First Friday Sneak Peek

Despite the recession, the Late Show Gallery (1600 Cherry, 816-474-1300) continues to mount exciting and dynamic monthly exhibitions in Kansas City. The current show opened quietly last week, but gallery owner Tom Deatherage hosts an opening reception tonight from 6 to 10 p.m. “David Gant has a great show,” Deatherage says. “It’s called American Family — oil studies of family portraits.” Working from old family photographs, Gant creates stylized figures that, Deatherage says, offer an impressionistic look at American families: “They’re wonderful but they’re a little bit eerie.” The opening also features abstract work by Steve Frink. “He does abstract canvas, oils on distressed canvases — he uses layers and layers of paint and sands them down. They look like sheets of metal with line drawings on them, and they’re really cool.” The show runs through July 26.

Wednesdays-Saturdays, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Starts: July 3. Continues through July 26, 2009