Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School

Dr. Sketchy’s art nights, a national phenomenon that has its local base in the West Bottoms, proceed from the premise that figure drawing should be fun, as opposed to the self-seriousness of formal art classes centered on rendering aging, unselfconscious hippies doing naked tai chi poses in the middle of a classroom. To that end, Dr. Sketchy’s enlists burlesque and cabaret performers as models and encourages a far more relaxed, arguably more creative atmosphere. The resulting art is lively and immediate, and it’s really about damn time someone decided to mount an exhibit of work produced at Dr. Sketchy’s events. Curated by John Davis Carroll and saddled with the ungainly title Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School of Kansas City Art Show, the show opens tonight at the Pi Gallery (419 East 18th Street, 816-210-6534).

Wednesdays-Fridays, 8 a.m.-2 p.m.; Saturdays, 8 a.m.-4 p.m.; Sundays, 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Starts: July 3. Continues through July 31, 2009