New Yorkers have their rooftop sculpture garden at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Beginning with October’s First Friday, Kansas Citians will have their own rooftop art with the opening of Janet Zweig’s public sculpture “Prairie Logic” on the roof of the city’s Block 110 parking garage at 12th and Walnut streets.

Brooklyn-based Zweig collaborated with Kansas City architecture firm El Dorado to create a full-size railroad boxcar from perforated aluminum. Installed within a field of waving prairie grasses planted on the structure’s green roof, the boxcar exerts a lonely and evocative presence against a backdrop of surrounding skyscrapers and changing skies.

For Friday’s public opening celebration from 5 to 7 p.m., “Prairie Logic” also will serve as a performance space for a roster of musicians lined up by Kansas City theater artist Lisa Cordes. Zweig and El Dorado will speak about their work, as will Kansas City artists Rie Egawa and Burgess Zbryk, whose “Barnacles” installation on the east side of the garage is also being celebrated Friday night.

That artwork, composed of myriad white “barnacles” made from powder-coated spun steel with blue polycarbonate centers, was installed in November 2011 on the uppermost level of the garage, where it rises to 9 feet tall at the center and stretches 80 feet across.

The work was inspired by the two artists’ love of aquariums and alludes to the ocean that covered this area millions of years ago. Through their “Barnacles,” nature reasserts its dominance over the hand of man.

Life after Pi

Three years ago, Jody Wilkins closed her friendly, eclectic Pi Gallery in the East Crossroads after selling the building that housed it. Now she’s back and has teamed up with the Slap-n-Tickle Gallery’s Apryl McAnerney to open the Main Street Gallery on the second floor of Anton’s Tap Room at 1610 Main St.

Wilkins and McAnerney, who will continue to run the Slap-n-Tickle in the East Crossroads, are old friends and will pool their artist contacts for monthly shows at Main Street. October’s First Friday marks the gallery’s second show, which will feature works by Tulsa-based artists Linda Stilley, a former teacher of McAnerney’s, and Ron Fleming.

In addition to the art on view in the second floor gallery, which is open seven days a week during restaurant hours, Wilkins and McAnerney have installed works by Kansas City artists throughout the restaurant and other spaces in the building.

“It’s not Pi, and it’s not the Slap-n-Tickle,” Wilkins said of the new venture. “It’s a whole different thing.”

Kemper at the Crossroads

The new “Be Inspired” program at Kemper at the Crossroads presents its first artist lecture in a series that accompanies an ongoing group show in the space. Trinidad-born Nicole Awai will speak about her painting “Go Green Compression: Mix More Media!” (2010) and her sculpture “Go Go Gone” (2011) at 6 p.m. Friday. The works were recently donated to the museum from the New York-based Vilcek Foundation.

Nail polish, polyurethane resin, graphite, wood, wire and paint are just a few of the materials Awai employs.

Awai has characterized her approach, which moves between two and three dimensions, as a response to “peoples’ interaction with me as an Anglophone Caribbean body living an American life.”

“There is a constant and inherent state of duality in this existence,” she explains in an artist’s statement. “Not a state of confusion or a crisis of identity but an acknowledgement, acceptance and an owning of simultaneous multiple realities.”

More information

1817 grand, todd weiner east gallery

What: “Storytelling Paper Outfits”

When: Friday through Nov. 1. Reception 5-9 p.m. Friday. Hours by appointment.

