You Can Have It All is an exhibition of recent works by Kansas City Art Institute graduating senior, Cameron Sinclair. Named after the 1974 song by George McCrae and its successive cover by Yo La Tengo, this collection compares the generative nature of a cover song to the role of appropriated song lyrics in Sinclair’s practice. The title also serves to describe the interplay of media present in the exhibited work, which combines painting, printmaking, and sculptural techniques. With direct references to art historical moments and pop culture, the artist affectionately employs a form of pastiche born from admiration. Additionally, the work seeks to reclaim the characteristics of traditionally male dominated disciplines, such as Minimalism and Pop Art. The latest series of these paintings and objects are steeped in nostalgia and are deeply referential of both the self and the past. Through the exploration of text and image, the artist considers reinterpretation as an act of tribute. By and large, You Can Have It All is a celebration of cultural dialogue and the confluence of music and art.
Artist Statement:
Through the use of language and cultural allusions, I intend to ask questions like “What do pop songs mean?” and “What constitutes a demonstration?”. The objects in my studio combine sculptural and painterly processes. They behave as props in the enactment of a situation, often through performance or their relativity in space. I am currently exploring the idea of subcultural movements and their aesthetic impact by drawing influence from band flyers, clothes, and lyrics. Through the use of pastiche and hand-lettered text that often mimics the vernacular of advertisement, I challenge the conventions of comedy and narrative. Guided by art historical research, my work is heavily referential. I aim to connect pop to a larger social framework by cataloging the experiences of those who identify within a collective.
To be a pop figure is to be a caricature of yourself. I am interested in how an object can function in this same way. In addition to painting and sculpture, songwriting is integrated into my practice through symbolic continuity. I credit my natural inclination towards storytelling to my love of country and folk music– growing up in North Carolina taught me the value of songs as oral history. I credit my art’s rudimentary quality to the defiant spirit endowed to me by punk rock. I am devoted to using visual methods to document generational identity and radical, collective action.
Artist Bio:
Cameron Sinclair is an artist currently living in Kansas City, Missouri. She will graduate with a BFA in Painting from the Kansas City Art Institute in 2025. Born and raised in Carolina Beach, North Carolina, Sinclair is heavily inspired by her Southern upbringing and the unique character of the small coastal community she calls home. Growing up, she spent Thursday nights every summer on the end of an old fishing pier, watching bands play over the ocean at her parents’ tiki bar. After graduating high school from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in 2020, she spent a year working both as a server at the family business and part time at a local record store where she contributed to the shop’s brand design through handmade promotional materials. These experiences informed her love for regional culture and broadened her taste in music, soon becoming central themes in her work.
In 2021, Sinclair moved to Kansas City where she began to explore the transient spaces of music subculture present in the Midwestern D.I.Y. scene. A documentative element exists in her recent projects, as the artist seeks to archive and demonstrate the ephemeral nature of these overlooked, often clandestine histories. Placing the facets of locality and pop culture in a broader social context, Sinclair has produced a body of work that is at once humorous, referential, and nostalgic.
