Monika Meler grew up in Brodnica, Poland, and immigrated to the United States at the age of ten. This move resulted in a sense of separation; the artist describes feeling as though one part of herself was living in America, and the other part was in a constant state of nostalgia for her home country. Her work explores this tension of living between two cultures. Contain/Retain comments specifically on nostalgic memories and their inherent fallibility. Meler returned to Poland after a fourteen-year absence and realized the remembered landscape was significantly different. She recalls her experience as such:
 
‘These changes made me realize that the existence of some places and events were purely fictional and invented. Yet this did not matter because no matter how much I looked at these actual places, I could only remember them the way that they had existed in my mind. The image of Brodnica that exists in my memory is so strongly engraved, it can never be replaced by actuality; my memory is my reality. The house in which I grew up was recently painted pink by the new owners, yet it will always be the yellow that I remember from my childhood. The road that led to my home had been paved in my absence, yet every time I think of it my mind remembers the unpaved road. My work explores the invented landscapes and events that are components of these cherished memories of my childhood.’
 
ARTIST BIO:
Monika Meler earned an M.F.A. in Printmaking from Temple University in Rome, Italy. She also holds an M.A. in Studio Art from Purdue University and a B.F.A. in Printmaking with a Minor in Art History from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. Meler has shown nationally and internationally, most recently in Limerick, Ireland. Her work is held in world-wide collections, including the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznan, Poland, University of Fine Arts, Berlin, Germany, Amity Collection, Rutgers University, and Purdue University Permanent Collection. She is currently Assistant Professor of Art in Printmaking at Wichita State University.

 
VALENCE
Featured Work by Incubator Artists
 
Opening reception: June 4th, 6 – 9p
June 4 – 25 2010

 
Cocoon Gallery is excited to offer VALENCE: Featured Work by Incubator Artists for the month of June. The exhibition brings together a diverse selection of artists who currently have studios in the Arts Incubator. This will also be the first time several of our newest artists– members of the freshly-minted 12×24 studio residents program– exhibit in Cocoon Gallery. We hope you will join us on June 4th from 6 to 9pm for an opening reception.
 
Valence is a term used to describe the capacity of one person or thing to react with or affect another in some special way, as by attraction or the facilitation of a function or activity. Painting, illustrating, photographing, printmaking, sculpting, welding and even studying ‘business of art’ coursework side-by-side has given these artists an opportunity to impact one another. Valence will include members that have worked under the same roof for years, and those who recently joined us with the launch of our intensive 12×24 program in January 2010.
 
Featured artists include John Sutton, Estrella, Erica Johnson, Owen Bissex, Cheryl Eve, Josh Best, Gillian Tobin, Beth Nybeck, Robert Hatem, Denise Dipiazzo, Mindy Sosland, Teresa Magel, Sasha, Jeff Crowe, Craig Mussman, Eric Persson, Ashton Ludden, Nick Naughton and Michael Molick.
 

 
TETHER
A Collaborative Installation by Christina Dostaler and Matt Jacobs
 
Opening reception: May 7th, 6 – 9p
May 7 – 28, 2010

 
Cocoon Gallery presents TETHER, a collaborative installation by Christina Dostaler and Matt Jacobs. This will be the first time the artists have worked together to form a site-specific installation. TETHER focuses on play, visual disruption, and the unexpected situation. Using found objects, both artists will explore and invent together, all the while challenging each others working habits. A driving force behind this exhibition is the hope of pushing past individually developed visual languages and ultimately discovering a way to synthesize artistic sensibilities.
 
For the past four years, Christina Dostaler has been utilizing and amalgamating fiber, painting, and sculpting techniques. Though initially a painter, working with fibers interested her for the way in which the material can be broken down structurally into the linear element. By taking painting not only outside the boundaries of the canvas, but into the intimate realm of weaving, knitting, knotting, and basket weaving, she is able to create a body of work which is simultaneously objects and drawings.
 
Dostaler delights in the challenge of building a form out of practically nothing. To produce her construction material, she strings monofilament across a wall using several pins and coats it repeatedly with a mixture of acrylic and gel medium. Through this time-consuming process Dostaler is able to imbue her woven works with smooth brilliance. The resulting forms are both surprising and vivacious, pure light and tangible objects.
 
