Othic Ferry archive

John Ferry and Nora Othic archive
June 7, 2019- July 27, 2019
The Opening Reception for this exhibition is First Friday, June 7th 7-9 p.m.
John Ferry: Mid-Century Modern
Nora Othic: Animal Show

John Ferry

John Ferry’s paintings are inspired by his love of architecture and his love of paint. Though his paintings, Ferry has explored the urban architecture of the cities where he has lived, places like Decatur, IL, where he grew up, Kansas City, New York and Baltimore. In those works, the faded industrial energy of the 19th and early 20th city, with its history of decay and renewal, inspired Ferry’s vision.
Today, Ferry lives in a mid-century house and his inspiration comes from an exploration of the architecture of that time designed by architects looking to the future, Mies van der Rohe, Marcel Breuer and others. This architecture, much of it of the suburb, is the foundation for his newest series of paintings. Mid-century architecture expresses the optimism, dreams and ideals of a particular time in American history, the mid-century mark, and provides a near perfect structure for Ferry to continue to explore his lived experience through color, texture, space and light.
John Ferry is currently an Associate Professor, Illustration, at the Kansas City Art Institute. Ferry has a MFA from the School of Visual Arts, NY, NY and a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute. His work is in the collection of the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS; The Wichita Center for the Arts, KS; Hallmark Cards, Inc., Kansas City, MO; Federal Reserve Bank, Kansas City, MO; DST Systems, Kansas City, MO; American Century, Kansas City, MO and numerous others.

Nora Othic

Nora Othic is considered one of the top regionalist painters in the Midwest. She builds on a legacy from her artistic predecessors such as Grant Wood, Thomas Hart Benton and the WPA artists from the Depression era, all known for celebrating rural America.
Othic moved to Marceline, Missouri when she was 7 years old and still lives on a farm today. Her rural experiences form and sustain her work as an artist, with numerous museum and gallery exhibitions in the Midwest to her credit. Her paintings reflect her lifestyle and focus on the ordinary aspects of life, exploring relationships between people, animals and the environment. Her straightforward depiction of the everyday approaches the heroic.
Othic has felt an important connection to farm animals since childhood, seeing them as a bridge between humanity and the natural world. Every year, she travels to the Missouri State Fair to take reference photos for her paintings. Not only are the animals (prime examples of their breeds) available for close-ups; they are shampooed, brushed, clipped, and polished to perfection, so that her paintings of them become iconic as well as descriptive.
Othic’s paintings and drawings of horses, roosters, pigs and rabbits are in a class of their own. While Othic often shows humans in action, completing a task or caring for an animal, her animals are presented in stillness, tranquil and dignified, each a blue ribbon winner. She is a sympathetic and keen observer and clearly sees each creature as a unique individual and nowhere is this more apparent than in her portraits of rabbits. Elizabeth Kirsch has said of Othic’s rabbits, “Not since Albrecht Durer has any artist seemed to care as much about these gentle creatures.”