Project Wall

The Artspace Project Wall, situated on the western façade of the Artspace and facing the intersection of 43rd and Main Streets, is an ongoing site for temporary public art projects that features selected and commissioned works by national and regional artists. Since its inauguration, the Artspace Project Wall has received important support from the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency.

Current Project Wall

Pictured: "The Skin that Forms on the Surface," Colleen Burner, 2012.

“The Skin That Forms On The Surface,” by Colleen Burner (’10 painting and creative writing), is now on view at the H&R Block Artspace on the Project Wall. The work, a large-scale digital reproduction of a collage, was created specifically for the Project Wall. While studying at KCAI with Associate Professor of Painting Julie Farstad, Burner created a series of works that helped inform this new collage. She has parlayed those works into an acutely organized process, filtering found materials and searching for what she describes as “fit” and “rightness.”

Burner’s creative practice explores narratives through visual art and writing. Her image repository, a select collection of old National Geographic magazines and books about the American landscape, informs her approach and ultimately helps her create a whole new fictional context. Burner embraces themes of punch line, joke and payoff, assembling improbable combinations of people, places and animals.

Burner currently lives in Portland, Ore. where she is pursuing an M.F.A. degree in fictional creative writing at Portland State University. Burner’s work has been featured at numerous galleries including The Monarch Gallery, Spray Booth Gallery, the H&R Block Artspace at the Kansas City Art Institute and the Address Gallery in Champaign, Ill. She was the recipient of an Artist, INC professional development scholarship in 2010 and her writings have been read at the Fishtank Performance Gallery in Kansas City and published in Number One (volume 63) and the 2010 KCAI Compendium. For more information about Burner’s artwork, visit www.frenchforgluing.com.