Charlotte Street Foundation

Black Thorns in the White Cube is an original exhibition presenting a selection of photography, prints, drawings, and artist books by eight contemporary artists who are influenced by the heavy, dark, and mystic obscurity of Black Metal music. Following its debut in Kansas City, January 20-March 3, 2012, the show will travel to Western Exhibition in Chicago, IL.

Opening Reception: Friday, January 20, 6-9pm
Curator Talk: Saturday, January 21, 4pm (additional programs and events to be announced)
Location: Paragraph Gallery / 23 East 12th St KCMO 64105
Exhibition Runs: January 20 – March 3
Gallery Hours: Wed, Fri, Sat 12-5pm; Thurs 11-6pm                                                                                                       Special Events: Black Thorns in the Black Box: Experimental Screening- March 1, 7pm, FOKL Center Performance by Boreas- March 2, Paragraph Gallery

Based in the United States and Europe participating artists include Alexander Binder (Stuttgart, Germany), Vincent Como (Brooklyn), Terence Hannum (Baltimore), Karlynn Holland (Brooklyn), Elodie Lesourd (Paris, France), Aaron Metté (Brooklyn), Grant Willing (Brooklyn), and Tereza Zelenkova (London, England). Engaging with the symbols, history, and myths of the Black Metal music subculture, their images explore haunted Germanic forests, descents into the void, visual translations of sonic experiences, ontologies of Black Metal band logos, and barren western landscapes. Together their artwork contributes to the discourse currently occurring in Black Metal theory, examines the innovations and significance of contemporary Black Metal visual art, and offers an account of its critical disruptions.

About the Curator:
Amelia Ishmael is an artist whose practice includes critiquing, historicising, teaching, and curating other artists’ practices. She has shared her gleanings on Black Metal and Contemporary Art at conferences internationally, including the Black Metal Theory Symposium in London and the Home of Metal Conference in Wolverhampton, U.K. Her writings have also appeared in ArtSlant, Art Papers, and Review. She received a BFA in Photography and New Media from the Kansas City Art Institute and a MA in Modern Art History, Theory, and Criticism from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and was an Urban Culture Project studio resident.

Find more details about the show and the artists in the press release!

See work from the show in the online video and check out write-ups from The Pitch + CVLT Nation!

Artist-curators Anne Thompson and Nathan Boyer present an exhibition drawn from the vast archive of the multifaceted painter, printmaker, collector, and comic artist Frank Stack. Stack, who retired in 2003 after forty years as an art professor at the University of Missouri, Columbia, is also the graphic artist Foolbert Sturgeon. He created this pseudonym as a young man, allowing him to satirize politics and religion without running afoul of Midwestern conservative sensibilities.

Opening Reception: Friday, January 20, 6-9pm
Discussion: Saturday, January 21, 2:30pm, with Frank Stack and curators
Location: Project Space / 21 East 12th St. KCMO
Exhibit Runs: January 20 – March 3, 2012
Gallery Hours: Wed, Fri, Sat 12-5pm; Thurs 11am-6pm

In 1962, Stack published The Adventures of Jesus, considered many to be the first underground comic book. He went on to become an internationally renowned graphic novelist, collaborating with writer Harvey Pekar on the American Splendor comics and illustrating the critically acclaimed graphic novel Our Cancer Year (winner of the 1995 Harvey award for Best Graphic Album of Original Work), all the while continuing to produce conventional landscapes, portraits, and nudes under his real name.

With this exhibition, MU professors Thompson and Boyer explore the politics of artistic identity — both Stack’s negotiation of his artistic personae and the artist’s role more generally. The show combines Stack’s traditional work with rarely seen original drawings from his graphic novels, and considers both bodies of work in the context of Stack’s large personal collection of Old Master prints. Works by artists including Daumier address the problems of the artist in society, including the desire for fame balanced against the struggle to maintain creative integrity.

See all the details in the press release.

See work from the show in the online video.

Charlotte Street Foundation’s Urban Culture Project invites applications from individuals interested in participating in an upcoming project, The Frontier, to take place at its Paragraph and Project Space venues, 21-23 East 12th Street, KCMO, April-July 2012. Artists and culture producers of all kinds are invited to apply to participate in this project.

