Congratulations to the following Current Works 2022 artists:

Mark Appling Fisher | T.R. Barnard | Derrick Benitz | Derrick Burbul

Jackie Carioscia | Kirk Decker | Barrett Emke | Adam Finkelston

Morgan Ford Willingham | Shirley Harryman | Lisa Healey | Victoria Hernandez Velazquez

| Erin Hillery | Nate Hofer | Angie Jennings | Brandon Jessip Teresa Johnson |

Judith G. Levy | Mirka Leyva-Gaucin | Laura Lloyd Donald McKenna |

Lilly Marker | JoLynne Martinez  | Paul Middleton Lea Murphy | Rebecca Ofiesh

| Jon Onstot | Susan Pfannmuller Nick Reiswig | Angela Shaffer |

Sharon Takade | Gwen Walstrand | Don Wolfe

This is Kansas City Society for Contemporary Photography’s annual juried exhibit. It is to showcase what photographic artists are doing today in Kansas City and the Midwest. Works will have been produced from 2020 – 2022 encompassing a broad range of photography styles and processes that represent the diversity of our region. Our juror, April Watson, has selected 26 pieces out of the 240 pieces that were submitted. It shows a vast array of ideas, concepts, and processes.

This year’s juror, April M. Watson, Senior Curator, Photography at The Nelson-Atkins of Art in Kansas City, MO. During her fourteen year-tenure at the Nelson-Atkins, she has curated numerous exhibitions from the museum’s renowned Hallmark Photographic Collection and organized several major loan exhibitions.

In an age of unpredictable weather patterns, fluctuating temperatures and rising water one cannot escape uncertainty. I Am Daughter, Marie Bannerot McInerney’s first solo show in Kansas City since 2015, considers the unknowingness of today through abstracted recordings and translations of celestial and terrestrial phenomena in the form of sculpture and installation. The large-scale works are made from materials ranging from handmade paper to cement, ceramic, brass and hand-dyed silks and are inspired by fourth century Orphic totempässes. These totempässes (passports for the dead) attributed to cultic burial practices, are tiny gold foil tablets that provide the deceased instructions for how to negotiate the landscape of the dead.

As our planet faces challenging times, McInerney longs for instructions on how to negotiate the unknown. She states, “While certainty is not in our future, I can recognize the beauty that surrounds me, I can collaborate with the movement of the sun and seek moments of contemplation and wonder.” The works in I Am Daughter consider our position during this moment of anxiety and present meditations on time, reverence and contingency.

Exhibition hours: Wednesday through Friday from 10 – 4pm and Saturday from 12 – 4pm

Each Painting is an invitation to join my journey. Deep down, there’s a boiling sea of ideas and emotions that generates constantly and need to be released and funneled into a medium that brings me peace of mind and calm- That’s what oil painting does to me!

The energy and drive can be felt through the boldness of colors, the intensity of the brushstrokes along with the heaviness of the palette knife layers and the emotions through the softness of the backgrounds and mysteriousness of the color composition.

No two days are alike so does my art! All of my paintings leave some of the background exposed showing where it begins on the wood panel and let rise to the surface a modern simplistic beauty through the layers.

A balancing act between choosing how much to reveal versus how much to hide creating the “perfect imperfect”.

The paintings are meant to evoke emotions and leave enough room for the new owner to complete their own story. I’m a generator of ideas, a generator of smiles through my art and there’s nothing that makes me happier than sharing it with you! — Genevieve Hamel