Should we call it the Leawood Arts District?

Something artistic is happening out there, and we should take note.

By "out there," I mean what many in the Kansas City Metro think of as "out there" in southern Johnson County, KS.

I'll be the first to grant that southern Johnson County doesn't exactly have a reputation for being stylish or artistic. Much of the artistic community around town tends to think of it with a What's the Matter with Kansas? frame of mind: as a wasteland of white-bread suburbanites in cookie-cutter plastic palaces.

If you think of it that way, however, you haven't been paying attention.

I recently attended the Johnson County Art Crawl, held Friday and Saturday, July 16-17, 2010.  Four of the five galleries on the itinerary are located in a relatively small area between 115th and 119th Streets, bounded on the west by Nall Avenue, and on the east by Tomahawk Creek Parkway--an area that I've started calling the Leawood Arts District. I couldn't get the link to Google Maps to work right, so I've included a screen shot.

A person in good walking shoes could have walked, Kansas City Crossroads-style, between the Prairiebrooke Gallery (A on the map), Eva Reynolds Fine Art Gallery (B), Leawood Fine Art Gallery (C) and The Rice Gallery of Fine Art (D).  However, unlike in the Crossroads, parking was not an issue, so it was easy to drive.  The fifth location was only a few blocks away, at the Tomahawk Ridge Community Center, which now hosts Overland Park's "Art at the Center" series.

There were no colorful crowds on the streets, such as you see on First Fridays in the Crossroads, but other aspects of the event compared very well.  The artwork I saw on display was easily equal to, or better than, much of what you typically see on a First Friday.  These galleries also had efficient air conditioning, decent wine, fresh hors d'oeuvres, and good live music.

The art on offer was a nice mix of local and nationally-known artists.  In several cases, the artists were both nationally-known and local!  Examples are the first Kansas City solo show by Michael Albrechtsen at the Rice Gallery, an exhibition by sculptor Tom Corbin at the Eva Reynolds Gallery, and several new, large paintings by George Jones, featured at Prairiebrooke.  "The Abstracts Exhibition," a collection of works selected by Friends of Overland Park Arts, was the attraction at Tomahawk Ridge, and a group show featuring work by many of the gallery's excellent artists was the focus at Leawood Fine Arts.

These five are by no means the only art galleries in Johnson County--nor are they the only good ones.  What should command the attention of every art lover in the KC metro, however, is the relative concentration of them in this fairly small area, and the uniformly high quality of the offerings to be found in the Leawood Arts District.

Gallery Personalities

We know individuals have personalities that are uniquely their own, and that artists develop a recognizable personal style.

But I never was so clearly aware of how much a gallery can have its own individual style or personality, until recently. My husband and I were rambling through the Kansas City Crossroads Arts District when we encountered two examples of how distinctive a gallery’s “personality” could be.

The first was the new 2010 Gallery at 2010 Main Street, Kansas City, MO. We walked in and immediately “recognized” the wall colorings and characteristic groupings of images on the walls. After a few moments we recognized some individual artists’ work, as well. “Wait!” We both thought, “This looks like the Park Place!”

At left is the homepage for their website.  It gives a good idea of 2010 Gallery's look.

We’d been to the Park Place Gallery in Leawood, KS seven months earlier, but we knew it had closed soon after we were there. The “look” of 2010 Gallery was unmistakably similar. We later discovered that we’d been correct: this was the new “incarnation” of the same gallery. 2010, like Park Place, is the work of Tim Morrison and Rachelle Craig. We’re glad to see them back! 2010 Gallery is a strong new addition to the Crossroads.

At right is a screen shot of the Park Place homepage.  See the similarities?

The second wasn’t as much of a surprise—we already knew that Red Star Studios had moved from their former 17th Street location to the Belger Arts Center at 2100 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO. Red Star not only has gone through a change of location, but it also is transitioning to new ownership. The manager, ceramic artist Tara Dawley, brings consistency to the transition, because she also was manager and deeply involved in the “old” Red Star, owned by fiber artist Susan Hill.

The wide-open space at Belger is much different from the rather tight quarters of the old gallery space on 17th Street, but the display strategies are consistent. They feature white, neutral, or rich, finished-wood surfaces and 3-dimensional groupings to show off the work of the gallery’s ceramic artists.
At left is an example of a display in Red Star's old 17th St. gallery.  It shows the work of Mike Jabbur and Michael Fujita.

