Recent Gallery Scenes

Time to update the gallery scene with news of some shows. At Creative Art Gallery, 3232 Ivanhoe, St Louis, MO, 63139, The St Louis Watercolor Society launched their 13th annual exhibition, 03/30/12-04/20/2012.

Mary Ellen Shortland, gallery owner, said that this was a very exciting show to mount. She added that she and Stephen Quiller viewed over 200 works before whittling the current show down to 87. (Mr Quiller who juries the show is an internationally known painter; he has written 6 books, and also invented the "Quiller Wheel").

Mr Quiller lives and works in the San Juan Mountains of southern Colorado. Mr Quiller wrote in the exhibition catalogue: "I look for the artists' uniqueness of vision".

While it is impossible to mention all of the watercolor paintings, two are representative of this show. The Juror's Choice Award and $200.00 went to Gloria Henderson for "Mary". This arresting, contemporary, seated portrait of a woman in a leopard dress has dark, murky colors which catch the mood of the sitter.

The $50.00 Award of Recognition went to Janet Doll for "Grand Avenue", a photo-realistic picture of the "Great White Way" (Grand Avenue) and includes a MetroLink bus.

The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts is celebrating the tenth anniversary of its Tadao Ando-designed building and a retrospective of its collections. "In the Still Epiphany", April 5- October 27, 2012, features 29 works "cherry picked" by Gedi Sebony. He has arranged them in vibrant juxtaposition to each other, but also to the building itself.

Edward Vuillard (French, 1868-1940) opens the exhibit with his "Self Portrait" (c. 1892). Vuillard pops up again in the 5th painting, the oil on cardboard, "Woman in Green Hat" (c. 1905)---think Wicked Witch of the West! Vuillard's "Woman in Green" (1909) hangs on the lowest level: here the woman sits sideways on a brown, mottled couch looking at the viewer coming down the long hallway towards her.

Vuillard's fellow and contemporary artist, Pierre Bonnard(French, 1867-1947) has "Still Life with Ham" (1940), oil on canvas. Bonnard, more of a colorist than Vuillard, obviously had Easter in mind with the pink ham, blue duck eggs, and red pomegranates prominently featured.

This exhibit contains a fair amount of ceramics, decorative objects, and sculpture. The "Plaque in the Form of a Funery Mask" (Peru, c. 1100-1400) features shells with inlaid turquoise; as a crafted item of utilitarian value, it approaches fine art.

The usual "list of suspects" in this show includes works by Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881-1973), Roy Lichtenstein (American, 1923-1997), Paul Cezanne (French, 1839-1906), Alberto Giacometti (Swiss, 1901-1966), Constantin Brancusi (French/Romanian, 1876-1957), Paul Klee (Swiss, 1879-1940), and Henri Matisse (French, 1869-1954).

The Cube Gallery is dark, other-worldly, mythic, and depicts the infinite. Lucio Fontana's (Italian, 1899-1968) "Black Landscape" serves as a backdrop and is fronted by a black "Punch and Judy" stage which includes two fertility figures fixed in space and projecting forward on wires.

Directly across the street from the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts is the Bruno David Gallery, 3721 Washington Blvd, St Louis, MO, 63108. The show, March 9-May 5, 2012, features 4 artists with post-modern styles.

In the Front Room is "Malevich: with eight red rectangles" by Buzz Spector; in the Project Room is Katherine Kuharic's "Working in the Lou"; in the Media Room is the six minute video by Van McElwee titled, "Supernatural".

The main exhibit space contains the wildly colorful and abstract "Recent Paintings" by Chris Kahler. These over-sized canvases are best viewed from across the room and then close up to fully appreciate the relationship of the painted patterns.

Check the websites for open times and then view some art at the various galleries mentioned. Have fun!