Wichita: Final Friday, 02-24-06

I took in the Wichita Final Friday Gallery Crawl this weekend. Some of the gallery spaces were impressive, but unfortunately not much of the art followed suit. The galleries in bold type showed work which I enjoyed at least a bit.

FINAL FRIDAY - FEBRUARY 24, 2006

ABODE Home, 1330 E. Douglas
Featured Artist: Chris Frank and Brian Hinkle - Assistant Curator The Wichita Center for the Arts
Exhibition Date: February 24, 2006
Reception Date: Final Friday, February 24, 2006, 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Regular Hours: Open everyday 10-6, Thursdays 10-8, Sunday 12-5
Contact: 267-1330

Allen-Lee Gallery, 348 N. Washington (1 Building South of 3rd St. on the East side of Washington)
Exhibition: Random Artists
Exhibition Dates: Friday, February 24, 2006 to Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Reception Date: Final Friday, February 24, 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
Gallery Hours: Monday - Friday, 9am - 4pm
Contact: (316) 267-0167
Questions or after hours appointments call: Monika Stockton (316) 644-1124
allenleegallery@yahoo.com

Artists in Old Town, 412 E. Douglas, Suite C. (behind Gallery XII)
Exhibition: Paula Smith - "Americana"
Gallery Members: Rosemary Dugan, Maureen Walter, Judy Dove, Rita Beuttel, Judy Hull, Becky Price, Harry and Mary Ellen Williford
Reception Date: Final Friday, February 24, 6:30 - 10:00 p.m.
To see studios, check on classes or see exhibits call 262-2435 to see when they are open or just stop by.
For further information you may call 262-2435 and leave a message or call Judy Dove, 721-4720, Rosemary Dugan, 722-2255, or Maureen Walter, 744-2175.

The Art Syndicate, 917 W. Douglas
GRAND OPENING: February 24, 2006, 7:00 - 10:00 p.m.
Regular Hours: 10:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m. Sunday thru Saturday

Beyond Web Design, 501 E. Douglas
Featured Artists: Nicolette Pérez, Justin Epp, El Feyler, Mary Streepy, Shawn Freeman and others
Reception Date: Final Friday, February 24, 5:00 - 9:00 p.m.
The show is free to the public, and refreshments will be served.
For more info, email finalfriday@bwdllc.com.

CityArts, 334 N. Mead
Exhibition: Fortunes in Art: Year of the Golden Dog
Exhibition Date: February 16 - 25, 2006
CITY ARTS WILL BE OPEN UNTIL 8:00 ON FINAL FRIDAY
CityArts celebrates the beginning of the Chinese New Year with a show of artwork is based on fortune cookies, the theme of the golden dog, or both.

Contact: Tabitha Bean or Charla Sanderson, 462-2787
Web: www.wichitaarts.com
New Hours at CityArts: 8am - 9pm, Monday-Thursday, 8am - 8pm, Friday, 10am - 4pm, Saturday, Closed, Sunday

Commerce Gallery, 508 S. Commerce
Exhibition: Noise: "Sofa Size" New work by Lee Shiney
Exhibition Date: February 24 - March 4, 2006
Reception Date: Final Friday,February 24, 6:00 - 10:00 p.m.
Contact: Chris Gulick @ 316-945-4440
Web: www.artcontractor.com and www.leeshiney.com

Artist Statement: "The challenge of this show was to create large scale pieces based on my continued focus on mechanically-assisted processes. The result is one big piece, Sequence I, a serial work 70-90 feet in length (depending on my energy level and the available linear wall space of Commerce Gallery). Think of a triptych on crack. The individual 17x24 inch pieces can stand alone, or end-to-end in multiples to form larger pieces. It's a work in progress; more pieces will continually be added to the series. And, it's a return to the "green art" style from my earlier Detritus show, using found pallet lumber and used fencing, and cast-off latex paint."

