FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Three Distinct, Thought-provoking Presentations on View
Kansas City, MO. Oct. 29, 2024–The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City is partnering with Charlotte Street to feature the three winners of the annual Charlotte Street Visual Artist Awards. Charlotte Street is a significant incubator, provocateur, and connector for the region’s contemporary arts community. The exhibition, 2024 Charlotte Street Visual Artist Awards, is free to the public and on view Nov. 9, 2024, through Aug. 10, 2025. The three artists who have earned a Charlotte Street Visual Artist Award for 2024 are painter Juan Diego Gaucin, textile artist Aleah Washington, and multi-media installation artist Kevin Demery.
“We are honored to partner with Charlotte Street to host the work of these three talented artists,” said Julián Zugazagoitia, Director & CEO of the Nelson-Atkins. “Hosting this exhibition deepens the museum’s relationship with another organization that actively supports Kansas City’s vital ecosystem and vibrant arts community.”
2024 Charlotte Street Visual Artist Awards is part of the museum’s ongoing “KC Art Now” initiative, underscoring the museum’s desire to center local artists’ voices and be a place where art engages and represents our communities and audiences, both actual and potential. It also aligns with the museum’s goal to create a culture and opportunities that are inclusive, diverse, and accessible while fostering empathy, curiosity, and pride for the complexities of human experiences through moments that uplift, surprise, challenge, and transform.
“It is so exciting for the Nelson-Atkins to be part of Charlotte Street’s long-standing celebration of local artistic excellence for the first time. Collaborating with Juan Diego Gaucin, Aleah Washington, and Kevin Demery to realize their impactful solo exhibitions under the 2024 Charlotte Street Visual Artist Awards umbrella has proven exceptionally rewarding for the entire Nelson-Atkins team,” said Stephanie Fox Knappe, Sanders Sosland Senior Curator, Global Modern and Contemporary Art and Head, American Art and curator of this exhibition. “The results will be equally meaningful for visitors as they not only experience each of the artists’ individual exhibitions, but also as they discover connections through the artists’ collective exploration of history and personal narratives, identity, violence, courage, and hope.”
Juan Diego Gaucin teaches painting at Johnson County Community College and Haskell Indian Nations University. A self-described figurative painter with expressionist tendencies, he emigrated from Mexico as a child. That experience compels him to explore the plight of migrants in the five large-scale paintings that comprise his exhibition Para una vida mejor/For a Better Life.
Recent Kansas City Art Institute graduate Aleah Washington’s exhibition Slowly Drifting includes a selection of vibrant quilts and colored pencil drawings. Washington’s quilts piece together stories of oppressive systems such as redlining and explore complex issues like displacement, urban decay, and our relationship to natural resources.
Kevin Demery is an interdisciplinary artist originally from the San Francisco Bay area who has exhibited internationally and holds a tenure-track position at Kansas City Art Institute. Demery looks for poetry in objects in order to interrogate Black historical narratives and examine the sociopolitical context in which he finds himself as a Black man. In his exhibition, A Lesson Before Dying, Demery takes on themes he describes as having “permeated African American communities from emancipation to present day.”
Since 1997, Charlotte Street annually recognizes three local artists who create exceptional work and celebrates their creative achievements with a Charlotte Street Visual Artist Award. The award not only provides recipients with financial support and critical recognition, but also public exposure with an exhibition at a local venue. The 2024 awards jury, who reviewed more than 100 applications, was composed of contemporary art specialists including the Nelson-Atkins’ Fox Knappe, along with Hyperallergic Senior Editor Hakim Bishara; Walker Art Center Assistant Curator of Visual Arts Taylor Jasper; and Curator at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth Marina Elena Ortiz. To be considered for a Charlotte Street Visual Artist Award for 2024, artists were required to reside in the five-county Greater Kansas City metropolitan area (Jackson, Platte and Clay counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas). Applicants must have lived in this area for at least one year and could not be full-time students.
2024 Charlotte Street Visual Artist Awards will be accompanied by a small publication produced by the Nelson-Atkins.
Photo Credit: Joshua Ferdinand
Organized by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in collaboration with Charlotte Street. Generous support provided by Paul DeBruce and Linda Woodsmall-DeBruce, Muriel McBrien Kauffman Family Foundation, Nancy and Rick Green, Stephen and Mary Anne McDowell, Sara Morgan, the Alan and Judy Kosloff Fund, Husch Blackwell, and Hallmark Cards, Inc.
The following programs have been developed in conjunction with this exhibition.
Artists in Conversation: 2024 Charlotte Street Visual Artist Awards
Dec 7, 2-3:15pm
Reception, 3:15-4pm
Atkins Auditorium & Reception in Bloch Lobby
$10 Public, $8 Members, $5 Students
Meet the 2024 awardees of the annual Charlotte Street Visual Artist Awards: Kevin Demery, Juan Diego Gaucin, and Aleah Washington. Each artist introduces their practice and their new work on view at the museum. Then, Stephanie Fox Knappe (Sanders Sosland Senior Curator, Global Modern and Contemporary Art and Head, American Art) joins them in conversation. Immediately following, celebrate the artists over coffee and dessert and enjoy a chance to visit with them Bloch Lobby.
The Figure in Focus
Feb 23, 1-3:30 pm
Classroom 4/5, Galleries
Led by 2024 Charlotte Street Visual Artist Fellow and Professor Juan Diego Gaucin, this class focuses on building skills for drawing figures. Through observation in galleries across the museum including Juan Diego’s work on view, we will explore proportion, value, and composition. Participants are invited to bring their favorite drawing pencils, paper, and tools or use the supplies provided. Drawing materials are limited to graphite pencils.
For the latest programming, visit nelson-atkins.org.