2012 Baltimore Ave I Kansas City, MO 64108 I 816.474.1919 I Thurs-Sat, 11am-5pm

First Friday Opening
October 3, 2014
6pm-9pm

Stamps, acrylic on paper, 3.5" x 5"


Travis Pratt

The Joplin Paintings

  

October 3 - November 1, 2014

Main Gallery


 

ARTIST STATEMENT

 

I make art to translate my existence into material memory. The act is at least as much like burping or farting as it is philosophizing or reasoning with language. Myself with my material circumstances in addition to whatever I consume combine and concentrate in a work of art and this alchemy will usually produce something of substance even if unpleasant. This helps me to become hyper aware of the particulars of my existence and to more fully appreciate them while producing a tangible relic of both the existence and its examination. It is a way to conjure memories, a tool for investigation and above all a toy for messing around. Drawing is at the core of everything I make and acts as an armature for all other decisions to build on. The immediacy of capturing gesture and emotion and creating space with a marking tool is an endless source of interest to me. This process grants access to a conversation with my predecessors, my peers, and artists to come.


 

On May 22, 2011 I woke up early to meet a collector for breakfast in lower Manhattan to see about selling a triptych cheap in order to save my truck because it had just been towed for the third time. It went well and as I went to the bank I realized my state tax return had been direct deposited. I called a friend to celebrate. After eating and drinking our way through Lower East Side and Chelsea we ended up at the theatre watching Werner Herzogs Cave of Forgotten Dreams. When I woke up (it was a soothing movie and I'd had a big day) the movie was over and I noticed my mom had called eight times. I didn't listen to the messages and called her back. "A tornado hit Joplin, Travis! It wiped out everything!"


 

I took the photos referenced in these paintings my first hour or so in Joplin, Missouri when I was driving around town with my dad looking at where his mother and grandmother had lived and taking in the scale of the mess. I spent a little over a month on two visits helping clean around my grandpa's property before settling back into New York where I started to paint from photos for the first time. A conversion occurs in "The Joplin Paintings." A fast, random, incredibly destructive force fuels slow, deliberate, creative effort. I am acting as the not quite equal but opposite reaction to the 2011 Tornado. This slow labor also mimics the clean up and rebuilding effort hat continues today.


 

Because the source in photography is obvious the paintings have a sense of fact about them. They are proof of something that did happen. They likewise call attention to deviations from that source. It's possible to trace the decision-making and see where I've strayed off course or goofed off. These formal considerations refer to the limitations of the flat surface as well as exploit a picture's freedom from the laws of gravity and mass. Those manipulations are an attempt to paint experience back into the picture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tang Mingsong
Bai Juyi
ink on paper
24" x 24"
Nie Chengxing
Eagle
ink on paper scroll
54" x 20"

 

International Friendship Art Exhibition

for Edgar Snow Symposium

 

Paintings and Calligraphy by

Mr. Tang Mingsong & Mr. Nie Chengxing

 

October 3 - November 1, 2014

Front Gallery


 



 

Mr. Tang Mingsong, born in 1940, Jingzhou City, Hubei Province, graduated from Hubei Art College in 1965. He was a member of Hubei Artist Association, member of the Art Committee for Oil Paintings, and Chairman of Jingzhou Artist Association.

 

In his early years he was engaged in oil painting. He took part in several national exhibitions and some of his works won awards. In the 1980s he began to devote himself to Chinese paintings. 


Mr. Nie Chengxing, born in 1946 in Hubei Province, senior sculptor, member of China Sculpture Institute, researcher of China Institute of Artistic Science and Technology, deputy director of Painting and Calligraphy Institute of China Society for People's Friendship Studies, and president of Beijing Zhongshan Sculpture Institute.  

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stoic, oil on panel, 14" x 14"
Waiting, oil on canvas, 48" x 36"


David Slone
Abberations


 

October 3 - November 29, 2014

Back Gallery

ARTIST STATEMENT

Over the last five years, I have been primarily working with the figure and exploring different combinations of representation and abstraction. The painting process is intuitive, with one mark informing the next and very little planning done in advance. This sense of uncertainty is one of the more rewarding parts of the process for me and leads to an active dialogue between the painting and myself. Though the abstractions are not mapped out, the marks are intentionally precise, as opposed to being "painterly". Within this pursuit, I have also been trying to develop my use of color and create greater complexity throughout the work. Upon close examination, a wide range of skin tones can be seen along with hundreds of minuscule abstract marks. The work in Aberrations is the culmination of this broad exploration and is a bridge to a new, more refined pursuit that this visual language can continue to build upon.


