Leedy Voulkos Art Center

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The Leedy-Voulkos Art Center has showcased regional, national, and international artists for 24 years with an attempt to help establish Kansas City as a center for the arts. We continue the founder's legacy of sharing professional resources with developing artists. We do this by balancing exceptional exhibition programming with education and community outreach. Quality has always been a goal, showing crafts along side installation, painting, and sculpture. The founding footprint of the Crossroads Art District, we are located on Baltimore Avenue between 20th Street and the Freighthouse Restaurants.

The Midwest Paint Group with Associate and Guest Artists:
Martha Armstrong, Leland Bell, Bob Brock, Glen Cebulash, Lester Goldman, Philip Hale, Timothy King, Stanley Lewis, Jeremy Long, Wilbur Niewald, George Rose, Troy Swangstu, Michael Walling, Ron Weaver, Megan Williamson

A debut traveling exhibition by fifteen painters from around the country, showcasing multiple oil paintings of the figure. The painters of the Midwest Paint Group share a commitment to Post Abstraction Figuration. They all base motifs upon either direct or recalled perception of the visible. The work is as personally unique as the membership. They recognize historical precedents in painting by assimilation the most complex and beloved elements achieved by painters they admire.
Showing through February 15, 2010 (Opening November 5)

This exhibition includes a brand new series of new drawings on silk.
The group of works in blessings: answers to prayers at Leedy-Voulkos are motivated by a yearning for the native ambiguity of original existence, and respectfully reference khata, the Buddhist traditional white offering scarf. My work grows out of chance occurrences and random processes, and I never really know what its going to look like. This uncertainty is liberating, and invigorating.

Showing through January 29, 2010 (Opening November 5)
This exhibition includes Hesses intimate Egg Shrines as well a brand new body of work that is larger in scale comprised of relief metal work and multi-media paintings created with found objects. I employ the use of texture, repetition and color on old worn and weathered material mixed with new.Distressed by the elements and constantforces of nature, this old found material has a history imprinted on it, a beautiful patina wrought by time that tells a story, this is what deeply intrigues me.I blend these old weathered relics with material that is new, shiny and bright.This mixture is not meant to be harmonious, but more of an effort to disguise the old.With a splash of color here and there, an attempt is made to freshen the appearance, to distract from the aged and broken.This is an action, an appeal, a desperate endeavor to hide, or in the very least: camouflage theugly scars and memoriesof the past.This is a constant pursuit to hide the reality beneath.

The Leedy-Voulkos Art Center is located at 2010 Baltimore Avenue, Kansas City, MO 64108. Phone: 816-474-1919. Gallery Hours: Thursdays through Saturdays 11-5, First Fridays 6-9 pm and by appointment. Gallery Director Holly Swangstu.

We hope that this program will provide the narrative of Leedys life in an accurate, compelling, and visually exciting manner. But quality films with a universal scope require funding. We need your help. Because Kansas City Public Television serves as the non-profit presenting station for this film, your donation, or a portion thereof, could be tax-deductible.
On behalf of everyone involved in this project, which will educate and inspire so many, we thank you for your consideration and welcome any questions you may have.
For more information, please contact Kevin McGraw of Cowbell Productions at k.mcgraw@sbcglobal.net.
In association with Wide Awake Films and Kansas City Public Television.

Martha Armstrong, Leland Bell, Bob Brock, Glen Cebulash, Lester Goldman, Philip Hale, Timothy King, Stanley Lewis, Jeremy Long, Michael Neary, Wilbur Niewald, George Rose, Troy Swangstu, Michael Walling, Ron Weaver, Megan Williamson.

We hope you will stop by the Leedy Voulkos Art Center to see these talented artists!
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