Art Writing
To hold and to be held - Chicago Reader
What is a container? What does it contain?
Curated by Christina Nafziger, “Sacred Containers: Capsules, Conduits, and Other Stories,” on view at Chicago Artists Coalition, juxtaposes shapes, forms, and metaphors. The exhibition visualizes divine vessels that hold the very fiber that makes up civilization and identity, documenting memories, histories, traditions, and transformations.
Visitors are immediately greeted by works by Cecilia Beaven, whose multimedia practice forms an original mytholo...
Curated by Christina Nafziger, “Sacred Containers: Capsules, Conduits, and Other Stories,” on view at Chicago Artists Coalition, juxtaposes shapes, forms, and metaphors. The exhibition visualizes divine vessels that hold the very fiber that makes up civilization and identity, documenting memories, histories, traditions, and transformations.
Visitors are immediately greeted by works by Cecilia Beaven, whose multimedia practice forms an original mytholo...
Our favorite Kansas City skate parks for all skill levels
This story was first published in KCUR's Adventure newsletter. You can sign up to receive stories like this in your inbox every Tuesday.Kansas City has a robust skateboarding community, and it’s easy to see why. Skating is thrilling, and a great way to meet new friends.Intimidated about starting? You don’t have to be. There are plenty of skateboard clinics for newcomers around town, including ones organized by GOSKATE, KC Longboard Community and Varsity Skate.Whether you're a skateboarding newbi...
Kansas City's art scene will delight you this summer. Here are 5 exhibits to check out
This story was first published in KCUR's Adventure newsletter. You can sign up to receive stories like this in your inbox every Tuesday.Summer is always the peak art season in Kansas City, featuring everything from farmers markets and vendor fairs to art and music festivals.If you’d rather stay in the comfort of an air-conditioned room, our city’s galleries have lots to offer, too. We’ve selected five exhibits on display this summer from artists based in and near the Kansas City metro.The Kansas...
Life Otherwise — Art Critter
Phaínōterra is modeled after Earth’s neighbor, Venus, whose atmosphere contains phosphate gas. Phosphine, a highly reactive element, does not persist naturally. Therefore, the discovery of phosphate gas and amino acids in the planet’s atmosphere serves as convincing testimony that there might be alien life present on our neighboring planet.Lab studies have shown that while carbon-based lifeforms, as found on Earth, cannot survive in such an environment, sulfur-based lifeforms are a possibility....
Kansas City's food truck scene is heating up. Try these 6 Asian and AANHPI kitchens
This story was first published in KCUR's Adventure newsletter. You can sign up to receive stories like this in your inbox every Tuesday.Authentic pho on wheels? Korean BBQ served on a bun? Yes, please!In the past few years, Kansas City has seen a surge of food trucks opened by Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) chefs and foodies, serving up innovative dishes, classic street food and more.With summer farmer’s markets, vendor events, and art fairs happening all over the...
There is no God in the temple - Chicago Reader
A handwoven chausar board sits on a pedestal, with 3D-printed sacred statues placed on top. Two rectangular dice lay next to each other in one corner of the pedestal with words engraved on each side. These phrases form the title of this piece: It’s Mine, No It’s Mine, Now It’s Yours, No It’s Ours, Now It’s Missing!
In “Living Without the Gods,” Chicago-based Indian artist Shaurya Kumar examines the brutal removal of spiritual artifacts under colonial occupation, the emotional displacement resu...
In “Living Without the Gods,” Chicago-based Indian artist Shaurya Kumar examines the brutal removal of spiritual artifacts under colonial occupation, the emotional displacement resu...
New Works by Amanda Milligan Explore the Intersection Between Painting and Performance
On a dimly lit stage, a dancer is seated elegantly in a wooden chair. She fidgets in her seat, stretching her limbs as if slowly waking up from a trance. The movements gradually intensify, but the lady still appears to be invisibly confined within a certain radius around the chair. It is only when the dancer removes her dress that she gains full freedom.
