Studio Nong Collective | NCECA | Mar 4 - Apr 16

Weinberger Fine Art is excited to announce the upcoming exhibition, SunSet|SunRise: Work from the Studio Nong International Sculpture Collective in conjunction with the 2016 NCECA Conference.  This exhibition highlights more than 50 pieces of figurative sculpture created by the collective while in residence in the United States in the summer of 2015. 

Studio Nong is an international collective of educators/artists from the GuangXi Arts Institute in Nanning, China, the Kansas City Art Institute in Kansas City, Missouri, and the Memphis College of Art in Memphis, Tennessee.  Dividing its time between Southern China and the United States, the collective works together to create a body of work that reflects shared interests in figurative ceramic sculpture as well as the diverse traditions found within the group.  The eight members are: Professor Zhenhai He (GAI), Professor Jigang Qin (GAI), Associate Professor Bangmin Nong (GAI), Lecturer Shanwu Huang (GAI) and their American counterparts, Associate Professor Jessie Fisher (KCAI), Assistant Professor Misty Gamble (KCAI), Lecturer Scott Seebart (KCAI/UMKC) and Associate Professor Leandra Urrutia (Memphis College of Art).

In the summer of 2011, Misty Gamble invited Jessie Fisher and Leandra Urrutia to the Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts for an AIA Residency led by Gamble. It was there that they met and worked with the Master Sculptor, Bangmin Nong, with whom they formed an immediate friendship and an aesthetic connection. At the center of that connection was clay and the study of sculptural form based on topics rooted in figuration and formal mastery. In the summer of 2013, the group was joined by Scott Seebart and these four American artists and educators traveled to China for an intensive six-week collaboration and cultural exchange of traditions andapproaches to painting and sculpture.

In the southern province of China, the American artists worked together at Studio Nong and the Huayi NiXing Pottery Company, where they developed close relationships with four sculptors and professors from the GuangXi Arts Institute, Nanning, in the GuangXi Provence of Southern China. Their ongoing exchange of methodologies (stemming from common interests) produced a wide range of work during such a compressed and intensive period. With sculptural works ranging from academic figuration to mixed-media installation and image-based works of illusory space and calligraphic abstractions, these artists produced an impressive start to their growing collaboration.

The American artists will now return to China in the summer of 2016 with the addition of a 5th internationally recognized figurative sculptor, Paolo Porelli of CRETA Rome Residencies, and three student interns to work in the new Studio Nong facilities in Jingdezhen and Nanning City, China.

Please join the eight members of the Studio Nong Collective for a gallery talk and reception at Weinberger Fine Art, 114 Southwest Blvd. KC,MO 64108 on Thursday, March 17th 5-9pm.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

Professor Zhenhai He, born in 1958 in LiuZhou City, China, graduated in 1985 from the Jingdezhen Ceramics Institute (B.A.) and in 1988 from the China Central Academy of Fine Arts (M.F.A.). His work, influenced by temple architecture, has been shown in over fifty invitational exhibitions in China and abroad. Currently, Professor He is the Director of the Sculpture program at the GuangXi Arts Institute.

Professor Jigang Qin, born in 1959 in LiuZhou City, China, graduated in 1987 from the GuangXi Arts Institute (B.A) and in 1997 from the Japan Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music (M.A) in sculptural arts, studying with a pupil of Mailol. His current practice, stemming from his initial focus in Academic figuration, has progressed into the study of human and natural vessel forms influenced by the poetics of Chinese landscape painting. He is currently a professor of sculpture of GuangXi Arts Institute.

Associate Professor Bangmin Nong, born in 1981 in Tianyang, China, graduated in 2005 and 2009, from the GuangXi Arts Institute (B.A., M.A.), and West Virginia University, in 2012 (M.F.A). Nong creates figurative clay sculpture that focuses attention on the intersection of architecture and human psychology. Nong is currently an Associate Professor at the GuangXi Arts Institute.

Lecturer Shanwu Huang, born in 1974, in Pingguo, China, graduated in 2000 from the GuangXi Arts Institute (B.A.). Through Huang’s use of the multiple and mixed media in his current body of work, he centers his context on the displacement of identity. Specializing in ink painting, calligraphy and metalsmithing, he is currently a Lecturer at the GuangXi Arts Institute.