Fiberstudio, 418 Commerce
Exhibition: paintings by: MARK FLICKINGER and Jewelry by Elfie Lacio
Exhibition Date: February 24 - March 23, 2006
Reception Date: Final Friday, February 24, 7:00 - 10:00 p.m.
live music by: GARY GACKSTATTER and 5-MAN TRIO
Resident artists: Marilyn Grisham, Lynda Beck, Nancy Whitaker, Jan Woolery,and Virginia Simmons
The Fiber Studio is open the last Friday of every month, and all other days by appointment, or by chance (ring the bell).
Contact: Marilyn Grisham at (316) 303-1996 or fiberstudio1@sbcglobal.net

Firehouse Gallery, 1402 W. Douglas
Exhibition: Women, Sex, and Art
Featured Artists: Amanda Dickson, Kate Johnson, Danielle Kling, Cynthia Martinez, and Megahn Regnier.
Exhibition Date: February 13 - 24, 2006
Reception Date: Final Friday, February 24, 7:00 - 10:00 p.m.
Contact: Kelly Moody at (316) 265-6928
web: www.firehouseartgallery.com

Fisch Haus Studios, 524 S. Commerce
Exhibition: Front Room Series: Ryan Drake
Reception Date: Final Friday, February 24, 7:00 -10:00 p.m.
Contact: Elizabeth Stevenson at (316) 263-6770 or info@fischhaus.com
Web: www.fischhaus.com

Additional info: This month, we're debuting our new Front Room Series (in, obviously, our front
gallery). These exhibitions will be presented in a more manageable format than our usual full gallery shows; designed mainly to facilitate the exhibition of work by emerging regional artists, but also open to mid-career artists who are interested in mounting smaller shows. The first artist in the series is local painter and printmaker Ryan Drake, premiering this Final Friday, February 24th, from 7-10 p.m. See you there!

The Frame Guild, 506 E. Douglas
Exhibition: Taxonomy: Kathleen Shanahan
Exhibition Date: February 24 - April 26, 2006
Reception Date: Final Friday, February 24, 6:00 - 9:00
Contact: Trish Higgins @ tlhiggins@sbcglobal.net

Additional info: On friday February 24, The Frame Guild at 506 E. Douglas will open an exhibition of paintings by Kathleen Shanahan titled “Taxonomy”. Shanahan’s new paintings are vertical diptychs that resemble totums; stacked and juxtaposed images from nature with symbols of varied cultures. They are executed in intense, edgy color.

The frame shop/gallery is in a classical revival-style building built in 1913 by Bunny Mead whose own father James R. Mead was a Wichita founding father. Leader Dry Goods was the first tenant. The building was transformed easily and beautifully into gallery space with its 20ft. ceilings, original brick walls and combination of available and artificial light.

“Taxonomy”, paintings by Kathleen Shanahan, will open with a reception friday, February 24 from 6 to 9 pm. The exhibition will hang through April 26. Regular hours at The Frame Guild are monday through friday 10:00 am to 5:30 pm and10:00 am to 2:00 pm on saturday. For more information about the exhibit call Trish Higgins at 316.612.1604 or Pam at 316.684.1361.


GALLERY XII, 412 E. Douglas, Wichita, KS 67202
Exhibition: Rosemary Dugan
Guest Consignment Artist; David Self
Reception Date: Final Friday, February 24, 6:30 - 10:00
Regular Hours: Monday - Saturday, 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Contact: Doug Billings at (316) 267-5915 or art00756@usadatanet.net
WEB SITE: www.wichitagallery12.com

Additional info: Rosemary's new works will include a series of small pastel landscapes of local Kansas scenes. She works in a very impressionistic style with strong textured marks and a bright color palette.


