“Iro to Katachi” means colors and shapes in Japanese.

31 years ago my husband and I moved into an old rundown building in downtown Kansas City (now the Crossroads Arts District) which had a fading large geometric mural. I always admired it and when I found out 20 years later who created it it was serendipitous. 

It was by a local art cooperative called Art Research Center, started in 60’s by T. Michael Stephens, who was inspired by geometric art of De Stijl/Constructivism/Bauhaus artists. 

I also have been influenced by Bauhaus modernism and combine that with an innate love for Japanese minimalism and a never-ending fascination for organic forms of nature I have created various small collections for this show “Iro to Katachi (Colors and Shapes)”

Bio: Grew up in Tokyo, Japan, and attended Pratt Institute (BFA in Printmaking) with decades-long experiences in graphic design, fashion textile design, illustration, and furniture design, Rie Egawa has been creating art that blurs boundary between visual art, design, and architectural installation, in both small and large scales in Kansas City, Missouri. 

Boydston’s Midwest suburban upbringing has given her a unique perspective within this American subculture that provides a wide range of topics to explore including environment, architecture, conformity, spirituality, ideas of home, cultural diversity and time. Scenes of children at play, water, and everyday suburban life provide inspiration for her to capture little redeeming moments in an otherwise mundane environment. Drawn to the simplistic, formal architectural elements and the facades that shield us from the underlying stories, the artist shares with us three galleries of mixed media two-dimensional works.

Lorrie Boydston is a painter and Art Educator based in Kansas City, Missouri. Boydston’s diverse body of work is inspired by Suburban life and architecture. including representational suburban landscapes, architectural references, and a range of abstract, mixed-media paintings and works on paper. Boydston’s work has been shown in numerous local, regional, national exhibitions and publications. She has been an active member of the Kansas City Artist Coalition throughout her career where she was astudio resident from 2019 – 2022. She is also part of the Arts KC’s NowShowing corporate exhibit program and a former delegate of Artist Inc KC in 2019.Boydston maintains an active studio practice and art teaching career in Northland Kansas City, MO.

www.lorrieboydston.com

Keeper of Memories: A Celebration of Works by Gerry Trilling is an exhibition working in collaboration with her husband, Howard Trilling, to remember and celebrate Gerry Trilling’s life throughout her career and work as an artist.

Gerry Trilling was a conceptual artist who presented a personal recounting of the history and assimilation of the American Jewish Diaspora in exquisite deadpan. Her parents escaped the Holocaust, relocating to St. Louis where she grew up in a community of immigrants viewing identity, assimilation and belonging as linked to home environments and material culture.

While Trilling used a variety of fabrics to mark the passage of time, she was not nostalgic. She embraced our contemporary material culture, itself omnivorous in the extreme. Nothing was off limits in her unsentimental investigation of the passage from greenhorn to assimilation. Materials, patterns, and certain numerical codes were her conceptual signifiers. Her work insists that you, the viewer, reach into your own personal place of memory and association. Trilling’s work is featured in the collections of the Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, and Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Gerry Trilling was an Alumni of the Studios Inc. artist residency program from 2015 to 2017.

Studios Inc will be hosting an opening reception, August 1st from 5 – 8 pm. All are encouraged to come and celebrate Gerry Trilling, and welcome to bring photos to add to a wall of memories for her. The exhibition will be open from August 1st, to September 26th.

Gallery hours are Wednesdays through Friday 10 am to 4 pm, and Saturdays 12 pm to 4 pm.

Art of the Wish–If you had a wish for the world, what would it be? Two artists traveled the country asking this question to elders from diverse backgrounds and locations. Inspired by more than 250 wishes, Art of the Wish is a poignant and memorable reflection of the beauty in generational storytelling.

In 2017, artists Marn Jensen and Andy Newcom spent six months traveling the country, talking to dozens of 80 to 100-plus-year-olds asking, “If you had a wish for the world, what would it be? ”They contacted senior living communities, visited hospices, and connected with caregivers to create artworks embodying each individual’s wish.

“We were very deliberate in finding a diverse crowd,” Jensen said in a recent interview, “making sure we reached people with different ethnicities, religious affiliations, sexual orientation, income levels, political beliefs … It was important to us to get lots of different people with different backgrounds.”

Equally important to the artwork is the accompanying extended label “story” behind each wish. “We both have a love for story telling as well as the visual work, and it was important to give each piece a slice of context to set the stage,”Newcom says. The works in Art of the Wish are composed of several mediums — from photography to sculpture, textile to encaustic, mixed media to painting — allowing the “wish” to inspire the direction of each piece. The artists are very intentional about the materials used, often incorporating repurposed, found objects that had once been tossed aside. They scoured thrift malls and flea markets to look for things that were discarded or had “vulnerability” because those characteristics applied to so many of the people they spoke with.

“Breathing new life into these objects is a perfect metaphor for appreciating the potential and beauty in old things,” Jensen explained.

One piece in the exhibit is a joyful, quilt-like collage of correspondence and memorabilia collected from generations of one family. The subject’s wish: “I wish I knew how to honor their lives, their meaning, their importance to me.” While another work incorporates thousands of knots shaped from clothesline, acknowledging the thousands of hours spent on mundane chores — such as washing clothes and hanging laundry — performed by so many women that the artists interviewed.

The artists’ “wish” is to inspire people to have a simple conversation with an older person because “it not only will make their day, it will make your day, too.”

Art of the Wish offers plenty of engaging intergenerational programming opportunities, creative reuse and hands-on “making” workshops, storytelling activities, and much more

Step into the glamorous world of the Roaring Twenties with Kansas City Ballet’s stunning new production of The Great Gatsby. Experience the luxury, drama, and tragic romance of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s iconic novel, brought to life on stage. Set in Jay Gatsby’s lavish Long Island mansion, where the champagne flows and the elite gather for extravagant parties, this production unveils a world of glamour, jealousy, and hidden secrets. The Great Gatsby immerses you in the spirit of the Jazz Age and the vibrant energy of 1920s New York, making this an unparalleled theatrical experience. It’s the party to end all parties!