Goethe Pop Up Kansas City presents the multimedia installation, Ankersentrum (surviving in the ruinous ruin) by Natascha Sadr Haghighian.

First exhibited at the Venice Biennale’s German Pavilion in 2019, Ankersentrum consisted of a large-scale installation that combined architectural elements, sound and sculpture to create an immersive experience for visitors. The sound composition, tribute to whistle, was presented as the centerpiece of the installation in Venice and can now be experienced at the Goethe Pop Up Kansas City (and for the first time in the USA!). It will be accompanied by three videos, which Haghighian produced in anticipation of the opening of the Venice Biennale.

Ankersentrum (surviving in the ruinous ruin) is a project by Natascha Sadr Haghighian in collaboration with Susanne Sachsse, Jessica Ekomane, Maurice Louca, DJ Marfox, Jako Maron, Tisha Mukarji, Elnaz Seyedi, Nicholas Bussmann, Kooperative für Darstellungspolitik, Maziyar Pahlevan, Sina Ahmadi, Jasper Kettner, and many others. Curated by Franciska Zólyom.

Photos: © EG Schempf

In recent years there has been an increase in the creation and acceptance of figurative art and that includes, promisingly, the acceptance of such work in the high-end market. But why do artist and collectors like art of the Human Form? Simply put it is because art is a means of communicating human experiences, therefore human bodies are naturally depicted. The figurative form can be used as the ideal medium to convey a spectrum of ideas with which the viewer can resonate. The human figure has always been a common subject of visual art, “it forces the viewer to engage the artwork and enables the artist to express an entire range of ideas from the subtle to the intense”. In the history of art the human figure bears, in different ways and through different periods in time, a huge significance, being the most direct means by which art can address the human condition. We take pride in the fact that we are champions of figurative art and as this 13th annual exhibition shows we are not alone in this belief.

The Contemporary Figurative show seeks to showcase the best artwork, selected Nationally and Internationally.

Beautiful, defined as pleasing the senses or mind aesthetically. So what is beautiful then? For some beautiful might be seen as derogatory when used professionally to mean trite and shallow. For most however, beautiful as an artistic perspective is more complex and faceted for which a single answer does not exist. Beauty is physically everywhere and everything, however something being beautiful is not always about the physical features, rather it can be more towards a state of existence. It is a exploration into the aesthetics of pleasing the mind. However, a common thread does appear when viewing the work from the submissions for this show. It does not simplify the answer but it clearly shows that different cultures seem to have some similarities when it comes to seeing and describing what is beautiful. This exhibition will examine the question of what is beautiful by displaying artworks selected from Nationally submitted works by contemporary artists in a juried exhibition that attempts to portray just what is beautiful.

Caleb Harman: I Want you to Stay

July 02 – 31 | Bunker Center for the Arts, 1014 E. 19th St, KCMO 64108 | Art Exhibition

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The Bunker Center for the Arts proudly presents, Caleb Harman’s, “I Want You to Stay.”

Caleb Harman is a multimedia artist with a BFA in Drawing from Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design and an MA in Studio Art from University of Missouri-Kansas City. Harman creates multimedia exhibitions that utilize aspects of installation art as a method of expanding on the tradition of oral narration. While Harman’s subjects vary, his overall interests lay within the region of Missouri River Valley. By using regional history, folklore, fictional and nonfictional narrative, his work attempts to explore our relationship to the spaces that we occupy. Caleb Harman lives in Kansas City.

Artist Statement | “I Want You to Stay”
I love a good story, especially one that involves the paranormal. One of those stories is of the haunting of the Sallie House in Atchison, Kansas. In the summer of 2020 while the country wasshut down I found the podcast “Astonishing Legends” which had an exhausting series on the Sallie House. I was shocked to realize that the Sallie House, considered to be one of the most haunted houses in the United States, was less than an hour away, and could be rented out for overnight stays. “I Want You to Stay” is about my experience at the Sallie House in early June. Combining elements of the stories of the house and our own recordings and imagery, the body of work is created to be a perplexing conveyance of information. As with most stories of the paranormal, they exist primarily in disparate anecdotes with no clear narrative format, which is reflected in the installation of the exhibition. I want the viewer to explore the narrative both intellectually and emotionally. For I believe the best ghost stories are not just told, they are felt.

I strive to paint as my mother cooks. For us, the process is absorbing, spiritual, sometimes transcendent – and complete only when you are involved in the outcome. My goal is to initiate shared experiences that we’ll enjoy again and again. I revel in bold colors applied with big brushes and palette knives. I’m looking for the essence of the subject, its truth, more than its details. Rather than rein this state in, I work to sustain it. Thus, I ensure my paintings are never too finished; in fact, they succeed only when there are conceptual spaces for you to fill. There’s no right or wrong way to do that. If you stand closely to my painting, you should begin to feel the way I felt in creating it. If you step back, we can resolve the image together. – Lisa Noonis