Charlotte Street Foundation

On Friday, November 19, 6-9pm, Urban Culture Project hosts PAGES: Book as Medium, Catalyst, Venue at Paragraph gallery (21 E. 12 St.).  Curated by artist Amy Kligman and featuring work by 40+ artists, the exhibition celebrates the diversity of thought, process, and experience that can be revealed or inspired via book.  All of the artists in this show draw inspiration from books in some way, and as a collection the work demonstrates the potential of the book in artmaking, as a subject, tool, material, and or/springboard for other work.

For some artists in the show, the book is an inexpensive, unpretentious venue that one can carry anywhere and work on at any given moment.  For others, it is appreciated for its relationship to story and narrative, or for its nature as a multiple, to be published and distributed widely.  Still others use the book as raw material to carve or sculpt, fascinated by its capacity to reveal secrets one page (or layer) at a time.  Some see the book as a record of facts, used to document process and discoveries. PAGES features the work of artists from the Kansas City area and around the country, including emerging as well as established artists. As part of the exhibition, Paragraph will include a “reading room” of work shown in a library-like setting, where visitors will be encouraged to engage in browsing artists’ books, sketchbooks, and zines.

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Read the review in The Kansas City Star

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Opening Friday, November 19, 6-9pm at Urban Culture Project Space (23 E. 12th St.) is a multimedia exhibition exploring conceptions of the self, and featuring works by emerging Kansas City-based artists Luke Pretz, Abbe Findley, and Terry Campbell. The opening will feature an evolving, collaborative performance and artist remarks at 6:30pm.

With this project, these three artists investigate themselves, and specifically the manner in which their projected or externally-oriented representations of self relate to and blur with their internalized senses of self.  Much of this blurring, and the consequent ambiguity relative to the notion of the “true” or “real” self, can be seen as product of contemporary media/technology, via which one is constantly in the process of (re)constructing and projecting one’s “self”, as well as accessing and processing others’ self-projections via shared images and actions.  The exploration of these dynamics and how they relate to the forging of personal identity and lived reality are central to these artists’ works.

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In neighborhoods from coast to coast, fallen rap heroes like Tupac Shakur, Notorious B.I.G and Big Pun are immortalized in painted murals. Using visual arts to honor hip-hop’s dearly departed, Hip-Hop is Undead —a one night, free event on Friday November 5, 6-10pm at la Esquina, 1000 West 25th Street, KCMO—unites the feel of those organic, street-art tributes with a traditional, Dia de los Muertos-style celebration.

Hip-Hop is Undead, curated by Phil Shafer, aka Sike Style, will combine all four elements of hip-hop. Shafer has commissioned over a dozen Kansas City artists to contribute works in mediums from sculpture to spray paint. Featured will be pieces by Jason Sierra, James Ramirez, Amanda Zeitler, Jeremy Madl, Daniel “Lucid” Bartle, Phil “Sike Style” Shafer, Shannon Moore, Luke Rocha, and Two Tone Press. In addition, the event features DJ Ataxic on the turntables, a special performance by the Tiger Style b-boy crew, and an interactive graffiti wall. Viewers are invited to participate by lighting a candle or placing an offering on a memorial altar and, for those wishing to add to the ambiance, come dressed up as your favorite ghost of hip-hop’s past.

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City Center Square and Urban Culture Project present “Panoramic Postcards,” a window installation by Lawrence/Kansas City-based artist Judith G. Levy. To remain on view for approximately one year, the installation was commissioned by City Center Square for its south-facing window on 12th Street, just west of Main, through an open call to artists facilitated by Urban Culture Project. The installation relates to the United States Post Office located within City Center Square, specifically taking the idea of the picture postcard as inspiration.

Judith G. Levy’s installation features four large-scale digital images resembling old panoramic postcards, which are mounted on Sintra and suspended within the window space. The images are composed from elements extracted from an array of historic picture postcards, recombined and reconfigured to “evoke a new look at the past and arouse some questions about the present.” Like much of Levy’s work, these deceptively picturesque images blur fact and fiction toward investigating broader social and cultural issues and revealing larger truths.

As part of this project, Levy will distribute free sender-friendly-size panoramic postcards several times over the course of the installation, including on Monday, October 18, from 11am to 5pm, and on Wednesday, October 20, 11am-5pm.

