In her debut solo exhibition, Kansas City-based artist Angela Lopez tackles global events, attempting to bring serious political issues and actions into a more personal realm of understanding. “Made with a tired yet still hopeful public in mind,” Lopez’s work aims to provoke consideration of such serious topics as war and climate change in a nuanced, non-bombastic manner.
The exhibition includes large-scale watercolor paintings on paper, oil paintings on canvas, drawings, and ceramic sculptures. Included are several paintings from the “Heroes” series – portraits paying tribute to lieutenants in the Iraq war who stood up for their beliefs, whether refusing to return to Iraq after leave, or leaking information about torture in Abu Ghraib. Another small-scale sculpture is inspired by assorted good luck charms carried by soldiers in combat.
Other works speak to the disruption to the ecosystem caused by global warming, as in a colorful large-scale watercolor painting where animal species from vastly different natural environments converge in a landscape populated by tiny skulls. Our excessive reliance on oil and recent debates about off-shore drilling are confronted as well in works both elegant and ominous.
Angela Lopez received her BFA from Kansas City Art Institute in 2004. Her work has been featured in group exhibitions at Kansas City area venues including H&R Block Artspace, Red Star Ceramic Studio, Dolphin Gallery, Mattie Rhodes Art Center, Chameleon Gallery, UMKC Gallery of Art, Beth Allison Gallery, Leedy-Voulkos Art Center, and Urban Culture Project’s The Bank gallery. She completed a temporary public art commission for Avenue of the Arts in summer, 2008.
An initiative of the Charlotte Street Foundation, Urban Culture Project creates new opportunities for artists of all disciplines and contributes to urban revitalization by transforming spaces in downtown Kansas City into new venues for multi-disciplinary contemporary arts programming. For more information, visit charlottestreet.org and urbancultureproject.org or e-mail info @ charlottestreet.org.
