Art Review

"Pierced By Dogma" is the name of painter Patrick Duegaw's exhibition currently on view at the Ulrich. Upon entering the show of Duegaw self-portraits, I found what is, essentially, the artist stripped bare.

Kelsy Gossett is off like a Saturn Five rocket with her new exhibition called "For Your Viewing Pleasure" at The Diver on Commerce Street.

People sometimes ask me how I make some of my paintings.

Last Final Friday was colossal. There were wonderful events happening all over the city and artists and collectors were out in full force.

The late artist Robert Smithson said that "Cultural confinement takes place when a curator imposes his or her own limits on an art exhibition, rather than asking an artist to set his or her own limits."

"I want to collect art, but I can never afford it!"

I hear this from frustrated folks all the time. Tight budgets can get in the way of art purchases, but there are other ways!

Surely by now you have purchased and are flying your Wichita flag! You feel the current and see how we, the Wichita people, are on fire and looking out for our city's growth and welfare. I hope you share these facts with your out-of-town friends as well.

Author Sondra Langel wrote the recent book Wichita Artists In Their Studios. The book of colorful photos and crisp essays features 50 Wichita-based artists and the studios in which they each create. The popular book is a great tribute to just 50 of the many great, hard-working artists in Wichita.

Wichita Art Museum Director Patricia McDonnell had the idea to invite each of the 50 artists featured in Ms. Langel's book to collectively curate an exhibition. 

A painter wishes to take a subject matter, render that image, and then capture the viewer. But when a painter can make the viewer truly pause and soak the image up while considering deeper meanings and feelings, the painter has become--or at least is on the road to becoming--a master. And this is a rare thing.

Jordan Kirtley has made me proud.

She has taken her WSU art degree, earned in 2013,  and put it to work here in Wichita with an exhibit on City Art's 2nd floor.