A very odd “review” of the annual group exhibition of residents at The Studios Inc. was published yesterday in The Pitch, Kansas City’s weekly alternative newspaper. The writer, Theresa Bembnister, misses the point of the exhibition, which is really just to show what current residents have going on in their studios. Here’s an excerpt…

“The 14 works assembled for Studios Inc: 2011 don’t do much more than simply advertise the investment opportunity. It’s smart business but not very inspired curation.

Not that the most likely buyers want a lot of challenge. The repeating clips of screaming mouths in Barry Anderson’s “Deep Down Trauma Hounds” video installation, for example, may not go over well with someone dealing with the fallout of the financial crisis. But Smith’s pleasant abstraction “Break Wave Under Sky #3” would look at home in a beige hallway.

No office manager worth his or her salary would condone Diana Heise‘s “Breath – Take.” The artist asks visitors to write what helps them “breathe easier” on green Post-it Notes and affix them to the silhouette of a tree she created on the gallery wall using soil and seeds. (Well, maybe an allergist’s office would approve.)”