2018 End of Semester Show PREVIEW!

This time year always approaches so quickly, but it's that time once again! Join us TOMORROW, Friday, April 27 from 5-8pm for our annual End of Semester Show featuring work by KCAI Illustration sophomores, juniors and seniors. Light snacks and refreshment will be served. C'mon by, we'd love to see you! If you can't make it to the opening, the exhibition continues Saturday, April 28 from 10am-5pm and Sunday, April 29 from 12-5pm.

Dawn Lewallen, '20

Makenzie Parrish. '19

Jack Mied, ' 18

Anh Le, '20

Willow Hardman, '19

Miles Klos, '18

Marco Defilio, '20

Vaughn Parish, '19

Megan Henley, '18

Society of Illustrators Student Exhibition

Every year thousands of students from across the United States enter the prestigious Society of Illustrators Student Exhibition, but only a small fraction of those entries make it in to the final exhibition.  The exhibition is held annually at the Museum of Illustration at the Society of Illustrators in New York. We are proud to announce that four of our students had work selected for exhibition! Congratulations to Jasmine Mendez ('18), Hannah Gibbs ('19), MacKenzie Fulmer ('19) and Isaac Lee ('20)!!

The Student Scholarship 2019 Exhibition opens on May 8 and runs through June 9, 2018. 

Jasmine Mendez, '18

Hannah Gibbs, '19

MacKenzie Fulmer, '19

Isaac Lee, '20

ILLUSTRATION NOW 2014 opens TONIGHT!

ILLUSTRATION NOW 2014 opens tonight! We're so excited! Make KCAI's Illustration Department one of your stops this First Friday and join us this evening from 5-8pm for our opening reception or stop by sometime over the weekend. We'll be open on Saturday, December 6 from 10am-5pm and Sunday, December 7 from 12pm-5pm. 

KCAI Illustration is located at 324 East 43rd Street, Kansas City, MO, 64111.

ILLUSTRATION NOW 2014

Once again, we're nearing the end of the fall semester which means that we're close to our end of the semester show. ILLUSTRATION NOW 2014 opens this Friday night, December 5, and we couldn't be more excited! Between the ILLUSTRATION NOW show and The Harvest Internship Event and all the work the students are finishing up before the winter break, the studios are buzzing!

Since the exhibition space within our department is somewhat small, we decided to keep this show simple and manageable. This year 34 students (out of 96) were selected by full-time faculty and invited to submit up to 2 pieces for consideration in the show. Once all the pieces were submitted, one piece per student was chosen. 

Here's a little preview of some of the work that will be in the show. Check it out!

Taylor Fourt

RT Smith

Nathan Hall

Nicholette Haigler

Emily Stout

JC Franco

Kristopher Martin

Wesley Derstine

Johannah Miller

Alison Polston

Coleman Stampley

Kendall Quack

Tobias Rose

Twodee Weaver

Thanks for checking out the work! Join us this Friday night at 324 East 43rd Street from 5-8 pm. Be sure to stop by the other departments on campus for the 2014 End of Semester shows! 

Disintegration: Works by John Ferry

John Ferry, our beloved professor has a new show opening Friday, November 14th. Disintegration will feature 27 pieces, and is at the Lawrence Arts Center at 940 New Hampshire Street in Lawrence, Kansas. John works in oil and typically at a small scale.

Field #4, 5'' x 7''. Oil 

He paints similar scenes repeatedly, leveraging his technical fluency to invigorate an image of, say, a street in Decatur Illinois, or a distant view of the Manhattan Bridge when it is painted for the dozenth time. His work focuses on the material quality of the paint and the ways that a painting can modulate between an industrial or architectural vista on one hand and a delicately labored object, a record of thousands of strokes, scrapes and layers of oil on the other.

JF: I paint what I know.  All my scenes are from my home-town or other places I've lived and observed daily.  I find it a challenge to paint the same scene multiple times and be able to bring something fresh to it each time.  

Given that so much emphasis in the work is on texture and the objecthood of the painting, the work gains immensely from being seen in person. So go out and see his show (really though.)

JF: I thought I was going to be in the larger gallery so I was afraid that the 27 paintings I'm displaying were still not going to be enough to fill it sufficiently.  When I found out it was in the smaller gallery, I knew the show would look fine. It's always a great learning opportunity to see your work displayed.  And when it's in such a beautiful and well cared for space, it always helps bring a kind of closure to the process.

