Metropolitan St. Louis is home to a number of venues that are the home to ongoing exhibits that change periodically. The venues range from small galleries operated by local organizations to larger museums maintained by universities and communities.
CURRENT ART EXHIBITS
Matisse and the Sea
Through May 12, 2024
Saint Louis Art Museum
St. Louis, Missouri
Matisse and the Sea is the first exhibition to examine the significance of the sea across Modernist artist Henri Matisse’s career, which included artwork in coastal locations on the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, and the Pacific. Marine imagery was an important catalyst for Matisse’s artistic experimentation - most notably in the Saint Louis Art Museum’s own iconic painting Bathers with a Turtle.
Window to the Soul
Through May 16, 2024
Venue: Art St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
For this juried exhibit, artists were asked to consider what the adage, “the eyes are the window to your soul” means to them and how do they explicitly or implicitly explore that meaning in their artwork? This show features original artworks in a variety of media including ceramics, collage, digital art, drawing, mixed media, painting, photography, sculpture, textiles, video, and more.
Source by Maddie Aunger
Through May 18, 2024
St. Louis Artists’ Guild
Clayton, Missouri
There is power to be found in moments of quiet, and stillness. “Source” showcases times that have held the attention of Maddie Aunger. Each piece begins with an excitement about a specific formal quality, a shape of light, a hint of color, repetition of form, or a composition of layered spaces and the exhibit encourages the viewer to slow down and recognize that these moments can be found within their own worlds.
In the Foothills of the Endless Mountain by Lisa Lofgren
Through May 18, 2024
St. Louis Artists’ Guild
Clayton, Missouri
Lofgren often says she is from the foothills of the Bighorn Mountains in Wyoming. The repetition of saying this phrase has her questioning the importance of the foothills beyond being the rolling grasslands blanketing the rocky uplift. If mountains are described as a precipice of achievement the foothills become the starting point of an ascension. The action of the climbing is her focus–climbing towards all-knowing.
A Change of Scenery
Through May 18, 2024
St. Louis Artists’ Guild
Clayton, Missouri
The St. Louis Artists’ Guild is proud to present, A Change of Scenery, a juried exhibit that showcases artists working in various mediums whose work engages with landscape, exploring how the natural environment around us influences their representations of ourselves and communities.
Native American Art of the 20th Century: The William P. Healey Collection
Through July 14, 2024
Saint Louis Art Museum
St. Louis, Missouri
Native American Art of the 20th Century: The William P. Healey Collection celebrates a transformative gift of outstanding works by Native American artists active across the 20th century. The promised gift of 100 works establishes a critical junction between the Museum’s deep collection of Indigenous art pre-1920 and a growing emphasis on the contemporary.
Kahlil Robert Irving: Archaeology of the Present
Through July 29, 2024
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum
St. Louis, Missouri
The St. Louis–based artist Kahlil Robert Irving creates assemblages made of layered images and sculptures composed of replicas of everyday objects. Mainly working in ceramics, Irving critically engages with the history of the medium and challenges constructs around identity and culture in the Western world.
Santiago Sierra: 52 Canvases Exposed to Mexico City’s Air
Through July 29, 2024
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum
St. Louis, Missouri
Madrid-based artist Santiago Sierra is known for his provocative performance and installation art that deals with the topic of social inequities and has created works visualizing of the toxicity of contemporary urban life. Sierra created the 52 compositions—one for each week in a year—by placing adhesive-lacquered canvases on the floor in a building in Mexico City with the windows open, allowing the air to settle on them.
The Body in Pieces
Through July 29, 2024
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum
St. Louis, Missouri
By the early 20th century, Europe and the United States had experienced rapid modernization and industrialization. Artwork from this time reflect the sensorial overload of urban life, the sweep of high-speed travel, the repetitive motions of factory machinery, and the dismemberment caused by mechanized warfare. Dana Ostrander, assistant curator curated this exhibition with artwork primarily from the Kemper's permanent collection.
Concealed Layers: Uncovering Expressionist Paintings
Through August 4, 2024
Saint Louis Art Museum
St. Louis, Missouri
A painting’s surface hides a wealth of information that can only be found using advanced methods of conservation science. Concealed Layers: Uncovering Expressionist Paintings presents new discoveries made during an ambitious three-year study of the Museum’s world-class collection of German Expressionist paintings. Complete underpaintings, a lost title, and studio graffiti are just some of the exciting findings that will receive their public debut.
Delcy Morelos: Interwoven
Through August 4, 2024
Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts
St. Louis, Missouri
Colombian artist Delcy Morelos creates art that calls attention to connections between people and the environment. Using natural materials like textile, fibers, clay, and soil, her work asks us to consider earth as a living entity rather than a territory to be owned. The exhibition features paintings, sculptures, and installations made throughout Morelos’s career, including several works never before seen in the United States. In addition, Morelos will create a monumental, immersive sculpture made from local soil specifically for the Pulitzer’s galleries.
On Earth
Through August 4, 2024
Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts
St. Louis, Missouri
On Earth features five artists who use moving images to explore the complex relationships between humans and the natural environment. The film and video works in this exhibition present land as a central figure, introducing themes of temporality, ritual, memory, territory, loss, and birth. Offering critical readings on the often destructive relationship between humankind and the earth, the artists also advance visions for alternative futures. The artworks directly engage with challenging realities, while acknowledging the joy, creativity, and growth that a relationship with land can provide.
Paul Chan - Breathers
Through August 11, 2024
Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
New York-based artist, writer, and publisher Paul Chan came to prominence in the early 2000s with vibrant moving image works that touched upon aspects of war, religion, pleasure, and politics. Around 2009 Chan embarked on a self-imposed break. Taking the notion of a “breather” as its organizing principle, this exhibition surveys Chan’s activities since his break from that point to the present.
ArtReach: The Art of Caring
Through August 11, 2024
Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
What makes a problem a societal issue? Why do these problems persist? What roles can visual art play in addressing these issues? ArtReach: The Art of Caring is the product of a semester-long focus on questions of social justice and healing with visual art students at Sumner and Vashon High Schools.
Transform Your Hood
Through August 11, 2024
Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
Transform Your Hood is a multifaceted, nonpartisan campaign that aims to activate how we creatively express our values through civic engagement. Residents of the St. Louis region are invited to take time and space to consider what matters most, and how to use their voice and action to shape these issues.
Currents 123: Tamara Johnson
Through September 22, 2024
Saint Louis Art Museum
St. Louis, Missouri
A painting’s surface hides a wealth of information that can only be found using advanced methods of conservation science. Concealed Layers: Uncovering Expressionist Paintings presents new discoveries made during an ambitious three-year study of the Museum’s world-class collection of German Expressionist paintings. Complete underpaintings, a lost title, and studio graffiti are just some of the exciting findings that will receive their public debut.
Shimmering Silks: Traditional Japanese Textiles, 18th-19th Centuries
Through October 20, 2024
Saint Louis Art Museum
St. Louis, Missouri
Japanese people have used silk to create items of clothing and decorative works of art for hundreds of years, ever since the cultivation of silkworms was introduced to Japan from China during the third and fourth centuries CE. Shimmering Silks: Traditional Japanese Textiles, 18th-19th Centuries celebrates silk pieces from the collection of the Saint Louis Art Museum, which has been collecting fine Japanese textiles for more than a century. Some were purchased by the Museum while others were generously given by patrons and donors over decades.