Title: Displacement

Series: Living in Tents: Bridging Art and Humanity (2025)

Status: Held in Private Collection

Medium: Oil, Charcoal, Silver, and Pearl on Canvas

Size: Approx. 20“ x 30” | 51 × 76 cm

Originally exhibited at Westwood City Hall during the 2025 election cycle, Displacement serves as a primary visual anchor for the Living in Tents series. This body of work was designed as a civic intervention—placing the realities of unsheltered life directly in the view of policy makers and residents.

The work utilizes a landmark of the Kansas City elite, transposed into the vernacular of a shopping cart. This juxtaposition investigates the tension between civic pride and human need, naming the quiet precarity often hidden in plain sight. Constructed during a period of peak chronic street homelessness in Kansas City, the work stands as both image and testimony.

Following its debut, this piece was acquired for a private collection, with proceeds supporting reStart Inc.’s mission to provide dignity and housing programs for the unhoused community

-Daniel Montoute