art through architecture “artboards” at missouri bank crossroads debut new work by deanna dikeman and mary wessel in time for first friday april

The Missouri Bank Crossroads Branch, 125 Southwest Boulevard, will debut four new large-scale commissioned images, by Kansas City based artists Deanna Dikeman and Mary Wessel on its “Artboards” in time for First Friday April, 2011. They will remain on view for 4 months.

On the west-facing billboards, photographer Deanna Dikeman presents two new images from her Ballroom series, which feature professional and amateur dancers at ballroom dance competitions. Herself an amateur competitive ballroom dancer, Dikeman is particularly inspired by the dresses, “rich with rhinestones and vibrant colors… By showing the clothing in motion, I can capture the energy of the dancers and the music that moves them, as well as the visual feast of color and sparkle,” she says. The works on view exemplify her increasing interest “in the presence of the dancers’ bodies, showing their own gestures and how they touch their dance partner.” The two images for the Artboards specifically frame the expressive hands and torsos of two pairs of dancers.

On the east-facing billboards, Mary Wessel presents two images derived from her Worldscapes series of unique color photograms. These images are created directly on photographic paper in the darkroom, without the use of a camera, using an ever-changing series of darkroom processes, chemical solutions, and household items. Through Wessel’s process, elements of spontaneity and chance are used to explore themes of time, transformation, and materiality. As each image evinces a sense of turbulent forces in the process of gathering or morphing, and with associations ranging from the cellular to the cosmic, Wessel’s Artboards invite a wide range of interpretations, both specific and abstract.

An Art through Architecture “Art Achievement” project, the Missouri Bank “Artboards” launched fall 2008, when the building’s existing double-sided billboards were renovated and converted into a highly visible site for work by area artists as part of the bank’s purchase and renovation of the building to house its Crossroads Branch, completed by Helix Architecture + Design. Art through Architecture, a partnership of Charlotte Street Foundation and American Institute of Architects-Kansas City, administers the programming of the Artboards in collaboration with a panel of Missouri Bank representatives.

Read press release.

Read the Kansas City Star review