Art Roundup: July 30, 2010 to August 6, 2010

Weekly roundup of the best art shows and art related events in and around the Lawrence/Kansas City area.

FRIDAY JULY 30

• Do You Need A Friend To Go With?
Wonder Fair: Art Gallery, Shoppe & Studio
(803 1/2 Massachusetts Street in Lawrence, KS)
Friday, July 30, 7-10pm (Ongoing until August 22nd)
From the organizers: Christopher Bostwick is a graduate of the printmaking department at the Kansas City Art Institute. It was here that he developed his skills as a printmaker but also reaffirmed his penchant for drawing directly on paper. Do You Need A Friend To Go With? features colored pencil and gouache drawings – some as large as 60” x 48”. These drawings take the form of a set or stage, the theatrics of which are always implied, the actors never shown. Bostwick sets the scenes, rife with absurd details culled from a culture of excess and Google image searches. He revels in humorous juxtapositions and complicitous pairings. His drawings become abandoned scenes full of misleading clues to the most banal of mysteries – the everyday.

• Dem Young Arts
Dot Dot Dot Artspace (1910 Haskell Avenue in Lawrence, KS)
Friday, July 30, 7-10pm
We don’t know much about this show but there will be Live Musick Hip Hop (not sure what that means?!) and will feature local artists Matt Avila, Sam Foster, Kyle Longabach, Jordan Moshiri, Josh Snoddy, Alexandra Sova, and Ryan Storck.

THURSDAY AUGUST 5

• Last Splash Bash
Lawrence Public Library (707 Vermont Street in Lawrence, KS)
Thursday, August 5, 6:30pm
This is not an art event, but we love the LPL and everything they do. This bash will include games like Dunk a Librarian, a live performance by the wonderfully fun and lovely duo Truckstop Honeymoon, plus food and more.

FRIDAY AUGUST 6

• Jeromy Morris: Masked Portraits
The Invisible Hand Gallery (801 1/2 Massachusetts Street in Lawrence, KS)
Friday, August 6, 7-10pm
From the organizers: A series of masked, mixed media portrait paintings, with a hint of nostalgia, inspired by an early photographic process. www.jeromymorris.com

• Jeanette Powers: Self-Portrait as the Mad Hatter
Plenum Space (504 E 18th Street in Kansas City, MO)
Friday, August 6, 6-10pm
From the organizers: Jeanette Powers is a graduate physics student at the University of Kansas and a self-taught painter. Her expressionist paintings are imaginative and intense and have been collected for the last ten years throughout North America. She enjoys representing chaotic motion and fluid dynamics in her paint application, without losing the focus of the mind. Portraiture is the mainstay of her work thanks to her belief in the importance of friends and family. www.arttract.com/jeanettepowers.htm

• re:vision quest
The Slap & Tickle Gallery (504 E 18th Street in Kansas City, MO)
Friday, August 6, 6-9pm (Also open Saturday, August 7, 1-4pm)
This show features new paintings by Gryphon van der Hole. This quote directly from the artist’s statement for this show, “gay culture. queer aesthetic. kinky indulgences.”, is all we need to hear to peak our interest. We are not sure if the name Gryphon van der Hole and his photo on Myspace does the same or scares us away. www.myspace.com/gryphons_hole

• Molly Murphy: Spatial Constructions
BNIM Architects (106 W 14th Street in Kansas City, MO)
Friday, August 6, 5-7pm
From the organizers: Spatial Constrictions is an installation of paintings, drawings, text and human hair to be housed in the display windows of BNIM Architects. The show of multiple paneled works will span around the the block of 14th and Baltimore in the urban core of Kansas City, Missouri. www.mollymurphyartwork.com