Hardcore punk emerged from what unimaginative rock critics always call "the smoldering ashes of punk." Faster and heavier than punk music, it accompanied an underground of disaffected 1980s youth, and its importance was inversely proportional to its commercial success. Hardcore Painting: Confessions and Premonitions, an exhibit at the Greenlease Gallery at Rockhurst University (1100 Rockhurst Road, 816-501-4407), is not particularly influenced by Henry Rollins or the Dead Kennedys. But Jessie Fisher and Julie Farstad, assistant professors of painting at the Kansas City Art Institute, build on the generation of postmodern painters that preceded them. Fisher is a figurative painter who layers rich textures and classical images — some appropriated — into dramatic compositions. Farstad incorporates photos of dolls, toys and sculptures into flat mixed-media works. The show runs through March 19, and the gallery is open noon to 5 p.m. Thursday through Saturday.— Chris Packham
Thursdays-Saturdays, 12-5 p.m. Starts: Feb. 11. Continues through March 19, 2011
