“I believe that art, like the moments captured in these images, is alchemy. Lightning in a bottle. In this collection, my goal was to take singular, idiosyncratic elements and create a unified whole through the transportive power of nostalgia. I hope you enjoy the journey.”

 — Jeff Robinson, 2021

SLCA is pleased to present our inaugural exhibition of paintings by Jeff Robinson, Nostalgias. In this series, of black and white and gray large-scale paintings and intimate works on paper, Robinson breathes new life into snapshots¬¬¬ of the recent past. A couple celebrating New Year’s Eve, society women dressed in furs, and swing dancers are all caught in brief impressions. These paintings give transitory glimpses of life back then, of an age that already feels bygone. Viewers are transformed as visitors, tourists, invited to engage with fleeting moments that we recognize and, perhaps, even long for.

Equally important is how the painter convinces us of the truth of this experience. The subject matter seems familiar, as amateur photography from an extremely interesting family album, but upon close inspection each painted image is made of entirely abstract shapes of shades of light and dark. What seems to be a woman’s face from afar is revealed to be abstraction upon closer view. Realism dissolves into shape and value and the artist, as the blue-collar worker of culture and the translator of the painted experience, takes a well-deserved bow.

Jeff Robinson lives and works in Kansas City, Missouri. His work is in the corporate collections of The New York Times, Nike Corporation, Time Warner, American General Insurance, St. Regis Hotels, American Century Investments, and the Albrecht Kemper Museum.

“As a multidisciplinary artist who often collaborates with scientists, travels on expeditions at sea to create works that shed light on the natural world, works with data, and tries to connect the viewer with places and processes hidden from view, this body of work is an inward pivot – each painting, a personal meditation. I hope to capture these distortions of time, flurry of emotions, fluctuations as I drag the paintbrush to the beat of my own breath. Time is passing, a time less linear and more dimensional.” –Rebecca Rutstein

Philadelphia based artist, Rebecca Rutstein, explores abstraction inspired by her interest in geology, microbiology, marine science and the undercurrents that continually shape the physical world. Her paintings incorporate structural networks that articulate patterns found in nature, data, maps, micro and macro, handmade and mechanized, linear and solid. These visual experiences shed light on places and processes normally hidden from view and engage the viewer with a heightened connection to these enigmatic worlds. Through ongoing collaborations with scientists, much of her recent work has focused on mapping data of the deep sea seeking to illuminate a hidden world.

In her new series of work, Topographies of Time, Rutstein’s language of abstraction and exploration of hidden networks pivots inward, as she reflects on the impact of recent events on our experience of global interconnectedness. She suggests that our shared experience of time has shifted, stretched, bent and slowed, or alternately become frantic in fits and starts, as normalcy has been superseded by world events. Many of Rutstein’s paintings incorporate cellular networks of forms, lines or bands of colors that reveal an experience of time that is changing, elongating and warping as routines shift and days blur their boundaries. The series is a record of altering emotional states during the global pandemic: feelings of containment, anxiety, gratitude and new possibilities.

With over 25 solo exhibitions, Rebecca Rutstein has exhibited widely in museums, institutions and galleries throughout the United States and is the recipient of numerous awards. Her work is in the public collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Museum, Temple University, Johns Hopkins Hospital & Albert Einstein College of Medicine, among others. Public commissions include Convergence, AT&T/Mural Arts Program, Philadelphia, PA, 2019 and Sculptural Commission, Yale University, Yale Science Building, New Haven, CT, 2019 and numerous others.

Rebecca Rutstein holds a BFA from Cornell University (with study abroad in Rome) and an MFA from University of Pennsylvania. She has been a visiting artist at museums and universities across the US and enjoys speaking about the intersection of art and science.

Nature is beautiful and it’s bountiful. You can find nature’s bounty everywhere you look! Whether it’s flowers, fields, plants, greenery, fruits, vegetables, insects, or anything create by Mother Nature, it’s beauty is undeniable and provides wonderful subject matter for artwork!

