“Peril” (2022), installation (in a 30 x 30 x 20’ space), wire, paper, graphite, encaustic medium, plant and animal remains, composite gold leaf, cord, pulleys and cleats (photo by Alec Smith)
Born in Hungary, the artist Dora Agbas first studied to become a biologist and a bench scientist, i.e., one who conducts experiments in a laboratory and analyzes data. But she was also creating art at the same time.
“I was always doing something: silk painting, watercolor, collage,” she said. By the time she moved to the Midwest, Agbas made the decision to focus on artmaking, returning to school and earning her master’s in fine art at the University of Kansas in 2022.
Agbas’ mother was a landscape gardener; as a result, she grew up around plants and in gardens and developed a love for the natural world. “Plants are mysterious because we don’t really understand so much about them,” she said.
Her West Bottoms studio in the Holsum Building North showcases a variety of elements from the natural world, now converted into intriguing new versions of their former selves. Handmade paper, “lace” made from fibers stitched on her sewing machine and seedpods strung together like a necklace are just some of the visually compelling elements on view.
“What I am doing is transforming material from one to another and it’s the same thing that happens in nature all the time,” Agbas explains. “Nothing is really static.” She collects local plant ephemera, selecting those items with the most appealing colors or forms. After studying them, Agbas carefully manipulates them with her hands to help her understand how she might be able to revamp or modify them — basically still doing her own scientific experiments.
The work “Peril” features seven objects looming over a golden irregular shape on the floor. Three are constructed from wire while the other four are menacingly solid. Whether they might represent clouds or meteorites, the potential threat to the gilded “lake” below feels undeniable. Paper boats float on the gold-hued water, each containing remnants of nature, such as pine needles or leaves. The artist wanted her audience to have to bend down to see what was in the boats, but more importantly, she felt it was important for people to bow down and honor nature. “I want to make people interested in things around them, have them look at their environment rather than their phones.”
A pomegranate, oranges and other fruit have been cut and stitched back together in “Skindeep Memories.” The additional use of gold is a humorous reference to the Japanese technique of “kintsugi,” in which repairs to ceramics are made with lacquer mixed with powdered gold. The metallic colors draw attention to the conservation, celebrating the pottery’s imperfections and their own beauty.
On one wall is a grouping of six elements which vaguely resemble root vegetables. Agbas utilized handmade paper, wrapping each piece around bits of rope in order to create three-dimensional objects, and later removing them to leave hollow, whole entities. While the artist feels they may represent body parts, the pieces of knotted rope, now displayed on the wall above their former cocoons, express “the idea that we are all knotted up after COVID,” she said.
“Being a scientist or being an artist is so similar, I think, in terms of curiosity and in terms of experimentation … I just want to make people wonder about stuff, be curious and think what the heck is that?” she said. Agbas wants her audience to appreciate not just the beauty of nature, but its impermanence. “My work is ultimately meditations on life, death and renewal, just as all of nature is constantly in the process of transformation.”
Agbas is participating in the “2025 Kansas City Flatfile + Digitalfile” exhibit at Emily & Todd Voth Artspace, June 20 through Sept. 27, and will have an exhibit in the main gallery of the Leedy-Voulkos Art Center in March 2027. For more information, doraagbas.com.
Selected elements from “All in Knots” and “Bodies” (working titles) displayed in Agbas’ studio (photo by Nan Chisholm)
