KANSAS CITY, MO (January 15, 2010) – This year’s Brookside Art Annual marks a milestone event: the 25th anniversary. In celebration, Brookside invited several artists to compete for the featured piece of art that will be the face of this year’s event. The winning submission, a montage of Brookside photographs, was created by Rusty Leffel to celebrate the heart and spirit of Brookside.
“I am thrilled to have my piece selected for the 25th Brookside Art Annual,” said Leffel. “Photographs capture a moment in time. To me, a good photograph continues to express the feelings and experience of that moment.”
Leffel, a lawyer by profession, began his work in photography during college. He has now been showing his work professionally for almost 20 years. Leffel actively exhibits through national juried competitions, invitational shows and juried art fairs like the Brookside Art Annual, with works having been shown in 26 states and the District of Columbia.
“My work is street photography,” says Leffel. “I am fascinated by cities and the way we live our daily lives in them. I look for how we interact with each other and with the built environment around us.”
Leffel is a regular gallery artist in Kansas City at The Late Show Gallery in the Crossroads District, and a member of the Kansas City Artists Coalition, the Art Association of Harrisburg, Pa. and The Salmagundi Club in New York City. His work is in permanent collections of the Masur Museum of Art (Monroe, La.); Museum of Anthropology (CSU Chico, Ca.); Sprint-Nextel Art Collection (Overland Park, Kan.) and City Art Collection of Prairie Village, Kan.
The 25th Brookside Art Annual will be held this year April 30 May 2, 2010. Nearly 70,000 visitors attend this event each year, and a diverse group of local, national and international artists displaying art of all types and price ranges. For more information on the Brookside Art Annual, please visit www.brooksidekc.org.