Word Up

Hot on the heels of text. (or in the vacancy of), at the Greenlease Gallery, come two more shows in the same copy-based vein: WORD and Light Text, running concurrently at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art. In the first, Kansas City-based artists Archie Scott Gobber, Christopher Leitch and Jim Sajovic use their words to investigate the power and politics of written messages, the consideration being that the nontraditional imagery sacrifices nothing in terms of aesthetics but arguably gains cogency. Light Text highlights the work of New York-based Hank Willis Thomas, who explores race in America. (A series of boxes on the home page of his Web site brilliantly reads: "Ads Imitate Art; Art Imitates Life; Life Imitates Ads.") The Nerman Museum (at Johnson County Community College, 12345 College Boulevard in Overland Park, 913-469-3000) is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. today, and the shows are up through November 20.
Fridays, 10 a.m.-9 p.m.; Tuesdays-Thursdays, Saturdays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sundays, 12-5 p.m. Starts: Sept. 11. Continues through Nov. 20, 2009