Friday, April 2nd to Saturday, May 22nd, 2010
Arrival/Departure at la Esquina, 1000 W. 25th St, April 2-May 22 (opening reception, Friday, April 9, 6-9pm, with performance by Leone Reeves at 6pm, gallery talk to follow) brings together early career artists who recognize Kansas City as the site of their first significant contact with the art world, and as the place that launched them on careers as professional artists. Curated by art historian/professor Maria Buszek and artist Jonah Criswell, this exhibition brings back to Kansas City young Kansas City Art Institute alumni who have since gone on to build careers in other cities, as well as showcasing the work of peers who have remained here, or moved back to Kansas City after living and/or studying in other places.
Featured Artists: Cortney Andrews (Brooklyn, NY) , Anthony Baab (Kansas City, MO), Jonah Criswell (Kansas City, MO), Peter Demos (Brooklyn, NY), Dennis Dotty (St. Louis) , Rachel Frank (Brooklyn, NY), Lauren McEntire (Kansas City, MO) , Martin Murphy (Astoria, NY), Shawn Powell (Astoria, NY), Leone Reeves (Kansas City, MO), Alexis Semtner (Brooklyn, NY).
Decisively broad, Arrival/Departure explores the faces and concerns of art today, in work ranging from installation, performance and sculpture to experimental drawing, fiber based works, painting and photography. It encompasses such concerns as: the animal, abstraction, body and memory, causality, domesticity, pop culture and the sublime.
And join the curators and artists for a Current Perspectives presentation at Kansas City Art Institute, Thursday, April 8, 7pm, 4415 Warwick Blvd. Epperson Auditorium.
About the curators:
Maria Elena Buszek, Ph.D. is a scholar, critic, curator, and Assistant Professor of Art History in the School of Liberal Arts, Kansas City Art Institute, where she teaches courses on Modern and Contemporary art. In this capacity, she has informed, influenced and encouraged many young artists, including those featured in Arrival/Departure. Buszek’s recent publications include the books Pin-Up Grrrls: Feminism, Sexuality, Popular Culture and Extra/ordinary: Craft and contemporary art; contributions to the anthologies It’s Time for Action (There’s No Option): About Feminism, Blaze: Discourse on Art, Women, and Feminism and Contemporary Artists; catalogue essays for numerous national and international exhibitions; and articles and criticism in such journals as Art in America, Photography Quarterly, and TDR: The Journal of Performance Studies. Dr. Buszek is also a prolific curator, whose more recent exhibitions include the 2006 Charlotte Street Awards, the traveling exhibition Raised in Craftivity, and Extra/ordinary: Fiber Artists Rethinking Art and Everyday Life. Before arriving at KCAI, she served as a curatorial assistant at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
Jonah Criswell received his BFA from Kansas City Art Institute and MFA from Pennsylvania State University and has taught at both schools. At Penn State, Criswell initiated and chaired an off-campus graduate student exhibition project in New York, which is now mandatory for all Penn State MFA graduate students, and worked with Pennsylvania State University’s Art History program to create professional opportunities for their graduates. He is currently Assistant Director of Admissions at Kansas City Art Institute, where he has created scholarship programs for underrepresented students from across the U.S. Criswell is an Urban Culture Project Studio resident who exhibits nationally and internationally.