Along with Rosemary, Gallery XII will be exhibiting, for the first time, the enamel works of Brian Hinkle. Brian is on staff at the Wichita Center for the Arts as the assistant Gallery Director and as an instructor in painting and enameling.
Gallery XII Membership 2005:
Carole Branda (Acrylic Painter), Doug Billings (Printmaker), Judy Dove (Multimedia Artist), Rosemary Dugan (Pastels), Ruth Finnell (Pastels), Hermine Greywall (Acrylic Painter), Ann Horton (Pastel & Watercolor), Judy Millard (Oil Painter), Jo Ann Ray (Multimedia Painter), Carole Ranney (Pastel & Watercolor), Jean Shellito (Watercolor), Betty Sieler (Watercolor & Drawings), Maureen Walter (Multimedia Painter), Martha Wherry (Multimedia Artist), Mary Ellen Williford (Pastels), Cathy Fiorelli (Prints & Paintings), Marjorie Mueller (Oil Painter)

The Wichita Downtown Development Corp will once again be running the Trolley which will transport people free of charge to many of the art galleries participating in Final Friday, including Gallery XII.

During Final Friday (6:30-10:00 pm) both parking lots to the east of the building are now available to our guests. Also, the Wichita Downtown Development Corp will be running its trolley during the event. Maps are available at most of the participating galleries.

Lawrence Photo, Inc., 401 E. Douglas, Suite 100
Exhibition: Iraq & I Throw
Featured Artists:
M.Sgt. Maurice Hessel , McConnell AFB Staff Photographer
David Long, Professor Bethel College
Exhibition Date: February 24 - March 27, 2006
Reception Date: Final Friday, February 24, 7:00 - 10:00 p.m.
Regular Hours: Monday thru Friday 9:00 - 5:30 and Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Contact: Paul Hudson @ (316) 267-3700 or lawrencephoto@sbcglobal.net

Additional Info:

M.Sgt. Maurice Hessel from McConnell AFB will be showing his photographic work from his recent deployment in Iraq. The night of the reception will also feature additional images presented in a multimedia format.

David Long will be showing 16 of his most recent salt glazed ceramic works (our first showing of 3-diminsional work.)

This show will both excite the senses and bring a sense of the human element to the war in Iraq.

Marquee Motorcars, LC, 2938 E. Douglas ( at the corner of Douglas and Chautauqua)
Featured Artists: Amy Herd, Sarah Herd and Johnny Sutton.
Reception Date: Final Friday, January 27, 6:00 - 9:00 p.m.
Contact: Malea Barrier @ (316) 219-4772

Monica’s Bundt Cake Co., 1328 E. Douglas Avenue (same block as the Spice Merchant on the South side of Douglas)
Exhibition: Oil paintings featuring children’s book illustrations by Carlene H. Williams will be on display. See work from the “Santa’s Stray” series, “Alice in Wonderland”, and others. Linnette Lee of Fresh Paint will display her acrylic paintings.
Exhibition Dates: Friday, February 24, 2006 to Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Reception Date: Final Friday, February 24, 6:30-9:30 p.m.
Shop Hours: Monday – Friday 9am – 5:30 pm; Saturday 9am – 4:00 pm . Closed Sunday
Contact: (316) 630-9555
Questions or after hour appointments call: Monica Schlegel 316-630-9555 and leave a message.


The Photographer's Gallery, 1007 West Douglas (in the historic Delano District)
Exhibition: Earl Ward, John Ellert, Vernon McGee, LeAnn Anspaugh and Ron Beeton
Exhibition Date: February 20 - March 25, 2006
Reception Date: Final Friday, February 24, 6:00 - 9:00 p.m.
Bonus Event – Live-Model shoot set to demonstrate Gallery’s photo studio
Contact: Dave Higdon @ 316-262-4634 or 316-371-4634 or AIRSCRIBE@cox.net
Web: www.davehigdon.com
Additional info: In his first-ever public exhibit, artful Jeff Delp turns his lens toward nature, capturing scenery and landscape in a way that’s almost abstract in its appearance.

