Last night, Linda and I had a ball at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art here in Kansas City. It was the opening of their new show, Backstage Pass: Collecting Art in Kansas City which runs September 7–November 4, 2007.

(l-r) Roger Shimomura paintings, Chuck Close prints, Mike Lyon drawings
play short video of exhibition highlights, (2.5 minutes 2.7mb)

By pairing artworks from area private collections with examples by the same artists represented in the Kemper Museum’s permanent collection, this exhibition offers visitors a rare opportunity to see outstanding paintings, photographs, and sculptures by internationally acclaimed artists, including Willem de Kooning, Duane Hanson, Deborah Butterfield, Helen Frankenthaler, Lezley Saar, and Mike Lyon, among others, normally housed in private homes and offices. The diversity and quality of the featured works are not only a testament to Kansas City’s rich history of supporting the visual arts through public and private patronage, but also proof to the thriving support and enthusiasm for the arts in the city today.
...(from Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art)...

Partial catalog of exhibition with mention on page 2 (click image to view PDF)

Backstage Pass showcases noteworthy paintings by prominent American artists Richard Estes, Helen Frankenthaler, Joan Mitchell, and Frank Stella, highlighting the level of commitment and intensity shared by many area collectors.

Equally important are the collections that include works by artists that reside in the Kansas City area, such as Wilbur Niewad, Roger Shrmomura, and Michael Sincair. Portraits by Andy Warhol and Kansas City-based Mike Lyon illustrate the gratifying relationship that often develops between artist and patron-arguably one of the most enjoyable facets of championing living artists.

Rachael Blackburn Cozad, Director
Christopher Cook, Curator

Wow! What a thrill!

-- Mike

Labels: drawing, Exhibitions

¶ 5:53 PM 4 comments links to this post

The opening Friday, September 1 of "Mike Lyon: Large Scale Drawings and Woodblock Prints" was a pretty humongous party! I suppose more than 600 people passed through the gallery that evening between 7 when the doors were unlocked and about 9:40 when Sherry Leedy shooed the last of us out the door. I saw MANY old friends which was just wonderful.

I've posted a short FLASH movie -- a walk through of the gallery and show including a few brief and very impromptu interviews

click to watch Flash movie (about 9mb)

my VERY old friend (when I lived in New York, I occasionally walked him to pre-school), the now best selling author Seth Mnookin and his friend Sara visited the next day while they were in town for a wedding and it was great to touch base again (photo: Jennifer Bowerman)

My old painting instructor, retired chair of the Kansas City Art Institute's painting department, Wilbur Niewald, was there -- he just returned from a Guggenheim Fellowship spent painting in the Southwest US. He had the most wonderful time and we've got a dinner planned to find out all about it. Wilbur's close friend, another retired painting professor at the Art Institute, Michael Walling was there and bought my "Fixing Hair" print. That was very nice.

Another KCAI retired faculty member, Victor Babu (of ceramics fame) visited and really seemed to love EVERYthing! He's an enthusuiastic guy and characterized my big "Sara" reclining nude woodcut this way: "Omenish, very very omenish -- the deep-deep-darks and the figure turned away -- as if she's sad or angry and maybe she's talking about it -- but what's she saying? She's rolled away up there but there's that comfortable knitted thing up front -- it's soft, but she's turned away from the comfort thing and us and all those deep blues -- omenish... very VERY omenish!" -- I asked him to please write my artist's statement! (ha, ha)!

view entering gallery

The director of the Kemper Museum, Rachel Blackburn, was there and bought the big "Sarah" drawing for their permanent collection. That felt great, I can tell you! Doug Freed, Director of the Daum Museum was there earlier with Dr. Daum and bought bought the big "Jon" drawing for their permanent collection! Wow and double-WOW! Very validating to me that these two excellent regional contemporary art museums stepped up and collected my most recent work on opening day!

Kemper Museum director, Rachel Blackburn

The place was a beritable BUZZ of activity all night long -- people pressing their noses right up against the prints and drawings, pointing and talking and it all seemed very energetic and positive! Now I've settled down a bit and am waiting for post-partum depression to overwhelm me!

-- Mike

Labels: Exhibitions, Woodblock

¶ 2:25 PM 10 comments links to this post

An exhibition of my recent work titled: "Mike Lyon: Large Scale Drawings and Woodblock Prints" runs September 1, through October 21, 2006 at Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art, 2004 Baltimore, Kansas City, Missouri. Opening: 7-9 pm First Friday, September 1, 2006, hours 11-5 Tue through Saturday, 816-221=2626. Here's the gallery's mailer (folds are in the mailer, not the drawing):

click image for enlargement

-- Mike

Labels: Exhibitions, Woodblock

¶ 9:40 AM 7 comments links to this post

What a wonderful surprise when John O'Brien called from Dolphin Gallery to let me know that the framing of five of my new (large) works were done -- Justin and Greg came by a short while later to deliver the things and here they are all wrapped up in their milky protective plastic wrapping and leaning against the wall of my 2nd floor studio -- you get the picture:

Two woodblock prints (far left and 2nd from right) and three pen and ink drawings -- click to enlarge

-- Mike

Labels: Exhibitions, Woodblock

¶ 1:21 PM 5 comments links to this post

Here's what the juror had to say about her choice of "Anthony":

Labels: Exhibitions, Woodblock

¶ 10:00 AM 2 comments links to this post