Current Exhibitions Include:
Speaking Volumes
Speaking Volumes focuses on two artists with different perspectives on the experiences of sight and sound: Susan Shie, who is visually impaired, and Richard Meyers, who is hearing impaired. This exhibition is presented in partnership with VSA Missouri, a statewide organization promoting access to the arts for people with disabilities.
Both Shie and Meyers approach their work as a kind of diary, a way to capture a moment, thought or feeling. On the surface these works are very different, but they are connected by their shared desire to express the artist's intimate and private experiences.
Susan Shie's website: http://www.turtlemoon.com/
Richard Meyers' website: www.vsamissouri.org/portfolio.php?catid=5
Solo Gallery: The Austerity Plan
The St. Louis Artists' Guild's Solo Gallery presents The Austerity Plan, an exhibition of new work by Robert Goetz, our Fall 2011 Keyholder Artist-in-Residence (Printmaking).
Artist's Statement
The Austerity Plan takes its name from a song I penned in response to a small art review segment Jessica Baran wrote regarding a piece I have at the Sheldon. Two words from the write up, austerity and nostalgia, form the nucleus of the song. At first I found them to be a negative, but I do feel these words describe the work in a sense and have since changed my opinion about their face value. Nostalgia is the keeper of self worth and Austerity primes animal logic. From the song intrepretation of The Austerity Plan I began to cull images from my creative past.
My residency has been fruitful. I have moved through three bodies of work. The first and last are presented here. The beginning phase was about color and form. Color as a response to sound through the ideas of synaethesis. The forms come from the guitars I use to write songs. I needed a flat printing matrix to work through the ideas contained within synaesthesis (in plain English the color/sound relationship). Guitar "scratchplates" offered this along with the implication of song writing. Song writing is not all that different from building images.
In the final body of work, I am allowing the sound and image an equal place in creating an outcome. As I work through I can't help bt think these images and songs might co-author a larger project. The images have a still frame quality and even act as a screenplay, further implying a layering with their audio siblings as possible action sequences. The scences depicted in these etchings are in some part lifted from past work and relay an archive. Nostalgia is seeping in and austerity is contained within the rigid practice of etching.
I should thank Gina Alvarez for the opportunity to take a long look at my work through the print medium. Gina has been kind and generous with her thoughts on my progress. And she has shown that being a respected artist doesn't always mean that you are selfish. Doctor Michael Hunt has also poked his head into the studio and I will always foundly remember the idea of sharing ideas in sound. One of our discussions about synaesthesis or "color hearing" formed a huge impact on the work at the St. Louis Artists' Guild. Of I course I shouldn't leave out the incredibly friendly staff of the St. Louis Artists' Guild and the fellow artists that share the space.
— Robert Goetz
On Another Note…
On Another Note…, a group exhibition juried by David Ellis, examines the relationships between visual art, music and sound.
Artists featured in On Another Note:
- Robin Assner and Adam Watkins (St. Louis, MO)
- Michael Behle (St. Louis, MO)
- Joshua DeWall (Galena, IL)
- Megan Eyssell (St. Louis, MO)
- Andrew James (St. Louis, MO)
- Laurie LeBreton (Chicago, IL)
- Naomi Faith Smith (Ellensburg, WA)
- Zack Smithey (St. Charles, MO)
- Reveal Collaborative (Athens, OH)
Jurors' Statement
The desire to visually express music seems inevitable. I've always found myself drawn to musicians who draw, paint, sculpt, make videos, or take pictures, and visual artists who make beats, play instruments, rap or sing.
About 20 years ago, when I was in art school, I started going to jazz clubs late at night to draw. I was lifted by the challenge of capturing the fleeting movements of the changing soloists as I tapped out ink beats with my pen on a place mat or bar napkin in sync with the bass and drums. The resulting markings, equally figurative and abstract, served as visual recordings of the previous night's performance. The end results fell short for me in that they were always still, silent documents morphing the shapes of figure, trumpet, saxophone, piano, bass and drums. I longed to turn up the volume and move the art through time. I began to explore the possibilities of making my own music by interchanging drums and paintings, realizing that at the core, they both consist of a membrane stretched over a frame that resonates when struck. I began making paintings in drums that were pitched to different tones, hung on the wall and played with automated rum beaters attached to the frames. The paintings started making music themselves. Drawing from this experience, I made my selections for On Another Note.
The works in this exhibition speak to the ideas of music from a multitude of angles, across media: video, glass, paper, paint, mixed media, and sound.
All of the artists here use repetition of form and layering to acheive visual rhythm and resonance, some make work that is time-based and incorporates sound. It is my hope that viewers will allow themselves to listen with their eyes, see with their ears, and experience visions of time and space, on another note.
— David Ellis, 2011
For more information on David Ellis, visit his website or joshualinergallery.com.
Oh! You Pretty Things: Indie Music and Design
Musical culture is defined not just by sound, but its accompanying visual vocabulary, found on posters, T-shirts, and record packaging. This exhibition is an exploration of graphic design in the St. Louis indie music scene, with an emphasis on the D.I.Y (do-it-yourself) aesthetic and philosophy. These artists and designers use techniques such as collage, silkscreen, and hand-drawn elements to create one-of-a-kind works that both stand on their own as visual expressions and work in synthesis with musical sounds and performances. Participating artists include Sleepy Kitty, Jason Potter, and Jeremy Kannapell. Organized by Adrian Aquilino.
Children's Gallery: Sensation (Missouri School for the Blind and Central Institute for the Deaf)
Sensation is an exhibit of work by the talented students at Central Insitute for the Deaf and Missouri School for the Blind. Originally meant to be an exhibit about the senses of vision and touch, this turns out to be a celebration of all the senses—from the visual dazzle of glitter and translucent colors of paintings on plexi-glas, to the soft rattling sounds of mobiles moving with the air current, to the sense of texture of the landscapes and shaving cream drawings...and who doesn't smell and taste the waffles, tamales, french fries, and other charming culinary delights?
One sense on display here is not in our normal vocabulary of what we learn in science class—the sense of play. These students had fun and it shows. Like a lot of children's work, it reminds us of why we make art in the first place—to dig into materials and experiment, to ask "what if?" and then simply to try it.
VSA Missouri is proud to celebrate the work of these young artists. They prove that disability has no effect on the ability to explore, make beautiful objects, and have fun!
—
Leslie Holt
Executive Director
VSA Missouri: The State Organization on Arts and Disability
Thank you to Lynnie McElwee from the Missouri School for the Blind and Amanda Dunaway from the Central Insitute for the Deaf—the amazing teachers who engage their students in exploration and play every day!
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