Matt Jacobs is a found-object sculptor who employs techniques of banding, clamping, and painting to convert everyday items into something new. Often large scale, his works seemingly take on a life of their own, climbing up walls, expanding and squeezing, or spiraling up towards the ceiling. In what seems to be an infiltrative and spontaneous gesture, he sometimes spills high-pigment paint across the completed piece.
 
Jacobs’ work deals with the aesthetics of overuse and excess. As an artist and inventor, he seeks to disrupt the formalities of “artwork” through the integration of humor. He selects commonplace objects for their familiar and benign nature, though once they are strung-up, bound, stuffed, and candy-coated, it is their very materiality that strikes a mocking tone. The work he presents is familiar and strange, whimsical and reflective, awkward and adroit.
 

Past Exhibitions

RE-COLLECTIONS

Mike Acker, Derrick Breidenthal, Lori Buntin, Cory Imig, Alex Robinson,

Spencer Schubert, and May Tveit

April 2 – April 30, 2010

 
The Arts Incubator is proud to welcome back alumni artists Mike Acker, Derrick Breidenthal, Lori Buntin, Cory Imig, Alex Robinson, Spencer Schubert, and May Tveit. The exhibit Re-collections brings together a vibrant selection of recent 2D and 3D works by these Kansas City artists. Fostering emerging artists by offering affordable studio space, business development, a supportive community and exposure is the mission of the Arts Incubator of Kansas City. These artists exemplified the core values of our mission by creating sustainable careers as professionals.

Artist Biographies:

Mike Acker, known in the Midwest for his vibrant pastels and paintings, continues his explorations in acrylic and gold leaf. He combines abstraction with Asian themes to suggest peace and serenity. Acker was an enthusiastic member of the Arts Incubator for five years and now has a studio in the West Bottoms.

 
Derrick Breidenthal is a Missouri native. His work is heavily influenced by rural America. Derrick’s work has been showcased throughout the US. His studio is based in the West Bottoms in Kansas City, Missouri. Current studies focus on aspects of the rural landscape and culture.

Lori Buntin has been painting for more than 20 years beginning with her undergraduate studies at Missouri Western State College followed by graduate work at Wichita State University. After receiving her MFA in painting, Buntin taught as adjunct faculty at WSU and worked in custom picture framing. Her work is in many private collections throughout the country as well as the corporate collections of Stowers Institute of Medical Research and Sprint Nextel Corporation. Buntin works full-time and is half owner in Hoop Dog Studio located in Kansas City producing functional art, commission work, and custom framing services.

Cory Imig graduated from Savannah College of Art and Design in May of 2008 with a bachelor’s degree in Fibers. After graduation she attended residencies in Richmond, Virginia at Virginia Commonwealth University and in Johnson, Vermont at The Vermont Studio Center. Cory currently lives in Kansas City, Missouri and has a studio at The Hobbs Building.

Alexandra Robinson is a painter who lives and works in Kansas City and is an Associate Professor of Art at the University of Saint Mary, Leavenworth, KS. Following an undergraduate degree in studio art from University of Kansas, Robinson received her MFA from University of Cincinnati in 2002. Robinson shares a studio with fellow Art Incubator graduates in the West Bottoms.
 
E. Spencer Schubert is a sculptor who lives in Kansas City. His studio is located in the historic West Bottoms Industrial District. His work is concerned with empathy and the human condition, both from the perspective of the individual and the collective. Schubert received his BFA from the University of Kansas in 2000.

 
May Tveit is an east coast transplant and has happily lived and worked in Kansas City for the past 13 years. Her work has received national critical reviews in Art in America, Art Papers, National Public Radio, The Kansas City Star, and she has received such honors and awards as: a 2002 Charlotte Street Foundation Fellowship Award, AIA Allied Arts & Craftsmanship Award for her site-specific installation at the National Center for Drug Free Sport, ArtsKC Inspiration Grant, three KU Research Fund Awards, and was most recently selected to participate in the 2010 Art OMI International Artist Residency. Her work is represented in numerous corporate & private collections. She holds a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, studied in Rome with the RISD European Honors Program, and received her Masters Degree from the Domus Academy in Milan, Italy.
 