 

The word "aberrations" refers not only to the cloud-like swarm of abstract marks surrounding and encompassing the figures, but also to what these marks could represent. Over time, I have begun to consider these marks as analogous to the subtle chaos and seemingly infinite complexity in life. Some days they simply represent the bombardment of digital information and visual stimuli we are increasingly subject to. Yet at other times, the neutral facial expressions paired with these abstractions imply a more internalized narrative and a glimpse into the psyche of my subjects. This imbuement of meaning is relatively recent and has added a much more intellectually stimulating layer to what was primarily a technical pursuit.


BIO

Born in 1985, David Slone received a BA in Art from Anderson University in South Carolina. After graduation, he worked as a graphic designer while maintaining an active studio practice, and became a contributing member of Art Bomb Studios, an artist collective in Greenville, SC. Since 2012, he has been living and working in Sterling, KS.


 

David Slone - Tumblr

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Jacob C Robinson, Water/Tower, screen print, 4" x 4"

KCAI: Undergrads Underground

He was as Tough and Romantic as the City He Loved

 

Jon Bennett

Molly Dillon

Andrew Dwyer

Muriel Fogarty

Ben Gould

Patricia Graham

Bo Hubbard

Marie Krikorian

Gabriella Lacza

Mary Reeves

Jacob Robinson

Taylor West

October 3 - November 1, 2014

Lower Level Gallery


You close your eyes while waiting for the subway. The train is about to arrive and the thick summer air which has been trapped underground is disturbed and made refreshing. You want the temporary wind to touch your arms, your legs, your forehead.

 

We have to stand close to one another in the subway. We see people staring at the floor, as if in mourning, or maybe they're just incredibly bored. We see children holding their mothers' hands, drifting between waking and sleep.

 

Minutes later we gather ourselves and enter the chaos contained in numbered avenues and streets. Sunlight heats the garbage heaps on the sidewalk, which we are beginning to not notice anymore. We deal with the city differently - some of us want to organize it, some record it, analyze it, observe it. The city is alive and changing, and we keep up in our own ways. It's interesting to write about something that seemed so much in the present. Something about New York makes it impossible to dwell on the past and difficult to plan far in advance.

 

It's what they call a whirlwind romance. You feel nervous, and maybe your palms get a little sweaty and you long to make it work, to make it beautiful, or at least understand.

 

Soon you're in the middle of Times Square and you think it could be a good time to yell something important, or maybe just to whisper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Sarah Hinckley
Somewhere Over 5
Collagraph and relief print
26" x 20"
Sarah Hinckley
Turning 7
Collagraph and relief print
42.5" x 36"

   
Structure, Story & Flow

In Collaboration with
 

Curated by Heather Lustfeldt

Laura Berman
Sarah Hinckley
Benjamin Pierce
Jessie Van der Laan
Amanda Verbeck
Ken Wood

September 5 - November 1, 2014
Opie Gallery

Printer's Statement

Pele Prints is a collaborative fine art printmaking studio dedicated to creating limited edition prints and original works of art. At Pele Prints, we take a non-traditional approach to each project and encourage experimentation. Here artists are free to explore their ideas in the studio, using multiple print processes as a jumping-off point. While the print medium is the primary focus, finished pieces may also include three-dimensional components, collage, handwork, and/or various other elements. The goal is to create a unique body of work that displays the curiosity, learning, and constant discovery exemplified in the collaborative process at its best.

In addition to being an artist, Amanda Verbeck is the collaborative printer and publisher at Pele Prints. She is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis and has 14 years of experience as a printmaker. After working with several presses in the St. Louis area, Amanda started Pele Prints in 2006.

Exhibition Statement

Featuring a selection of new and recent work created at Pele Prints by a range of artists, these exhibitions will explore related themes of design, structure and narrative inspired by organic forms, nature and humanity.

Structure, Story & Flow presents imagery inspired by nature, form, and human fantasy. Opulent, large-scale prints invoking waves, wings, landscapes and atmosphere juxtapose intimate, textural works reminiscent of cell struc-tures and light. These formal, more abstract adventures of color and gesture complement fantastical narratives merging aspects of human, animal and architecture within psychologically charged vignettes.

This exhibition is curated by Heather Lustfeldt, a curator, writer, educator and collection consultant in Kansas City. Heather is currently Curator at Epsten Gallery Foundation in Overland Park, KS.