Associate Professor Jessie Fisher holds a B.F.A. degree in fine art from the University of Minnesota and an M.F.A. degree in painting and drawing, with a minor in printmaking, from the University of Iowa. She has studied at the Scoula Internationale della Grafica in Venice, Italy, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and apprenticed with Studio Balma, Minneapolis. Fisher has exhibited nationally and internationally, including, the Weisman Museum of Art, the Des Moines Art Center, the American Museum of Art, the Guilin Museum of Art, in Guilin China, the Palazzo dei Cartelloni and Maidoff Center for the Arts in Florence, Italy and the Galleria Il Bocca al Lupo at the International Center for the Arts in Montecastello di Vibio, Italy. Fisher is currently an Associate Professor in Painting at the Kansas City Art Institute and a visiting critic at the International Center for the Arts in Montecastello di Vibio, Italy.

Assistant Professor Misty Gamble’s current work, life-size ceramic figurative sculptures and installations of multiple figurative fragments, focuses attention on issues surrounding femininity and challenges conventional standards of morality, normalcy and propriety. She has been a guest artist (both long term and short term) at Watershed, Project Art, C.R.E.T.A Rome, and The Armory. Gamble is an Assistant Professor in the School of Foundation at the Kansas City Art Institute. Before receiving her MFA from San Francisco State University in the visual arts, she worked as an agent, publicist, and event producer in music and the performing arts.

Lecturer Scott Seebart received his BFA from the University of Minnesota, a Post-Baccalaureate degree from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and his MFA with a minor in Printmaking from the University of Iowa. He has studied at the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands and at the Scoula della Grafica in Venice, Italy. Seebart has taught at the University of Iowa, Wartburg University, the University of Missouri, Kansas City and is currently a Lecturer in Painting at the Kansas City Art Institute. Seebart lives and works in Kansas City, Missouri with the painter Jessie Fisher and their son Valentine.

Associate Professor Leandra Urrutia born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, Urrutia began drawing and sculpting at an early age, influenced by the rich culture and traditions of her Mexican American heritage. Through her art, Ms. Urrutia addresses discordant elements of intimacy including attraction, repulsion, balance, disparity, perseverance and power. Ms. Urrutia is currently an Associate Professor of Studio Art and currently serves the faculty and administration of Memphis College of Art.

Nina Irwin | Solo Exhibition | Jan 21 - Feb 26

[KANSAS CITY, MO.]- On Thursday, January 21, 2016, Weinberger Fine Art will host an artist reception and discussion for the solo exhibition, NINA IRWIN.  The exhibition dates are January 21- February 26. 

Intense curiosity and thoughtful resourcefulness are key phrases Nina Irwin uses to describe her process. This is evident in the work in her self-titled show, NINA IRWIN, at Weinberger Fine Art. Irwin’s curiosity drives her to continually experiment, and her constant search for discovery translates into visceral energy in the work. Resourcefulness lends itself to this process. 

Throughout childhood, Irwin loved creating art. As she studied many different disciplines in college, she rediscovered in her mid-20s that art was the right path. She has come to realize that she has been interested in most of the same themes her entire life.  In 2013, her painting, “The Summery East”, was selected byrenowned art critic Jerry Saltz for the Kansas City Artist Coalition’s Six State River Market Regional Exhibit.  He wrote, “I looked for artists who seemed drive(n) to provide some sort of unknown algorithmic reaction to their topic, their medium, material, process, and desires. Artists who were somehow trying to make things that haven’t been seen before, provide a taxonomy into their inner lives, fashion encyclopedic palaces in single works, were interested in the representation of the invisible, the unseen, the unseeable.  What shocked me, what thrilled me is that I saw a lot of these kinds of art coming out of the Kansas City area.” Thismarked a level of distinction in her craft.  Irwin, currently working from her studio of 14 years in the historic stockyards of Kansas City, continues her artistic journey through the exploration of material and concept.

