WHO WILL HEAR MY PLEA?

The artist continues to explore the roles of women in her latest installation, “Hear My Plea,” as she works with images of saints, martyrs, and goddesses. Using the figure she delightfully calls BAH!, which first came to her in a dream, she explores the limitations, bravery, passion, zeal, and compassion of figures related to the Catholic church, paganism, and other cultures.

Using imagery from the Renaissance and Middle Ages as a reference, a time when the general population could not read nor write, and utilized this imagery as their “lesson,” the artist observed only small differences between a woman’s life then and now.

Whom might women call today?

What messages might these images from the past offer to women today?

Who might possibly hear today’s women in their plea for help?

Bio

Linda Jurkiewicz lives in Kansas City and began working with fiber in 2005. She credits her upbringing as a first-generation Ukrainian-Croatian for her “make-do” attitude and her delight in upcycling repurposed materials, especially “woman’s work” such as dish towels, household items, and clothing. Her consequential fiber work incorporates soft sculpture, wordplay, idiom, embroidery, wall hangings, plush form, sequential dioramas, and installations which delve into the cultural roles of women in America over the last century, roles that are changing and roles that she pushes viewers to reexamine, to trade nostalgia for empowerment.

Jurkiewicz’s work has been shown in two solo shows in Kansas City galleries in 2022. Her work has been juried into numerous exhibitions locally. Nationally, her work has been included in Woman Made Gallery 24th International Exhibit, Chicago, Illinois (2023), Intersect Art Center Blue Hour, St. Louis, MO (2023), Amarillo Museum of Art Biennial-600: Textile/Fiber, Amarillo, Texas (2019), Raw – The Exhibition at Indiana University (2018), Sacred Threads in Herndon, VA (2017 and 2019), The Blue Show at the Core New Art Space (2017) and The Engaged Object at the Foothills Art Center (2016), both in Denver, Colorado, and Welcome to My World: Mental Health Awareness through Art at the MIRI Gallery (2016). Salt Lake City, Utah. Jurkiewicz is a member of the Kansas City Artists Coalitio

Belger Crane Yard Gallery presents Milestones: Belger Arts’ Tenth Annual Resident Artist Exhibition opening Friday, June 2, 2023, at 2011 Tracy Avenue, Kansas City, MO 64108. The public is invited to view the work and meet the artists from 6 to 8 pm. The exhibition includes work by Cindy Leung, Sun Young Park, Gina Pisto, Adams Puryear, Meredith Smith, and Nicole Woodard.

This year Belger Arts celebrates a significant milestone: the tenth year of its Artists in Residence program. The program originated at Red Star Studios, a long-time Kansas City ceramics gallery and studio. After its closing the program found a permanent home in May 2013 when Belger Crane Yard Studios opened. Belger Crane Yard Studios continues to host national and international artists through the program, providing ceramic artists the opportunity to expand their body of work or create a special project that may be outside of the scope of their routine studio practice.

The group exhibition, with its range of styles, themes, and techniques, also marks a milestone for the six artists, as it is the culmination of their time in the residency program. Through porcelain, a ceramic material originating from the East and popularized by the West, Cindy Leung facilitates conversations around topics such as consumerism, colonization, and cultural hybridity. Sun Young Park combines clay and non-clay materials to create large, abstract sculptures that reflect how she processes and translates her reality and explores the duality of the material and the conceptual. Adams Puryear documents pop and internet culture, combining traditional techniques and contemporary imagery inspired by the internet’s “anti- filter.” Curio as a site within the domestic, plays a major role in Gina Pisto’s work that explores the ritual of collecting and preservation as an act of desire. Meredith Smith uses clay, figurative sketching, poetry, and various other aspects of her work to relay an array of experiences across the human condition. Nicole Woodard’s work currently focuses on exploring the vulnerability and trauma of the body from the perspective of a woman.

Come join us for First Fridays! We have a variety of craft beer, hard cider, and hard seltzer all made in-house. Check out our beautiful backyard patio, and venture on to art alley to look at one of Kansas City’s most iconic street art spots as well!

Tap into your wild side at Casual Animal Brewing Company where local beer, plants, and art intersect! Our taproom brims with floor to ceiling greenhouse vibes and graphic design.

BEER: Enjoy a pint or flight of our 11 rotating taps, including our Local Motive beer where $2 of every pint is donated to a different KC non-profit every two months.

FOOD: It’s also PIZZA FRIDAY at Casual Animal, featuring freshly made pies by Devoured Pizza pop-up. Jhy Coulter’s cloud crust is SO AMAZING that she won Hulu’s “Best in Dough” competition! Pizza is available 4 – 8pm (or until they sell out)!

ART: We also have Homegrown Merchandise/D’n’A Screen Printing onsite selling their original art prints on totes, tees, and more!

GOOD CAUSE: This month, every pint of the Local Motive Kolsch benefits Thelma’s Kitchen, providing social & mental health services and reducing food insecurity for KC neighbors in need. Meet some Thelma’s Kitchen representatives onsite 5 – 8pm to learn more about the organization, volunteer opportunities, and upcoming events.

Influenzers explores the familiar and yet forgettable of social media. I don’t like social media, yet I’m addicted, just like everyone else. The paintings are inspired by the jumble of images that appear in the algorithm of mindless scrolling, each vying for your attention.

I’m not interested in fashion or flowers, but too often, the same type of styled poses and cookie-cutter images continue to fill my screen day after day. I wanted to address this and pull inspiration from the same subject matter that typically doesn’t interest me, and connect the two together to introduce a new aesthetic and bring interest to the ordinary.

Artist Bio

Jared is a self-taught artist and graphic designer living and working in Kansas City. He has exhibited both paintings and drawings in various group and solo shows throughout the Kansas City area. You can view more of Jared’s work on Instagram @jaredisgreen