Black Euphoria is an exhibition that investigates vehicles and modalities of joy and autonomy within the Black experience broadly. Thematic and material approaches are as vast as the subject suggests. The core of the presentation, however, is the declaration of self definition and contemplation of the Black experience, defined not solely by histories of struggle and subjugation but also by experiences marked by some of the most powerful and joyful expressions within the human condition.

In his skull imagery, Jim Leedy bears witness to the human cost of war and genocide. Referencing the Holocaust and twentieth-century conflicts worldwide, these paintings transform skeletal forms into enduring symbols of collective memory, loss, and moral reckoning.

Artist Statement

Jim Leedy is an international artist in terms of his interests and achievements. He is an artist who crosses boundaries between materials and genres, representation and abstraction, art and music, creativity, and scholarship. His diverse and unique talents have led him to a lifetime of accomplishment in clay, painting, public art, works-on-paper, prints, assemblages, installations, and performance.

Eyewitness to the birth of the New York School, Leedy’s paintings emerge from Abstract Impressionism, with a sense of materiality, surface, structure, and veiled figuration. With a graduate study of Asian art history at Columbia University, he created a hybrid of Abstract Expressionism and Oriental pottery which is central to his oeuvre in clay. Chinese tripod bronzes and Japanese folk pottery were reinterpreted with an informal American twist that established him as an early leader in the American Clay Revolution.

Never satisfied with the status quo, his career has been a lifetime of exploration and chance-taking that has occasionally put him on the outside of major art movements, while often anticipating them. He continues to break ground in processes, materials, and subject matter that is unique to his times and personal life.

“I try to forget everything I have learned, and attempt to flow with nature.”

Adapted from Jim Leedy: Artist Across Boundaries, by Matthew Kangas, University of Washington Press, 2000.

Biography

Jim Leedy was an artist who crossed boundaries between materials and genres, representation and abstraction, art and music, creativity and scholarship. He began making art as a very young child. While still in high school, Leedy began working with the Bluefield (WV) Telegraph newspaper as an artist and photographer. After two years as a military photographer, he entered the Richmond Professional Institute of the College of William and Mary in Richmond, VA as an art major of the G.I. Bill.

Leedy was an international artist in both interest and achievement. His diverse and unique talents have led him to a lifetime of accomplishment in clay, painting, public art, works-on-paper, prints, assemblages, installations, and performance. Jim has shown his work, lectures, and does workshops at home and abroad and his works are held in numerous museums and private collections around the world. Noted art critic Matthew Kangas recently wrote a book on Leedy’s career entitled Jim Leedy: Artist Across Boundaries. 

A longtime professor of sculpture at the Kansas City Art Institute, Leedy was a devoted teacher. He earned degrees from The College of William and Mary, Michigan State University, and Southern Illinois University, with post-graduate work at Columbia and Ohio State Universities. Among his many honors, Jim has received grants from the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, the Carnegie-Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He has also received the Kansas City Art Institue’s Distinguished Achievement Award and the Governor’s award for teaching excellence, as well as being named an Honorary Member of the Council of the National Council of Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA).

Jim Leedy has worked tirelessly for decades as a passionate champion of the arts in Kansas City. The Leedy-Voulkos Art Center, founded in 1985 and still directed by Jim, is currently home to 6 different galleries. In 2000, the Kansas City Star recognized Jim as one of the 150 most influential living Kansas Citians for his role as the founder of Kansas City’s Crossroads Arts District and the Leedy-Voulkos Art Center. In 2001, the Governor and the Historic Kansas City Foundation both recognized his efforts with awards for historical preservation and for his role in founding the Crossroads Arts District.

Never satisfied with the status quo, Jim’s career has been a lifetime of exploration and chance-taking that has occasionally put him on the outside of major art movements, while often anticipating them. He continues to break ground in processes, materials, subject matter and community development in a way that is unique to his times and personal life. 

Partially adapted from Jim Leedy: Artist Across Boundaries, by Matthew Kangas, University of Washington Press, 2000.

FEATURED ARTISTS:

Maria Vasquez Boyd | Kim Lindaberry | Susi Lulaki | Kat Dison Nechlebová | Vivian Torrence

According to Surrealist Andre Breton the concept of the “Supreme Point” is understood as “ a certain point of the mind at which life and death, the real and the imagined, past, present and future…cease to be perceived as contradictions.”

The five artists in this exhibit, using a variety of media, all explore various levels of consciousness that engage us in various possibilities of reality at a time when nothing seems certain. Explore with them the possibilities inherent in their mindsets.

Curated by Elisabeth Kirsch

In Earth Symphony, artist Rita Blitt elevates simple, everyday experiences with trees and gardens into poetic reflections upon line, movement, color, and harmony. Her use of water-based media allows colors to gently drift and pool across the surfaces of canvas and paper, resulting in a radiant visual connection with nature. 

The works featured in Earth’s Symphony are characterized by flowing rhythm and unfolding movement, reminiscent of musical patterns. Through these new creations, Blitt shares her deep appreciation for nature and her wonder at witnessing its continual growth.

- Connie Gibbons, Curator

Rita Blitt is an American contemporary painter, sculptor, and film collaborator based in both the San Francisco Bay Area and Leawood, Kansas. Her work is distinguished by abstract, organic lines and shapes that draw inspiration from nature, music, and dance. Blitt’s artistic repertoire includes dynamic black line and pastel oval paintings as well as large-scale sculptures.

Her art has been showcased in over 70 solo exhibitions. The Mulvane Museum at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas, houses the Rita Blitt Legacy Collection. Blitt’s works are part of numerous museum and private collections, including the Mulvane Art Museum, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art, Beach Museum of Art, John F. Kennedy Library, National Museum of Singapore, Spencer Museum of Art, Nevada Museum of Art, Spertus Institute, Skirball Cultural Center, and the Kennedy Museum of American Art. Her monumental sculptures are installed in Australia, Israel, Japan, Singapore, and the United States.

This is our January Gallery Art Show!

First Friday hours on January 2nd. are from 10am till 8pm.

Show runs thru February 5th.

Regular Gallery hours are from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Monday thru Saturday, closed Sunday.

All are welcome and always free to visit, thanks!

Jones Gallery 1717 Walnut, KCMO. 64108
816 – 421‑2111
https://jonesgallerykc.com/