March 4th - April 9th, Saturdays and Sundays
Noon to 4pm by appointment
This exhibition is centered on the pagan holiday of Ostara. Ostara is a lesser sabbat of the Wheel of the Year calendar. Landing around the spring equinox, it is literally the time for growth, deep cleaning after winter, and readying gardens for springtime. It is metaphorically about returning to the (day)light, exploring and accepting new truths and philosophies about ourselves, and setting our intentions for the rest of the year. There's usually a big bonfire, lots of incredible food and drink involved; after all, winter is (mostly) done and the sun stays up with us until about seven in the evening!
And that? That's worth celebrating.
I asked the artists to dust off some of their older work, or to share something brand new either in technique or creation. This show explores how the past informs the present, how we relate to our bodies and to others, how colors play together to create fun and engaging art. A look at relationships, sexuality, gender, race, and personal and social interactions. Note: there are depictions of sex and gender. Minors must be accompanied by an adult. Masks are required regardless of Covid vaccine status.
Meet The Artists
Isaiah Lee (he/they) is a contemporary expressionist painter from Kansas City, Missouri. He primarily works in acrylic paint but will add various media intuitively, those media being primarily oil pastel and acrylic paint markers. To illustrate his ideas of the world, he uses bold colors that are often coupled with fantastical stories of exploration and romance, and apocalyptic battles between light and dark.
Mich'ela Crawford (she/they) is a Kansas City-based self-taught artist. Paint pouring started out as something to do for fun during quarantine and has grown into something bigger than just a hobby. Every painting is a direct reflection of who she is at her core. It empowers her to express and heal theirself authentically.
Investing in her art is a way to pour into your own soul. Their hope is that any piece purchased encourages you to embrace who you are and go after your own goals -whatever that may be!
Bryan Boone (he/him) is an abstract artist and multidisciplinary designer living and working in Kansas City, MO. Born in Oklahoma in 1980, Boone has been captivated by architecture and the landscapes of our built environment from early in life. His work meditates on form and structure, contrasting hard edge, geometric design with organic layered effects, and subtle textures. By varying opacity, gloss, and grain, Boone creates dimensionality, and shifting light and color effects in his paintings.
Gabe Oakley Stewart (he/him) is a 27 year old, 5 foot 2 inch, biracial, incredibly handsome trans man from Kansas City, Missouri. His art is playfully polychromatic and strikingly abstract. He expresses himself in a chaotically carefree manner. He's a very "go-with-the-flow" type guy, he rarely ever plans out his pieces due to his aphantasia (mental blindness). He's a walking, talking contradiction. He's so humble that trying to stretch out this bio to 250 words is a real challenge for him.
Trish Nixon (they/she) earned an MFA from the University of Kansas in 2016. They also hold a BFA in Photography from Memphis College of Art (2003). They performed their action, “Food and the Visceral Body” for Flesh Crisis at Arts Dojo (Kansas City) and at Last Frontier (Brooklyn). “Pleasure Pusher XXX,” their first solo exhibition, debuted at Plenum Space (Kansas City). Nixon performed with Wildtorus at the Diverse Universe International Performance Festival (Norman, OK) in 2018. Their photo essay, “Queerstory on Art and Sex: what’s love got to do with it?” was published in Invisible Culture, an online journal in 2018. A recent solo exhibition, Boi Blue, highlighted work produced over the past four years at the International Trucking Service Gallery in St. Joseph Mo in 2022. Within their studio practice, Nixon investigates the intersections of porn, gender, and queer sexuality. They question the normative frameworks which constrain the body and sexual behaviors by producing powerful gestures across various visual platforms.
JoAnna Termini (she/her) was born in the Northland of Kansas City, Missouri. She still resides in the same area. She became interested in abstract art at an early age and found her passion and talent in working with soft pastels when she entered high school in 1993. In her senior year, she won Artist of the Year.
She is extremely proud of her recent feature on FOX 4 KC morning show. She is also very proud of her recent collaboration with the amazing and talented artist Harold Smith! Her favorite part about abstract art is that everyone views the same piece somewhat differently. While she creates her art as an expression of her thoughts and feelings, she wants her art to be interesting and engaging, allowing an audience to get lost in it and find something within it that has meaning to them.
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