A few months ago I talked about some of the shining stars in all the art disciplines in St. Louis.
In those past few months three of the shining stars in the visual arts are shining even brighter on a global level. I'll elaborate more on them.
Dominic Chambers had a solo exhibition at CAM (Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis). He has had exhibitions and is in the collection of prestigious institutions and collections on an international level.
Chambers and the other two artists who I will highlight have one thing in common--they love my favorite city, St. Louis.
In Chambers’ exhibition at CAM titled "Birthplace" was a work on oil and linen of his classroom in St. Louis as a child.
The gallery guide quotes Marcel Proust, "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes." Separation of a place we call home can sweeten our return, stoke a power of memory and focus our connections to spaces and places that have nurtured our imaginations.
Looking back on these words of Proust, what becomes clear is that Chambers’ return to St. Louis resonates on many levels. It allows the artist to celebrate the place of his birth and by extension the people who nurtured the creativity of his family and members of the faculty of Hazelwood East and Florissant Valley Community College.
And here he is back in town again where he recently created a mural connected to St. Louis University's Literary Award which was presented to Colson Whitehead, Pulitzer Prize winning author of "The Underground Railroad" this year. This mural is painted on one of the "Walls off Washington.” The mural explores the legacy of the Underground Railroad and highlights its significance in Missouri and the St. Louis Region.
Katherine Bernhardt grew up in St. Louis and had already succeeded in becoming a recognized artist. She came back to St. Louis to stay with her family during Covid, and decided to stay here.
Bernhardt's art is a reflection of her diverse influences, absorbing elements from Pop Art, Graffiti and street art traditions. She skillfully employs brush and spray paint to craft her pieces, which are characterized by their rhythmic patterns reminiscent of Moroccan rugs and African textiles. Her work is not just aesthetically pleasing but also serves as a subtle critique of the environmental degradation caused by consumer waste, as seen in her depictions of sea creatures navigating a sea of household products.
Bernhardt's work has been shown and lauded all over the world and we are thrilled to have her back in St. Louis.
Her work will hung this past summer at the Hangaram Art Museum in the Seoul Art Center in Korea. "A Match Made in Heaven," a two person presentation with fashion designer Jeremy Scott is currently on view at the Nerman Museum in Overland Park, Kansas. She has had art exhibitions all over the world. "Katherine Bernhardt Watermelon World "was shown in Lima, Peru and the list is never ending. She painted a sixty foot long mural entitled " XXL Superflat Pancake" for CAM in St. Louis.
Bernhardt’s works are in prominent museums and private collections all over America and the world.
I watched a short video in which Bernhardt talked about what and who influenced her and she said she loves color, loves the 80s aesthetic and uses art as an escape. She loves pop art and the Pink Panther. She likes to experiment and says that the bigger the work, the better to use some of her great amount of energy. She said that art is her therapy.
Isabella Meyer says of Bernhardt’s work, "Her distinctive style captures the energy and visual overload of modern live reflecting a unique perspective on contemporary society. Her work has garnered recognition for its playful and yet thought provoking commentary on the intersection, commerce and pop culture of our current society."
The St. Louis based Kahlil Robert Irving creates assemblages made up of layered images and sculptures composed of replicas of everyday objects. He often compares systems of control, compression and histories of Anti-Blackness which operate on the edges of our attention. Like sifting through archaeological strata, Irving's work reveals how our present moment is made up physical remnants that begin to tell a fragmented story.
Irving was born in San Diego but has lived and worked in St. Louis for years and was inspired by his beloved grandmother here in St. Louis. He attended the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts at Washington University in St .Louis (MFA 2017) and the Kansas City Art Institute (BFA, art history and ceramics 2015). Recent solo and group exhibitions include, "Projects: Kahlil Robert Irving,” Museum of Modern Art in New York (2021), "Social Works II,” Gagosian in London (2021), "Soft Water Hard Stone” at the New Museum Triennial, New York (2021),"Making Knowing: Craft in Art,1950-2019,” Whitney Museum of American Art in New York (2019) and the Singapore Biennale (2019). Irving was awarded the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant in 2020 and the Louis Comfort Tiffany biennial award in 2019. He was an artist in residence at Art Omi in summer 2018. Irving's work is in the collection of the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Foundation for Contemporary Ceramic Art, Kecskemet, Hungary; JP Morgan Chase Art Collection at the Kansas City Art Institute, Missouri; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, Kansas; Riga Porcelain Museum, Latvia; RISD Museum, Providence; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
Ruth Ezell of Nine PBS interviewed Irving and talked about his recent exhibition at the Kemper Art Museum on the Washington University campus and how he engages the public. The exhibition catalogue said, "With this installation the artist suggests that the city street can be considered a place of not only collective gathering but also transit between points of safety and security. Shifting our focus to the unseen or overlooked materials existing just beneath our feet, Irving poses questions about forces that shape these public spaces and our experiences of them. These questions are firmly local, deriving from the artist's own experiences and losses living in St. Louis, yet emphatically universal. Which buildings and neighborhoods are devalued and demolished, and which are preserved."
Ezell pointed out that Irving could choose to live elsewhere but has chosen to remain in St. Louis.
Thanks to these shining stars who make our city sparkle.
Nancy Kranzberg has been involved in the arts community for more than forty years on numerous arts related boards.