In the Galleries: Maggie Garner & Kyan Hackney at Envision Arts Center

Envision Arts Gallery moved Douglas Avenue addresses from downtown Wichita to the Delano District in March. Now both the gallery and art classrooms are housed at Envision Arts Center, 535 W. Douglas Ave., just steps from popular coffee and dessert spot Milkfloat.

The center serves artists who are blind, visually impaired, or otherwise disabled, and the galleries are equipped with accessibility features, including guide strips for cane users.

"Floating Joy," a mixed-media installation at the entrance to Maggie Garner's exhibition "A Hidden Place" is hung with tassels and bells, engaging multiple senses. The floors of the art center include guide strips for cane users. Photo by Emily Christensen for The SHOUT.

“Please touch the art,” read labels for “A Hidden Place,” an exhibition by Savannah, Georgia artist Maggie Garner in collaboration with Autumn Gary and Taiomah Rutledge.

Garner’s show, on view through June 25 in the Dr. Gail Yearick and Family Gallery, is composed of tactile paper collages on canvas and sensory installations. Some of the works invite viewers to access and exercise different senses. “Please touch the art” is one request the show makes explicitly, but I also heard “slow down” as I made my way around the gallery.

"Art Imitates Kyan's Life" includes oodles of portraits by Kyan Adger Hackney, "from friends and community members to transit drivers and public figures like Mayor Lily Wu and Governor Laura Kelly," according to the gallery text.

“Art Imitates Kyan’s Life” is on view through May 29 in the Patricia A. Peer Window Gallery. Dozens of portraits by Wichita artist Kyan Adger Hackney hang salon-style alongside studies of famous artists. Whether to art history or the people around him, it's clear that Hackney looks closely.

Kyan Adger Hackney, "Calder Study." The exhibition includes studies of works by other artists, including Van Gogh and Juan Miró. Photo by Emily Christensen for The SHOUT.

Envision Arts Center is open to the public from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Friday. Admission is free, and the space is accessible to people with physical disabilities.

— Emily Christensen

A larger-than-life self-portrait in "Art Imitates Kyan's Life." Photo by Emily Christensen for The SHOUT.

This article was originally published in our newsletter. Sign up for weekly emails and stay informed about Kansas art and culture.

Subscribe

Support Kansas arts writing

The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.**

Yes! I want to support The SHOUT

Popular Reads ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections