Parallel Eudaimonia - Brittany Noriega & Micael Elrod

7.1.26 - 8.30.26 | First Friday Reception: 7.3.26 & 8.7.26, 5 pm

Parallel Eudaimonia - Micael Elrod & Brittany Noriega

Eudaimonia is the ancient Greek concept of the highest human good; not fleeting happiness, but a deep and abiding flourishing that’s achieved through purpose, virtue, and the fulfillment of one's potential.

We are two friends who parallel each other through cosmic connection, and whose artwork also contains parallels and similar themes of matriarchal power structures, the sacred feminine, and earthly devotion.

While Brittany's work often explores these themes through an academic and analytical lens, Micael takes a more spiritual approach. These differing viewpoints of the same themes reflect our lives and our artwork, creating complementary expressions of a shared vision - two parallel paths toward the same flourishing.

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Micael Elrod is an experimental textile artist and mother in Kansas City, Kansas. Her creative and spiritual practices are intrinsically linked, her process a ritual. She explores matrilineal connections and the subconscious, interpreting them into visual representations founded on the symbolism of ancient matriarchal reverence, plants and animals. Micael tries to bring a whimsical morbidity to her work, inspired by the macabre opulence of the Catholic Church and religious iconography of her upbringing. She has been a full time artist since 2024.

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Brittany Noriega is a Kansas City-based artist working primarily in graphite and charcoal at a monumental scale. A full-time artist since 2015, her work is deeply informed by her academic background in the social sciences and psychology — disciplines that shape how she observes power, identity, and the human condition. She is currently completing her MA in Science Writing at Johns Hopkins University, where her studies continue to deepen the analytical framework she brings to her practice.

Xiao Faria daCunha - 20 Shades of Blue | 9.2.26 - 9.27.26 | First Friday Reception: 9.4.26, 5 pm

“20 SHADES OF BLUE” HIGHLIGHTS GRIEF, LOSS, AND HOPE
IN THE CHINESE DIASPORIC EXPERIENCE

KANSAS CITY, MO – September 4, 2026 – Kansas City-based multi-disciplinary artist, writer, and curator Xiao Faria daCunha presents an interactive solo-exhibition at Bunker Center For the Arts (1014 E 19th St, Kansas City, MO 64108) from September 4, 2026 through Sept 30, 2026.

In “20 Shades of Blue,” the artist constructs an interactive experience that engages all five senses, thus resonating with the sixth and opening the viewer’s mind’s eyes. The exhibition is divided into five “chapters” by audio narration, which can be activated by scanning the QR Code on the wall. As gallery visitors listen to the artist’s voice, they also look through the embellished image transfers and the accompanying written text.

The images used as the basis for this exhibition were makeshift memorials, gathered from old magazines lying around the artist’s home or donated by helpful friends for the project, serving as compensation for the artist’s lack of photographic documentation of her life in Shanghai, China. Each image was an emotional anchor bridging the then and now, there and here: a mechanism many diasporas moving through the world without family ephemera had learned to employ as they nurture their identity and heritage on a different land.

Loss was inevitable in the transfer process. It was also inevitable as one leaves one's homeland and enters another, building a home away from home, while mourning the loss of what home could’ve been but never would become. However, with loss comes growth, with absence comes possibility. Through various methods of embellishment, the artist builds upon the transferred image, adding colors, textures, shapes, forms, and references, infusing the borrowed/inherited images with her personal touch.

Visitors are encouraged to leave notes on the text next to each piece. The exhibition also includes a community story wall where the public is invited to tell their own stories of migration, immigration, and community building. For those who cannot make it to the gallery in person, the artist has created a digital experience to ensure broader accessibility of the exhibition.

ABOUT XIAO FARIA DACUNHA

Xiao Faria daCunha is a Kansas City-based Chinese-American visual artist, curator, art writer, and essayist musing on the lived experience of a Chinese diasporic woman of color in America’s heartland. She employs the juxtaposition of texture, composition, shape, form, and materiality, spanning mixed-media illustration on paper, textile, printmaking, and mixed-media collage, to project the multi-layered nuances within the Chinese diaspora identity.

Poetry Sharing Session Time - Sept 5th, 12 pm - 2 pm

The Bunker Center for the Arts invites poets to share their work in a gallery setting the Saturday after First Friday, noon -2pm. Read, share, inspire others, and enjoy light snacks.