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Read the article in The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle 

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Premiering Friday, October 22, 8:30 pm and recurring nightly at 8:30pm through Monday, October 25 at la Esquina, 1000 West 25th Street, SEE SAW is an installation-based performance (or a performance-based installation) created by director/composer/musician/performer Mark Southerland, and choreographer/dancer Jane Gotch. Co-collaborators and performers, in addition to Southerland and Gotch, include Shay Estes, Tuesday Faust, Shawn Hansen, Mike Stover, and Matt Tady.

The piece will last approximately one hour and fifteen minutes. Doors open at 8pm each night. Admission is $15/$10 for students and seniors. Note, seating is limited – first come, first served.

Through movement, sound, and installation, SEE SAW will examine the moments when the body meets the mind—self realization, personal epiphanies, and modern coming-of-age stories. Told using an array of tools – often elaborate and abstract; other-times pointedly simple and straight forward – this tale involves a large seesaw and a “trophy playground,” from which music and movement will evolve. Situated in-the-round, the audience itself will become part of the installation and actively engaged in the event.

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On Friday October 15, Urban Culture Project hosts Open Studios at its three UCP Studio Residency Program facilities, which are currently providing free studios to 32 visual and performing artists and groups.  This fall UCP is taking Open Studios to a new level, with MORE studio spaces, MORE artists, MORE activities including live performances, and GUIDED TOURS leaving from Paragraph gallery, 23 East 12th Street, at 6:30 and 8pm.  Maps of the studios will be available at Paragraph, sign boards will be placed at each studio building, and hosts at each location will guide visitors up to the studios.

OPEN STUDIOS OCTOBER 15 FEATURES:
PARTNERSHIP PLACE, 906 GRAND, 13TH FLOOR -  featuring Visual Artists Erika Lynn Hansen, Cory Imig, Paul Smith, Nicholas Naughton, David Carlisle, Julie Malen and Luke Rocha.

NEW STUDIOS AT TOWN PAVILION, 1100 WALNUT, 6TH FLOOR – featuring Visual Artists Brandon Barr, Diane Burchett, Erin Hinz, Katherine O’Hara, David Rhoads, Phil Shafer, Russell Shoemaker, and Jeff Tackett.

CITY CENTER SQUARE, 1100 MAIN, 5TH FLOOR – featuring  Performing Artists Susan Rieger (940 Dance Company), Leralee Whittle,  Jane Gotch, Maura Michelle Garcia, and Black House Improvisors’ Collective; and Visual Artists Terry Campbell, John Carroll Davis, Christina Dostaler, Abbe Findley, John Hilger,  Misha Kligman, Carmen Moreno, Natalie Poserina, Sean Starowitz, Cheryl Toh, Anthony Baab, Clayton Skidmore, Frank Norfleet.

LIVE PERFORMANCES + SPECIAL ACTIVITIES AT CITY CENTER SQUARE:

6:45pm – Jane Gotch will present a preview of her upcoming SEE SAW performance (running October 22-25 at la Esquina and co-created with Mark Southerland.)

7:30pm – 940 Dance Company will perform an improvisation and new works in progress.

8:15pm – Leralee Whittle and Paul Sprawl share excerpts from WorkArtOut, improvise new work, and share videos, dances and songs from their repertoires.

All evening: visual artist Sean Starowitz debuts The Office, a site-specific alternative studio at City Center Square, featuring the curatorial project co-workers, bosses, and supervisors: a design show.

+ other special events at Town Pavilion + pARTnership Place to be announced.

For more about UCP’s current studio residents: Performing Artist Residents; Visual Artist Residents.

Read Third Friday Art Downtown press release with more info about Open Studios + other UCP events on October 15.

Kicking off Charlotte Street’s Urban Culture Project Third Friday Art Downtown on Friday, October 15, at 5:30pm Kansas City based artist May Tveit will present an artist talk at Paragraph Gallery, 23 East 12th Street, about her experience at Art Omi International Artists Residency program in Upstate New York, which she attended this summer. Each year, Charlotte Street sponsors one past Charlotte Street Visual Artist Award recipient at Art Omi, selected through a competitive process by Art Omi. The International Artists Residency is a three week residency program for visual artists from around the world, which combines uninterrupted time to create with a stimulating atmosphere of exchange, where experimentation, discourse and collaboration are encouraged.

