Thursday, October 3, 2019 through Sunday, February 9, 2020
Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art is pleased to host the 2019 Charlotte Street Visual Artist Awards exhibition, presenting recent work by three Kansas City–based artists: Boi Boy, Megan Pobywajlo, and Fatimah Tuggar. 97 local artists have received the Visual Artist Awards from Charlotte Street Foundation, with $721,500 in unrestricted cash grants being awarded directly to artists who are making exemplary contemporary work in the Kansas City metro area.
The opening reception for this annual exhibition takes place on Thursday, October 3, 2019 and is open from 6:00 – 8:00 PM. You can RSVP for the exhibition on Eventbrite.
A jury of arts professionals selected the artists to receive this prestigious award as a testament to their practice and achievements in the visual arts. Each artist has risen to the challenge of presenting a selection of new work and expanding individual presentation methods at Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art.
Boi Boy is a Kansas City Native who got their start in the KC art community while working with M.Y.A.R.T.S. (Metropolitan Youth Art and Technology for Students). After they graduated from the KCAI Fiber Program in 2016, Boi Boy was a Charlotte Street Foundation studio resident, and in 2017, received a Rocket Grants grant and Meow Wolf DIY Found in collaboration with Bo Hubbard to open Alter: Art Space. Boi Boy is also the recipient of a Gift of Faith Award and is currently a studio resident at The Drugstore.
The Visual Artist Awards panel included Erin Dziedzic, Director of Curatorial Affairs at Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art (Kansas City, MO), Allison Glenn, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at Crystal Bridges Museum of America Art (Bentonville, AR), Humberto Moro, Curator at SCAD Museum of Art (Savannah, GA), and Gregory Volk, Art Writer and Associate Professor (New York, NY).
Megan Pobywajlo is a photographer from San Diego, California. Megan works with pictures, zines, books, writing, performance, the internet, collaboration, and education to grow the democratic potential of photography. Since 2013, Megan has created local and traveling exhibitions, public events, and publication projects centered on photography with Archive Collective, a Kansas City-based group that provides opportunities for engagement with photography.
Fatimah Tuggar is a Nigerian-born, Kanas City-based multidisciplinary artist who uses technology as medium and subject in her work to serve as metaphors for power dynamics. She combines objects, images, and sounds from diverse cultures, geographies, and histories to comment on how media and technology broadly impacts local and global realities. Tuggar’s work has been widely exhibited at international venues, in over twenty-five countries and has been the subject of various panels and articles.
