Popular Kansas City painter opens gallery and shop in the River Market
A popular Kansas City painter opened her first brick-and-mortar gallery and shop last weekend in KC’s River Market.
Megh Knappenberger got her storefront at 108 E Missouri Ave. through the Open Doors Program, a city initiative to put life into empty storefronts both during and after Kansas City hosts the World Cup. Knappenberger applied last fall and signed her lease in April. The initiative, she said, expedited a long-term goal of hers.
“It feels amazing. This was always the goal, something that I was working towards, to open a gallery and hopefully a shared sort of studio gallery space and the program allowed me to accelerate that quite a lot,” she said.
Up until this point, Knappenberger had only been selling her work online and through social media, where she has over 25,000 followers.
“This is the first time that I am creating an entire experience around seeing the original work, seeing the prints, seeing how everything translates into all these different mediums,” she said.
The small gallery, in between Harry’s Country Club and The Blue Line, is more than just an art gallery. Knappenberger partnered with Monstera’s books to have a select display of books that she thinks deepens either her work as well as works from other vendors that celebrate the Midwest.
“I wanted to create a whole experience that allows people to come in and feel what the culture of the Midwest feels like, through the lens of a local artist who lives here, works here and especially through the familiar icons of the Midwest,” she said. “To be able to see those in a new way and to pull people deeper into the stores behind them.”
Knappenberger, an acrylic painter, is known on social media for her paintings of Taylor Swift, Jason Sudeikis, Midwest icons like buffalo and sunflowers, and for being one of the few local artists with the license to paint the KU logo and Jayhawk.
“I’ve spent my whole life in the Midwest, and I’ve always just been interested in those things that remind you of the places that you love or give you the feelings of home,” she said. “I like that emotionally evocative thing about a symbol, place, person or a character that reminds us of something, and makes the place where we hang it, home/business feel more like ours.”
Knappenberger had already been working on a new collection inspired by the Midwest when she got the space. Two of them are showpieces in the gallery, along with her World Cup poster design.
“I wanted to do something simple that just is like representative of Kansas City, but also just feels very universal,” she said about her World Cup design.
The poster, which has a painted soccer ball, features two different colors on each patch, representing the host cities.
“Each city has a two-color logo, and so each of the 16 cities is represented in the colors,” Knappenberger said.
Along with original art pieces, Knappenberger will have print versions of various sizes, stickers and postcards of her work, as well as an eclectic mix of local retail gifts and the ability to do custom sizing any of her work.
“People can come in and get something quick and small for a souvenir, or they can come in and have a conversation about a custom piece for their business or their home, and be able to see the work large and in person, see the details in the work, especially the things that you can’t see online,” she said.
She gave as an example the art technique Pentamiento, where you can see the process of her work, like the grid lines still on the original canvas.
Knappenberger’s gallery also features an interactive aspect — a refurbished 1960s vending machine filled with mystery mini prints of four Kansas City landmarks. Customers can purchase a token at the checkout counter that will eject a mystery print in a custom cigarette box.
“I’m also gonna hide the four originals in there, so four people will get like the golden ticket, and when they open the box, they’ll see,” she said. “I love that Willy Wonka golden ticket thing.”
Knappenberger’s studio is open from 11 to 5 p.m. Thursday through Sunday and by appointment only Tuesday and Wednesday.
