Kansas City, MO, January 31, 2023: This winter, Charlotte Street is pleased to premiere Artboards by artists John Kline and Fred Trease, currently installed at 125 Southwest Boulevard. The Artboards program is a collaboration with the Crossroads Community Association that captures the creative spirit of the Crossroads neighborhood, serving as an alternative outdoor platform where artists’ work can be viewed during all hours of the day. The Artboards will remain on view through April 7, 2023.
Fred Trease says about his Artboards:
The term exuberance refers to the quality of being full of energy and excitement. It also connotes abundance. I have chosen to use this as the title for a series of drawings that are a joyous celebration of the LGBTQ+ community. They take their inspiration from drag balls, pride parades, the thumping rhythm of a gay bar dance floor, and the daily resplendence that can’t be ignored. As Mama Rose says, “Here she is, world!“
While their origin is in the vitality of my community, I believe there is a universal quality that will resonate with many viewers. It is my hope that they will recognize the “exuberance” in their own lives. It is my belief that art connects people. Something in my life goes into my work and resonates in yours and you in me. The world gets better because we see reflections of ourselves in each other.
Left – Friday Nights in the Crossroads, 2023
Right – The Art and Spirit of the Crossroads, 2023
John Kline says about his Artboards:
Friday Nights in the Crossroads [left], the image of the people dancing, was inspired by the painting that was featured on the TV show Good Times. The painting is called The Sugar Shack by Ernie Barnes. I have always liked how this painting depicted people just dancing and having a good time. My version is a bit different. I wanted the dancers to be more diverse and more representational of the people in the Crossroads. I was thinking of the “First Fridays” in the Summertime when there is more of a party atmosphere in the Crossroads. I wanted to keep the formal aspects of the painting pretty simple, with bright colors and simple shapes.
In The Art and Spirit of the Crossroads [right]I wanted to spotlight the Crossroad creatives, such as the artists, the musicians, the dancers, the writers, and the actors. All of the creatives are represented, but they are a bit hard to see at first glance. I was thinking of the energy of the Crossroads, and I was trying to describe that energy through formal elements.
ABOUT FRED TREASE
Fred Trease’s education has been as a biologist and a sociologist. The majority of his career has been spent in the practice of environmental public health. Whether he was making double exposures with a Brownie as a boy, photographing chromosomes and cells in college or documenting environmental conditions as an adult professional, photography has always been a part of his life. He has come to understand the world through the lens of a camera. His work has been shown in a variety of local, regional, and national exhibitions and is in numerous collections in the United States.
ABOUT JOHN KLINE
John Kline is a visual artist and art educator based in Kansas City, Missouri. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Missouri-Columbia with an emphasis on painting and drawing. John worked as a full-time artist in Chicago for six years before moving back to Kansas City to study Art Education at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. John taught elementary art for three years in the Kansas City area. Currently, John is working full-time as a visual artist, primarily making paintings.
ABOUT CROSSROADS COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION
The mission of the Crossroads Community Association shall be to support, promote, advance, and encourage the revitalization of the community as a thriving, safe, and attractive center of art, history, enterprise, commerce, culture, residence, entertainment, education, and other activity; to inform and educate the members of this association and the public about community issues; to provide a forum to address community objectives and issues; to build a strong community through communication, cooperation, planning, and leadership; to build a strong partnership between business owners, property owners, tenants, and residents to ensure community involvement; and to enhance the quality of life within the community. For more information, visit https://kccrossroads.org/about/cca/
ABOUT ARTBOARDS
The Crossroads Artboards were launched in the fall of 2008 as a partnership between Charlotte Street Foundation and Missouri Bank (now BOK Financial). The Artboards program is currently supported in part by the Crossroads Community Association. Over 100 Kansas City area artists have been featured on the ARTBOARDS to date. For a complete listing and more information, visit https://charlottestreet.org/awards/crossroads-artboards/
ABOUT CHARLOTTE STREET
Charlotte Street centers Kansas City’s most forward-thinking visual artists, writers, and performers—acting as the primary incubator, provocateur, and connector for the region’s contemporary arts community and its leading advocate on the national stage. Since 1997, Charlotte Street has distributed over $2 million in awards and grants to artists and their innovative projects and connected individual artists to each other and to the greater Kansas City community. For more information about Charlotte Street, its awards, programs, and initiatives, visit www.charlottestreet.org.
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