A wider angle shot of the exhibition focusing on Susi Lulaki’s glazed ceramic works, including “5 Amazons Pot,” 12 x 12
This month, Leedy-Voulkos Art Center hosts an exhibition comprising five contemporary artists that respond, in various ways, to 1920s and ’30s Surrealism. Organized by local curator, educator and arts writer Elisabeth Kirsch, the exhibition is named in honor of Andre Breton’s second Surrealist manifesto. “THE SUPREME POINT: Thresholds of Emergence” invites viewers to plunge into conversations about the sublime and take a dip into the unconscious mind, fantasies, dreams and mythologies.
Unexpectedly, the piece that first caught my eye was a glazed ceramic pot, even though there were much larger, dynamic pieces begging for my attention. The “5 Amazons Pot,” by Kansas City artist and educator Susi Lulaki, sat quietly on a pedestal grouped with more than a dozen other sculptures. But the Amazon warriors called out to me, with their physical dexterity and fierce feminine independence. Lulaki is a part-time resident of Greece and a global traveler, and the pagan themes in her work couldn’t be more relevant in today’s world, which is drowning in uncertainty.
“I wanted to see how artists were attempting to deal with our anxiety,” Kirsch said. “I had been noticing that Surrealist scenarios were popping up after years of conceptual and politically based themes had been dominating the art world. Auction sales were also featuring more and more art by Surrealists of the mid-20th century.”
Next, I was drawn to a series of collages, by North Carolina-based artist Vivian Torrence. A playground of dichotomies weave through her works: mythological and scientific; documentary and fiction; microcosm and macrocosm. A metaphysical approach, similar to what I identify in early twentieth century Italian artists Giorgio de Chirico and Carlo Carrà, takes form in subjects related to labor, science and the humanities. Most intriguing about the technique of the collages is that they appear to apply the “giornata” (one day’s work) technique fresco painters were constrained by centuries ago, further confounding the viewer’s preconceptions about chronology and structure.
Local artist and host of Artspeak Radio, Maria Vesquez Boyd, engages histories of the Surrealist object by fabricating a set of houses that sit precariously, and quite impossibly, on sugar cane poles. The houses represent the backbreaking work Mexicans endured to harvest sugar cane. The presence of Nahuals, shapeshifting magical creatures from Mesoamerican cosmology, either guardians or troublemakers, line both sides of each house.
Kansas City interdisciplinary artist Kim Lindaberry demonstrates the Surrealist idea of the “uncanny” through 16 archival inkjet prints. His prints of animals in forested areas, yet spotlit with outdoor lights, ask us to imagine the adventures and potential danger that awaits in these so-called fairytale “portals.”
Kat Dison Nechlebová, a Kansas City artist and art therapist, compresses what appears to be hundreds, if not thousands, of found objects into each of her multimedia sculptures. With their pairings of specimens plucked from nature with mass-produced objects, I quickly became lost in the complex nests, one even taking a humanoid form. Practicing Jungian therapy is one aspect of Nechlebová’s method that speaks of the Surrealist intent to unpack the unconscious mind. It reminds me of the “automatist” experiments in which Surrealists artists and writers partook to embrace expression while abandoning reason and morality.
Just as Surrealists responded to uncertain times in the 20th century, the artists in this exhibition do the same for us in our volatile time. For more discussion on these works, mark your calendars for Saturday, March 7 at 1 p.m. for an Artist Talk Event at LVAC.
“THE SUPREME POINT: Thresholds of Emergence” continues at Leedy-Voulkos Art Center, 2012 Baltimore Ave., through March 27. Hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. For more information, 816-474-1919 or www.leedy-voulkos.com.
