Artist Sukanya Mani’s Installation On View at M-AAA
By Elizabeth Snell
First Friday in the Kansas City Crossroads
Mid-America Arts Alliance’s Culture Lab is open on First Friday in Kansas City, Missouri, and will feature the artwork of Sukanya Mani.
Sukanya Mani is a St. Louis-based, Indian-born interdisciplinary artist whose work centers around the sobering reality that home—traditionally considered a sanctuary—can become a place of danger for individuals experiencing domestic violence. This issue is compounded in the cultural intersectionality of immigrant and refugee communities. The hanging works in this installation honor the voices and stories of domestic violence survivors that the artist has worked closely with through workshops and interviews supported by advocacy organizations.
Sukanya Mani is drawn to materials that allow her to explore the relevance of authority, culture, migration, and storytelling within a relationship. Her work often incorporates legal documents, informative pamphlets, and found objects. She shares that “transforming the violent act of cutting into an act of creation” is central to her artistic approach.
The installation will be open to the public for the Crossroads Arts District First Fridays in September (9/1) and October (10/6) from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.
The Culture Lab at Mid-America Arts Alliance is located at 2018 Baltimore Avenue in Kansas City, Missouri, 64108.
Other viewing times are available by appointment and are subject to staff availability, please call 816-800-0926 to make arrangements.
About Sukanya Mani
Sukanya Mani is an Artist Leadership Fellow, a program of Mid-America Arts Alliance. She has received numerous awards and honors for her work. To learn more about her work, visit her website at https://www.sukanyamani.com.
About The Culture Lab
The Culture Lab is our space for exhibitions, presentations, and events at our headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri. The Culture Lab allows us to showcase programs in the vibrant Kansas City Crossroads neighborhood and participate in the city’s First Friday celebrations.
Past projects have included music presentations, dance, theatre performance, fine art exhibitions, and humanities projects. Traveling exhibitions from our program ExhibitsUSA frequently launch their tours here.