Three shows: Two solo exhibitions and one group show. The Bunker Center for the Arts is proud to present the work of two of our resident artists: Erick Felix and Phoenix Mayer. Each artist brings their unique vision and style to the public in two beautifully curated exhibitions.

The central investigation of the show is betrayal as a repeating artifact of life. 

It is manifest as safe passage that is homicidal, 

refuge that is not accessible, 

faith that is not requited, 

accompanied by a chorale of heavenly bird voices. 

The mockingbird on the sidewalk is a warning to us. We must all find St. Francis in our heart. 

“Shibui”, a Japanese term meaning “understated elegance”.

Byzantine mosaics, Islamic tiles, Celtic knots, clouds drifting across the moon, storms passing through, shadows cast by trees, reflections of light on water, rhythmic, repetitive, shifting, and changing. Geometry and geological layers, fractals and Fibonacci proportions, tessellations and patterns, migrating birds and mandalas, golden sunrises, and pink sunsets.

I like to make order/organize accidental marks, whether working with paper or fabric. With no endpoint in mind, I trust intuition to guide me, what can I add, remove, embellish, to complete the composition?

…Click here to view entire exhibition catalog…

Artist Statement

My work is an attempt to understand the world, what came before and what is happening in the present. I focus on the prevalence of and importance given to certain images which perpetuate harmful normative ideologies in the west. Certain images are given more value and are shown more than others. This fixation of ideals and purity that began in Western Europe was taken to new extremes in America. A false ideal was established, storing itself in images and symbols which reinforce a single and dominant experience. Who a person should be and what a person should look like relied on myth to carry what was never truth forward.

These limiting narratives have become the main characters of my work. As I examine what these characters mean and what ideologies they carry with them, I hold them up to my
life. The knight, angel, court jester, noble woman, and muscle man are the main characters I use in my work. Each speaks to hidden myths, larger ideologies that problematically exist inhibiting our movement forward. I challenge these images and the underlying power structures that have influenced my life.

Self-exploration and unknowing has become an important part of my life. My artistic process begins by drawing these characters over and over, spending time with them, trying to understand them. Agency, in an established world, is found by cutting up these drawings and reconstructing them to create a different story. Limitations of the past are cut apart and rearranged, challenging what once was, opening up space for something new.

*****

Bio

SK Reed (she/they) is an artist/curator/organizer/educator who was born in a small lake town just outside of Kansas City, Missouri. They are now in graduate school at the University of Kansas and live in Kansas City, KS. She runs AltU, an alternative space currently acting as a low-stakes book club. She has exhibited locally and across the United States.

The latest project experience from artist Ryan Wilks opens with two events. September 11 begins WITH HOLD ME at Leedy-Voulkos Art Center in the basement level Dungeon Gallery. 7 – 10pm, Performance at 8pm.

Wilks’ newest work consists of paintings from WITH HOLD ME — his book of poetry about love, loss, and a deep dive into highly sexualized content.

WITH HOLD ME is a one-of-a-kind, hand-printed book from Wilks and Claire Monroe, aka Clorg. Original copies will be available that evening.

On October 9, impresario Tim J Harte of Mother Russia Industries presents the second part to Wilks’ project with MANIFISTO, an audiobook on finding sexual liberation during COVID, with readings by Wilks.

Flutist Lena Danoff provides musical accompaniment to the reading.

This work is not family-friendly. They are truthful accounts by an artist who explores his sexual prowess while making himself vulnerable around lovers and other strangers.

Sexually mature adults, lovers, partners, and pickups are encouraged to attend, but leave the children at home.

The second part will also take place inside the Dungeon Gallery at Leedy-Voulkos Art Center.

Bio

[Ryan Wilks is a self-taught artist based in Kansas City, Missouri. Their work explores the various realities of queer existence. Primarily creating with oils, watercolors, sculptural assemblage, and ritual, their work sheds light on queer expression of spirituality and sexuality. Their bodies of work address and confront religion used as weapon and explores new modes of prayer through visual and participatory exhibitions. While religious and archetypal iconography such as the Devil and Lilith are seen within their figures in their paintings and used to express gender and queer ideologies, the work itself does not adopt the feeling of weighted religious rites. Instead, the work invites the viewer to participate in a modernized expression of spirit.]

Ryan Wilks

ryan@wilkspainting.com