CSF Fellowship Exhibition
September 2014
Kansas City, Missouri
Charlotte Street Foundation exhibition, Sean Starowitz installation views, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, Kansas. Photo: EG Schempf. Donuts by Zach Bauman, courtesy of The Pitch.
“A museum is an unusual place to view the work of Starowitz, an artist known for his activism and socially engaged art practice. Many of his contributions to the show are models, maquettes and research for social projects, such as his miniature model for renovating an abandoned Kansas City lot with his “Lots of Love” urban renewal project.
Other works include “Five Stones From Five Foundations of Sacred Sites,” made of five old, broken masonry stones that may or may not be from the demolished homes of local musicians Charlie Parker, Virgil Thomson and Ben Webster.
Also included is a photocopy of a 1960s Human Relations Department brochure telling a fictionalized story of “Joe Jitters.” The story attempts to calm nerves around racial integration and the predatory real estate practices that lead to white flight.
While Starowitz’s most ambitious works can’t fit into a gallery because of their social, temporal and site-specific nature, the artist has still created an intriguing arrangement of artifacts and information that inform his practice.” – BY NEIL THRUN, SPECIAL TO THE STAR 11/15/2014 6:00 AM