The small size gives more weight to the detail and character of his paintings, and also adds to the strength of the work's presentation; when I've had the opportunity to see John's work in person, it feels more akin to reading a series of love letters - the work is so small, it demands a real kind of intimacy, a one on one interaction with the piece that is too often forgone in contemporary art. John's work is not trying to dazzle you with gimmicks, nor is it didactic, trying to communicate any heavy handed conceptual idea. His work is honest, rich, and deeply personal.

Decatur #2. 6''x8.5''. Oil

JF: I try to put together a solid group of work which is usually inclusive of a theme(s) of work that show well together. I show the strongest work I have at the time.  I adhere to Niles Spencer's philosophy when displaying work.  He said, "I don't let a painting leave my studio until I don't know how to make it any better."

Disintegration will be on exhibit at the Lawrence Arts Center November 14, 2014 - January 3, 2015 with an opening reception on Friday, November 21, 2014 from 5-7 pm and an artist talk on Wednesday, December 3, 2014 at 7 pm.  

Post written by Jacob Canyon Robinson

BiG thanks!

Although last semester seems like forever ago (!), we wanted to stop and give a special shout out to Pam and Gary Gradinger for their generous support and for sponsoring our department. Your belief in our department and our students means the world to us and to KCAI. Thank you!!

Here are just a few picks from the Illustration NOW show, held on December 5, 2013.

Thank you Pam & Gary!

What is normally classroom space was transformed into gallery space for Illustration NOW 2013.

Junior Rosie Ruzicka talking about her piece with patrons Cindy and Steve Kunz.

Several juniors checking out the work in the show.

Professor David Terrill and senior Christina Larkins talking about the show.

Professor and Department Chair Steve Mayse talking with patron Cindy Kunz about the show. (That's me, prof Maura Cluthe, on the right ready with some red dots. I was more than happy to place red dots on some pieces that night!)

ILLUSTRATION NOW preview #2

We're just a few days away from ILLUSTRATION NOW 2013! We're going to be prepping and painting the space tonight and the work will be hung tomorrow. So exciting! Here's some additional work that will be in the show.

Juan Carlos Franco • Niku, digital painting, 2013, $60 framed, $15 unframed

Cassie Allen • spread from Stranger Things, hand-made book, ink on paper, 2013, $150

Ellen Fox • Bumbershoot, pencil, digital, 2013, $60 framed, $30 unframed

Spencer Pullen • interior (exterior) interior, ink on paper, 2013, $275

Adam Soyring • Feet of Lead and Wings of Tin, found object sculpture, 2013, $225

Christina Larkins • Poe Intoxication, digital painting,2013, $40 framed, $20 unframed 

Nathan Hall • Troll, ballpoint pen on panel, 2013, $600

Thanks for looking! We hope to see you sometime this weekend! (See previous post for exhibition details.)

ILLUSTRATION NOW preview

ILLUSTRATION NOW 2013 is just over a week away and we couldn't be more excited! Between the ILLUSTRATION NOW show next weekend, The Harvest Internship Event on December 12 and all the work the students are finishing up before the winter break, the studios are buzzing!

Since the exhibition space within our department is somewhat small, we decided to keep this show simple and manageable. 38 students (out of 102) were selected by full-time faculty and invited to submit up to 3 pieces for consideration in the show. Once all the pieces were submitted, one piece per student was chosen. 

Since the show is almost a week away, we thought we'd post a little preview of some of the work that will be in the show. Check it out!

Lamya Al Douri • Hilawaa (Beauty) , graphite, digital, 2013, $75 framed

Kelsey Borcherding • Sketch #118, gouache, 2013, $150 framed original 

Salvador Carrasco • Eschaton, digital, 2013, $75 framed

Kim Chapman • Walk My Dog, 2013, digital, 2012, $60 framed, $30 unframed

Katherine Dodson • The Jungle Book, ink on board, 2013, $245 framed

Austin Gober • Just Numbers, acrylic and ink, 2013, $450

Angelita Medina Gonzales • Kishi Bashi, mixed media, 2013, $65 framed, $25 unframed

Phil Hernandez • Funkadelic, digital, 2013, $60 framed, $30 unframed

Emma Jennings • Untitled, graphite on paper, 2013, $350 framed

Kristopher Martin • Crow Mother of Country Club Drive, ink, acrylic, mixed media, 2013, $200 framed