A guide to Kansas City's many farmers markets: When and where to find local produce
This story was first published in KCUR's Adventure newsletter. You can sign up to receive stories like this in your inbox every Tuesday.Great news for people who love cooking, eating, or just shopping on a weekend morning: Kansas City’s many farmers markets are reopening for the season.You probably know of the big one at City Market, which has stalls open year round. But across the metro area are other markets where you’ll find true treasure troves of local farms, artists and artisans — grab a l...
Kansas City bookstores: 6 small but mighty independent shops you should know about
This story was first published in KCUR's Adventure newsletter. You can sign up to receive stories like this in your inbox every Tuesday.Do you love reading by the window as a storm roars on the outside? Or sipping some tea under the sun outside of a coffee shop, losing yourself in a beautiful story or touching prose?The Kansas City region has some great independent bookstores for the bookworm who is ready for their next chapter. You may already know some of the biggest and oldest, like Prospero'...
Here For a Good Time: BIRDMILK and his Joyful Art
I first came across BIRDMILK when I covered A Dope Art Show at El Che Steakhouse in 2021. Immediately, I became obsessed with the goofy, sassy, and sometimes condescending blue bird and his animal pals.
Kansas City's art scene is in full bloom this spring. Here are 6 exhibits you need to see
This story was first published in KCUR's Adventure newsletter. You can sign up to receive stories like this in your inbox every Tuesday.Birds return. Plants sprout. As spring brings us refreshed beginnings, we can look forward to new perspectives and open dialogues from Kansas City’s local artists.If you are hoping to fill this season with meaningful artworks, here are six must-see exhibitions happening around town.“Water You Cannot Hold” features two Kansas City-based artists: abstract painter...
Fulton Market’s “Tablescapes” Brings Chicago’s Best Street Artists to Your Dining Experience
What is one of the most significant differences between street and fine art? For one, street art isn’t sitting behind protective glass, guarded by fine white lines on the floor, forbidding the audience from getting up, close, and intimate.
Originating as a grassroots effort to amplify marginalized voices during the 60s and 70s in New York City, street art aims to disrupt and rebel against the status quo, whether it’s that of economic status or that of what defines art in general. If fine art rem...
Originating as a grassroots effort to amplify marginalized voices during the 60s and 70s in New York City, street art aims to disrupt and rebel against the status quo, whether it’s that of economic status or that of what defines art in general. If fine art rem...
Street Artists for Mental Health: SpraySeeMO
If you’ve been out and about in Kansas City over the past few weeks, you must have noticed some exciting activities around the town, specifically, new massive street murals being created. For example, those working in the Crossroads had the opportunity to witness JEKS’ piece slowly develop from sketched contour lines to the colorful and powerful imagery of a skeleton holding a flower bouquet.
Ghost Beard + Gondek Collab (2021) at Mano’s Wine.
And that’s only the tip of the iceberg of the 15+ pl...
Ghost Beard + Gondek Collab (2021) at Mano’s Wine.
And that’s only the tip of the iceberg of the 15+ pl...
Why I've Been Talking So Much About The Chicago Reader
I’ve spent a good amount of time and energy in January and February to fundraise for The Chicago Reader. The day the news about The Reader might close down came out, I sunk to my bathroom floor, curled into a ball, and cried. I cried the day after. I cried again when I saw nobody responded to my fundraiser I posted on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. I hugged the giant green dinosaur sitting on the chaise lounge in my living room and mumbled: “I’m so frustrated.“I started writing about arts an...
Some of Kansas City's best barbecue is found at these Korean and Japanese restaurants
This story was first published in KCUR's Adventure newsletter. You can sign up to receive stories like this in your inbox every Tuesday.Kansas City is proud of its barbecue, and rightly so. Whether you’re team Joe’s or team Arthur Bryant’s, put the differences aside — because we are venturing into BBQ from the other side of the world.That’s because Kansas City also has a scene for Korean and Japanese barbecue, where you may not find burnt ends but you will get all the things we love from KC BBQ:...
