Please join us for a solo exhibit of new work from Kansas City artist Emily Cramer. In Reverberation: Faith in Motion, Emily invites viewers to contemplate elements of faith such as courage, love, perseverance, and discernment through works with intimate details and dreamlike perspectives. Using images of water and ripples, Emily invites us to consider the ways our faith is not just our own: each act of faith belongs to the broader body of believers, where it ripples outward, carrying with it a witness of the divine source of all beauty and wonder.

Please join us for an opening reception on Friday, September 6, from 5:30 – 9pm. Emily will be giving an artist talk at 7pm, with Q&A to follow.

Just close your eyes and hold your breath and everything will turn real pretty is a quote from Close Encounters. I feel it reflects the bizarre world we’re living in currently. Sometimes we need to alter our state of mind to face the reality of the world. I tend to accomplish that through art. This work is a reflection of the lightness & darkness that surrounds us. The effects of religious wars, political violence and social media has taken a toll on the fundamental goodness intended for our species. Although optimism tends to hold strong, I can’t help but wonder what we’re heading into while the darkness continues to fight for control. 

Artist Statement

My artwork tends to reflect our current state in the world. Religion, social issues, politics as well as humor play an enormous role in my approach. No expectations. Look, close your eyes, feel or don’t. 

Bio

Lori Raye Erickson is a multidisciplinary artist working in Kansas City, Missouri. She received her BFA from The Kansas City Art Institute and continued working at Hallmark cards for several years after graduating. Taking a break from the corporate world she has worked in property management while continuing to create works of art shown throughout the US. 

Headspaces is a show about two friends getting to know the ins and outs of each other’s art processes and interior landscapes that produce their most recent work.

John Raux and JT Daniels both grew up in KCK and connected some years ago while painting murals in the Midwest. Early morning coffee conversations about each other’s upbringing and spirituality in process is the heartbeat of their collaboration.

Piecing together symbols and caricatures of personality and community, Daniels graphically layers the complexities of tradition, culture, and societal nuance into playful and uplifting collages of intersectional representation. 

Carving polystyrene pieces into lightweight stonelike forms, Raux’s sculptural painting process layers collisions and contouring colors into poetic, social, and spiritual commentary.

Read KC Studio Article

White is recognized for her use of dagger-like honey locust thorns throughout her sculptures and her pyrographic works on paper.

“All of my work is about the relationship between order and chaos and the constant navigation between the two. Behind the burning process of the pyrographs lies the agrarian practice of burning the fields to restore nitrogen to the soil and the cauterizing of wounds. The thornworks respond to the architectural nature of their structure and the language of rhythm and pattern found therein. Other works express a search for structure, rhythm and underlying form in the everyday; an effort to reveal the extraordinary in the ordinary. And finally, I’m interested in the role of fear and anxiety as the core of creativity, uncomfortable friends that catapult us forward.”

Launched to serve mid-career artists, Studios Inc is Kansas City’s only nonprofit arts organization offering pivotal three-year residencies to mid-career artists who are poised to significantly expand their careers. Studios Inc offers a unique immersion experience for resident artists, who use their studio and exhibition space to produce and exhibit work, network and learn from one another, and attract and cultivate relationships with art patrons, collectors, and arts professionals.