And The Photographers' Gallery also plans a live model shoot to demonstrate the capabilities of the in-house studio thanks to the efforts of professional photographer Mike Mathia.

Joining the new photographers exhibiting in The Photographers' Gallery are veterans Earl Ward, John Ellert, Vernon McGee, LeAnn Anspaugh and Ron Beeton, four photographers with their own distinct styles. All five have updated their exhibits with new images, as has resident photographer Dave Higdon

This new exhibition at The Photographers’ starts Feb. 20 and runs through March 25, when four new photographers will debut their first shows at The Gallery during the March Final Friday show.

In a first for a Final Friday, the Arts Trolley will expand its service west along Douglas as far as Seneca allowing fans of the Final Friday Gallery Crawl access to participating galleries in the Historic Delano District. The Photographers' Gallery is proud to be among the three Delano businesses sponsoring the Delano expansion of the Final Friday Trolley. We hope Final Friday participants will use the trolley to also visit sponsoring exhibitors Melange Jewelry and The Vagabond on their way to The Photographers' Gallery.

The Photographers’ Gallery is Wichita’s most unique venue for photography, featuring a fully equipped studio for the creation of photos, professional digital scanning and printing services, and a gallery devoted exclusively to the exhibition of photographers’ images. The studio and print services are available to the public at very competitive prices. Space in the Gallery is offered to photographers on a lease basis free of the steep commissions gallery operators typically levy on sales of exhibited works.

Steckline Gallery
Newman University, DeMattias Hall, 3100 McCormick Ave.
Exhibition: Figure In Space: A Sculpture Exhibit
Featured Artists: Ted Adler, Stephen Atwood, Barry Badgett, Ted Krone, Sean Corner, Susan de Wit, Marc Durfee, Dan Jensen, Beth Van Natta, Ann Zerger
Exhibition Date: February 24, 2006 – March 17, 2006
Reception Date: Final Friday, February 24, 2006, 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Regular Hours: Monday - Friday 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Contact: Pam Bugler @ (316) 94 -4291 ext. 2480 or buglerp@newmanu.edu

Tangent Lab, 209 East William Street, Sutton Place, Second Floor.
Exhibition: A Lesson Never Learned New work by: Ian Stewart and Heather Von Feldt
Exhibition Date: February 10 - 24, 2006
Reception Date: Final Friday, February 24, 7:00 - Midnight
Regular hours: Weekly by appointment only - email brad@tangentlab.com
Visit: www.tangentlab.com for more information.


WHERE IS THIS PLACE???: Turn South onto Broadway from Douglas. Continue going south on Broadway until you reach William. Turn West on William. Sutton Place will be on your left (south) side. The gallery is located on the second floor.

Wichita Art Museum, 1400 West Museum Boulevard
Exhibition: Successions: Prints By African American Artists from the Jean and Robert Steele Collection Organized by The Art Gallery, the Department of Art History and Archeology, and the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the African Diaspora at the University of Maryland, College Park. It is made possible by major support from the Maryland State Arts Council and the Consortium for Race, Gender, and Ethnicity, University of Maryland, College Park. The Wichita venue is made possible in part by the City of Wichita, the Sam and Rie Bloomfield Foundation, the Sedgwick County Government, the Friends of the Wichita Art Museum, Inc. and KMUW, Wichita Public Radio.
Featured Artists: Romare Bearden, Lou Stovall, Faith Ringgold, Jacob Lawrence, Elizabeth Catlett and many more
Exhibition Date: February 12, 2006 – June 4, 2006
Reception Date: Final Friday, February 24, 2006, 5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Regular Hours: Tuesday - Saturday 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m, Sunday Noon - 5 p.m.
Contact: Ashle Stratton, 316-268-4985
Web: www.wichitaartmuseum.org

Additional Info: The Final Friday of February will feature funk, food, and fine art at the Wichita Art Museum. The schedule for the evening is as follows:
5:00 p.m. - Doors Open
5:30 p.m. - Ikenga Drumming Group
6 - 8 p.m. - Soul Injection

The galleries will be open throughout the evening, and light hors ‘d oeuvres and a cash bar will be available. Together with The Kansas African American Museum, we also welcome master printmaker Lou Stovall as our special guest that evening. Collectors Jean and Robert Steele will also be in attendance. WAM, TKAAM and YPW members: Free, non-members: $3.


