So Much Art, So Little Time!

The Studio, 2707 Sutton, Maplewood, MO, 63143, opened "Star of the Stars" on 10/07/11. The show consists of 30 photographs (out of 600) filmed by the artist, Yoichi Nagata. Shot at Tokyo's night clubs over a period of five years, these document the current mores and aspirations of Japanese youth.

There the subjects of the photos, mostly female, dress themselves in almost theatrical costumes, don lavish makeup, and "vogue". On 11/05/11, Sarah Carmody staged an outrageous production in her gallery space. A geisha served sake (hot or cold) and Japanese snacks for a modest donation. Three Rivers Aikido's senior students demonstrated the fighting style of aikido.

Makeup artist, Jessica Dana, transformed several young women and one man into the "clubbers" depicted in the photographs. They then posed for their own photographs. Later they spilled out onto the sidewalk to brandish hula hoops with flashing lights. Finally, after the excitement had died down, chairs were dragged out and an impromptu theater showed the film, "Yojimbo", by Kurosawa.

moved to its new location in Clayton, 21 N. Bemiston, 63105, where "Satellite to Earth" opened on 10/14/2011. The new space is light filled and seems less cluttered than the original space. Paintings are hung "salon-style" and each of the sixteen artists has their own wall space.

On 11/09/2011, Gateway Gallery hosted a seminar, "The Art of Design", by C.J. Knapp, ASID, IDS. She has done design work for over 30 years, including many of the St Louis Symphony Show Houses. Her folksy talk included handing around artifacts and dozens of 7" x 12" photographs. These demonstrated various design motifs.

Mrs. Knapp began her talk with the story of cavemen discovering fire, then making the leap of using charred wood (charcoal) to draw on their cave walls. These totemic illustrations of power were among the first interior designs. Knapp's design tips (accountants like orderly displays of their art works and "use red sparingly") were interspersed with hilarious anecdotes of growing up as the middle one of nine children. She thought that her mother papered the dining room walls with four different wall papers as a design statement, when in reality, her mother told her that she did so because she only had enough money to do one wall at a time!

Knapp plucked Greg Matchick's tissue-cover box from the gallery and passed it around, not only as an art object but as a design "find". Matchick's box is printed on each side with a photo of "The Bridge of Sighs" in Venice, Italy.

Other gallery showings around town include the "Aggregate Exhibition Series" at , Naomi Silver at Tavern of Fine Arts, Jeff Aeling at Phillip Slein Gallery, and a Group Show at Art St Louis. Check out some of these shows, "warm up" your walls with some original art work, and help change St Louis from a "sports" town to a "s.p.arts" town (support professional arts).

Go gallery hopping!