About the Exhibit:
“This is my body”— is a reflection on the repercussions of my parents’ divorce. It is a lament over the dismembering of my family, the tearing apart of that body, the desecration of that sanctuary people call home. It is also a meditation on the collision between the earthly and the divine.

As a triune metaphor for my family as both body and sanctuary, this installation contains visual aspects of my childhood home, the Bible’s recurring theme of animal sacrifice, and the Mosaic tabernacle (or tent). 

My father (represented by the bookshelf) and my mother (the table) structured the family around their Christian faith and worked as clergy in Methodist and Presbyterian churches. My father left my family when I was nine, and in his absence, I watched my unstable family fall apart.

The charcoal drawings on the walls represent a brief survey of the substitutionary sacrifice depicted throughout the Bible: from the first animal skinned in the Garden of Eden, to the promise God made with Abraham, to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. At the same time, the drawings allude to my visceral struggle between two opposing views of God — is God an oppressive abstract or is he a relentlessly loving person? The black flesh and bones indicate the despair of abandonment, yet they also stand for a substitute so willingly given for people. 

The household objects and the stained, patchwork walls all point to the temporality of the body, the fragility of familial structures, the fragmentation of memories, and the makeshift nature of economic instability. In and of themselves they also stand as a memorial to the process of their making. The walls were stained and ironed, then torn, frayed, and hand-stitched together, the tissue paper objects carefully papier-mâchéd, the furniture sewn together piece by piece. I likened these processes to grieving — they were both comforting and frustrating, long but temporary, physical and spiritual, mental and emotional — and ultimately part of the healing of deep wounds.

About the Artist:
Josey Seung-Ah Lee is a multidisciplinary artist based in Philadelphia, PA. She received her B.A. in Art and Sociology from Pennsylvania State University in 2013. The following year she moved to Kansas City, MO to participate in a two-year artist residency with Transform Arts. This residency culminated in her solo exhibition, skin and bone, at the Leedy Voulkos Art Center in 2016. She has participated in community art projects and exhibited work in Long Island City, Kansas City, and Philadelphia.

Website: www.joseylee.com
Instagram: @joseyseungahlee
Facebook: @JoseyLeeArt

Park International Center for Music (Park ICM) announced today that their 2020 – 2021 Season would continue in March with two wonderful ways to experience classical music both free and freely available at Park ICM.

“Though the pandemic has continued to shutter our theaters,” said Park ICM Executive Director Lisa Hickok, “We have been committed to bringing the best in classical music to our audiences. Having partners such as the 1900 Building and our new friends at the Leedy-Voulkos Art Center in the Crossroads allows us to do just that.”

First on the exciting line-up is a new collaboration between Park ICM and the Leedy-Voulkos Art Center in the Crossroads. Called “Witness: A Retrospective, Featuring the art of Jason Pollen and the Music of Park International Center for Music,” the evening will feature students of Park ICM enveloped by the amazing visual art of internationally acclaimed artist, designer and educator, Jason Pollen.

An iconic visual artist since he arrived in Kansas City in 1983, Pollen moved to the Midwest to become a professor in the Fiber Department at the Kansas City Art Institute. “I have been drawing, painting, collaging, designing and stitching since I was a child,” said Pollen. “This retrospective is an overview of works created in this past half century. 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 witnessing my hands create something from nothing. I then feel compelled to breathe as much life as possible into whatever shows up.”

Broadcast from the Leedy-Voulkos Art Center, Hickok hopes that this will be just the beginning. “When I first met with Jason to discuss the possibility of a collaboration, he mentioned that he was the product of a family of classically trained musicians and that he was ‘eager to have the music resonate’ with his works. We are so excited to bring that vision to fruition. Especially in times of such uncertainty, it is lovely to foster new relationships in the artistic community. We hope that putting together this amazing combination will appeal to classical music and visual art lovers alike and, hopefully, promote the desire of other artists and arts organizations to work with Park ICM in the near future.”

The concert will feature six Park ICM students including Orin Laursen, Ilya Shmukler, Ilkhom Muhiddnov, Igor Khukhua, Evangeliya Delizonas-Khukhua, and Anastasia Vorotnaya, plus Park Collaborative Pianist Lolita Lisovskaya-Sayevich.

