CONTACT/COLLISION was a collaborative exhibition by Evi Heinen and Kate Harmon, two seniors at the Kansas City Art Institute and artists working in Kansas City. The exhibition displayed the osmosis that emerged from being studio mates for three years. Though our work takes distinctive forms, there is a clear interest in displays of violence. Whether it is through war or boxing, both the body and landscape are warped by human contact.

To enact violence is a human impulse not dissimilar to the human impulse to create. Through developing studio practices in close proximity, the artists came to consider the history of violence, how barbarism still exists in our so-called civilized society, and why we simultaneously crave to eliminate it but can’t look away. 

Out of references to contact sports and classic novel War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, emerge paintings, redacted poetry, quilts, knitted pieces, and objects that fuse the distinct inclinations of the two artists. Moments of tenderness meet the callous and austere at a captivating juncture.