Time for weekend calendar picks from KC Studio editor Alice Thorson. On view through June 16 at Studios, Inc., see Narrative Atlas, an exhibition of works by Gerry Trilling. Tonight, Magnetic Fields: Expanding American Abstraction opens at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art and Doc Severinsen performs with the Kansas City Symphony at Kauffman Center. This is also your last weekend to see Kansas City Actors Theatre‘s production of “The Realistic Joneses,” with performances tonight through Sunday. Saturday, the Nelson-Atkins celebrates the abolition of slavery with their free Juneteenth festival. Saturday and Sunday, Owen/Cox Dance Group and pianist Kairy Koshoeva perform Bach’s Goldberg Variations at White Recital Hall, and Heartland Men’s Chorus ends their season with Show Tune Showdown at the Folly. Sunday hear Kinnor Philharmonic at the Jewish Community Center.
For more events this weekend, visit Kansas City’s most comprehensive arts calendar at kcstudio.org/events.
NARRATIVE ATLAS
May 12 – June 16
Studios Inc
The Studios Inc Exhibition Space is pleased to present NARRATIVE ATLAS, an exhibition featuring resident artist Gerry Trilling, on view from 05.12.17 to 06.16.17 with an opening reception Friday, 05.12.17 from 6:00 – 9:00 PM.
NARRATIVE ATLAS is an exhibition of constructed paintings, text and small drawings. “Narratives are built into maps; where and how you begin, where and why you want to go, how and by what means you get there. An atlas is a book of maps filled with stories. NARRATIVE ATLAS is a mainframe for my meditation on assimilation. What stories we keep, what memories we will lose, and what will happen next. The unknown is always rich territory for an artist.”
Gerry Trilling is a resident artist at The Studios Inc. The Studios Inc provides studio space, professional development, networking, and exhibitions for mid-career artists in the Greater Kansas City.
Magnetic Fields: Expanding American Abstraction, 1960s to Today
June 8 – September 17
Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art
Magnetic Fields: Expanding American Abstraction, 1960s to Today introduces the work of more than twenty exceptional artists in conversation with one another for the first time. With works in a range of media, including painting, sculpture, printmaking, and drawing, the exhibition showcases a diverse range of unique visual vocabularies within non-representational expression. By highlighting these artists’ individual approaches to form, color, composition, material exploration and conceptual impetus within hard-edge and gestural abstraction, Magnetic Fields provides an expanded history of non-pictorial image and object-making. The exhibition not only celebrates these artists as leaders in the field, but also the enduring ability of abstraction to convey both personal iconography and universal themes.
The exhibition features a range of works, including early and later career examples, those of specific series, several exhibited for the first time, and the long awaited reappearance of iconic works such as Mavis Pusey’s large-scale painting Dejygea (1970) in The Whitney’s 1971 exhibition Contemporary Black Artists In America. Also drawn in part from the Kemper Museum’s permanent collection, the exhibition features Chakaia Booker’s rubber tire sculpture El Gato (2001).
Magnetic Fields marks the first U.S. presentation dedicated exclusively to the formal and historical dialogue of abstraction by women artists of color.
Doc Severinsen with the KANSAS CITY SYMPHONY
June 8 @ 7:00 pm
Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts
Celebrate Doc Severinsen’s 90th birthday in this tour-de-force concert. Doc pays tribute to the American Songbook and Big Band eras, while sharing favorite stories of his incredible 70 year career. Doc’s masterful trumpet playing and connection to the music makes this an evening you’ll remember forever. Enjoy hits like “Summertime,” “September Song,” “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes,” “I’ll Be Seeing You” and “I Got it Bad (And That Ain’t Good),” plus many special surprises!
The Realistic Joneses
June 8-11 @ 7:30 pm
H & R Block-City Stage
Winner of two Drama Desk Special Awards. Arguably the best work yet from one of America’s wisest, most clever new playwrights of the past decade. In The Realistic Joneses, Will Eno connects two suburban couples who have so much more in common than their identical homes and their shared last names. As their relationships begin to irrevocably intertwine, the Joneses must decide between their idyllic fantasies and their imperfect realities and, ultimately, confront mortality.
“’Nothing is funnier than unhappiness,’ we are told in Beckett, and so it is with this very fine play where laughter exists a heartbeat, or heartbreak, away from tears.”
– Matt Wolf, The Telegraph
Juneteenth Celebration
June 10 @ 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
All activities and performances are FREE and open to the public. FREE tickets available for programs where noted. Off-site parking and shuttle service will be available at Kauffman Gardens, 4800 Rockhill Rd. from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m.
Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States. Also known as Freedom Day, Juneteenth is an abbreviation of “June nineteenth.” It commemorates the announcement of the abolition of slavery in Texas on June 19, 1865. The history of freedom and equal rights after emancipation is a long and complex one; indeed, that history is still being written today. Juneteenth recognizes this ongoing struggle while celebrating the enduring contributions of African Americans.
The Goldberg Variations
June 10 @ 8:00 pm
June 11 @ 2:00 pm
White Recital Hall
Owen/Cox Dance Group and pianist Kairy Koshoeva present a contemporary dance work set to J. S. Bach’s the Goldberg Variations. The entire Goldberg Variations is rarely performed in its entirety in concert. It is even more rare that the piece is used for dance, and rarer still that the dance would be performed to live music rather than a recording. The choreography will carefully reflect the structure of the music, thereby enhancing the listeners’ experience of the intricate patterns and counterpoint of Bach’s work. By presenting this Bach masterpiece with contemporary dance, this performance will allow audience members to experience the Goldberg Variations with new ears and eyes.
Show Tune Showdown
June 10 @ 8:00 pm
June 11 @ 4:00 pm
Folly Theater
What happens when Broadway collides with HMC? It’s Show Tune Showdow! a mashup that’s part game show and part sing-a-long! Channel your best Ethel Merman as you sing with the guys to some of your favorite Broadway hits, then hop on stage and show off your knowledge of musical theatre trivia!
Kinnor Philharmonic
June 11 @ 3:00 pm
Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City
The J is pleased to announce a new artist-in-residence partnership with the Kinnor Philharmonic. Join us for two very special concerts. In January, we will ring in the new year with a champagne toast and reception following! And in June, you will be delighted by new and exciting musical selections.
Kinnor Philharmonic is an ensemble composed of both Jewish and non-Jewish musicians. In sharing historical connections through educational artistry, we are dedicated to bringing to the Greater Kansas City Community, performances that reflect the long traditions of the symphonic repertoire and the rich diversity of the Jewish heritage.
