Two innovative art exhibitions are nearing their closing dates at the Kansas City Public Library – but time to see them hasn’t entirely run out.

Headspace, featuring 17 vibrant watercolors on paper by Kansas City artist Andy Ryan, has been extended through March 11. On display in the Library’s Guldner Gallery, it has been a favorite with patrons since its opening on January 14.

This is Ryan’s debut solo exhibition. The images contain both absurdist humor and references to mysticism and spirituality with amusing faces, ghostly figures, and botanical forms emerging from overlapping shapes and gradient color fields. The distinctive works can be viewed as equal parts surreal landscape and meditative mindscape.

In the Library’s Mountain Gallery, Peripheral Visions ends an 11-week run on March 25. It is comprised of dozens of pieces in various media by artists from Imagine That! KC and Johnson County Developmental Supports’ Emerging Artists program. Visitors have responded with resounding positivity and interest not only in the works but also the artists and their processes. A video in the gallery space offers more information about the programs.

Additional Art Experiences

Meanwhile, the Library’s art exhibitions are branching out. Its Westport Branch, 118 Westport Rd., houses heARTs, a series of 10 heart-shaped, mixed-media works by local textile and performance artist KE Griffin, known professionally as Art by .E Lewis. Running through April 22, it coincides with the 125^th anniversary of the opening of the historic branch in 1898.

Griffin created the compositions in part in commemoration of the Library’s impact on her life. She studied there while taking art classes at Penn Valley Community College in the early 1990s.