KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI.- Miami-based Naomi Fisher creates psychologically and sexually charged images in which tropical landscape, decorative pattern, and fairytale figures collide in nightmarish scenarios. Fisher's high-fashion seductresses are menacing - often wielding knives - in her drawings and photographs, saturated with reds, oranges, yellows, and pinks. Featuring 11 works, the exhibition Naomi Fisher: Clear Cut is on view through July 10 at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art.

Fisher's "ladies," as she calls them, are drawn from characters imagined or inspired by horror films, feminist literature, music, mythology, and art history. Her tough-girl images reflect a shift in the representation of women in today's culture, with Xena Warrior Princess, Gwen Stefani, Lara Croft, and other icons of "grrrl power" on center stage.