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Friday 2/16/2018 Gallery Openings

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.

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The Ever-changing 17 Hortense Place | J.W. Thompson House

The J.W. Thompson house (17 Hortense Place) was built in 1909 by Thomas P. Barnett, the grandson of prominent St. Louis architect, George H. Barnett. The three story yellow brick home was unique to the area and was greatly influenced by Otto Wagner’s contemporary Austrian design known as Vienna Secession (Seen Below.)

The front donned giant verde-marble pilasters, twin heads of Minerva at the entrance, garland friezes above the attic windows, urns, trellises and ornamental ironwork. According to the book Architecture of the Private Streets of St. Louis by Charles Savage, “These and the pilasters were torn off, unfortunate victims of a subsequent owner’s embarrassed sensitivity.”  Continue reading “The Ever-changing 17 Hortense Place | J.W. Thompson House”

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St. Louis’ First Rush Bowl Location to Open in Spring 2018

The Denver-based chain, Rush Bowls, will soon have a location in the CWE at 227 N Euclid. The chain offers “meals-in-a-bowl” made up of fresh fruit, granola, honey, protein and vitamins. Clayton and Midtown are also current targets for other St. Louis locations.

“Rush Bowls offers more than 30 signature bowls, as well as smoothies made with fruit, yogurt, or acai. Signature bowls include the Power Bowl, made with blueberries, raspberries, bananas, oats, whey or soy protein, optional fat-free frozen yogurt, vanilla soy or fat-free milk, and topped with organic granola and honey. The Yoga Bowl combines mangos, pineapples, bananas, green tea, optional fat-free frozen yogurt, vanilla soy or fat-free milk, and the granola and honey topping.”

Read more about Rush Bowls here