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Phoenix Gallery825 Massachusetts St.
October 30th, 2026 Final Friday
6-9 pm
Boo! Halloween is here, and we have a real treat for the opening show on Final Friday at the Phoenix Gallery. Take a break from the frights and enjoy some halloween treats and live music with our two featured scary good shows.
In our Underground we have the wonderful works of local artist, Janet-Lynn Zuk. Her exhibition “For Love of Kansas” celebrates the nature and beauty of our great state. Using acrylic paint, Janet-Lynn recreates stunning Kansas sunsets, its crowds of wildflowers, and other beloved features with an admiring eye and an established creative process. She aspires to create art that viewers can recognize, relate to, and enjoy in their own individual ways.
Continuing in the Upper West Gallery is Nada Bayazid’s exhibition “Visitors Tale”. If you missed this show the first time around, fear not—Nada’s work will be on display for an addition month!
You can meet the artists and gain insight into their exhibitions on opening night, October 30th from 6 pm to 9 pm.
Opening night music will be provided by local musician Thomas Kehr from 6 pm to 8 pm.
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Janet-Lynn Zuk
Lawrence, KS
Artist Statement
My work begins with a simple idea: there is beauty and joy all around us if we take the time to notice it.
Working primarily in acrylic, I draw inspiration from the world I encounter every day, particularly the landscapes and natural beauty of Kansas and the Flint Hills. I am drawn to subjects that capture my attention, whether it is the dramatic Kansas sky, the curve of a hill, an unruly collection of wildflowers, or the brilliance of a sunset. Rather than recreating exactly what I see, I exaggerate the elements I find most fascinating, beautiful, or joyful.
My style is expressionistic with a primitive, childlike quality. I use highly saturated color, strong linear elements and outlines, layering washes of color to create depth while maintaining a sense of simplicity. I approach the world with a certain intentional naivety and idealism, choosing to celebrate what is beautiful about it.
While nature and the Kansas landscape are central to my work, my ongoing series explore subjects ranging from sunrises and sunsets to reading, ballerinas, and humor. When people appear in my work, I want the world I create to reflect the diversity I value in the world around me.
Ultimately, I want my paintings to be accessible and familiar. If someone sees my work and pauses, recognizes something of their own experience, or simply smiles, then the painting has done what I hoped it would do.
Artist Biography
Janet-Lynn Zuk is a contemporary acrylic painter whose vibrant work celebrates joy, imagination, and connection. A lifelong artist, she earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Adams State College and has continued to nurture her creative practice alongside a twenty-year career in commercial banking.
After relocating to Lawrence, Kansas, in 2017, Janet-Lynn became an active member of the Lawrence Art Guild and began sharing her artwork more broadly. Her paintings are inspired by the things that bring people together and enrich daily life including books, flowers, landscapes, and moments of quiet wonder. Through bold color, playful imagery, and a sense of optimism, she creates pieces that encourage viewers to slow down and engage with the beauty around them.
Janet-Lynn's artistic approach reflects both observation and imagination. Influenced by a lifelong love of reading and storytelling, her work often blends familiar subjects with a whimsical perspective that invites personal interpretation.
At the heart of her work is a desire to foster joy and connection. Janet-Lynn believes art has the power to bring people together through shared experiences and emotions, creating moments of recognition, comfort, and delight. Her paintings are an invitation to celebrate curiosity, embrace color, and find wonder in the everyday.
Janet-Lynn lives in Lawrence with her husband and three cats.
You can find Janet-Lynn’s exhibit in the Phoenix Underground Gallery of the Phoenix Gallery.
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Nada Bayazid
Overland Park, KS
Artist Statement
My work is driven by personal interpretations of identity, memory, and place, explored primarily through painting and printmaking. I draw connections between these broad themes and my own experiences as an Arab-American within the diasporic vacuum, using childhood photographs, a unique understanding of cultural and historical symbols, and various painting and printmaking techniques. Growing up in the US, my perception of the Middle East was shaped by stereotypes that painted it as regressive and ruinous. However, through unlearning and reevaluating these narratives, I have begun to reclaim a deeper awareness of my history and identity as an Arab-American. This process manifests in images that challenge Western intervention in the Middle East while offering a more nuanced understanding of my own cultural hybridity. By layering my American upbringing with fragmented memories and an evolving relationship to Syria and Lebanon, I have developed a symbolic visual language, creating objects and spaces that embody the complexity of my identity. Ultimately, my work is both a personal reckoning and an act of recovery- an effort to reclaim origins, interrogate assumptions, and find meaning in the fluid spaces of diaspora.
Artist Biography
Nada Bayazid is a second-generation Syrian-Lebanese American artist born in Kansas City. Bayazid’s work is driven by unique personal interpretations of identity, memory and place, explored primarily through painting and printmaking. On a journey to reconnect with her identity within the Arab diaspora, Bayazid’s use of family photos, unique symbols and text to create an entryway to a much larger conversation about loss, longing and cultural hybridity. Nada Bayazid received her BFA in Visual Arts from The University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas in 2024. Bayazid has exhibited solo shows at Vulpes Bastille, 3West KC and The Waiting Room in Kansas City, Missouri. Bayazid has also exhibited in group shows at The Spencer Museum of Art in Lawrence, Kansas and at Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village, Colorado. She currently lives in and works from Overland Park, Kansas.
You can find Nada’s exhibit in the Upper West Gallery of the Phoenix Gallery.
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Opening night music will be provided by local musician Thomas Kehr from 6pm to 8pm in the Phoenix Underground.
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825 Massachusetts St, Lawrence, KS 66044-2632, United States
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