Red Star’s current show is “The Fundamentals of Clay,” featuring the work of Ted Adler and five Wichita State University graduate students:
 Nathan Carris Carnes, Lauren Clay, Todd Hayes, David Hellman, and Joe Leonard.  Work by two artists from the current show (Ted Adler at right, and David Hellman below) give an idea of this show's range.

Red Star Studios is a distinctive asset for the Kansas City arts scene. It consistently brings in work by top ceramic artists from all over the US and Canada (my apologies if their offerings are even more international than that!).  
According gallery staff and a conversation I had with Susan Hill at the Prairie Village Art Fair in June, the Belger Arts Center is not Red Star’s final destination. Ultimately, they will once again occupy their own space, somewhere else in central Kansas City. But for now they are alive and well at Belger, and we are glad for the chance to see their artists’ work again.  Anyone who is interested in the ceramic arts should pay close attention to their shows.

Discovering respected “old friends” in new places is a pleasant experience. I am excited to see both of these “old friend” galleries settling gracefully into the Kansas City Crossroads Arts District. I hope you will soon go see them for yourself!

The Kids of “Este es mi México” are Awesome!

As an art teacher who knows how most 7-to 11-year-olds draw and paint, I was impressed by the exhibit, “Este es mi México,” currently at the Mattie Rhodes Art Gallery.  The Mexican Consulate and the Mattie Rhodes Center jointly sponsor the show, which runs through March 26, 2010, here in Kansas City.  These child artists have really got it going!

The exhibit is the result of a contest conducted by the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  The contest is annual; this is the 2008 version. 

The contest rules state, “Children between 7 and 11 years old, related to Mexico, from all over the world, may participate . . . Show in your drawing whatever your imagination says about Mexico: what you know about the country, what you remember, what you are proud of as Mexican, why you love Mexico, what you know about its heroes, culture, art, architecture . . . there is a lot to paint about!” 

The result is an international representation of images made by very talented children from places as diverse as Malaysia, Poland, and the US.  Jenny Mendez, Director of the Mattie Rhodes Art Center, kindly allowed me to photograph some of my personal favorites from the show, to share on this blog.  I hope you’ll agree they are wonderful.

First of all—a salute to these kids’ art teachers! 

It takes a lot on the ball to realize there’s a contest that would relate in meaningful ways to your students’ “roots.”  Next, it takes dedication and planning to fill out all the necessary forms and get all the needed permissions.  And finally, there’s often a surprising amount of effort that must be made to inspire kids in your class to actually enter a contest—even when you make it a class assignment! 

I’ll guarantee you that behind every artist in this show, there stands a wonderful teacher, and often a dedicated parent or two, as well!  A great case in point is the wonderful work in the Polish entries.  

 

These two pieces probably were made by relatives, possibly twin sisters: 10-year-old Ewa and Agnieszka Grodska.

You'll note a technique (oil pastel, I believe) in common with the Grodskas, in the work of Agata Micharowski, 11, which is distinctive enough to make me think they all have the same art teacher.  Nine-year-old Julia Honkisz used crayons or oil pastels with an ink wash over them, then scratched back down to the oil-based layer for the scratchboard design.

These two works from Malaysia also show a commonality of media and color sense that make me think they had the same teacher.  The dancer with the ear of corn is by Alice Roh Gyu Bin, age 8; the Aztec deity and temple are by Tasnim Faiez Syakirah, age 10.

Similar vigor and rhythms of line and color are visible in some of the US entries, such as those of 7-year-old Alvaro Abrego of Oxnard, and Marisa Athena Jaskowski-Fierro, 9, of Salt Lake City.

  

Like the Malaysian artist Tasnim, 11-year-old Alan Alexis Liao Sierra of Panama reaches back to Mexico's Aztec past for his sophisticated rendering of a temple.

Many pieces referenced cultural standards, such as Dia de los Muertos (Erick Deyden Olague, 8, of Phoenix), Our Lady of Guadalupe (Daniela Gonzalez Herrera, 8, of Brownsville), and an Arbol de la Vida, or Tree of Life (Santiago Edinger Huerta, 9, of Los Angeles).

Festivals or carnivals seemed to be on some young minds.  Strikingly detailed images shown here are from Yuseli Medina Perez, 8, of Oxnard, and Raquel Hernandez, 10, of Sacramento.

And lest we forget that Mexico also is a country with beautiful cities, here are Cinthia Patricia Ramirez Parra, 9, of Phoenix, and Christian Gerardo Villegas Rosiles, 10, of Los Angeles, to remind us!

For me, these were the highlights of the show. I hope you enjoyed them, too!