“My pastel drawings are based on direct observation and seek to tell a visual story about the beauty and depth of life around me, made precious by the truth of its transitory nature. I am interested in what is discovered and revealed during the process of slow looking over a long period of time, as the drawing evolves, creating itself, slowly, mark-by-mark.”

- Sherry Leedy

Sherry Leedy is best known for her day job as Director and Curator of Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art. Few know that she works the night shift drawing in her studio with soft pastels on paper.

Her drawings are connected to the long and rich tradition of Vanitas and the symbolic meaning of objects. Often loaded with personal meaning, the visual power of Leedy’s drawings resides in form, pattern, color, light, rhythm and line. Over the 30 years that Leedy has owned her gallery, this is her first one- person exhibition in the space she calls her own.

Leedy holds a BFA degree from the Kansas City Art Institute and a MFA from the University of Kansas. Her work is in the collections of the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS; the Los Angeles County Museum, LA, CA; University of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff; First National Bank, Columbia, MO; AT&T, Kansas City, MO and others.

Every unit depends on every other unit. I have so much to say and an inadequate relationship with language. My work is an outlet for me to ask questions or hold ideas that I have no other place for.

The repeated circular units and repetitive processes that I build with are symbols of these repeated thoughts and unanswered questions. Eventually, these units come together to create other forms, define interior and exterior spaces, or create patterns and imagery. Adapted and adopted from other historical craft disciplines, the techniques of linking and looping or weaving units together are physical reminders of the power of many and the agency of one. Even with thousands of units, one broken link or one frayed thread reshapes the whole.

Unlike the mantras or the slogans we shout and post to align ourselves with social groups or ideologies, the questions that consume me are full of contradictions and confusion. They are powerful, present, quiet, persistent. In a Whisper, With a Word brings together works that embody seemingly dichotomous physical and emotional truths – that we can be both strong and fragile, simple and complicated, long-lasting and fleeting, vague and specific, concise and discursive.

In Arthurian legend, the Questing Beast was a monster born of a cursed woman. In the story, the woman strikes a deal with the devil to make someone fall in love with her, and thus ultimately brings a curse upon herself. Once born, her child becomes the Questing Beast, a fearsome, snake-headed chimera and the hunting target of many a knight. The beast, through the curse laid on its mother, is born into a world in which its role is cemented and its fate sealed.

I think often in my work about roles which are set out for us by others. As a young woman, I could not help but notice gendered expectations of how I should look and behave, and what skills and career paths I ought to be interested in. Frequently I felt that I did not quite fit in. I often turned to fantasy tales for solace, but there were gendered expectations there too. Female power was often depicted as entirely evil, as with powerful witches, or entirely good, as with angelic princesses. Cursed women, and figures such as the Questing Beast, tugged at my sympathy because of their tragic origins and seemingly incontrovertible fates. Generally, these women sinned by desiring things they should not. At times I wondered what the author was trying to say by including female characters with such unflattering, ill-conceived and petty motivations. What if these cursed women were allowed to step out of these roles? If they wrote their own stories, what would be the purpose of their quests?

In this show, I’ve included a number of works featuring young women and their animal companions on their own individual quests. I invite the viewer to consider what roles each might be playing and what is happening in each story.

Goethe Pop Up Kansas City is excited to present the poster exhibition Shaping the Past. This exhibit will also highlight the many projects that we developed in 2020 as part of Shaping the Past (“Gestaltung der Vergangenheit”).

Shaping the Past builds connections and showcases patterns that constitute a transnational memory culture at work to address systemic racism and sexism, social and economic exclusion, and legacies of colonial and state violence. Featuring works by artists, activists, and collectives from North America and Germany — all part of the Monument Lab Fellows Program — this exhibition broadens understandings and illuminates ongoing memory interventions that reimagine civil society.

The spotlighted projects offer innovative and reparative models that highlight creative changemakers who are actively shaping the past and our paths forward.

At Goethe Pop Up Kansas City we took part in this project in 2020, inviting Monument Lab fellows Alisha B. Wormsley and Patrick Weems to collaborate with artists, activists, and intellectuals from Kansas City and beyond on themes that are relevant to our community and the process of (re-)connecting with the past. You can learn more about these various projects by visiting the Shaping the Past exhibition presented at the Goethe Pop Up as a concluding project.

Masks:
Masks are required for all guests and staff in the shared space.

Join us for First Friday at Buttonwood Art Space on May 6th! From 5pm — 8pm, we’ll explore artwork of our beautiful city while sipping beverages and enjoying light appetizers.

Buttonwood Art Space is excited to partner with Kansas City Parks & Recreation again in 2022! The “Kansas City” exhibition will feature artworks of Kansas City, it’s icons, sports teams, BBQ images, jazz themes, beautiful cityscapes and much more! Artworks may include paintings, photography, 3D works and much more!

Each purchase will benefit our city’s beautiful parks with 50% of net sales benefiting KC Parks & Recreation and the remaining 50% going directly to artists!

As part of KC Parks’ “Walktober” series in October, artists will be invited to participate in a plein air painting contest. Winners from these events will be able to auction their winning pieces during First Friday on May 6, 2022.

KC Parks’ mission is to improve the quality of life, health and wellness of our community by providing socially equitable, community-driven programming and environmentally sound natural resource management. The department maintains 221 parks, 12,242 acres of parkland, 159 miles of trails and bikeways, 29 lakes, hundreds of athletic fields and tennis courts, 106 playgrounds, and five public golf courses.