Studios Inc welcomes four new artists to the Residency Program

Studios Inc announces the arrival of four artists inducted into Studio Inc’s Artist Residency program in 2020: Kevin Townsend, Yoonmi Nam, Marie Bannerot McInerney, and Judith G. Levy.

Kevin Townsend is a mid-career artist and an educator with 18 years of experience who doesn’t allow a single exhibition or institution to define his artistic practices. Townsend seeks to refine his craft, engage new communities, and cultivate a new modular-structure based body of work in order to push his practice to the next level. Townsend states that, “Refining my craft, engaging new communities, and cultivating a new modular-structure based body of work is among the next steps I must take to push my practice to the next level.”

In his Artist Statement, Townsend shares “For centuries artists turned to the studio to separate from the world to create in isolation. The resulting art object they produced was typically offered and celebrated as the manifestation of that time of disconnection. However, in our current moment, we carry our connection to the world in our pockets, making disconnection an increasingly impossible accomplishment. Our smartphone screens link us across space and time, influence our perceptions, and even mediate our experiences via their wide lenses and shallow depths. The majority of my current works are produced publicly, with the labor of their production under the primary gaze of the viewer and secondarily encapsulated in digital video.”

Yoonmi Nam is a mid-career artist that is interested in the fleeting nature of the present moment and the common and extraordinary way we structure our surroundings within it. She investigates the beauty and the irony of the perpetual and inevitable passing of time. Engaging in the act of constantly arranging and rearranging her surroundings within the concept of the present.

Nam states, “With access to a large studio space and support from the Studio Inc. and Kansas City community, I want to establish a more permanent presence in Kansas City, and continue to pursue national and international opportunities.”

In her Artist Statement, Nam shares “I observe the things around me. I am deeply aware of the presence of these objects and things that we use, handle, display, and discard. I am drawn to them especially when they subtly suggest a contradicting sense of time that seems both temporary and lasting. There is truth and honesty in time, as all of us share the fate of impermanence. But the way we surround ourselves with collections of things, it is as if we feel a sense of permanence through these comforts and arrangements. In my work, I make images and forms that highlight everyday events, spaces, and objects, that while insignificant and mundane, allow us to notice both the stillness and the passage of time.”

Marie Bannerot McInerney is a mid-career artist and Assistant Professor of Fiber at the Kansas City Art Institute. In her Artist Statement, McInerney shares “I am interested in positioning the viewer on an edge of sorts—outside the given associations of a system and looking in. Unlike boundaries or borders, which are meant to divide and separate, edges are places where two surfaces or forces meet. Edges are precarious places, defined by a material reality. They exist at earth’s crust, on the surface of our skin, at the throat of a volcano, or at an ecotone where habitats meet, and they provide a vantage point to look at both what is above and below, what is behind and possibly ahead. I intend to challenge traditional methods of viewership by collaborating with the sun or clouds, engaging edges and apertures, and re-framing material conversations as a means to distill universal, timeless systems into tangible, present experiences. These experiences are meant to recognize the tension between our own physical insignificance and the absolute necessity of human agency, understanding, and empathy.”

McInerney states that, “I have developed my practice and enjoyed growing opportunities to show my work nationally and internationally. In looking towards the Studios Inc Residency, I am ready to continue this evolution through engagement with other mid-career artists whose ambitions I share. In addition to an engaged peer group, I am interested in working within a prestigious studio that provides access to collectors, curators, and the community.”

Judith G. Levy is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores complexity, commonality and contradiction in personal stories, historical narratives and socio-cultural issues. She uses her queer gaze to examine memory, authenticity, and desire, while she reconfigures and recreates in o

Levy states “My desire for a residency at Studio Inc is rooted in my intense commitment to the development and expansion of my practice. It is now time, at this next level, for me to create even more challenging work and look towards more regional and international venues, deeper collaborations, and investigations that allow me to explore integrating video, installation and photography into large scale work as well as develop more public art projects.”

Levy possesses an extensive curriculum vitae with recent awards including an Inspiration Grant from ArtsKC, a Charlotte Street Fellowship for an Art Omi Artist Residency, and a Vermont Studio Center Fellowship. Levy’s artwork has been exhibited both regionally and nationally.

Launched to serve mid-career artists, Studios Inc is Kansas City’s only nonprofit arts organization offering pivotal three-year residencies to mid-career artists who are poised to significantly expand their careers. Studios Inc offers a unique immersion experience for resident artists, who use their studio and exhibition space to produce and exhibit work, network and learn from one another, and attract and cultivate relationships with art patrons, collectors, and arts professionals.