installation view
Sauntering into the Zhou B Art Center’s vast and ample Spirit Gallery, one is immersed in the significance of cycles. The Art Center, created within the remnants of a renovated historical school, offers a powerful bridge to the current exhibit, “Past Futures,” showcasing the cyclical nature of history and identity through the lens of queer experience. The exhibit was organized by No Divide KC in conjunction with its Queer Narratives Festival and in collaboration with Habitat Contemporary Gallery.
“All of these pieces were about self-identity and self-insinuating themselves in current history and navigating what that means,” said Elise Gagliardi, the exhibit’s curator. “They were all referencing the body. It was exciting to me how each artist interpreted the theme.” This emphasis on the body, openness and vulnerability is apparent throughout the show; the sincerity of creating lingers in the space as does the power and potential of queer art.
The exhibition features a diverse group of queer and trans artists, including Moe Leady, Nettie Zan, Sam Deming, Lucas Nguyen, Nell Hull, Junie Brown, Tuesday West, Craig Auge, Kai Johnson, Nathan Ford, Hugo Zelada, Nikki Haas, Snow Gray and Wolfe Brack
Among these many captivating voices, emerging artists Junie Brown and Nikki Haas stand out for their distinct and complementary exploration of queer identity.
Junie Brown, a trans woman of color from Kansas and a junior at the Kansas City Art Institute, draws inspiration from art history, specifically, baroque and Renaissance religious paintings. Her work exudes a prideful strength of self and fires back at the shame projected onto trans bodies. “I wanna make sure that there is representation for all trans women in our depictions and art,” she declares. This purpose is gorgeously realized in her oil painting “Hatched.” Reminiscent of Sandro Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus,” “Hatched” celebrates the process of becoming. “Once you start fully embracing that identity, you hatch,” Brown said.
Nikki Haas is a femme midwestern lesbian and a recent graduate of the University of Central Missouri with a degree in painting and a minor in history. Through magical realism and surrealism paired with scorching hues of fiery red and vermilion, her oil painting “I Get Along with Everyone I Meet” irreverently confronts the “mean Lesbian” stereotype.
Haas’s self-portrayals often adopt gargoyle-like postures referencing gothic architecture that add layers of complexity. “I’m interested in playing around with the contradictions of identity,” Haas explains. “And I think that plays into the cyclical history, just looking back at how queer people have been portrayed and how we’re gonna do that in the future and looking … at the future as inspiration.”
“Past Futures” is a vital conversation in a time of increased anxiety and demonization of the queer and trans communities; it is a reclaiming of histories, and a fierce imagining of futures, all rooted in the vulnerability and the resilience of queer and trans artists’ narratives.
For more, the Center will host Queer Narratives Main Festival Day, featuring 14 performing artists of all genres and wares from 21 vendors, from 7 to 11 p.m. Aug. 2.
“Past Futures” continues at the Zhou B Art Center, 1801 E. 18th St., through Aug. 2. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday – Saturday. For more information, 816.208.4300 or www.zhoubartcenterkc.com.
