H&R Block Artspace at the Kansas City Art Institute, 16 W 43rd St, Kansas City, MO 64111
Artspace Visitor Guide
Timed, ticketed entry The Artspace is open and free to all. To protect the well-being of visitors, students, and staff, the gallery will limit the number of guests and all visitors will need to reserve tickets in advance.
Hours The Artspace is open with timed, ticketed entry Wednesday through Saturday, 12 – 5 pm.
A splatter of paint, an accidental tear, spilled solvent, an inadvertent cut one inch too far on the miter saw—any number of random occurrences can ruin a work in progress… or, make it brilliant. Sometimes, despite the artist’s initial reaction, a resistance to the guiding hand of the muse, it takes a fit of cussing, a day in retreat, or a week’s respite before one returns to the studio to find the accident transformed into a brilliant unintentional stroke of genius—unchanged yet utterly different. Often such serendipitous moments translate into full-blown discoveries and new directions in work, guiding artists into exciting uncharted waters. When this happens, either because the artist cultivated that flexibility early on, or adjusted to it on the fly, it is as if someone, or some thing else caused the work—as if genii of chance abide in various corners of the studio awaiting their moment to help.
Likewise, the decision of when a work is ‘finished’ is a common conundrum in the midst of the creative process. All too often an artist’s momentum and blind drive forward with an original plan carries them far past the point when a work is at its best, resulting in overworking the substance or overstating the content, leaving no cracks through which the viewer may access and appreciate the living nature of the work at hand.
In UNFINISHED / ACCIDENTS Manifest seeks to assemble an exhibit showcasing works of all kinds which represent the artists’ astute recognition of the quality of a work at once unfinished yet utterly alive with quality, as well as artists’ acceptance and incorporation of brilliant accidents into ‘finished’ works.
August 14: Opening reception (6-9pm) – Ticketed and Limited Density Event