WSU Shift Space, 326 S. Commerce St.
Exhibition: WSU Shift Space 5: 2nd Annual WSU Sculpture Guild Juried Exhibition
Exhibition Date: February 24 - March 11, 2006
Reception Date: Final Friday, February 24, 6:00 - 10:00 p.m.

Additional info:
WSU Shift Space, in conjunction with the Wichita Downtown Development Corporation, presents WSU Shift Space 4: Still/Moving/Object Explored, an exhibition of recent directions in photography and video by faculty and students in the WSU School of Art & Design. The work of exhibiting artists Chad Case, John Hammer, Kate Johnson, Cory Medina, Kyras Norman, Linda Robinson, Sarah Turner, Aaron Vague, and Robert Bubp will range from black-and-white photography to installations incorporating video, found objects, and drawing.

Contact:
Joey Capadona (316)680-6958, j.capadona@sbcglobal.net
Robert Bubp, (316) 978-7704, robert.bubp@wichita.edu
Conan Y. Fugit, (316) 207-7967, cyfugit@gmail.com
WSU School of Art & Design, (316) 978-5418

The gallery will be open Thursdays 4-7, Fridays 4-9, and Saturdays 12-5 through March 11.

For more information, call the WSU School of Art & Design at 978-3555 or visit www.shiftspace.blogs.com. Support for WSU Shift Space is provided by the Wichita Downtown Development Corporation, Belford Electric, and Wichita State University.

I(finally)Pod

Today I received, via UPS, my new 5th generation, 60 GB, video iPod. The greatest part? I only paid $25 for it! No kidding. I was definitely a skeptic that the system could work.

After careful research, wise advice and much hesitation, I took the plunge and signed up for one of those "Free iPod*" scams. Only this time the scam was on them. :) I outsmarted their system and didn't get ripped off as they planned. Instead I got a $399 iPod for $25 and a lot of stress!

I wouldn't recommend that you run off and sign up for your own free ___________ that they're now offering. If you're really serious about it, send me an email and I'll help you out with some advice. It takes planning and attention to detail. Careful reading and making deadlines are everything. The closest I came to getting scammed was almost clicking on a hidden link and getting charged $35 for it. But I decided to read the fine print first and saved my pocketbook.

I'm also quite good at canceling accounts--AOL, Rhapsody, PeoplePC (Earthlink). They all use the friendly Indian customer service agents (with obviously fake names like Marilyn and Randy!). Those folks are amazing at verbal sparring. Truly amazing! But I still beat them in the end.

I love getting things for cheap, and so this iPod means so much more to me than just breaking down and buying it. If you don't love the thrill of beating the system as much as I do, you should probably just fork over $379 on Amazon. Save yourself the hours of waiting on hold.

Wal-Mart Art

http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?emx=x&pid=60904

Writer Rebecca Solnit inspects Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton's recent purchase of Kindred Spirits by Asher Durand for $35 million. Walton is the world's second richest woman and ninth richest person and plans to construct the Crystal Bridges art museum near Wal-Mart's headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas. Solnit also looks at other relationships between ill-begotten wealth and private art collections. I found her article an interesting read. I particularly liked her analogy of museums as taxidermists!

The Power of Imagery

A Startling New Lesson in the Power of Imagery
New York Times
February 8, 2006
By Michael Kimmelman

They're callous and feeble cartoons, cooked up as a provocation by a conservative newspaper exploiting the general Muslim prohibition on images of the Prophet Muhammad to score cheap points about freedom of expression.

