New Missouri Bank Crossroads “Artboards” debut in September

The Missouri Bank Crossroads Branch, 125 Southwest Boulevard, KCMO, will debut four new large-scale commissioned images by Kansas City artists Jason Needham and Andy Ozier, on its “Artboards” in time for First Friday September 5th, 2014. Installed on the exterior, double-sided billboards rising above the bank, the “Artboards” are visible to the public all hours of the day, and will remain on view through the end of November 2014.

On the East-facing billboards, Jason Needham presents The Big Hug, where he hopes to evoke the complicated emotions that arise from being a parent. In the empty space between the billboards, Needham saw the contradiction between the love and the anxiety felt in being a parent. It’s in this same space that Needham hopes to display a leap of “hope, imagination, or spirit.” As the parent of a toddler, he lives for the “high fives and big hugs.” In the body of the billboards, arms jet out from their owners towards one another, making their way to the next billboard. They are long and outstretched, reaching for an embrace: The Big Hug.

On the West-facing billboards, Andy Ozier presents Everyone’s Talking About Our Barbecue. The intention of the design is to communicate the buzz surrounding the rich barbecue culture that the Kansas City community embraces and takes pride in on an international scale. The artwork aims to initiate a dialogue among both locals and tourists who pose the infamous question, “What’s your favorite barbecue restaurant?” Asking ten different people is likely to elicit ten different answers for ten different reasons, each as passionate as the last.

Read more in the full Press Release.

(Images from left: Jason Needham, The Big Hug, to be displayed on the East-facing billboards; Andy Ozier, Everyone’s Talking About Our Barbecue, to be displayed on the West-facing billboards.)