MORNING SPRING
HEINRICH TOH
 
February 5 – 27, 2010
 

 
ARTIST STATEMENT

Inspired by heritage, tradition and fading customs, the exhibit Morning Spring by Heinrich Toh, examines cultural displacement resulting from relocation and travel. As memories seem to shift and change with the assimilation to his current environment, Toh’s work provides a glimpse into what was once seemingly familiar. By revisiting memories of past while surveying the present, his recent works on paper embrace the complexity of culture and identity.

Commonly found Asian objects, architecture and iconography form connections to a lifetime of memories. The use of personal photographs along side imagery of Asian artifacts, symbols and Chinese brocade patterns, provides a striking contrast between the modern and historical elements in Toh’s work – imparting a fresh perspective on traditional and contemporary culture.
 
ARTIST BIO

Heinrich Toh was born in Singapore and attended the Cleveland Institute of Art. He has exhibited at galleries around the United States and at the Wing Luke Asian Museum in Seattle. His work is in private and public collections, which include the University Hospital of Cleveland, Ohio and the Dell Children’s Hospital in Texas. He is a studio artist and instructor at the INKubator Press printmaking studio in the Crossroads Arts District.
 
 
NTER CHNG

Opening reception: Second Friday, January 8th from 6-9pm

On view: through January 29th
 
NTER CHNG (text speak for interchange) is an interactive text messaging experience by Kansas City based artists Drew Bolton, Jamie Burkart and Garrett Fuselier opening Second Friday, January 8 from 6 – 9 at the Arts Incubator’s Cocoon Gallery.

Equal parts software application and architectural installation, NTER CHNG encourages visitors to turn on their cell phones and communicate in real-time through both faces of a digital wall constructed in the gallery. Over the course of the exhibition, messages from participants combine to form a virtual dialog that demonstrates the character of the TXT phenomenon.
 
NTER CHNG inverts the social practice short messaging. The privacy of a silent exchange is made public. The one-to-one becomes many-to-many. The pragmatic, ephemeral and every-day nature of text messaging is suddenly transformed into a physically immersive aesthetic experience in which visitors can speak and misspeak together as a group.
 
Bulton, Burkart and Fuselier combine their backgrounds in scenic design, computer programming, motion graphics, and experiential production to craft a social information space that explores the pervasiveness of TXT culture and challenges its insularity. “We hope to make new connections for the gallery visitor. Texting can be a very interior experience. We are asking them to reach outside their address books and step beyond the buddy list,” says Burkart.
 
“[Opening night] will be our biggest night with the widest range of communication. We feel that because the gallery is conducive to the open exchange of ideas we are allowing people to write anything and communicate in the most comfortable way possible,” says Fuselier.
 
NTER CHNG is the collective product of a Bolton, Burkart and Fuselier collaboration produced exclusively for the 2010 Cocoon Gallery exhibition.
 
ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Drew Bolton was chief editor of the 2009 Grand Arts Film, SSION’s BOY. A 2006 graduate of the Kansas City Art Institute, he lives and works in Kansas City.
 
Jamie Burkart has exhibited interactive video works with the Bushwick Art Project in New York and the Film Arts Foundation in San Francisco. His recent installation with the Charlotte Street Foundation’s Urban Culture Project addressed the Missouri River in Kansas City as a Social Network. Burkart studied Film and Digital Media at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
 
Garrett Fuselier is a 2008 graduate of Kansas City Art Institute. He designs interactive projection based experiences with TakeTwo, a cross-media design firm of Kansas City.

 
RELAX, SWEET PEA, IT’LL ALL BE CIRCLES SOON

Opening reception: Friday, December 4th from 6-9pm

On view: through January 4th

Large-scale, abstract painter Konefal engages in what he calls “structured spontaneity” in a new series of works on view at Cocoon Gallery beginning December 4th. Questions such as “Is it about symbols or surface?” are explored, which in turn “opens boundaries for play.”
 
THERMALS: HOT NEW WORKS BY INCUBATOR ARTISTS

Opening reception: November 6, 6-9pm
Cocoon Gallery at the Arts Incubator is pleased to have presented Thermals: Hot new works by Incubator Artists. This multi-media, collaborative, and heat-themed exhibition brought together all artists working within the Incubator walls– including INKubator Press Artists and Studio Artists. Participants were asked to respond to the theme of HEAT. The artworks featured in Thermals were raffled off during this year’s Turn on the Heat event, which took place on November 14, 2009. All proceeds benefited the Arts Incubator.
 
