Elisabeth Kirsch

September 20, 2016

Jeanne Drewes: “I Fell in Love with the Books”

Few Americans were allowed to travel to Cuba in 1998, when Dr. Jeanne Drewes, a native Kansas Citian and UMKC alum who had worked at..

September 1, 2016

Ediciones Vigia: Handmade Cuban Books

Books that are handmade generally connote the precious — objects made for the lucky few who can afford them. But handmade books can also function..

August 4, 2016

“2016 Kansas City Flatfile,” H&R Block Artspace

There are 225 regional artists in the current Flatfile show at Block Artspace. That translates to more than 1,000 works on paper in more than..

July 8, 2016

John Sandbach: The Making of a Polymath

If you’re the type who never wants your peas to touch the mashed potatoes on your plate, you might find the various art practices of John Sandbach somewhat disconcerting. The native Kansas Citian’s professional expertise ranges from the most earthbound — shiatsu massage — to the sublime: haiku poetry.

March 14, 2016

Cary Esser: A Ceramist for the 21st Century

At 19 Cary Esser flew alone from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, to Kansas City, a place she’d never been. “When I got off the plane,” Esser recalled in a recent interview, “I just walked up to somebody and asked, ‘Can you tell me how to get to the Kansas City Art Institute?’ ”

January 29, 2016

“Dylan Mortimer: Cure,” Leedy-Voulkos Art Center

If one quality of a great artist is fearlessness—and it is—Dylan Mortimer has it in spades. He’s demonstrated it from the start of his career,..

November 30, 2015

“Andrzej Zielinski: Open Sourced,” Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art

In his latest book, Lights Out, newsman and journalist Ted Koppel writes of the looming dangers of our increased reliance on power grids and other..

November 11, 2015

“Christopher Kurtz: Orchards,” Belger Crane Yard Studios

The art world has seldom been comfortable acknowledging makers who function both as designers and as artists. As Andy Warhol discovered, no matter how successful..

October 29, 2015

Jack’s Journey

In 2016, at age 95, long-time KC resident Jack Jonathan hopes to return to Egypt, 64 years after he left that country. It seems fitting that a photography show, which enabled him to leave an Egypt in turmoil all those years ago, is the very thing impelling his return.

Author: Elisabeth Kirsch