But drawings are drawings, so a question arises. Have any modern works of art provoked as much chaos and violence as the Danish caricatures that first ran in September in the newspaper Jyllands-Posten?

The story goes back a bit further, to a Danish children's author looking to write a book about the life of Muhammad, in the spirit of religious tolerance, and finding no illustrator because all the artists he approached said they were afraid. In response, the newspaper commissioned these cartoons, a dozen of them, by various satirists. And like all pictures calculated to be noticed by offending somebody, the caricaturist's stock in trade and the oldest trick in the book of modern art, they would have disappeared into deserved oblivion had not their targets risen to the bait.

The newspaper was banking on the fact that unlike the West — where Max Ernst's painting of Mary spanking the infant Jesus didn't raise an eyebrow when recently shown at the Metropolitan Museum — the Muslim world has no tradition of, or tolerance for, religious irony in its art.

But there are precedents going all the way back to the Bible for virulent reactions to proscribed and despised images. Beginning with the ancient Egyptians, who lopped off the noses of statues of dead pharaohs, through the toppling of statues of Lenin and Saddam Hussein, violence has often been directed against offending objects, though rarely against the artists who made them.

Educated secular Westerners reared on modernism, with its inclination toward abstraction, its gamesmanship and its knee-jerk baiting of traditional authority, can miss the real force behind certain visual images, particularly religious ones. Trained to see pictures formally, as designs or concepts, we can often overlook the way images may not just symbolize but actually "partake of what they represent," as the art historian David Freedberg has put it.

That's certainly how many aggrieved Muslims perceived the cartoons. Circulating the pictures, they prompted Arab governments like those of Saudi Arabia and Syria, not otherwise champions of religious freedom, to support boycotts of Danish goods and to withdraw their ambassadors from Copenhagen. That in turn led European papers to republish the cartoons in solidarity with Jyllands-Posten and in defense of free speech.

Some of them have been reprinted in Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Hungary, New Zealand, Ukraine and Jordan. One appeared in The Philadelphia Inquirer. They've spread worldwide via the Web, exacerbating Muslim outrage while leading many nonbelieving non-Muslims to scratch their heads over how such banal and idiotic pictures could ever be given a thought in the first place. Muhammad is lampooned with a turban in the shape of a ticking bomb; he's at the gates of heaven, arms raised, saying to men who look like suicide bombers, "Stop, stop, we have run out of virgins."

Irate Muslim protesters set fire to the Danish and Norwegian missions in Damascus, where Syrian newspapers routinely print the most appalling, racist cartoons of big-nosed Jews. In Beirut, rioters burned the Danish mission and vandalized a Maronite Catholic church, beating a Dutch news photographer mistaken for a Dane.

On Monday, Afghan security forces killed several protesters who tried to storm the American air base at Bagram. Yesterday the leading Iranian daily announced a contest for the best cartoon about the Holocaust, and 200 members of Iran's 290-member Parliament condemned the Danish cartoons: "Apparently, they have not learned their lesson from the miserable author of 'The Satanic Verses,' " the members said in a statement, referring to the fatwah against Salman Rushdie. From Gaza to Auckland, imams have demanded execution or amputations for the cartoonists and their publishers.

Over art? These are made-up pictures. The photographs from Abu Ghraib were documents of real events, but they didn't provoke such widespread violence. What's going on?

In part, the new Molotov cocktail of technology and incendiary art has hastened the speed with which otherwise forgettable pictures are now globally transmitted. Cellphones help protesters rally mobs swiftly against them.

And there is also the deepening cynicism and political hypocrisy now endemic in the culture wars. Last week a State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, simultaneously condemned the cartoons as "unacceptable" and spoke up for free speech, while the Joint Chiefs of Staff were firing off a letter to The Washington Post about a cartoon it ran in which Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, in the guise of a doctor, says to a heavily bandaged soldier who has lost his arms and legs, "I'm listing your condition as 'battle hardened.' " The letter called the cartoon, by Tom Toles, "reprehensible" and offensive to soldiers.

