The KCKCC Art Gallery’s latest art exhibition is “From Tanner to Knight: An African American Art Expose.” The show is open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday to Friday and will close Feb. 25.
A virtual reception is planned from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Feb. 22. The Zoom link to the reception is https://kckcc.zoom.us/s/4254863870?fbclid=IwAR3wPL30P9zvS71-s68xo234cbW9URrzBJhfnxRye3IxfMQiJ_7O4aePZPo.
The exhibition includes 17 artists featuring 24 works of art, including work from renowned artist Jonathan Knight, an internationally known watercolorist and oil painter who also is known for his pastels and printmaking. Knight, who is from Daytona Beach, Florida, and now resides in Kansas City, Missouri, is a Signature Member of the National Watercolor Society. There are three pieces of Knight’s works exhibited for sale, most notably, “Lily Pond VIII.”
The show was co-curated by Dr. Curtis V. Smith, a retired professor from KCKCC and board member of the Greater Kansas City Area Print Society, and KCKCC Art Gallery Coordinator Shai M. Perry.
With several fine art prints in the exhibit, Smith wants to use this opportunity to educate the community about the art of printmaking. Most artists work in cooperation with a professional printmaker to create a fine art image that can be sold as a limited edition.
One of the United States’ greatest printmakers, Ron Adams, is in the exhibit. Adams, who died in 2020, was recognized as a master printer of the highest order, producing powerful images of African Americans.
Other nationally recognized artists featured include an abstract untitled mixed media study on handmade paper by Sam Gilliam. There is a retrospective of Gilliam’s art planned at the Hirschhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., later this year.
Joyce Jane Scott’s “Repent” is a mixed media lithographic silkscreen print with embossing. She was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and recognized nationally for her figurative sculptures and jewelry using freeform off-loom bead weaving techniques.
Clarissa Sligh is an African American book artist and photographer based in Asheville, North Carolina, who co-founded the Coast-to-Coast National Women Artists of Color Project. Her artwork is “Passages, Family No. 3,” a signed and numbered archival pigmented inkjet print.
The works of art featured in the exhibition by Kansas City area artists include Michael Toombs, Glyneisha Johnson, Russell Easterwood, Alexander Austin, Danny Hinds, Maurice Copeland, and Hank Smith.
A nod is also given in the form of two historic reproductions of art during the career of Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937). Tanner was a towering historical figure in American art history who became the first African American to gain international acclaim for his paintings. A resident of Kansas City, Kansas, for a short time after World War I, he completed three paintings while living with his parents. Tanner’s “Sand Dunes at Sunset, Atlantic City,” an oil on canvas completed in 1885, was the first painting by an African American to hang in the White House (Clinton, 1998).
For more information on the art exhibition or to schedule a visit, contact Perry at 913-288-7408 or at [email protected].
- Story from Kelly Rogge, public information manager, KCKCC