02/02/12

Story by Karen Gerety Folk, curator of education, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art 913-469-3000

Visiting Artists Presentations

Third Thursday · Visiting Artists Presentations

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – The Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art at JCCC continues its popular program, Third Thursday · Visiting Artists Presentations on Feb. 16, from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. in the museum’s Hudson Auditorium with guest artists Linda Lighton and Ah-ram "Tom" Park and JCCC faculty moderators Laura-Harris Gascogne, associate professor of fine arts, and Ted Meadows, assistant professor of architecture. The program is free and open to the public. No tickets or reservations are required.

Linda Lighton, Photo by Emily Moore.

Linda Lighton, Luminous, 2010. Porcelain, silk cord, LED lights. Photo by EG Schempf.

Linda Lighton explores issues of gender and identity in her ceramic sculptures using bright color and a vocabulary derived from flora and fauna. She stated, “I want to celebrate the beauty in nature and the wonder in life . . . my influences range from European porcelains and Staffordshire figurines, Warhol, Lichtenstein and the pop genre to the trials of women, politics and society growing cold.” Lighton earned a bachelor's of fine arts with honors from the Kansas City Art Institute. She also studied at the Factory of Visual Arts in Seattle, Western Washington State College and the University of Idaho. Lighton has served on numerous art boards and in 2002 she created the Lighton International Exchange Program at the Kansas City Artists Coalition. She currently works in a large warehouse in Kansas City and rents space to other artists and art conservators. She has had 46 solo exhibitions since 1977 and has been in more than 117 group exhibitions, and her work is in numerous public and private collections. The Nerman Museum owns her Dame Edna and Diva Marilyn sculptures which are currently on view in the Carlsen Center clay focus area.

Ah-ram Park, self-portrait, 2011. Images courtesy the artist.

Hybrid Seed – Waterloo, Nebraska, 2011, pigment ink print.

In his photographs, emerging artist Ah-ram “Tom” Park captures visual debates and social commentary found in architecture and the natural environment. Born in Pusan, Republic of Korea, Park earned a bachelor of science in economics from Kansas State University in 2010. In 2011 he had group exhibitions at the Spray Booth Gallery and Dolphin in Kansas City, Mo., and a solo exhibition called Weight Shift at the Front/Space gallery. That show featured a series of images capturing the vacant, sunbaked spaces of the Kansas Speedway on a day free of the deafening activity of a race. In collaboration with painter Caleb Taylor, Park recently created a series of photographs titled, Re-purpose that depict stacks of discarded billboards. The artists stated, “Depicting compacted bundles of used advertisements, our photographs intervene in the recycling process and revive these discarded campaigns into new billboards . . . We are intrigued with how these compressed signs become archeological time capsules that hint at marketing trends and imagery that was popular during their initial campaigns."

The next Third Thursday program is scheduled for March 22 (the fourth Thursday due to JCCC’s spring break the week prior). These free programs feature two artists working within the Kansas City region, with each artist giving a 20-minute presentation followed by discussion in the museum’s Hudson Auditorium. Museum staff facilitate conversation and audience participation by pairing each artist with a JCCC faculty moderator. Third Thursday programs promote student interface with area artists.

The Nerman is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday; and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. The museum is closed Mondays and all JCCC holidays. For more information, call 913-469-3000 or visit nermanmuseum.org.

Admission and parking are free. Third Thursday programs are supported in part by an Ovation Grant from the ArtsKC Fund of the Arts Council of Metropolitan Kansas City.

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