19 Feb 2010 to 4 Mar 2010
Thursday & Saturday, 12-5 pm
Urban Culture Project at PARAGRAPH
23 E 12TH STREET
MO 64108
Kansas City, MO
Missouri
North America
p: 1 816 221 5115
m:
f:
w: www.urbancultureproject.org
CUMULUS (Part II) An Urban Culture Project Studio Residency Program Focus Exhibition Paragraph gallery / 23 East 12th KCMO 64105 THIRD FRIDAY RECEPTION: FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 6-9PM Featuring live performances, collaborative activities, evolving installations Hours: Thursdays + Saturdays, 12-5pm / On view through March 4, 2010
Cumulus, a multi-media, multi-disciplinary exhibition featuring select projects developed by current Urban Culture Project Studio Residents, continues with the addition of new artworks and projects, to be presented at the Third Friday opening on February 19, 6-9 pm at Paragraph gallery as well as in the public realm nearby.
The exhibition’s call for proposals encouraged studio residents to “consider collaboration or interactivity in the making and /or presentation of the work.” The open nature of the call resulted in a dynamic group of proposals whose structures are inherently generous offering room for audience participation, inviting the response of peers, and directly giving “gifts” to visitors of the exhibition. Through a mounting creative momentum, Cumulus seeks to harvest exchange, hybrid design, and spontaneous expression.
Fundamental to a collaborative process is the act of “exchange.” And the spirit of reciprocation is at the center of several Cumulus projects. Offering stir-fry, drinks, and poetry to gallery visitors, “The Wizard Ningxt,” an eccentric character embodied by Aaron Storck, will inhabit a temporary housing structure at the gallery’s entrance. As he pushes the boundaries of performance, Storck explores issues of trust between artist and observer. In the neighboring tent, Lori Yonley will welcome visitors once again to Give and Take, an ever-revolving collection of 5x5 collaborative drawings. On the street, Kurt Flecksing and Sean M. Starowitz will fire up the S’mores vending cart, to supply a taste of campfire nostalgia and accumulate funds to award to future artists’ projects. In light of our current volatile economy, the projects described above offer alternative modes of exchange and challenge conventional perspectives of consumption and trade. In nearby Oppenstein Park, 12th and Walnut, Elaina Wendt Michalski will debut Exit, composed of two life-size figure sculptures based on homeless youth accompanied by informational signage. Made of unfired clay, vulnerable to weather conditions as well as public interaction, these figures are inspired and informed by Michalski’s interaction with members of Synergy Services, formerly known as Synergy House, the only youth homeless shelter in the Kansas City area. The goal of her project is to bring awareness to the issues surrounding homelessness and to convey a sense of what a real person would be exposed in such circumstances. The work will remain on view for approximately one week.
Inspired by the practice of exchange that can occur between UCP studio residents, Erica Mahinay has curated a rotating exhibition within Paragraph gallery that features artists who are making experimental work in traditional two-dimensional mediums, including Caleb Taylor, Aaron Storck, Samantha Persons, Lori Yonley, Kat Dison, Luke Rocha, Darwin Arevalo, Erica Mahinay, Charlie Mylie and Timothy Amundson. Through a salon style installation, Mahinay intends to facilitate surprising juxtapositions and unexpected resonances in much the same way the UCP studios make room for serendipitous dialogue and otherwise unlikely community among its artist residents. Additionally, several of the projects that debuted in January have since evolved. A large-scale paper-cutting by Caleb Taylor and Juniper Tangpuz has taken on a new form; the collection of animals has grown in Dead Game, a sculptural momento mori by Julie Malen and Calder Kamin; and Paul Shortt’s stack of irresistible take-aways entitled Resistance has decreased.
UCP’s Studio Residency Program for Visual and Performing Artists awards free studios for one year terms to promising and accomplished Kansas City area artists of all disciplines in need of dedicated space in which to work among a community of artist peers. UCP’s Studio Residency Program currently provides studios for more than 30 artists and groups, who occupy studios in three facilities: Bonfils (125 East 12th Street), pARTnership Place (906 Grand, 13th floor) and City Center Square (1100 Main Street, 5th floor).
Additional Events: Saturday, February 20th, 1-2:30pm: Critique dialogue led by Barbara O’Brien & Julie Farstad Led by Barbara O'Brien, Curator, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art and Julie Farstad, Painting Professor, Kansas City Art Institute, the public is invited to join Cumulus artists for a discussion of works on view. Organized by participating artist Erica Mahinay.
Wednesday, February 24, starts at 6pm: Potluck Drawing session, Reperformance, The Four Seasons The Paragraph gallery space will be reinvigorated once again as artist Charlie Mylie hosts “Reperformance” at 7pm – a series of reenactments of time-based performances that were pivotal and inspiring to the artistic development of those who will be “reperforming.” The event hopes to honor and celebrate those art pioneers that offered hope, power, provocation, and momentum to artists of today. Lori Yonley will host a potluck drawing session at 6pm, prior to the start of the performances, and Jane Gotch will perform her choreography of The Four Seasons alongside light projections designed by Timonthy Amundson.
Urban Culture Project is an initiative of the Charlotte Street Foundation, an organization dedicated to making Kansas City a place where artists and art thrive. Urban Culture Project creates new opportunities for artists of all disciplines and contributes to urban revitalization by transforming spaces in downtown Kansas City into new venues for multi-disciplinary contemporary arts programming. For more information, visit www.charlottestreet.org.