May Tveit, whose work includes ambitious, site-specific, temporal sculptural installations and interventions in galleries and in the public realm, will speak about her work and experience at Art Omi and the impact of the residency on her work, career, and creative process.

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Kansa Citta Pueblita,  an exhibition of new work by Kansas City-based artist Maria Calderon, presents the community of Kansas City as a pueblo or tight knit community, “where the people, the places, and the atmosphere exist in a unique balance,” writes Calderon. It opens at Urban Culture Project Space, 21 East 12th Street on Friday, September 17, 2010, 6-9pm, with artist remarks at 6pm and a performance of traditional Andean music by the Andean Express at 9pm. It runs through November 6.

Calderon presents the Kansas City community from her own singular perspective, and in relation to its seasons, permanent and temporal fixtures, nature, architecture, transport, and diverse population. Included are a fantastic array of Kansas City icons and local characters, including local artists, who many viewers will immediately recognize. Featuring vivid colors and patterns, works include a large-scale burlap painting installation composed of many parts, a series of paintings on paper, and a brand-new sculpture.

Read full press release. Watch a sneak peak video of Maria Calderon preparing for her exhibition.

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You Complete Me, opening at Urban Culture Project’s Paragraph gallery, 23 East 12th Street, on Friday September 17, 6-9pm,  is an exhibition of interactive audio and video installations by HACK.ART.LAB, a Wichita-based disciplinary collective comprised of artists, programmers and engineers. Members are Ann Resnick, Kristin Beal-DeGrandmont, John Harrison, Ivy Lanning, Lauren Hirsh, and Tom McGuire.  The show runs through November 6.

You Complete Me explores relationships between viewers and technology, and the role that cooperation plays in creative endeavors. Viewers are invited to be active collaborators in the creation of several interactive audio and video installations, which present infinite possibilities and enable viewers to share authorship as they influence outcomes. From Ghost in the Machine, which plays with viewers’ temporal and spatial perceptions through a series of live, recorded and delayed playback using a webcam, Pd and a tv; to June, Kristin Beal-DeGrandmont’s self-lit, modular, kinetic, relief sculpture that references the cinematic experience of riding in the car along Kansas highways—the works by this multi-talented collective promise to create an immersive environment appealing to audiences of all ages and backgrounds, actively involving viewers in a process of learning and discovery.

Opening weekend also features Sneak Peak Under the Hood: An Open House Event, Saturday, September 18, 12-5pm, where Hack.Art.Lab and special guests, the Computer Cowtown Congress (CCCKC) hacker space, will teach visitors about the technical side of their projects through workshops and demos.

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Charlotte Street Foundation’s Urban Culture Project is pleased to present Things to be Next To, an exhibition collaboration with threewalls, Chicago.  Featuring recent and new work by Alberto Aguilar (Chicago), Peter Fagundo (Chicago), James Woodfill (Kansas City), and Warren Rosser (Kansas City), the exhibition will open Saturday, September 4, 6-9pm at CSF’s la Esquina (an Urban Culture Project venue), 1000 West 25th Street in Kansas City, running through October 15, and will then travel to threewalls in Chicago, November 5-December 11, 2010. Also on Saturday, September 4, la Esquina will host a roundtable discussion with the artists and curators at 3:30pm.

Co-curated by Kate Hackman (CSF) and Shannon Stratton (threewalls), this exhibition developed through extensive artist reviews and studio visits by each curator in the partner city.  One interest that emerged was in the nature of the cities themselves, and how the conditions of each place, including the characteristics and contexts of the artists’ studios, inform their practices.

Alberto Aguilar and Peter Fagundo both work in their own homes, creating artworks that are intimate in scale and substance. Their work derives from, responds to, comments upon, and participates in the domestic realm, often involving collaborations with family members and knitted into a spectrum of daily life activities. In contrast, James Woodfill and Warren Rosser work in expansive, high-ceilinged studios in the kind of industrial building characteristic of downtown Kansas City. A sense of freedom—to make things, step back and sit with them awhile, make other things, then circle back around again—is  palpable in their works, which convey a sense of flux and sustained potential. Both artists’ works for this exhibition reference the domestic as well, with Rosser employing fabrics and rugs in cut shapes that recall dressmaking patterns, and Woodfill creating structures that suggest—and can readily function as—benches, desks, and screens.

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Read The Kansas City Star review

Read the New City Art Review