All the Ways We Want: Power and Tenderness in Contemporary Portraiture

Description

A Major Exhibition Featuring Jas Petersen and Spencer Liautaud Comes to Kansas City

Opening Date: August 23; 7 PM (Artist Talk), 8-11 PM (Reception)
Exhibition Duration: August 23 - Nov 2
Location: Zhou B Art Center – Kansas City, MO

Kansas City’s art scene takes a bold step forward this season with All the Ways We Want: Power and Tenderness in Contemporary Portraiture, a landmark exhibition bringing together two renowned and emerging voices in contemporary art, Jas Petersen (Chicago) and Spencer Liautaud (Nashville),in a deeply intimate and expansive dialogue on identity, vulnerability, and the dualities of human expression.

Through figurative and abstract work, both artists explore what it means to exist and be seen in today’s world: navigating gender, power, spirituality, nature, and the pressures of performance. Jas Petersen’s signature “Fastgirls” offer a provocative look at modern femininity, media, and the female form as both myth and message. Spencer Liautaud’s textural abstractions echo with emotional frequency, offering a more inward gaze into spirit, instinct, and the rituals of being human.

“Together, Jas and Spencer reveal all the ways we perform, protect, and present ourselves,” says Izzy Vivas (Artistic Director). “Their work invites viewers to reconsider what strength looks like, and how vulnerability can be its greatest expression.”

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

JAS PETERSEN is a multidisciplinary visual artist based in Chicago and a graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). Known for her glamorous-yet-brazen “Fastgirls,” Petersen’s work blends painting, sculpture, and large-scale murals that interrogate identity, empowerment, and femininity. Her vibrant style has been commissioned by brands like McDonald’s, Bud Light, and the Super Bowl, and her 2023 solo show Not A Still Life featured a fully wrapped 1975 Stingray as both canvas and commentary. Born to Ecuadorian and Danish parents, her work is deeply informed by her multicultural upbringing, feminist ethos, and Chicago street art roots.

SPENCER “SPENNY” LIAUTAUD is a Kansas City-born, multidisciplinary artist exploring themes of emotional perception, spiritual tension, and societal performance through painting and mixed media. With a background in film and media production, Spencer's current series fuses saturated color, symbolic texture, and conceptual layering to question visibility, vulnerability, and human connection. Now based in Leipers Fork, Tennessee, at the Center for Sustainable Stewardship, Liautaud’s work acts as both mirror and meditation—investigating what lies beneath our surface expressions and who we might become when we choose to feel more deeply.

All the Ways We Want This exhibition brings together two artists navigating the layered terrain of identity, embodiment, and self-expression. Together, these works open a dialogue about duality: the inner and outer self, the polished and the primal, the cultural and the cosmic. All the Ways We Want is a meditation on balance between strength and softness, beauty and truth, power and tenderness.

Please reach out to isabella@zhoubartcenterkc.com for more information and to schedule remote or in person interviews with the featured artists.