Grounding, Advocating, and Experimenting with Craft: What I Learned From "AGENCY: Craft in Chicago from the 1970s–80s and Beyond" - Sixty Inches From Center
When I spoke with Curator Adrienne Kochman of AGENCY: Craft in Chicago from the 1970s–80s and Beyond at the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, she half-jokingly, half-genuinely told me that this exhibition came from frustration. I knew exactly what she meant. During that time, craft was seen as somewhat of a secondary citizen in the contemporary art world. Even the phrase “arts and crafts” suggests that craft is placed on a lower level, inferring that craft is not the same as “art.” Self-taught...
Why I don't think "The Substance" Lived Up to the Hype
“It’s me! It’s Liz! It’s Sue!“ The mutated blob of flesh, wrapped in a blue sequin night-gown for the New Year’s Eve celebration, grasps onto the microphone and pleads to the crowd. A tit hangs here. A face pokes out there. It wears Lou’s beautiful photograph like as a helpless and useless disguise of its true grotesque.I sat in the dark theater with my silent anger, watching the creature extending her arms as if to hold someone, yet only to be pushed around over and over again. “Monster!” The a...
This Kansas City Gallery is Taking Up Space in the Global Scene
Galleries and artists share a symbiotic relationship. Without artists, galleries will be out of inventory and hence, out of business. Without dedicated, forwarding, open-minded gallery spaces, artists rarely become able to breakthrough their existing circle to reach a larger audience on a more advanced scale.As Gallery Bogart brings Mexico City-based transdisciplinary artist Héctor Dorantes to the prestigious Salón ACME in Mexico City, now is the perfect time to look at how a healthy, mutually-s...
Weaving a future for textile art - Chicago Reader
I stumbled upon “Textile Stories: A Living Archive,” on view at Comfort Station and now Kiosk through mid-February, during my research for a personal project on the intrinsic connection between womanhood, matrimony heritage, and fiber art. The name “Textile Stories” struck my heart so adamantly that I immediately contacted the two women behind this initiative: please, tell me all about it.
“Textile Stories: A Living Archive” Through 2/16: visit website for information on hours and programming,...
“Textile Stories: A Living Archive” Through 2/16: visit website for information on hours and programming,...
What is Kansas City's most romantic restaurant? Try these 7 lovely date night spots
This story was first published in KCUR's Adventure newsletter. You can sign up to receive stories like this in your inbox every Tuesday.With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, now is the perfect time to plan your perfect date night.Start with our favorite fun activites for adults in Kansas City, then take a midday break at a local distillery. Move forward with some shopping at a vintage store or visit one of these winter art exhibitions.Finally, wrap up your day with a perfectly romantic m...
My Book House was a peaceful, literary dream
My Book House at Agitator Gallery is closing on Sunday, January 19. Agitator’s collective nature means most exhibitions are run for a shorter period compared to ordinary galleries, and My Book House was one of those exhibitions that I’d wished it was up for a little longer so more could enjoy this manifestation of an avid reader’s vivid dreamsCreated by Chicago-based collage and textile artist Meg Guttman, My Book House started as a two-story-plus-an-attic foldable dollhouse constructed using a...
Kansas City's art scene is a perfect winter escape. Catch these 5 exhibits before they close
This story was first published in KCUR's Adventure newsletter. You can sign up to receive stories like this in your inbox every Tuesday.Kansas City’s galleries and artist-run spaces are heading into the new year with promising momentum — so should you.There have been plenty of holiday markets and holiday-themed shows going on, including Hallmark’s Christmas town square at Crown Center. But if you want a spectacle that is not holiday-related, the galleries and art museums around Kansas City offer...
Here are 6 ways to explore the Kansas City region north of the Missouri River
This story was first published in KCUR's Adventure newsletter. You can sign up to receive stories like this in your inbox every Tuesday.Kansas City’s Northland is a vast and growing region — exploding in population over the last decade and a half, and becoming more of a cultural and political powerhouse.What exactly counts as the Northland, may depend on where you are standing. Beyond the northern neighborhoods of KCMO, you’ve got Clay and Platte County, with towns like Riverside, Platte City, G...
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