"Womb of All Ideas," Acrylic Collage on Canvas.
Kiley Miles
Exposure
6:30 a.m.-6 p.m.
The Coffee Girls
310 Southwest Blvd.
Kansas City, MO
816.221.2326
Hours: 6:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday.
Through: Jan. 31
Gallery site: http://www.myspace.com/thecoffeegirls
One of my goals for ARTKC365 is to highlight emerging artists on the Kansas City scene. If Kiley Miles’ first show, Exposure, is any indication, I won’t be the last person writing about her. And yes, she says she’s going to get a web page. When she does, I’ll post a link to it.
Miles’ work had my attention before I walked through the door of The Coffee Girls this past First Friday. Even from the sidewalk, it’s hard to miss her anchor pieces: big, colorful canvases emblazoned with skulls and eyes.
The effect is anything but Hallowe’enish or Pirates of the Crossroads. Miles celebrates our thoughts, dreams and senses, and the cradle of bone that protects the seat of ideas and perception. The cranial theme continues into her smaller pieces, among them a graphite drawing of a skull riddled with staples — real ones, as though after brain surgery.
As striking as the large pieces are when seen from across the room, it takes a closer — not to mention longer and deeper — examination to absorb all the detail Miles has packed into them. So go ahead, grab a drink (I’m partial to the Americanos at The Coffee Girls), order a salad or sandwich and settle in to read while you wait for lunch to arrive.
Yes, read. Miles’ large acrylic collages fuse printed text and paint. Stories about Marcel Duchamp provide the background for a piece on imagination, while another canvas titled “Thought Process” is laden with writings on perception theory.
With all of that going on, it’s apparent that there’s a lot going on in Miles’ head, and not merely the ones she paints.
1 Comment
April 14, 2009 at 10:39 am
[...] of this same show, entitled “The Human Within,” from when she showed at Coffee Girls at artkc365. Steve Brisendine writes: Miles’ large acrylic collages fuse printed text and paint. Stories [...]