Lonnie Powell

Lonnie Powell (born 1941 in Kansas City, Missouri) is a multimedia painter and community organizer. Powell's paintings and drawings are housed in the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art's permanent collection, and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

Early life Lonnie Powell grew up in Kansas City, Missouri. Music was an early influence, he recalls, "growing up in Kansas City Missouri, music wafted through the whole segregated community in the forties and fifties in its churches, night clubs, schools and a cappella groups beneath the street lights."

Community involvement In 2001 Powell created the organization The Light in the Other Room, a collaborative of African-American artists. The Light in the Other Room has worked with the Greater Kansas City Links, the Jackson County Links, Hatebusters Inc., the Epsten Gallery, the Sister City Association of Kansas City, Missouri, Central Missouri State University, William Jewell College, Vaughn Cultural Center, and Portfolio Gallery and Education Center of St. Louis, Missouri.

Work and career

Looking Him Back, 2004 Looking Him Back is a painting based on Powell's memories of watching a Kansas City Monarchs game. "What I tried to do with the piece was to take all of those images that I can remember and put them into one piece. The pitcher is actually a conglomerate of all the pitchers that pitched so well in those days." Powell states that "the piece had to portray the dignity of a people forced to live through a shameful time in our history." Looking Him Back went on tour in the exhibit Shades of Greatness by the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

Queen Mother, 2007 Queen Mother is painted and drawn with watercolor and pastel on board. It is part of the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art's permanent collection works on paper. 2006 Named "One to Watch" by Watercolor Magic Magazine 2020 ArtsKC Virtuoso Award

Exhibitions 2002 The Light in the Other Room Group Show, 18th Street Studio, Kansas City 2004 Vine Street Studio, Kansas City 2004 Shades of Greatness, Negro League Museum, Kansas City UMKC’s African American History and Culture House 2014 All Colors, Portfolio Gallery, St.Louis 2017 Vine Street Studio, Kansas City 2019 All Colors, Portfolio Gallery, Kansas City 2020 All Colors, Portfolio Gallery, St. Louis

Collections Collection of Dr. Loretta Britton Saad, 2002 American Jazz Museum Collection Negro Leagues Baseball Museum Collection Sprint Art Collection H & R Block Art Collection Federal Reserve Bank Art Collection Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art Collection Truman Medical Center Art Collection Mulvane Art Museum Collection Arrowhead Art Collection