Campbell Street, Kansas City, MO, 64108

About the Artist:

Honig is a well-known artist both in and outside of Kansas City, MO.  Her work is included in the permanent collections of the Albright Knox, Buffalo, NY; Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.; the Milwaukee Art Museum; the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington D.C.; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut. Honig has had solo and group exhibitions at Dwight Hackett Projects in Santa Fe, Geschiedle Gallery in Chicago, and Larissa Goldstein, in New York. 

Studios Inc is pleased to present Lilly McElroy’s solo exhibition titled, “I Will Destroy You.” on view September 8th through October 21st, 2023.

An opening reception will be hosted on Friday, September 8th from 5-8 pm.

Lilly McElroy will host an artist talk on Saturday, September 9th from 12-1 pm.

From the artist:

“You are standing in a landscape. Maybe it is a pasture, or maybe it is the lakeshore on a summer evening, or maybe it is the top of a mountain, the wilderness past the end of the trail, but whatever this place is, in this moment, it feels safe. It feels stable. Then it doesn’t. All at once, there is dread and melancholy. You are here, waiting for an inevitable end. It is coming, you are grieving, but at least this place is pretty.

I will destroy you.

It’s natural to make photographs while you wait for the inevitable. Photography captures light and freezes time. It is an attempt to preserve the fleeting. For this exhibition photographs of the setting sun were made by McElroy using a 4 x 5 film camera. She then irrevocably altered the negatives, using her fingernail to scratch away the image of the sun. This action is small yet devastating; the anxious picking at a scab that leaves you with a lifelong scar. The sun, the very thing whose light makes the photograph possible, has been gouged out of the negative, the printed picture rendering this absence not as erasure revealing blank paper, but as the ominous birth of an angry black void. McElroy’s hand is directly linked to this destruction as the sun becomes a meteor, dark and crackling in the sky, a malevolent yellow nimbus dancing around it as it hurtles toward the surface of the earth, toward you.

In her monolithic works the sun is a dark orb that hovers over a bucolic field. It no longer emits energy or light; it only absorbs and you are standing in front of it. The innate silence of the photograph now presses down on the landscape. The rustling of the grass in the wind, the susurration of the insects in the field are cut off, and you can only hear the sounds of your own breath. McElroy made these images in the darkroom, laying negatives directly on top of light sensitive paper. With the press of a button, light flashed through the negative and struck the paper, chemically altering its structure. This transformation signals a shift, an irrevocable change, a violence that has been enacted and can’t be taken back.”

I Will Destroy You. will be on view thru October 21st. 

Exhibition hours: Wednesday through Friday from 10-4pm and Saturday from 12-4pm and by appointment 

Location: 1708 Campbell Street, Kansas City, MO, 64108

Studios Inc will host the BAAR Art Journey August 16th-23rd, with an artist talk on the evening of the 16th. View works from artist-in-residence Harold Smith, former resident artist Miguel Rivera, and area artists Kwanza Humphrey, Wolfe Brack, Isaiah Lee, and Chico Sierra.

Studios Inc is happy to announce its group exhibition, SUMMER FUNDRAISER / Selections from Current Residents & Alumni. An opening reception will be held Friday, August 4th from 5-8 pm. These works will remain on public view through August 23, 2023. This group exhibition is a walk through the history of the Studios Inc Artist Residency Program and features works from an esteemed roster of current resident artists & alumni, including:

Lilly McElroy, Emily Sall, Yoonmi Nam, Peregrine Honig, Harold Smith, Jill Downen, Misha Kligman, Ricky Allman, Barry Anderson, Patty Carroll, Miguel Rivera, Robert Bingaman, Gerry Trilling, Kathy Liao, Benjamin Rosenthal, HyeYoung Shin, Lori Raye Erickson, Miles Neidinger, Jarett Mellenbruch, Lonnie Powell, Garry Noland, Caitlin Horsmon, Marie Bannerot McInerney, Debra Smith, Judith G. Levy, Kevin Townsend, Miki Baird, May Tveit, Susan White, Marcie Miller Gross, Susan White, Peter Warren, Matthew Dahaemers, Andrea Flamini, Dylan Mortimer, Colby K Smith, Brett Reif, Jamie Warren, Elijah Gowin, Archie Scott Goebber & Beniah Leuschke

This is the perfect time to celebrate the history of the vibrant Kansas City arts community and collect works from some of Kansas City’s premier artists. All proceeds from sales directly fund future artist residencies. Studios Inc is a 501 (c) 3 Non Profit Artist Residency Program serving mid-career artists in the Greater Kansas City Metro. Learn more at www.studiosinc.org. 

SUMMER FUNDRAISER/SELECTIONS will be on view through August 23, 2023. Exhibition hours are Wednesday thru Friday 10am-4pm and Saturday 12-4pm. Private tours are available.