It has been said that art imitates life. Joseph Broghammer’s art is based on his life, acting as a sort of diary that captures his minutes, his hours, and his days. Talking about the role art has taken in his life, it’s clear that being an artist has shaped Broghammer into who he is today. Art is so much more than something he just wakes up and does. It is part of him. Broghammer has developed into one of the region’s most original voices whose mark making can be traced from Bosch and Brueghel to Dali and Magritte and linked to the likes of John Graham and Tony Fitzpatrick.

Broghammer says. “I use symbols, icons, religious objects, and more to spell out something that happened to me, that interests me, or something that I can learn from or someone that I can learn from.”

While Broghammer creates quite a few pieces centering around birds, he says the works aren’t always about the birds. They are more of a symbol to him and sometimes have nothing to do with the story he is trying to tell. It is always the story that matters most to Broghammer. However, seeing as birds come in a variety of shapes, sizes, colors, and even textures, they make an enjoyable subject.

It starts with a creative impulse.

There is the allowing of nothing to become something

It proceeds mark by mark, shape by shape, color by color.

There is the merging with the rhythm and following the lead of what wants to go where.

What is inside and invisible is now outside and visible.

Artist Statement

I have been drawing, painting, collaging, designing, and stitching since childhood. Elaborate sand castles were the first source of inspiration. 

My art journey has been characterized by experimentation with process and materials and the search for a compelling communicative visual language. I have often felt as if I were a witness, watching my hands create something from nothing, then compelled to breathe as much life as possible into whatever has revealed itself.

Bio

Jason Pollen is an internationally acclaimed artist, designer, and educator. He has been on the faculty at the Royal College of Art in London, Parsons and Pratt in New York City, and Professor and Fiber Chair at the Kansas City Art Institute. He is Professor emeritus at KCAI, President emeritus of the Surface Design Association, and an American Craft Council Fellow. His work is in numerous prominent private national and international collections, including the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art and the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art.

Pollen had designed numerous collections of textile designs for Channel, Dior, Yves. St. Laurent, and Jack Lenor Larsen. He also created sets for the Kansas City Ballet.

Exhibition Statement

Scars to Stars is an exhibition of Dylan Mortimer’s work over the last several years. This body of work aims to stand in the tension between trauma and healing. Employing symbols that have been traumatic in his lived experience being born with a fatal respiratory disease and receiving two double lung transplants, he aims to transform and recontextualize those symbols. Scars, IV poles, cells, ambulances, and surgeries become beacons of hope and joy testifying both the darkness and the hope simultaneously. The aggressive joy rendered in layers of glitter evoke the absurd faith of hope in seemingly hopeless situations.

Artist Statement 

The symbols that collide in my work fuse anatomical, biological, and medical imagery with spiritual and religious themes. Shiny materials invoke the Baroque as a way of navigating a deadly diagnosis. My whole life has been an attempt to spread glitter over a seemingly hopeless situation. I aim to reference and navigate my own despair, transformation, and joy. It is my own leap of faith.

My work employs shiny, glowing, vibrant materials to evoke a transformation from a deadly disease I was diagnosed at birth. The transformation aims to provide a glimmer of hope in seeming hopelessness.

A variety of materials are used, from glitter suspended in resin, to lights, to colored glass. The aim is to collide a variety of discoveries into a contemporary manifestation of the baroque. Acknowledging pain and challenge, while simultaneously recognizing hope to overcome.

I work in two series. The first reflects my life in Missouri. My mom’s family has been in the Kansas City area for generations. Although I grew up in Northern California, I spent at least part of each summer in the Midwest. Every time I left I had a deep longing for its intimate hedgerows and big skies. The eventual decision to permanently relocate was an obvious one. My roots here are deep and the landscape is the landscape of my heart. It is the wellspring for my current body of work.

Two figures continually appear in these images, that of myself and that of my dear friend, Lissa. We have known each other a long time, having met when we lived in the Bay Area. Each of us serendipitously moved to the Kansas City area at around the same time and reconnected. This body of work takes our likenesses to explore the complexity of life in Missouri, from draconian post-Roe trigger bans to the softness of a more earth-based lifestyle.

The second series is an affectionate parody of rock art. Each painting adapts a classically driven technique to likenesses of contemporary musicians and their song lyrics. These paintings explore the durability of fame and culture by removing pop icons from their proposed zeitgeists and re-contextualizing them in the unexpected quiet of the natural world.

Holidays at the Belger Crane Yard Gallery  is an annual exhibition that opens November 3 hosted at the Belger Crane Yard Gallery (2011 Tracy Avenue, Kansas City, MO, 64108). Artists from across the country were invited to create artwork for the holiday season that make the perfect gifts for family and friends. Shoppers can choose from an array of unique artworks in a range of mediums: ceramic, glass, metal, textiles, wood, and more. Artworks will be available for purchase through December 30, 2023. This year’s artists include Rachel Akin, Miguel Alaniz, Nicole Aquillano, Ian Bassett, Chandra Beadleston, Bekah Bliss, Conner Burns, Megan Chalifoux, Kelly Clark, Kate Clements, Josh Dickens, Chris Dufala, Genevieve Flynn, Bianka Groves, Pierce Haley, Katie Hogan, Brian Horsch, Nell Hull, Steph Kates, Cecilia Labora, Huey Lee, Lynn Maggard, Caroline Meek, Jacob Meer, Didem Mert, Marie Anine Møller, Kelsey Nagy, Brent Pafford, Ronan Kyle Peterson, Will Preman (Yum Yum Ceramics), Justin Rothshank, Melanie Sherman, Karel Sigtenhorst, Wanda Tyner, and Desiree Warren. For the most current list of participating artists please visit the Holidays at the Belger Crane Yard Gallery web page.