Best Local Group Show

Inspired by the idea that even infants show preference for one color or texture over another, Peregrine Honig set about organizing a show in which some of Kansas City's edgiest artists examined themes of infancy and childhood in an attempt to return to the aesthetic senses they were born with. A number of artists managed to show their finest work to date while reflecting on childhood -- some in nostalgic, sugarcoated ways and others with a healthy dose of cynicism. Renee Laferriere's "Operation" -- a giant table replicating the loud Milton-Bradley game -- mapped out the body, pinpointing not the wishbone and spare ribs but heartache and mental disorders. On the other end of the spectrum, David Ford's "Your Shoes" displayed baby shoes covered in thick, Pepto-Bismol-colored shellac, literally hardening the past and putting it on a pedestal. Ellen Greene -- the only parent who contributed to the show -- worked from the perspective of motherhood, letting anxiety and affection swirl together in pieces like "My Child" (a book containing the mother's thoughts about what her child's life would be and acknowledging that her daughter would someday wish she had never been born) and "Everything is Okay" (a multimedia piece for which Greene painted a horse flying out of a photographed baby's head).