Renegades at the Leedy-Voulkos

Last weekend was the ubiquitous First Friday in the Crossroads district. I headed down with a group of friends packed into my car and arrived, surprisingly without incident, into the throng that seems to be every year's September First Friday. With what always seems to be some kind of organized chaos, we descended upon various galleries where interesting work mingled with the unexciting.
My first priority that night was to stop by the school gallery to see the work of our very own (see Paul's post). But on the way I made it out to the Leedy-Voulkos Gallery, where the Renegades of Funk show pulled me in from every direction. It was like a party with a DJ and action happening in every corner. The first thing I saw was a little girl with a paintbrush going at it on a wall. Across the room, Hector Casanova (pictured), a former instructor for the Foundations year at KCAI, was actively painting over another painting. All were part of an exhibition featuring underground artists. Putting their work up in a gallery defied the "street art" philosophy of having their art be accessible to all and not limited to gallery space. However, the aesthetic, technique and the overall feeling of what was happening - that it was all in-the-moment and involving both the viewers and artists - gave me a taste of that street art edge.