Embroidered Anxiety

Yesterday’s 9/11 anniversary also marked the sixth anniversary of artist Frank Krainz’s nervous breakdown. “It happened after 9/11 because I couldn’t put it into perspective, and it changed my art — everything I made became more reduced and fragmented,” he says. The resulting work — minimal, Lennonesque embroideries on a range of materials, including plastic, tarps and wood — is overtly political and rooted in humanism.
Krainz adopted the nom de plume Mr. Looneypants two years ago as a response to the seriousness of his work’s thematic content. “I call myself Mr. Looneypants, partly because I did have a breakdown, and the work speaks to that. But it also speaks to the breakdown the world is experiencing.” Catch his art through October 31 in the exhibit windows outside BNIM Architects in the Kansas City Power & Light Building, 106 West 14th Street.
Mr. Looneypants

Sept. 12-Oct. 1, 2007