The Belger Crane Yard Studios Gallery presents After Hours: Belger Arts Employee Exhibition, which opens Friday, March 5, and remains on view through June 5, 2021.

After Hours showcases the artistic talents of the artists who are members of the Belger Arts staff. While Belger Arts (comprised of Belger Arts Center, Belger Crane Yard Studios and Crane Yard Clay) is known for its ceramics exhibitions and programs, the artists who work here represent a range of media, including glass, wood, mixed media and ceramics. The works on view also reflect a diversity of approaches, techniques and themes.

Executive Director Evelyn Craft Belger said, “The artists in After Hours not only creatively problem-solve on a daily basis as Belger Arts employees, they are dynamic artists, as well. The exhibition provides the public an opportunity to see work by a new generation of contemporary artists who also contribute to a thriving arts community.”

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Object Index is a collaborative exhibition that investigates how culture and technology are implicitly tied through the production of ceramic objects. Using hand-forming processes and digital reproduction technologies, Bryan Czibesz and Shawn Spangler recreate historical forms in a contemporary context.

Drawing inspiration from historical objects, Czibesz and Spangler use clay extrusion 3D printers (designed specifically for this body of work) and the potter’s wheel. Czibesz has done most of the digital and 3D printing work, examining the disconnect between hand and material via computerized construction methods. Spangler has done most of the wheel throwing, bringing a focus to the maker’s direct touch. Both have a hand in the creation of each work.

The work in Object Index highlights the junction of digital and hand-thrown processes. It also emphasizes the alliance that exists between computers and humanity, in an increasingly familiar concept that highlights digital dependencies.

For a high-resolution image, click here. Artist bios and additional images are available on our website.

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SAFETY MEASURES:

Belger Arts is committed to maintaining a safe place for our visitors, studio members, and staff. To ensure this, we require that six feet social distancing be maintained and that visitors wear a mask. Disposable masks and hand sanitizer are available. For contact tracing purposes we also ask that you sign in when you arrive.

While advanced registration is not required for the February 5th exhibition opening, capacity is limited for everyone’s safety. We recommend registering in advance on the Object Index exhibition page of our website.

For more information on upcoming exhibitions, classes, and workshops, or to schedule a group tour, please visit BelgerArts.org or call 816 – 474-7316.

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About Belger Arts:

Since 2000, the Belger Arts Center has encouraged viewers to explore, question, and deepen their understanding of art and of the world around them. Drawing upon the extensive John and Maxine Belger Family Foundation collection, as well as a rich variety of local, national, and international artists, the Belger Arts Center, has staged over 70 large-scale exhibitions that represent some of the best in contemporary art.

In 2013, Belger Arts expanded the Foundation’s commitment to the creative process by opening Belger Crane Yard Studios, an arts complex dedicated to providing studio and exhibition space for artists. A range of programming in ceramics education, in addition to the Red Star Residency program and Crane Yard Clay ceramics supply store, has made Belger a center for contemporary art.

“This is and always will be where my heart is. It is what I care about.” – William Christenberry

Over the course of many decades contemporary art icon William Christenberry made annual pilgrimages to Hale County, Alabama, documenting the landscape, its architecture and its transformation. Tracing Time offers an examination of Christenberry’s relationship to Hale County, where he spent his summers as a child, its influence on his conceptual approach and artistic vision, and the psychology of place and memory.

The exhibition includes photographs, drawings, paintings and sculptures from the Belger Collection, some never before seen in Kansas City. The evolution of Christenberry’s experimental, creative process is also presented in displays of source material pages from his sketchbooks, photographs that served as foundations for drawings and structures, and rare early constructions from the early 1960s. The artist’s father, a woodworker and a strong early influence on the artist, would create models of buildings that were important to him out of simple, sometimes unrefined materials. One of these buildings is included in the exhibition.

Christenberry’s deep affection for Hale County, his curiosity about the effects of mankind and nature on the landscape, reveal a poignant perspective on the passage of time and chronicle the life cycle of place. Although profoundly personal and geographically specific, the themes of William Christenberry’s work are universal and remain relevant.

Join us for the grand re-opening of Upper Level Gallery (formerly Plenum Space) during First Friday, April 2nd!! Spring Break is a group exhibition in partnership with SpraySeeMO and featuring many of the artists, both visiting and local, that have become part of the festival family. This show is a celebration of peoples’ connections across the country and within their own communities, a celebration of making it this far and reveling in the spirit of the moment. The last 12 months have been hard; and we’re here to party harder — Welcome to Spring Break 2021!!

In conjunction with the gallery reception, artists will be painting throughout the Art Alley during the day, live music performed by DJ Sheppa from 8:00pm on. This event is free and open to the public, and please maintain proper distancing and mask-wearing whenever possible.

See you there,
Jason & Ami Harrington