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Phoenix Gallery825 Massachusetts St.
April 24th, 2026 Final Friday
6-9 pm
Say hey to May at the Phoenix Gallery this Final Friday!
This month, in our Phoenix Underground Gallery, we have “Inner and Outer Worlds” by printmaker and illustrator Janelle Crawford-Hine. Janelle’s art explores raw emotions and seeks to spark questions within the viewer, creating works with strong lighting and contrast and pieces rich with color and texture.
In the Upper West Gallery, we have David Nicholson’s show “Varied Readings”. His limited color palettes and grounded compositions combine to create bold imagery of cityscapes and landscapes. In this exhibition, David uses pairs to consider the perception of a thing in relation to the way it is viewed.
In addition to our two usual shows on Final Friday, we will also be hosting a preview show for the Lawrence Art Guild’s Art Spaces – Studio Tours Event, a two-day event in which participating artists open their studio doors to give the local community a more intimate peak at their creative processes and environments. This exhibition will be open from April 17th to May 15th in the gallery space at the back entrance of the Phoenix Underground. For more information on the Art Spaces Event, click this link: https://lawrenceartguild.org/art-spaces-free-event-in-lawrence-kansas-1
You can meet the artists and gain insight into their exhibitions on opening night, April 24th from 6 pm to 9 pm.
Opening night music will be provided by local musician Darrel Lea from 6 pm to 8 pm.
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Janelle Crawford-Hine
Kansas City, MO
Artist Statement
Janelle's practice focuses on themes of connectivity; exploring connection to family, self, and the natural world. I am interested in the many ways in which we assign value to ourselves, each other, and the world around us. My work seeks to create space for the viewer to question their preconceived understandings of value and deepen these relationships through joy, wonder, and love.
Artist Biography
Janelle Crawford-Hine (she/her) is an illustrator and printmaker based in Kansas City. Her work explores moments of intense feeling that help us question our understanding of ourselves and the world around us. She received her BFA in illustration from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design and a master’s degree in Montessori education. Her work has been shown in Woman Made's online show “Tickled Pink”, “stArt The Conversation” art and mental health show for Wyandotte Behavioral Health, and “Unfolded” at the Art School Gallery in Lee's Summit, Missouri. She was a 2023 Print Day in May winner. She has shown in many art festivals, including Lawrence Art in the Park, Westport Art Fair, and received a Merit Award at the Smoky Hill River Festival.
You can find Janelle’s exhibit in the Phoenix Underground Gallery of the Phoenix Gallery.
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David Nicholson
Lawrence, KS
Artist Statement
¬“Varied Readings” presents work in pairs, each grouping an exploration of adjacent subject matter approached from shifting compositional and chromatic vantage points. The pairings are not arguments but invitations to consider how much a thing can change, and how much it can hold, when the terms of looking are slightly altered.
Artist Biography
David Nicholson is a Kansas-based painter working in acrylic and oil. His work spans landscape, cityscape, and the suburban American environment, finding in these familiar, often overlooked spaces a sustained attention to light, geometry, and atmosphere. Painted with a loose, gestural hand, his canvases resist strict documentation in favor of impression: the quality of the street on an overcast afternoon, the way a tree meets a roofline, the way our infrastructure creates outlines, yet goes unnoticed.
Nicholson’s practice moves between the geometric and the gestural, between color as structure and color as feeling, grounded in direct observation.
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Lawrence Art Guild’s Art Spaces – Studio Tours
Lawrence, KS
Artist Statement
“Art Spaces” is The Lawrence Art Guild’s free two day open-studio tour of artists' studios and art spaces and will be showcasing 45 artists in 22 studios and creative spaces.
Saturday, May 2nd (10am to 6pm)
Sunday, May 3rd (noon to 6pm)
This unique event allows the public an opportunity to get to know the artists in their neighborhoods and their community. A chance to step inside the working studios of local artists, see where they create and talk to them about their inspirations and creative processes while seeing hundreds of pieces of artwork on this tour. You may learn how a ceramic artist loads a kiln, about the dying process of natural fibers, or learn what paints and preferred brushes a painter reaches for to create their works. For more information on the show or to see an example of the artists participated in Art Spaces 2026 you can click on the links below.
Art Spaces – Participating Artists
https://lawrenceartguild.org/art-spaces-participating-artist-gallery
Art Spaces - Studio Tours Facebook Event Page
https://facebook.com/events/s/art-spaces-studio-tours/1465959081817759/
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Opening night music will be provided by local musician Darrel Lea from 6pm to 8pm.
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Event Venue
825 Massachusetts St, Lawrence, KS, United States, Kansas 66044
Tickets
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