Where: 1817 Grand Blvd.
Info: 816.984.8538

block 110 garage
What: Permanent installations. Janet Zweig: “Prairie Logic” and Rie Egawa and Burgess Zbryk: “Barnacles”
When: Reception 5-7 p.m. Friday. Hours 8 a.m.-5 p.m. daily.
Where: 12th and Walnut streets
Info: 816.513.2538  

blue djinn gallery
What: In the Mix: Natosha Keefer
When: Friday through Oct. 27. Reception 6-9 p.m. Friday. Hours 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
Where: 1400 Union Ave.
Info: 816.518.4649

blue gallery
What: Bernal Koehrsen: Landscapes From the Spirit and D. Ross “Scribe”: Everlasting
When: Friday through Oct. 27. Reception 6-9 p.m. Friday. Artists’ talk 2 p.m. Saturday. Hours 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and by appointment.
Where: 118 Southwest Blvd.
Info: 816.527.0823

 carter art center at mcc-penn valley
What: Contemporary Cuban Printmaking From the Taller Experimental De Gráfica
When: Friday through Nov. 3. Reception 6-9 p.m. Friday. Gallery talk 6 p.m. Friday. Hours 1-5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and noon-3 p.m. Saturday.
Where: 3201 Southwest Trafficway
Info: 816.604.4278

  city ice arts center
What: Mike Nickells: The Protest Room and Correlation of Space: Vincent Como and Gehry Kohler
When: “The Protest Room” runs Friday through Oct. 13 and “Correlation of Space” runs through Oct. 20. Reception 6-9 p.m. Friday. Hours noon-5 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
Where: 2015 Campbell St.
Info: 816.820.4105

 hilliard gallery
What: New Works by John Marak
When: Friday through Oct. 27. Reception 6-10 p.m. Friday. Hours 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, noon-4 p.m. Saturday and by appointment.
Where: 1820 McGee St.
Info: 816.561.2956

kemper at the crossroads
What: Be Inspired!
When: Through June 7. Nicole Awai artist conversation 6 p.m. Friday. Hours are noon-10 p.m. on First Fridays, except in January and February.
Where: 33 W. 19th St.
Info: 816.753.5784

 krzyz studio
What: Cahoots: Douglas Schwietert and Lori Raye Erickson
When: Friday only. Reception: 6-9 p.m. Friday.
Where: 1800 Locust St.
Info: 816.472.4999

  the late show
What: Colby K. Smith and Mark Westervelt: New Work
When: Friday through Oct. 27. Reception 6-10 p.m. Friday. Hours 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and by appointment.
Where: 1600 Cherry St.
Info: 816.474.1300

 leedy-voulkos art center
What: We Might Be Wrong: Exploring Our Know-it-all Culture
When: Friday through Dec. 1
What: Jori Louise Cheville: Reflect and Release
When: Friday through Oct. 27
What: Jennifer Pierson: Synchronicity Is Easy
When: Friday through Dec.1
What: Jennifer Jarnot: Inside the Lines
When: Through Oct. 27.
Reception 6-9 p.m. Friday. Hours 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursday through Saturday.
Where: 2012 Baltimore Ave.
Info: 816.474.1919

 main street gallery
What: Linda Stilley and Ron Fleming: The Journey
When: Friday through Oct. 28. Reception 6-9 p.m. Friday. Hours 11 a.m.-midnight Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m.-1:30 a.m. Friday and Saturday
Where: 1610 Main St., 2nd floor
Info: 816.716.5940 or 816.210.6534 

mattie rhodes art center
What: Dia de los Muertos
When: Friday through Nov. 16. Reception 6-10 p.m. Friday. Street Festival 1-11 p.m. Saturday. Hours 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
Where: 915 W. 17th St.
Info: 816.221.2349

 slap-n-tickle gallery
What: Dark Arts in the Crossroads
When: Friday through Oct. 14. Reception 6-11 p.m. Friday. Hours noon-4 p.m. Saturday and by appointment.
Where: 504 E. 18th St.
Info: 816.716.5940

  spray booth gallery
What: Overlook: Group Photography Exhibition.
When: Friday through Nov. 24. Reception 6-10 p.m. Friday. Hours noon-6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and noon-3 p.m. Saturday.
Where: 130 W. 18th St., inside Volker Bicycles.
Info: 816.471.5555

 todd weiner gallery
What: Artober: Group Show
When: Friday through Oct. 30. Reception 5-9 p.m. Friday. Hours 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday and by appointment.
Where: 115 W. 18th St.
Info: 816.984.8538