Irwin’s delicate, dreamlike scapes showcase hints of texture among flowing washes of color. She believes making something beautiful is certainly important but she seeks a deeper level inside her own art. “I strive to convey, through my paintings and sculptures, the actual feeling of a place,” she says, “much more than its physical characteristics.” Below the surface of each piece, Irwin seeks to layer symbolism so the audience can achieve a sense of discovery similar to her own.   

A portion of Irwin’s show includes a collaboration with Greg Hack, a reporter and editor for the Kansas City Star, of around 15 pieces of art and poetry.  After reading “Haiku in Low Places,” Hack’s book of poetry, she asked him to write some verses to a painting of hers, prompting the collaboration. Irwin and Hack create this series through connected ideas and thoughts. Irwin describes the partnership in the pieces as her “marrying the poetry with the artwork in different ways. The art and poetry are going to be one.”

NINA IRWIN will be on view January 21- February 26, 2016. Please join us for the opening reception January 21 5:30 PM -7:30 PM. Gallery Hours Tuesday-Friday10:00 AM-6:00 PM Saturday 12:00 PM - 5:00 PM.

Mark English | Master of the Visual Narrative | Nov. 5 - Jan. 16

Weinberger Fine Art is proud to announce a solo exhibition from Mark English, November 5 through December 30, 2015 in the Crossroads Arts District, Kansas City, Missouri.

Being in a room with Mark English’s work is akin to being surrounded by dreamlike figments of one’s own imagination and memory. His diaphanous portraits have just enough detail to recall a beloved character from a novel. His expansive and romantic countrysides seem to be snapshots from a childhood road trip you almost remember. English is a master of the visual narrative and the unique beauty of his work lies in the fact that each viewer is left to finish the storyfor themselves.

Kansas City based artist, Mark English, hails from Hubbard, a small town in central Texas. Intrigued by paintings advertising rodeos on businesswindows, he became inspired to study illustration. After attending the University of Texas and The Art Center College in Los Angeles, English moved to Connecticut to begin a career as one of America’s most well-known illustrators. Throughout the 1960s and 70s, English’s work could be found in numerous publications including; Time, Redbook, Sports Illustrated, and many other well-known periodicals. An invitation from Hallmark in 1977 brought the established illustrator to Kansas City. 

In the 1990’s, English decided to pursue a new avenue in his career as he began painting for galleries. Since this decision, English has contributed to innumerable exhibitions internationally in both solo and group shows. Similar to his career as an illustrator, Mark English has triumphed as a fine artist. His work is a part of numerous public and private collections and has been featured at the SmithsonianInstitute in Washington, D.C. 

In his early career as an illustrator, English executed his work in a photo-realistic fashion. His style as a fine artist developed in almost direct opposition to his earlier methods. English worked to adjust his approach, trading rigidity and detail for intuition and experimentation.

English continues his journey down the road of abstraction and narrative with new work in this exhibition.  Viewers will find that his well-known subjects; horses, portraits, and landscapes, dissolve in a lyrical patchwork of color, play, and pattern.  These familiar identifiable elements make the work accessible, while the absences of detail createsa mysteriousness. His imageryremains representational through a lens of abstraction by using layered texture and diffused details. In the same way that his subjects retain a sense of ambiguity, so too do his chosen mediums. English employs a host of materials and processes from oil and acrylic paint, to graphite, house paint, and paper collage.

“My theory about art is that it’s a lifetime search,” explains English, “My work continues to develop as I keep learning.” Now in his eighties, the remarkably vital artist has amassed an impressive store of knowledge and techniques which he continues to build upon.

While other artists work to conceal their processes, Mark English invites viewers to see the evolution of his work. “This is what is so special about Mark,” says Kim Weinberger, “he is always challenging himself to make exciting new work and he leaves evidence of his artistic journey in every piece.”

Weinberger Fine Art has representedMark English since 2010. The Kansas City, Missouri Gallery offers a range of services for the established collector and the first time buyer. Owner Kim Weinberger strives to be the critical link between artists and patrons. Visit the gallery Tuesday-Friday 10am-6pm, Saturday 12-5pm, and First Fridays 10am-9pm.  Also available private viewings anytime to see the work of Mark English and other represented artists.