EVENING PROGRAM

Camille Saint-Saëns : Havanaise
Orin Laursen, violin with Lolita Lisovskaya — Sayevich, piano

R. Wagner — F. Liszt : Overture to “Tannhäuser” S. 442
Ilya Shmukler, piano

Fritz Kreisler : Praeludium and Allegro
Ilkhom Mukhiddinov, violin with Lolita Lisovskaya-Sayevich, piano

Fritz Kreisler : Liebesfreud
P.I. Tchaikovsky : Melody
Nikolo Paganini : Caprice No: 18
Igor Khukhua, violin with Evangeliya Delizonas — Khukhua, piano

Sergei Rachmaninoff : Moments Musicaux Op 16, No. 3. Andante cantabile, B minor, No. 4. Presto, E minor
Sergei Taneyev : Prelude and Fugue Op.29
Anastasia Vorotnaya, piano

More information and broadcast link available at
ICM.PARK.EDU

FIRST FRIDAY GALLERY OPENING & ARTIST TALK

Friday, February 5, 2020
5:30 – 9:00pm
Artist talk and Q&A at 7:00pm
(masks + social distancing required)

Louise Cutler
We Are Still Watching

Born out of her series, “Screams of the Blkman,” artist Louise Cutler brings together stories of individuals and historical events in “We Are Still Watching” that aim to compel and evoke conversation. Please join us to view this powerful work, meet the artist, and have the opportunity to hear her speak about her process.

From the artist’s statement about the exhibit: 
This work makes us look at our past through the eyes of those who have gone before. Our forefathers, King, Malcolm, Harriet, Rosa, and others had their faith to guide, strengthen, and direct them. They held onto the hope that things would get better for their children and future generations of blacks.

These faithful men and women paved the way for us and looked forward to freedom, justice, and equality. In faith we look back, having seen some of the fulfillment of their work and progress.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Hebrews, 12:1

This exhibit is not just for people of the African diaspora but also for all who have fought and are still fighting against injustice and for freedom.

“We Are Still Watching” allows us to reflect on our past, examine our history, and change the world around us. It reminds us that we have hope in something greater than ourselves.

**TW: this exhibit contains some graphic imagery of violence against minority and oppressed people groups. Imagery may be disturbing to some.

Materialist II

Group Exhibition Featuring:

Jessie Fisher

Melanie Johnson

Kathy Liao

Christopher Lowrance

Michael McCaffrey

Scott Seebart

“In a world myriad as ours, the gaze is a singular act: to look at something is to fill your whole life with it, if only briefly.”
― Ocean Vuong, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous

MATERIALIST II features new paintings, drawings, and sculptures by six artists; Jessie Fisher, Melanie Johnson, Kathy Liao, Christopher Lowrance, Michael McCaffrey, and Scott Seebart are all local artists and educators devoted to perceptual painting, material exploration, and the physicality of their media. Collectively, the members of this group explore the phenomenological and the material while simultaneously employing the practice of making as a responsive vehicle for invention and a forum for reflection.

The work in this exhibition highlights each artist’s respective devotion to sustaining a poetic mediation between the directly observed, the recounted, and the re-presented, often via painstakingly meticulous, labor-intensive, or counterintuitive approaches. Close inspection of the work reveals individual methodologies that are far from direct, indicative of conscious parameters concretized while engaging with the meditative process of making.

Choices of subject are deliberate; the psychological, the familial, the ecological and the overlooked come together as icons signifying each artist’s insight whose full impact is revealed to viewers willing to spend time unpacking process as a function of meaning. The making of the subject is the subject’s personification. This devotion is emblematic of a specific kind of intimacy, demonstrated through the artists’ engagement with material and subject simultaneously, hinting at a proxy for intellectual and emotional connections rather than material as a mere means of representation.

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LVAC COVID-19 Safety Procedures:

We are making sure to follow all the safety measures during this pandemic that have been issued by Kansas City, Missouri such as: social distancing, proper and hygiene and frequently disinfecting high traffic areas and surfaces.

We will be wearing masks at all times and we ask that you do as well. We have disposable face masks available along with hand sanitizer to use upon entry/exit.

Please do not come to the gallery if you are exhibiting symptoms, such as fever or chills, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, muscle or body aches, a new loss of taste or smell, sore throat, nausea, vomiting or diarrhea.