Art Capsule Reviews

Meccanismo It’s difficult to overstate the significance of Kansas City’s The Late Show Gallery for emerging local artists. Owner Tom Deatherage has an unerring eye for talent and technical excellence, and the work of these young artists is usually moderately priced. The current exhibit is a typically diverse showcase of styles and media. Stan Fernald’s projected pieces are magnifications of insects and cellular structures. The projectors themselves are cantilevered from the bottoms of the rigid screens on which they cast their images. As physical objects, the pieces are surprisingly elegant, and it is fitting that Fernald’s art, like microscopic objects, can only be seen via an arrangement of lenses. Nora Goddard’s mixed-media works are fluid, simple evocations of femininity. Combining etching, drawing and watercolor, her work perplexes; she seems to be exploring her themes, rather than making a statement. The organic flow of her pieces contrasts nicely with John Warnick’s juxtapositions of female forms with engine blocks and chainsaws — graphite and ink drawings that are surprisingly delicate and literally multilayered, built up from superimposed sheets of translucent paper. Through August 31 at the Late Show Gallery, 1600 Cherry, 816-474-1300. (Chris Packham)