Suzanne Nelson • Face Assemblage, mixed media, $275 / prints $45

Purps Percival • Kintsukuroi, watercolor and ink, 2013, $125

Brittany Plachecki • Blasphemy, digital, 2013, $50 framed, $20 unframed

Tara Raweewon • V---- d- M---, digital, 2013, $65 framed

Carrie Riehl • Tractor Ride, oil on canvas, 2013, $400

Jacob Robinson • The Transfiguration of Horselover Fat (Vast Active Living Intelligence Systems), mixed media + digital, 2013, $70 framed, $40 unframed

Rosemarie Ruzicka • Fox In Snow, silkscreen, 2011, $150 framed

This piece was a part of Illustrators 55, a juried exhibition on display at the Museum of American Illustration at the Society of Illustrators in New York, January 2013.

Patti Ryland • Streptococcalroach, digital painting, 2013, $65 framed

Brantly Sheffield • Outfield, oil on masonite, 2013, $400

R.T. Smith • 400 Funerals, acrylic, watercolor, digital, 2013, $75 framed

Coleman Stampley • Rise and Fall, digital, 2013, $70 framed, $40 unframed

Clinton Walker • Artist's Block, ink and digital, 2013, $60 framed, $25 unframed

Allison Welter • Hindu Demon Mask, cut paper, 2013, $20 unframed print

Kelsey Wroten • Monster Mash, ink and digital on paper, 2013, $70 framed, $35 unframed

David White • It'sa Mario, cut paper and spray paint, 2013, $200

We will be posting additional work in the next few days. Stay tuned!

Patron Preview Night 
This is a ticketed event; Students, Faculty, and Patrons Welcome
Thursday, December 5th from 6 to 9 PM

For ticket information, visit kcai.edu/patronpreview

End of Semester Show 
FREE and open to the public
Friday, December 6th, Opening Reception from 5 to 7 PM; Weekend Hours: Saturday, December 7th from 10 AM to 5 PM, Sunday, December 8th from 12 to 5 PM

The Flex Space Gallery • KCAI Illustration Building, 324 East 43rd Street KCMO (Street parking is available)

ILLUSTRATION NOW 2013

ILLUSTRATION N0W 2013 is a faculty curated group show featuring the work of Kansas City Art Institute Illustration students. 

Featuring work by: Cassie Allen, Lamya Al Douri, Kelsey Borcherding, Salvador Carrasco, Kim Chapman, Katherine Dodson, Ellen Fox, Juan Carlos Franco, Caleb Gebel, Austin Gober, Angelita Gonzales, Nathan Hall, Phil Hernandez, Emma Jennings, Christina Larkins, Kristopher Martin, Suzanne Nelson, Purps Percival, Brittany Plachecki, Austin Pritchett, Spencer Pullen, Kendall Quack, Tara Raweewon, Carrie Riehl, Jacob Robinson, Rosie Ruzicka, Patti Ryland, Brantley Sheffield, Taylor Smith, Adam Soyring, Coleman Stampley, Luke Taylor, Clinton Walker, Alli Welter, Kelsey Wroten, David White

Find us on Facebook: ILLUSTRATION NOW 2013

On Thursday, December 5, 2013 the Kansas City Art Institute will host a Patron Preview from 6 to 10 p.m. on the eve of the public opening of the end-of-semester student exhibition and sale. Partygoers will have an opportunity to tour selected studio departments; view and purchase work before the exhibition and sale opens to the public; and enjoy a progressive evening of food and drinks. Proceeds benefit the student scholarship fund.

Exclusive Patron Preview
OPENING: Thursday, December 5, 2013, 6-9 pm
For ticket information, visit www.kcai.edu/PatronPreview or call 816-802-3483.

KCAI’s “End-of-semester student exhibition and sale” showcases work by students in the departments of ceramics, digital filmmaking, fiber, graphic design, illustration, painting, photography, printmaking and sculpture. 

End of Semester Exhibition Show & Sale
FREE TO THE PUBLIC
OPENING: Friday, December 6, 2013, 5-7pm
Weekend Hours: Saturday, December 7, 10am-5pm and Sunday, December 8, 12pm-5pm

Join us at The Flex Space Gallery in the KCAI Illustration Building, 324 East 43rd Street, KCMO

Street parking is available.

We hope to se you there!!