Artspeak Radio + Plug Gallery, Tyler Kimball, & Midwest Feminist Art Collective

Artspeak Radio, Wednesday, noon – 1pm CST, 90.1fm KKFI Kansas City Community Radio, streaming live audio www.kkfi.org

Producer/host Maria Vasquez Boyd welcomes Plug Gallery, Tyler Kimball, and Midwest Feminist Art Collective.

Plug Gallery
[email protected]
1st Floor
1328 Agnes Arts
Kansas City, MO 64127

Open hours Sunday 12-3PM

Remember to mention our Roster Call, we curate from a group of artists who have
submitted their works for consideration.

Follow us online
@plug.gallery
Plug is a 501c3 organization.
Members are Shelly Pinto, Craig Auge, Megan Ganey, Travis Smorstad, Samantha
Haan & Cesar Lopez.
Consider joining today!
Upcoming exhibitions
Our Friends at Agnes
Sat Aug 5 – Aug 12th, 2023
5-8PM
Artists: Summer Brooks, Lacey Hawkinson, Kathyn Marie Hogan, Lily Madden, Philo
Northrup, Olive Palmer, Emily Blair Quinn, Unlucky Rabbit, Kiki Serna, Renee Springer,
Heinrich Too, Cole Vacek.

Squaredance
Aug 19 – Sept 23rd, 2023
5-8pm
Curated by Craig Auge
Artists: Monica d. Church, Pilip Denker, Rie Egawa, Nathan Ford, Roland Hicks, Kevin
Kelly, Ryan Sarah Murphy and Alison Tirrell.
Statement:
Squaredance brings together the works of eight abstract artists from the US and UK
who incorporate squares or grids, both as primary feature and point of departure.
Squares expand and contract and frolic through space; playful experiments in
composition and construction keeping time in jangly, funky, syncopated rhythms. This is
also a dance between mediums, from typographic drawings to collaged paintings to
quilts to wood and paper sculpture. Through distorted perspectives and alternative
processes, these dancing spares are imaginably windows into a multitude of realities.

TYLER KIMBALL has been working with glass as his main medium since 1999. He has
traveled the world with residency opportunities, shown in museums and galleries
internationally, and has installed large-scope works across the nation. In 2014, he returned to his hometown of Kansas City, Missouri, after 17 years away, to set up his studio. In 2015, he opened Monarch Glass Studio, located in the 18th and Vine
district. Through that studio Kimball has created thousands of glass pieces ranging from cglass works for other artists and designers to classic vessels and barware, statement chandeliers and custom stained glass windows to installations in public and commercial settings that often take years from concept to final install.

His success with Monarch Glass Studio found him as the source for information on how
to build and run a glass studio in the area. He was instrumental in setting up area public glass studios such as Englewood Arts and the Belger Glass Annex. He is still currently active with glass program development for Belger Arts and set to do multiple demonstrations at Englewood Arts later this fall.

His engagement with the community is also captured by his drive to create large-scale
public glass art that can interact with the full of the community. His recent installation in front of the new Fire Station in Columbia, Missouri, utilizes natural light through the day to spread color across the facade of the newly built building and glows as a beacon through the night with up- lighting directed upon it. The 18 foot tall “Prairie Paintbrush” installed just two weeks ago in front of the Downtown Olathe Library in Olathe, Kansas was made in conjunction with Leopold Gallery. 1500 pounds of glass, in the way of 209 separate pieces connected together around a stainless armature, creates a spectacle to see when walking the lawn in front of the library.

His largest public art installation to date, is approaching soon. The newly constructed
Lawrence Transit Facility will have his work scattered across its campus. Three illuminated blown glass columns with 18” red spheres atop of them will stand 10 feet tall and move visitors from the Bus arrival and departure area to the main terminal building, like over-sized walkway directors. In the lobby, a 6-foot diameter chandelier with ornately designed pendants connected by neon-illuminated tubing will connect visitors from the outside to the inside. And on the front corner of the building a storefront full of custom blown stained glass panels will fully connect the works across the full Transit Facility. The works entitled “Making Connections” are meant to take on a similarity to a transit map, with lines connecting with circles/locations.
The title also pushes the symbolic meaning behind the work that, using public transit keeps us
interacting with one another, rather than sealed off in our own private commuters.
The installation is set to be complete this November after more than two years since the
concept was approved by the city of Lawrence, Kansas.
It is Kimball’s joy in life to display the wonders of glass with the public and community,
whether by sharing through his work or helping educate through community access centers.

MIDWEST FEMINIST ART COLLECTIVE is a small explosion of colorful creativity located in the dungeon (aka basement) of the Englewood Row Gallery in Independence, Missouri. Started by long-time friends Em Hill, who uses she/they pronouns and identifies as Nonbinary, and Alán Clevenger, who uses she/her pronouns, we are making a queer-friendly, all-gender-inclusive space for art-making and general good-vibing. We are open on Third Fridays for the Englewood Art Walk and have various drop-in free art-making opportunities on Monday evenings and the 2nd Friday and 3rd Saturday of each month. We are on Facebook and Patreon under Midwest Feminist Art Collective and on Instagram at mfac_englewood.

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