The Post's editorial page editor, Fred Hiatt, replied that the newspaper would not censor its cartoonists, inspiring John Aravosis, who runs Americablog (americablog.blogspot.com), the Web site where the letter was first reported, to tell Editor & Publisher magazine: "Now that the Joint Chiefs have addressed the insidious threat cartoons pose to our troops, perhaps they can move on to the less pressing issues like getting them their damn body armor."

As is so often the case in the culture wars, choosing sides can be exasperating. Modern artists and their promoters forever pander to a like-minded audience by goading obvious targets, hoping to incite reactions that pass for political point-scoring. The twist in the Danish case is only that a conservative paper provoked Muslims. One may be excused for wondering whether the silence of the art world has something to do with the discomfort of staking a position where neither party offers the sanctuary of political correctness.

An obvious precedent, now comically tame by comparison, is the "Sensation" show at the Brooklyn Museum in 1999, a promotional bonanza for the British collector and wheeler-dealer Charles Saatchi, who owned the art in the show. The exhibition incited protests by the Catholic League. Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani played the stern dad to a bunch of publicity-savvy artists whose work included a collage of the Virgin Mary with cutouts from pornographic magazines and shellacked clumps of elephant dung.

Previously unmoved to action by Catholic League protests against a play at City Center involving a gay lead character fashioned after Jesus, the mayor, contemplating a Senate race against Hillary Rodham Clinton, decided he was personally offended by the art, although he had never actually seen it, and threatened to cut off public financing for the museum.

"You don't have a right to government subsidy for desecrating somebody else's religion," he said, foreshadowing a bit the Danish debacle about freedom of religious expression, notwithstanding that the artist of the Virgin Mary, Chris Ofili, happened to be Roman Catholic.

The New York art world was shocked only because it had expected the show to pass without fuss, since the art was already old news to insiders. But then museums nationwide had to hold their collective nose to defend Brooklyn over the issue of free expression, and by the end the whole affair had turned into farce, obscuring even the quality of what were, in fact, a few not-so-bad works of art.

No protester torched the museum or called for beheading anybody. Farce now becomes calamity over the cartoons, a different matter. The current bloodshed, fueled by political extremists and religious fanatics, turns the culture war once again into real war. People forget that Salman Rushdie's Japanese and Italian translators were stabbed (the Japanese fatally) and his Norwegian publisher shot.

What may be overlooked this time is a deep, abiding fact about visual art, its totemic power: the power of representation. This power transcends logic or aesthetics. Like words, it can cause genuine pain.

Ancient Greeks used to chain statues to prevent them from fleeing. Buddhists in Ceylon once believed that a painting could be brought to life once its eyes were painted. In the Netherlands in the 1560's, pictures were smashed in nearly every town and village simply for being graven images. And in the Philippines, enraged citizens destroyed billboards of Ferdinand Marcos.

To many people, pictures will always, mysteriously, embody the things they depict. Among the issues to be hashed out in this affair, there's a lesson to be gleaned about art: Even a dumb cartoon may not be so dumb if it calls out to someone.

In Defense of Free Speech . . .

. . . I am compelled, not to link to or talk about those cartoon Danishes, but to refer you to a wonderful and insightful website that I enjoy reading:

www.annotatedrant.com

If you're offended by foul language and left-wing diatribes, click at your own risk. If you appreciate biting humor and WWE-style opinionating, I especially recommend the thought-provoking essays on Christmas and the South.

Addendum: If I were energetic enough at the moment, I would register the currently available www.cartoondanishes.com and make a satirical website. But I'm not feeling energetic. I hope someone does something brilliant with my idea. Danishcartoons.com is already taken.

