About the Exhibition
Elevate at 21c presents temporary exhibitions of works by artists living and working in the communities surrounding Kansas City. Elevate provides hotel guests with unique access to the work of notable regional artists while featuring their work in the context of 21c’s contemporary art space.
Jackson Daughety is an artist from Dallas, Texas, currently living in Kansas City, Missouri. Interested mainly in media, finance, and tech culture, his practice involves reconsidering the language of advertisement, stock photo and videography, and other forms of rhetorical digital imagery to raise questions about cultural values.
“I am interested in providing a subversive counter-discourse to the aesthetics and politics which have risen out of the dot com bubble and subsequent venture capitalist maneuverings of the late 2000s and 2010s. By reproducing or photographing images used by government-affiliated game developers, the “FAANG” tech companies, and other instances of digital propaganda, I want to allow for a more comprehensive analysis of media imagery. Through the printing process, artifacts and idiosyncrasies become a part of the composition, providing an ironic humanity to the subject matter. This acts to undermine the depersonalized authority of the tech world and suggest a more sincere and individualized perspective.”
Lily Mueller is a multidisciplinary artist based in Kansas City, Missouri. Mueller explores the processes of quilting, painting, collage and installation while integrating them with concepts of psychedelia, architecture and mid-century modern design. Much of her inspiration comes from performing and listening to music alongside memories of her childhood and Nicaraguan heritage. She has been largely influenced by her father’s career as an architect, his interest in 60’s psychedelic light shows, and her mother’s love for textiles and fashion. Mueller received her BFA at the Kansas City Art Institute in 2020 and now continues to exhibit her work in Kansas City and across the country.
Laura Nugent began her artistic journey as a teen, later graduating from the Maryland Institute College of Art (now MICA) with a BFA in painting. She has lived and worked as an artist all over the United States. Currently, her studio is in Kansas City and she travels widely to exhibit her work. In March of 2020, Laura Nugent’s process changed due to the inability to source canvas; the supply chain had been compromised by Covid. With a new, motivating body of work to occupy her, the cancellation of planned projects and exhibitions seemed more like opportunity than loss. Laura began to cut large sheets of paper into shapes and painted them until they were thick as leather. Discarded boards were jig-sawed to resemble the paper works. Distinct, figure-inspired forms appeared, sitting comfortably around and on top of each other. Color and texture attempted a congenial relationship. At this point, any surface in the studio was fair game to become a newly “found” object on which to paint. Paintings once considered to be resolved were now repurposed along with motifs she had been exploring on and off for years. Laura states, “I am mining my own art history to observe the impact of time on ideas and ability. The quality of my painted line and available resources influence both composition and color sensibility.”
