debut of Año Pasado, a window installation commissioned by city center square

City Center Square and Charlotte Street Foundation are pleased to announce the December 3rd debut of Año Pasado: Dancing through the Well Tempered Year, a window installation by Kansas City-based artist Maria Calderon.  To remain on view for approximately one year, the artwork 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 Charlotte Street Foundation.

The central component of Calderon’s installation is a colorful 9 foot by 15 foot, multi-perspective landscape painting that portrays a year in the life of the Kansas City metro area, from the Upper Westside to the Plaza, through all four seasons.  Executed on a large painter’s drop cloth, the acrylic and pencil painting features postal trucks and post workers traveling through our city’s neighborhoods as well as traveling across time, from one season to the next.  The landscape itself incorporates numerous portal references in the form of buildings, patterns, icons, and several classic stamp images, along with an array of images and patterns that convey a year’s cycle in weather, nature, and holidays. In addition, the work extends into three dimensions, as many of the defining objects of locality and relics of the year’s seasons are presented as objects, installed in the window in front of the painting.

“This is the first time I’ve created an image encompassing a whole year’s events throughout the Kansas City Metro,” says Calderon. “With this piece I wanted to create a “year in review”-a visual calendar creating a dialogue of changing time and atmosphere in Kansas City.”

Read more about the installation and Maria Calderon in the press release.