We hope you will join us for our opening reception on First Friday, April 4th from 5:00pm – 8:00pm

CHRISTINA RENEE RODRIGUEZ:

(b.1968 Newton, Kansas) Rodriguez is an intuitive, contemplative photographer. Autodidactic by nature, with a voracious appetite for learning, Rodriguez is wholly un-indoctrinated. “Photography brings me joy and fulfillment. There is a certain kind of awareness that is gained through looking longer, closer and deeper at the world. Intuition sharpens, creativity sparks and imagination is set free to explore infinite possibilities.” Rodriguez pushes the limits of her art through exploration of materials, concepts, visual boundaries and process (both analog and digital). She endeavors to make quality, innovative, unique and thought-provoking imagery. “I ask the viewer to join me on a creative journey— to step with me into the secret, magical, strangeness that lingers beneath the world of appearance.”

Rodriguez has received many awards including Critical Mass Top 50, 2024. She has exhibited nationally in galleries and museums across the country and is held in private collections nationally and internationally.

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MICHAEL POINTER:

Michael Pointer is a fourth-generation artist. He received his first camera at age nine and began working in the darkroom when he was twelve. He has won numerous awards for photography and drawing, as well as exhibiting extensively in the United States, Taiwan, and Europe. After a solo exhibit in Wichita, Kansas he was invited to teach Photography at Wichita State University, he taught there for three years. He is best known for his large scale semi-abstract analog photography work. In 2009 Pointer lived in Afghanistan supporting a free dental clinic in Kabul and working with the Center for Contemporary Arts Afghanistan. Until recently he served CCAA as an advisory board member.

“My work is generally about the relationship between painting to photography. The images in this exhibit are explorations of organic forms and other miscellany played against the wooden grid of a large vintage paper cutter. They provide interesting visual textures. Each piece works to expand photographic language through the combined influence of abstract composition played against real photography. I have titled the pieces with familiar song titles so that the viewer, if they are familiar with the music, will hear the song in their head which will facilitate a connection between my mind and theirs. I have always been involved with the surface of my paper, often showing swathes of gelatin silver paper torn at either end. I want the viewer to experience my paper in the way I do. Using encaustic to finish these images lets me work that surface further and enhance metaphorical possibilities.”

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SCOTT RANDOL:

Scott Randol is a sculptor from Kansas City, MO. Before he identified as a sculptor, Randol spent his working career in union jobs to support his family but began exploring his artistic questions independently in sculpture classes and through internships with working artists. Instead of attending college, Randol spent his early artistic career in the studio with other sculptors, such as John Beasley, Kwan Wu, Elden and Kim Tefft, and Robin Richerson. He learned casting methods and foundry work a little over time with the help of books from the local library, mentors, and lessons from constructing his own blast furnace in 1987. His sculptures start conversations about nature, history, and the human ability to create art from any available tools. Today, Randol’s work has appeared throughout the area in galleries, Union Station, private residences, business lobbies and offices. Scott Randol lives in the KC area with his wife and experiments with new sculptural methods in his fire-proof garage.

“Working mostly in bronze, Scott makes sculptures in his own facility. Inspired by nature, history and archeology, valuing inspiration by the imagination above all. His sculptures exist as physical representations of a deeply contemplative practice.”