Caustic Cover Girls

Omaha, Nebraska, native Wanda Ewing exhibits her provocative Bougie tonight through the end of the month at the Pi Gallery (419 East 18th Street, 816-210-6534). A satirical look at black womanhood through the lens of fashion-magazine iconography, the show takes its title from a name-calling derivation of bourgeois.Social observations aside, the covers are colorful, immediately attractive pieces of contemporary pop art by a savvy Midwest artist. Ewing, an assistant professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, evinces a certain sympathy for her subjects, despite their vapid preoccupations. The carefully assembled mixed-media pieces in the exhibit — imitations of fashion-magazine layouts — contain paintings of glamorous models and such headlines as "Beauty Fact: It's What's on the OUTSIDE That Counts!" and "Blonde Is the New Black," reflecting "bougie" values related to self-image, shopping, hair straightening and catching a man. The gallery is open for tonight's exhibition from 6 to 9 p.m. Pi Gallery
Fri., March 7, 2008