KC Arts

We took a weekend trip to Kansas City to relax and also to scout the art scene. There were some nice pieces scattered throughout, but overall the selection was unimpressive. Here is our itinerary, with my comments:

Friday:

Kemper MCA
4420 Warwick Blvd.
Kansas City MO 64111
816-753-5784
www.kemperart.org

This museum is associated with the Kansas City Art Institute and has only been open for 10 years. After reading through their website, I was expecting more. I wish we had made it in time for the Marcie Miller Gross: foldover exhibition. On Friday evening there was an opening for Kurt Lightner: Five Acres. He paints with acrylic ink on mylar and then cuts out images and collages them together. His technique is interesting, and his images are bold, but they're not to my taste. It annoys me that he claims the Ohio countryside as his inspiration, yet lives and works in NYC. It was a common theme among all the artists I viewed. But I'll go off on that rant some other time. Well, just one comment: I claim the rural Midwest and in particular the Kansas countryside as my inspiration, and I actually live and work in rural Kansas!

Nelson-Atkins Museum
4525 Oak Street
Kansas City MO 64111
816-561-4000
www.nelson-atkins.org

I'm not a fan of old art. This museum had nothing for me, but I'm sure if you like looking at old art, it would be decent.

Saturday:

Leedy-Voulkos Art Center, Backroom Gallery & Beth Allison Gallery
2012 Baltimore Ave.
Kansas City MO 64108
816-474-1919
www.leedy-voulkos.com

I was expecting some representation from Peter Voulkos, and I think I saw one piece, but it was unmarked and collecting dust in a corner. The rest of the art was not my style. Lots of large paintings that looked like literal piles of shit. I'm not into the "torn aesthetic," I guess. Scot Sinclair started with an interesting approach in his Pigmentation exhibition, but in my opinion he beat the dead horse a bit too long. He used gloss enamel on gloss enamel to make large paintings that looked like water pooled on a stainless steel countertop. And he did it over and over, in different colors. One or two was nice. Ten was too many.

Kevin McGraw's Before and After, on the other hand, caught my eye and held it. Click on the link to see images of his work. He used scavenged materials, often old pieces of flat metal, to build collages held within metal frames.

Byron C. Cohen Gallery for Contemporary Art
2020 Baltimore Ave.
Kansas City MO 64108
816-421-5665
www.artnet.com/cohen.html

This was my favorite gallery of the lot. I saw a wide variety of styles and formats in a loose display that was pleasantly overcrowded and haphazard. The main exhibition featuring Grant Miller and James Woodfill was interesting but not astounding. The back room of the gallery is the place to linger.

Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art
2004 Baltimore Ave.
Kansas City MO 64108
816-221-2626
www.sherryleedy.com

Follow this link and click on Judy Onofrio to see images from the current show. I warmed up to these kitschy, visually-overwhelming sculptures. I was amazed to see how many pieces she produced in 2005! Talk about productivity. These are large, very detailed pieces with tiny mosaics and complicated forms (carved from wood, I believe). These works need to be experienced in person.

Blue Gallery
7 West 19th St.
Kansas City MO 64108
816-527-0823
www.bluegalleryonline.com

Hoity-toity designer art. There were some decent pieces, but the highbrow gallery space and presentation outshined the work.

Grand Arts
1819 Grand Blvd
Kansas City MO 64108
816-421-6887
www.grandarts.com

Two pieces comprised this show by Aidas Bareikis. His junk art sculptures are terrifying and grotesque, while visually engrossing. I don't like his work, but I appreciate his talent and vision.

Dolphin
1901 Baltimore Ave.
Kansas City MO 64108
816-842-4415
www.dolphinfineart.com

Telephonebooth Gallery
3319 Troost Ave
Kansas City MO 64109
816-582-9812
www.telephoneboothgallery.com

This tiny brick building in the middle of a run-down neighborhood of condemned houses housed about half a dozen drawings hanging on one wall. Maybe the gallery has potential, but I didn't see it.