CARDINAL DIRECTIONS

Opening Reception: October 2nd 6-9pm
On view: October 2nd-30th

How have your physical surroundings impacted who you are today? Where are you now and how did you get there? Cardinal Directions engages these questions, discovering that our sense of self is often inextricably bound to the spaces we inhabit over the course of our lives. This exhibition brings together artists teaching at universities to the North, South, East, and West of Kansas City, each of whom is drawn towards the examination of personal identity, geography, and the idea of interfacing with real or imagined boundaries.

Featured artists include John Hendrix from University of Washington in St. Louis, Shawn Bitters from University of Kansas, Santiago Cal from University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Duat Vu from Missouri State University.

Read review here.
 
DRESSED
BETSY TIMMER

On view: Sept. 4th- 26th

Cocoon Gallery is pleased to present Dressed–an installation of recent works by Betsy

Timmer. Functioning as both uncomfortable parodies and reminders of our inevitable

imperfections, Timmer’s anthropomorphic works share a space between tragedy and levity.

Steel armatures, fabric, felt, and found objects are employed in the construction of these

uncanny figures. Beginning September 4th, they will inhabit our exhibition space– hanging

from the ceiling, sitting, standing, kneeling, sprawling and crawling across the gallery floor.

This multi-media, interactive installation will close September 26th.

Though it seems, at first glance, that Timmer’s work is inspired by the ever-increasing

demands placed specifically on her own gender, this sense of discord can easily be translated

into the lived experiences of our society as a whole. Dressed is more about a person’s struggle

to fill many roles simultaneously– spouse, parent, advocate, artist, lover, provider, friend,

homemaker or home-fixer. Timmer succinctly describes this daily tug-of-war as “text

messaging while driving 85 miles per hour.” Our attempts to ‘do it all’ often backfire–

resulting in stress, breakdowns, and what she calls “the looming feeling that there is not

enough time.” Her multi-media and potentially multi-functioning creations imagine a world

in which hybrid objects have become so necessary that they end up defining material culture.

Timmer delves into some sinister subject matter– the physical and mental toll of trudging

through a seventy-hour workweek, living with poor self-image, or a crumbling relationship–

yet she approaches these issues with a wink rather than a heavy hand. She chooses to work

with materials that have an interesting lineage, visibly used objects found at garage sales or

thrift stores. The pre-existing stains, rips and tears, and other imperfections featured in these

repurposed goods imbue her characters with personality and quirk. It is a testament to

Timmer’s apt use of sly humor and metaphor that these vulnerable, torn, exposed, and

abused forms are ultimately still able to tease out a chortle, even if it is a slightly

uncomfortable one.
 
ABOUT THE ARTIST:

Betsy Timmer is a 2008 MFA graduate of the University of Kansas and a 2003 BFA graduate

of Western Michigan University. She has shown extensively throughout the region, including

the Olive Gallery, 6 Gallery, Apex Gallery, and Lawrence Art Center. A solo exhibition of

Timmer’s work was featured at ARC Gallery in Chicago, IL. She has attended both Felt

School and the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. Timmer currently resides in Lawrence,

KS and teaches on the visual arts faculty at the University of Kansas.

View photos of the exhibition here

Read review of Dressed here
 
CLOSED MONDAYS

A new series of works by LORI BUNTIN

On View: Aug. 7- 31st

In Closed Mondays, painter Lori Buntin explores the geometric forms inherent in an unoccupied public swimming pool. Adhering to a single subject matter, Buntin carefully examines and portrays the visual anatomy of this particular physical space from varying viewpoints. In emphasizing the strong linear language of ladders, pool chairs, signage and tiling, Buntin creates an aesthetic that recurrently challenges fixed boundaries between the figurative and abstract. Geometry of form is not only represented, but also repeated, through its reflection in the pool’s still, undisturbed water.

Documentation of the artist’s process will be exhibited as well, in the form of photographs and gouache sketches.

About the artist:

Lori Buntin earned her MFA in painting from Wichita State University in 1995. In 2001 she moved to Kansas City, became a member of the Arts Incubator and continued working professionally as a custom picture framer. In 2003 Buntin moved into her own building on Troost Avenue where she continues to paint, frame pictures and produce work as a partner in Hoop Dog Studio.

Buntin is represented by Stuff in Kansas City.

Read review of Closed Mondays here.