The “Nature’s Bounty” exhibit opens to the public online and by appointment from January 4, 2021 through March 25, 2021. There will not be a First Friday opening reception for this exhibition due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, Buttonwood Art Space and Kansas City Community Gardens (KCCG). will host a series of “mini events” throughout the exhibition. Additionally, tours are available by appointment only at https://buttonwoodartspace.com/show/nature-s-bounty. This exhibit features 178 different works of art by 110 different artists. Artwork in this exhibit features a wide variety of mediums and subject matter. Each piece of original artwork featured depicts nature and things found in nature. Artwork includes paintings, photography, mixed media, fiber and 3D works.

KCCG’s mission is to empower and inspire low-income households, community groups, and schools in the Kansas City Metropolitan area to grow their own vegetables and fruit. KCCG provides free gardening workshops, technical assistance, garden supplies, and other resources to individuals, families, neighborhood organizations, nonprofit agencies, and other groups throughout the metropolitan Kansas City area through the Self-Help Gardening (Rent A Plot & Home Gardens) and Community Partner Gardens programs.

In addition, KCCG’s Schoolyard Gardens program staff help schools to create and grow gardens to improve students’ knowledge about nutrition and the importance of fresh fruits and vegetables to a healthy diet.

In person tour schedule available @ buttonwoodartspace.com

“Winter Salon V”

Selected Works by Melanie Sherman, Genevieve Flynn, Katherine Bello, and Lori Keenan

December, 2020 – February 2021

2011 Baltimore Ave, Kansas City, MO 64108
+1 – 844-202‑9303 | info@cerberagallery.com

“Winter Salon V”

Melanie Sherman

Melanie Sherman is a ceramic artist, born in Germany and currently residing and working in Kansas City, Missouri. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in ceramics from the Kansas City Art Institute. Her background is in graphic design, where she developed an eye for pattern and decoration. In her ceramics she combines her love for ornamentation and her fascination with the history of ceramics, referencing 18^th century European porcelain.

Sherman has traveled to Asia and Europe to explore ancient and contemporary porcelain production of the East and the instilled taste for prestigious white and translucent table-wares of the West. She has been a resident at the International Ceramics Studio in Kecskemét, Hungary where she studied with the renowned Latvian ceramic artist Ilona Romule and deepened her love for designing with plaster and detailed china-painting. As a resident at The Pottery Workshop in Jingdezhen, China she developed her own designs with skilled local craftsman into a new body of work, exploring the relationship between the cultures, and how they continue to connect and influence each other through the ceramic arts.

Genevieve Flynn

Award winning silversmith, Genevieve Flynn, has been working in precious metals for 44 years creating hollow-ware and art jewelry family heirlooms. Flynn has been invited to create various private commissions, including an intricate chased and engraved hand mirror that was presented to music industry personality, Paula Abdul and a commemorative 1985 World Series pin for the late Ewing Kauffman, then owner of the Kansas City Royals and Marion Laboratories.

Katherine Bello

Lori Keenan

Lori Keenan paints for pleasure. Keenan is drawn to finding beauty in simplicity through still life’s, interiors and landscapes. In her practice, Keenan goes through a process of opening herself up to abstraction to discover new ideas of expression and composition. Keenan’s works usually develop from quick collage sketches of still life objects or patterns. Keenan enjoys working patterns and especially colors that she sees in other images into her paintings. She is not afraid of mistakes and often allows accidents to inform her work from new patterns, shapes and colors.

Keenan received a BFA from the University of Kansas. Prior to developing her abstract painting style, Keenan was an artist at Hallmark Cards. She lives in Leawood, Kansas with her husband, Matt.

Please join Cerbera Gallery in celebrating “Winter Salon V”: December 2020 – February 2021

Tue.-Sat. 11 – 5pm by appointment only (844.202.9303)