Amy Kligman has been the Executive Artistic Director at Charlotte Street Foundation in Kansas City, Missouri, since 2015. At Charlotte Street, Amy has led the organization through two strategic plan processes, an award-winning major rebrand, a $10 million capital campaign, the development of new grants and major programs, the doubling of the annual budget and staff capacity, and buildout of the organization’s first permanent home in Midtown Kansas City.
Kligman’s career and experience as an exhibiting artist and grassroots curator/arts administrator spans 20 years of studio and exhibition work, independent curating and organizing, and artist-run projects. In 2011, Kligman was one of a team of five artist-curators who established Plug Projects, an artist-run project space in Kansas City’s West Bottoms that hosted a robust and nationally recognized calendar of exhibitions and artist-centered programming.
Amy’s personal artistic practice is centered on painting and installation. She is represented by Sherry Leedy Fine Art in Kansas City, Missouri. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, the Hallmark Cards Art Collection, and numerous private collections across the country.
Alexis McGrigg is a contemporary artist who examines themes of Blackness, space, spirituality, identity, and collective consciousness. Her artwork utilizes the mediums of painting, drawing, and interdisciplinary media to explore the multiplicity of Blackness through figurative abstraction and conceptual narratives. She integrates poetry, sound, and performance in her arts practice and research.
Her artwork is included in several private collections and has been featured in exhibitions across the U.S. and internationally in New York, NY; Chicago, IL; Miami, FL; New Orleans, LA; and Oakland, CA – most recently in her solo exhibitions In The Beloved at Almine Rech Gallery, Brussels, Belgium; The Labour of Being at Almine Rech Gallery, Paris, France; and The Ether – Journey In Between at Richard Beavers Gallery, New York; group exhibitions, SAY IT LOUD at Christie’s Auction House; Salon de Peinture at Almine Rech, New York; and LIGHT at the Czong Institute for Contemporary Art (CICA) in South Korea.
Alexis earned her Bachelor of Fine Art in Painting from Mississippi State University in 2012 and a Master of Fine Art with a concentration in Painting and Transmedia from Texas Tech University in 2017.
Takako Tanabe is the founding director of Ulterior Gallery located in SoHo, New York. Originally from Japan, Tanabe is committed to exhibiting and supporting an intergenerational array of artists from diverse cultures and backgrounds who explore states of essential in-betweenness beyond borders, boundaries, and categories.
Before opening her Ulterior Gallery, she worked for Fergus McCaffrey Gallery, New York, New York; the Chinati Foundation, Marfa, Texas; and Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. Combining all the experiences from the past, Tanabe operates her gallery with the fullest degree of joy and care.
Ulterior Gallery’s programs have been reviewed in the New York Times, ArtAsiaPacific, Artforum, BOMB Magazine, Brooklyn Rail, 美術手帖 [Bijutsu Techo] and many other publications internationally.
Since 2019, Ulterior has participated in local and international art fairs, including Art Collaboration Kyoto, Dallas Art Fair, Feria Material, NADA Miami, The Armory Show, and Tokyo Gendai.