A major impetus for The Frontier, taking place during Charlotte Street Foundation’s 15th Anniversary Year, is to consider how Kansas City’s urban environment and cultural ecosystem has changed—specifically in the years since Charlotte Street Foundation’s launch in 1997, Urban Culture Project’s launch in 2003, and the opening of Paragraph gallery in 2004—and to consider the implications of these changes for the present and the future. If a sense of vacancy once defined the downtown core as an urban frontier of sorts and gave impetus and energy to efforts such as Charlotte Street’s Urban Culture Project, (how) has that sense opportunity/potential been lost or significantly altered with new development, population, and activity? (How) have these shifts altered the manner in which artists and culture producers think about “urban culture” and the downtown area as a site for artist-driven activity and efforts? What are the frontiers and possibilities for urban and artist-driven pioneering now? And/or, what new orientations, operational premises, and ways of thinking about the city and the role of culture makers in relation to it are relevant for the future?

We are particularly interested in including those who have had a strong connection to Charlotte Street Foundation and its Urban Culture Project’s programming at various points in its history, from its beginnings to its present; those who are disposed to collaboration, experimentation, and provocation; and those who will approach this project as an active, evolving, iterative endeavor, to which they will contribute and respond over the course of their participation. Note, artists formerly but no longer based in Kansas City are eligible and encouraged to apply if in a position to participate and contribute remotely and/or be physically in Kansas City for some or all of the planning and implementation of this project.

Find full call description, project details, how to apply in The Frontier Call.

The Charlotte Street Awards to Generative Performing Artists supports artists living in the Greater Kansas City Metro Area (Clay, Jackson, Johnson, Platte & Wyandotte Counties). Launched in 2008, these awards specifically recognize innovative, generative artists working in the fields of dance, theater/performance art, music/sound & hybrid/interdisciplinary/new media versions thereof. These awards recognize generative artists, meaning individuals actively creating original, new work in their fields- i.e. they are composers, playwrights, choreographers- in addition to very often being performers as well. All eligible artists are encouraged to apply. Two Awards of $8,500 each will be distributed.

APPLICANT TECH HELP SESSIONS:
Need technical help uploading/submitting audio and visual files with your Generative Performing Award Application? Charlotte Street is hosting two free three-hour sessions providing one-on-one technical assistance to applicants at the Charlotte Street offices, 1000 West 25th Street, on Wednesday, January 25, 3-6pm, and Thursday, February 9, 5-8pm. PRE-REGISTRATION REQUIRED.

TO REGISTER FOR TECH HELP:
Send an email to info@charlottestreet.org and type “Performing Awards Application Assistance” in the subject line. In the email, include your full contact information and availability during the two time blocks above. Charlotte Street Foundation will reply with confirmation email. NOTE: these sessions are to provide technical assistance submitting PREPARED audio and video documentation; advisement on the choice of work samples to submit or on the editing of documentation will NOT be provided.

Download the full details or go directly to the application.

On two cold nights in December and January, Charlotte Street Foundation will host WINTER MUSIC presented by The Secret Commonwealth of E.F.&F.

Date:  January 14 featuring AARON MARTIN, SHAWN E. HANSEN, + MATT HILL
Time: Doors open at 9pm; show at 10pm
Venue: La Esquina / 1000 W. 25th St. KCMO 64108
Tickets: $5 suggested donation

WINTER MUSIC is two nights of new music from local artists more well known internationally than in their home town; artists who deal in sounds not suited to rock bars or jazz clubs; artists of melodies buried in the hiss of silence, that draw on the history of European film music, 20th century classical, and the shimmering roots of the psychedelic tradition.

Find out more about WINTER MUSIC and the featured performers.

See a clip from the show in the online video.

Charlotte Street Foundation presents a KcEMA concert featuring Cheryl Melfi: Digital Reeds. Cheryl brings with her a program of new music including two world premiers of electro-acoutsic music for clarinet.

Date: Saturday, January 14
Time: Doors open at 7:30pm; concert begins at 8pm
Venue: City Center Square / 1100 Main 5th Floor KCMO
Tickets: $10; $5 students