This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Feb. 23, 2011 - Former St. Louis artist Christina Shmigel has been living in Shanghai since 2004, and since then the city has become the primary theme in her sculpture. "This City, Daily Rising," her current exhibition at Bruno David, is her first solo show here since 2005, and it's a knock-out.
Shmigel has locked in on a handful of key elements in the bewildering megalopolis, such as its ad hoc architectural structures, the sub-economy of recycling, and the overwhelming presence of colorful, molded-plastic products, and she's translated them into sculptural iterations on a variety of scales.
The centerpiece of the exhib is an enormous, antique Chinese medicine cabinet. Shmigel fills dozens of drawers with small tableaux and constructions inspired by the city.
For the majority of us who will never visit Shanghai, who will never be exposed firsthand to its frenetic pace and sublime scale, Shmigel serves as an ideal interpreter.
Ivy Cooper, a professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, is the Beacon art critic.