Celebrate contemporary art (from 5-8 PM) in the Central West End with the opening of several new exhibitions.
Houska Gallery – #real
Houska Gallery is excited to present #real an exhibit of realism with a twist paintings by featured artists Hollywood Indian, Eric Wieringa, Metra Mitchell, Renee Raub-Ayers, John Salozzo, Larry Torno,Jay Alan Babcock and New work from Zack Smithey.
Duane Reed Gallery – Tom Huck
Tom Huck, best known for his large scale woodcut prints, tackles modern American society with a caustic and satirical approach on values and culture. With a deliberately confrontational style, Huck utilizes a wicked sense of humor by telling stories on morality and behavior in graphic details that border anarchy. Previewing for the first time in St. Louis; “Electric Baloneyland”, a triptych of monumental size, is a work sifting through the downward spiral of American culture, as played out through the goings on at a local county or state fair. A revealing statement of issues in regard to our vanishing liberties, civility, and overall humanity in the United States, Huck describes his work as a walkbetween the fine line of the whimsical and the terrifying.
Philip Slein – PEOPLE, PLACES, THINGS…
The still-life genre has come to renewed life with the thick gestural strokes of Tracy Miller and Holly Coulis. Portraiture is seen anew through the eyes of Amy Hill and Susanna Coffey. The landscape is transformed by Colin Brant, John Dilg, Zach Bruder, Jamie Adams, and Douglas Melini.
The paintings in this exhibition are fresh and exciting. Some may seem difficult, visually, at first glance. Introspection, however, will bear rewards. The lessons of abstract painting are rooted in this shift toward figuration.