Artist Heinrich Toh at the Brookside Art Annual
Visit the Brookside Art Annual to see top artist in over a dozen mediums from jewelry to painting, and clay to printmaking. From show veterans to artists exhibiting in Brookside for the first time, the nearly 180 artists from across the country were selected through an extensive jurying process that brings new mix of outstanding art to the heart of Brookside each year.
The show is one of Kansas City’s top art gatherings each year, attracts artists, buyers and arts enthusiasts from across the region, and is ranked amongst the best in the nation each year. The show draws thousands of people from all over the metropolitan area to the Brookside shopping district for the three-day event. The show is also recognized by participating artists for its focus on art, large attraction, volume of sales, and hospitality (the Brookside Business Association work hard to make everyone’s experience great at the show).
Artist Highlights
HEINRICH TOH, Printmaking. Kansas City based artist and 2021 Best of Show award winner, Heinrich Toh, explores the evolution of identity by synthesizing memories of past with the present. Originally from Singapore, his works are inspired by layers of memory, ancestry, and pattern, and investigate the sense of longing and cultural assimilation that comes from travel and relocation. “Memories are fleeting with the ongoing assimilation to my immediate environment – they inspire me to seek what was once familiar while blurring the boundaries between Western or Eastern culture. The contrast between the modern and traditional imagery in my work reflects layered and overlapping cultural elements.”
Heinrich’s unique works combine several printmaking techniques, including collagraphs, monotypes, paper-lithography, and image transfers. “My work is hand printed, with multiple runs through an etching press, resulting in rich layers of color, pattern, and imagery. Each print is a unique one of a kind work on paper, as I do not make editions, reproductions or gicleés.” Visit in Heinrich Booth #167 to learn more.
JENNIFER CAVAN, Drawing/Pastels. 2022 Features Artist, Jennifer Cavan of Santa Fe, New Mexico, combines a love of history and culture with a passion for the New Mexico landscape and simple architecture, creating timeless landscapes. “I’m fascinated with the state’s Spanish Colonial past and the way it merges into and influences the present.” Relying on photographs, sketches, and memories of places she’s have found along the back roads of the American West, she uses vibrant, saturated colors, bold compositions, and slightly altered perspectives to present, rather than represent, special places.
Jennifer’s art is developed through a multi-step approach. “Oil pastels are much like buttery crayons—and I use them that way. I generally start with a loose, light sketch to make sure I am happy with the composition (oil pastels are a little unforgiving.) After I have blocked in most of the color (I generally work from top to bottom). I blend some of the colors using a clay shaping tool or a piece of wadded-up shop cloth. I also scratch out areas with various exacto knives to get sharper, cleaner lines.” The results are works full of rich color (including a few of her favorites – burgundy, red, and indigo), with details that can be enjoyed on many levels. Visit Jenner in Booth # 52 to see for yourself.
KIM WILSON, Jewelry. Based out of Fox Point, WI, Kim Wilson has been creating unique jewelry – lovingly referred to as “small sculptures” – for over 20 years. Originally a florist, her appreciation for nature shines through in designs that seamlessly blend the organic with the industrial; simple, yet complex. Whether working with a fossilized mammoth bone, opals or slate, Kim handcrafts pieces that let the materials speak for themselves, resulting in a stunning, inimitable work of art.
Made from organic, found materials, Kim builds each piece to show off the best characteristics of the central stone, ensuring every item is truly unlike any other. And like her jewelry, her process is unique, creative, and ever changing. Kim doesn’t start with a sketch, but with the stone considering the shape, how it interacts with light, and what kind of jewelry it might lend itself to best. The process culminates in the main attraction framed to shows off its best qualities, improvising as the piece reveals itself to her. Explore her works in Booth #126.
TODD FOX, Sculpture. 2021 Sculpture / Metal category award winner, Todd K. Fox of Orlando, Florida, taught himself the art of Raku pottery and sculpture at age 11 and today is continually perfecting his craft. Todd derives inspiration for his sculptures from his study of African and Caribbean cultures. Each work is personal and biographical, sharing or relating to a moment of his life or event(s).
Todd evokes emotion in his sculptures using posture, position, and staging, rather than a drawn or sculpted face on the piece. Posture shows emotion, emotions tell a story. What may seem simple upon first observation, then yields a much more sophisticated archetype. Todd’s works are narrative, depicting ethereal entities and presenting allegorical inclusions. “These interpretations express and share journeys of past and present and are universal stories of love, joy, hope, sorrow and discovery.” Enjoy Todd’s journeys in Booth #4.
Learn more about these and other artists at BrooksideArtAnnual.com/2022-artists, and join the Brookside Art Annual Friday, April 29th through Sunday, May 1st to enjoy these and other incredible artists.
