Art Capsule Reviews

Json Myers and Wade Eldean Json Myers discards traditional mediums such as clay, paint and canvas for less familiar ones — tractor enamel and "pyrotechnics residue," i.e., burnt stuff. The results are oddly shaped impressionist plaques. In the inaccurately titled "Crap," a 4-foot-long strip of timber hangs horizontally to display a Rorschach dragon with holes — one looks like an open mouth — caused by fire. In "Parable of the Rose," heavily shellacked wood conjoins with tree bark, enhancing the differences between the naturally organic and finished materials; in "Grow Up," an image of a tree "grows" from a palette, and a cityscape runs along the bottom of the piece. On the gallery floor, Wade Eldean's open and lit suitcases serve as display cases for the sorts of things that people keep in their attics or basements — or throw in their trash cans. The best piece is a visually surprising concoction of baggage, amusingly titled "Just in Case." The handle's tag displays the artist's name, phone number and address in Michigan; we presume this is how he wanted his installation delivered. Through Nov. 30 at the Zone Gallery, 1830 Locust St., 816-471-3618. (R.T.B.)

New Paintings Living in the desert (specifically Phoenix) does something to a person; painter Steven Yazzie is proof. These expansive, mysterious landscapes feature a recurring, nearly obsessive image: the sword-shaped leaves of the agave, a plant that grows only in hot, dry regions. It figures prominently in "Confluences I," "Confluences II" and "Twilight." Yazzie's physical surroundings inhabit these pictures subtly — in the suggestive curve of a mountain in the background, or in the hint of sun in floating, unfinished ovals. All of the canvases, shellacked in Yazzie's layering technique, reflect like glass. In the show's main piece, "Surface Agendas," a blue expanse of colors represents the artist's emotional or mental state, and it's a subdued, amorphous abstraction. This must be what the subconscious looks like. Through Nov. 29 at the Blue Gallery, 7 West 19th Street, 816-527-0823. (R.T.B.)

Newrotic: Experiments in Eroticism With new gallery director Luis Garcia in place, the Vault has gathered paintings of women resembling Tank Girl, airbrushed hip-hop portraits and girls who look straight out of manga. But one person's Playboy centerfold is another's unsexy nightmare. Accordingly, the works in this group show are a bit of a sensual smorgasbord — what one viewer finds titillating, another might find mundane. Adrian Halpern's delicate, disjointed figures (a screaming girl wields a sword in one hand; her other arm is a fish, her legs a mass of snakes) are set next to a series of photographs called "Mine Is Bigger Than Yours" in which Beanie Babies are placed in provocative positions with ... mushrooms. The piece that provoked the most laughter on opening night involves Ronald McDonald proclaiming "I'm loving it" as a woman, naked but for thigh-high stockings and a corset around her midsection, goes down on his Big Mac. We'll skip the joke about supersizing it. Through Nov. 24 at the Vault Gallery at Leedy-Voulkos, 2012 Baltimore, 816-405-3562. (R.B.)

Parts In each of the 11 large-scale photographs that make up Parts, the latest exhibit to open at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, artist Nikki S. Lee adopts a distinct persona — and a boyfriend to complement it. Staged in snapshot form, the glossy images feature Lee interacting with tattooed muscle men and pale drug addicts, on playgrounds and in bars; however, each of the guys has been cut out of the picture, suggesting truncated relationships. (After viewing 11 presumably failed attempts at relationships, one starts to feel a little discouraged.) Her diverse identities are certainly driven by stereotypes, but we empathize with the desire to be someone else every so often. In "Part 18," she's in morning-after mode, drinking coffee on a fire escape, bedheaded and wearing boxers; "Part 13" has her barefoot and laughing on a bus. What's most striking is that it's not her face — where one usually looks for indications of mood or disposition — that gives her away; it's her body language. There does seem to be a direct correlation between the amount of makeup Lee wears and her level of misery, though. We'd better toss our eyeliner. Through Dec. 11 at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, 4420 Warwick, 816-753-5784. (A.F.)

Recent Paintings, Drawings and Prints by Michael Krueger and Don Ed Hardy Don Ed Hardy is a tattoo-art icon. We know multitudes of inked people who salivate at the mention of his name, so we had to check out his show. What we discovered: Each painting, displayed on archival scroll paper mounted on Chinese silk, looks like an elaborate tattoo big enough to cover the back of the world's fattest man. Even the iconography — lions, skulls, pirate ships and sexy women — is tattoo-inspired. But unlike skin, which provides a fleshy, monochromatic backdrop for tattoo art, the scroll paper and Chinese silk swatches have a flimsy and beautifully patterned texture that makes the art look exceptionally bright, dynamic and, in some cases, even metallic. And though Hardy is the superstar, don't ignore the simpler, smaller drawings by area artist Michael Krueger. With characters floating against a plain white background, these drawings are well-executed and possess a distinct narrative style. Our favorite is "Josephine," which depicts a young woman walking out of a patch of plants and rocks, naked except for some letters mysteriously but neatly etched on her skin. Through Dec. 23 at the Dennis Morgan Gallery, 2011 Tracy, 816-842-8755. (G.K.)