H&R Block Artspace offers a peek in its drawers for First Friday - Kansas City, MO

H&R Block Artspace offers a peek in its drawers for First Friday By ALICE THORSON The Kansas City Star The Crossroads galleries always draw a crowd on First Fridays, but expect plenty of spillover at the Kansas City Art Institute’s H&R Block Artspace for the opening of the latest installment of its popular “Kansas City Flatfile” show. Scope it out Friday night, and plan to return to peruse dozens of drawings, paintings, prints and photographs housed in flat file cabinets. It’s a great place to find affordable art and support local talent — selections range from works by established artists including Johnny Naugahyde, Deanna Dikeman, Larry Thomas and Garry Noland, to recent Art Institute graduates such as Luke Firle, Cory Imig and Matt Jacobs. A changing selection of works from the Flatfile will appear on the gallery walls. The first group will be chosen by Block Artspace staff; after that director Raechell Smith has invited various regional arts professionals, curators and artists to pick works for display. “This is always an opportunity for me to get curators to commit some time to looking at art by Kansas City artists,” she said, “and there are some new folks in the region.” For this year’s Flatfile, Smith has added an exhibit in the second floor resource room. “Flatfile Redux” will feature a selection of works from Kansas City collections that were acquired from previous Flatfiles. “It’s a fun way to highlight and encourage collecting and see what’s in people’s collections,” Smith said. The 2012 Kansas City Flatfile will also feature a “Videofile,” of works viewers can choose to screen. ‘Neutral Space’ The Spray Booth Gallery has framed “Neutral Space,” its coming group show of geometric art, with a provocative essay by 2010 Kansas City Art Institute graduate Neil Thrun. Headed “Neutral spaces, Empty Geometry: Why All Artists Need to Re-engage With Ideology,” the essay examines some of the critical ideas and positions expounded by geometric artists, from Kasimir Malevich to Peter Halley, to the Slovenian IRWIN collective. It’s an area that Thrun has been interested in since he was in school, where he created works of geometric painting and collage. Now, he said, “I mainly do video and performance-based art involved with the history of the avant-garde and the 20th century.” “Neutral Space” will include works by 14 artists, including Emily Sall, Elliot Oliver, Mike Erickson and Nicole Mauser, selected by Spray Booth director Andrew Lyles. Lyles, a former classmate of Thrun’s, invited him to write two essays for the show. The artists had not been chosen at the time Thrun wrote his initial essay, in which he contends, “Unlike the history of geometric art in the avant-garde, today no one in Kansas City seems interested in the ideology of their predecessors.” Thrun argues that “our culture of individualism has killed the will to be ideological (to take a stand),” and that “artists need to re-engage with ideology.” “Otherwise,” he warns, “we will be stuck making neutral spaces, work that is ideologically empty and without consequence, while drinking free alcohol and half-heartedly congratulating each other.” The essay in its entirety is posted on the gallery’s website, sprayboothgallery.com, where Thrun will eventually post his second essay addressing the specific artists — and works in the show. Kemper at the Crossroads New York artist Petah Coyne’s mammoth sculpture, “Untitled #1336 (Scalapino Nu Shu)” (2009-10), the centerpiece of a recent permanent collection exhibit at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, has a new home. On Friday, it can be seen at its new location — a specially created gallery in the museum’s downtown branch, Kemper at the Crossroads, 33 W. 19th St. Coyne’s work joins an ongoing exhibit of sculptures, “Here’s Your Hat, What’s Your Hurry?,” by Brooklyn-based Eric Fertman. That exhibit continues through July 28. H&R Block Artspace at the Kansas City Art Institute 2012 Kansas City Flatfile June 1-Sept. 29 Reception: 6-8 p.m. Friday Hours: Noon-5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday 16 E. 43rd St. (816.561.5563) Leedy-Voulkos Art Center Terra: Victoria Ann Reed, Shannon Sullivan, and Ellen W. Wolf Main Gallery: June 1-July 28, 2012 Jane Almirall: Acts of Selfishness and Devotion Opie Gallery: June 1-July 28, 2012 Walker Kelly: The Small Series Lower Level Gallery: June 1-June 30, 2012 Joshua von Nonn: Immured by Memories Front Gallery: Through June 23 Lad: LX-12 Back Gallery: Through June 30 Reception: 6-9 p.m. Friday Hours: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursday-Saturday 2012 Baltimore Ave. (816.474.1919) Slap-n-Tickle Gallery Cabinet of Curiosities: Freaks, Geeks, and Human Oddities June 1-10 Reception: 6-11 p.m. Friday, with burlesque performances at 8 p.m. Hours: Noon-4 p.m. Saturday and by appointment 504 E. 18th St. (816.716.5940) Blue Djinn Gallery Melanie Myhre June 1-30 Reception: 6-9 p.m. Friday Hours: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday 1400 Union Ave. (816.518.4649) Mattie Rhodes Art Gallery My Dress Hangs There: Alisha Gambino and Kathy Ruth Neal honor Frida Kahlo June 1- Aug. 10 Reception and Viva la Frida Block Party: 6-9 p.m. Friday Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday 915 W. 17th St. (816.221.2349) Krzyz Studio Brent Wheatley: New Impressions June 2 Reception: 5-9 p.m. Friday 1800 Locust St. (816.472.4999) The Late Show The Last Minute: Paintings by Adam Beris and David Gantay Cognitive Dissonance: An installation by Diana Newport Photographs by Wesaam Al-Badry June 1-23 Reception: 6-10 p.m. Friday Hours: 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday, and by appointment 1600 Cherry St. (816.474.1300) Spray Booth Gallery Neutral Space: Group Show June 1-July 20 Reception: 6-10 p.m. Friday Hours: Noon-6 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; noon-3 p.m. Saturday 130 W. 18th St., inside Volker Bicycles (816.471.5555) Blue Gallery Nude: An Invitational Exhibition Through June 19 Reception: 6-9 p.m. Friday Hours: 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday and by appointment 118 Southwest Blvd. (816.527.0823)