Summer 2015 exhibitions
Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis
3750 Washington Blvd.
St. Louis, MO 63108
Hours: Wednesday–Sunday 10am–5pm,
Thursday–Friday 10am–8pm
T +1 314 535 4660
The Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (CAM) announces the opening of its summer exhibition season on May 1, 2015, featuring:
Occupational Therapy
May 1–August 16, 2015
Sincere, cynical, and humorous in equal measure, Occupational Therapy engages the complexities and challenges of being an artist. The exhibition encompasses a wide range of media and features work by 20 renowned artists: John Baldessari, Martin Brief, Tammy Rae Carland, Rochelle Feinstein, Karl Holmqvist, Christian Jankowski, Martin Kippenberger, Yayoi Kusama, Maria Lassnig, Lee Lozano, Bruce Nauman, Carl Pope, William Powhida, Pedro Reyes, Deb Sokolow, Buzz Spector, Frances Stark, William Wegman, and Andrew Norman Wilson and Nick Bastis. Whether aspiring to wellness or imparting words of wisdom, the artists in Occupational Therapy crystallize art therapy’s directive to sublimate one’s afflictions through the act of making art.
Laurie Simmons: Two Boys and the Love Doll
May 1–August 16, 2015
Comprising two recent bodies of work, Two Boys and the Love Doll is the first Midwestern solo museum exhibition of acclaimed American photographer Laurie Simmons. In The Love Doll series, Simmons personifies a life-size, latex love doll by presenting her as an everyday woman engaging in ordinary activities. Two Boys, based on the eponymous opera by Nico Muhly, features two slack-jawed CPR dummies who face computer screens with closed eyes. In both series, Simmons asserts the doll as neither a solution for loneliness nor a replacement for bodily contact; instead her photographs offer a glimpse into our current lack of real world connectivity.
Michael Staniak: IMG_
May 1–June 28, 2015
Australian artist Michael Staniak makes paintings that intentionally confuse the digital with the handmade, scrutinizing the role of technology today. This first solo museum exhibition of the artist’s work comprises paintings from four series: IMG_, Internet Blueprint, DATA, and PNG_Binary Code. Staniak’s conceptually prescient and materially innovative paintings envelop the viewer in an opposition between aesthetic beauty and the numbing effects of our digitized world.
New Art in the Neighborhood: 20/20
May 1–July 12, 2015
Established in 1995, New Art in the Neighborhood is CAM’s flagship education program, providing St. Louis-area high school students with pre-professional art instruction and opportunities to work with major contemporary artists from around the world. In celebration of the program’s twentieth anniversary, 20/20 features artwork made by the class of 2015 in collaboration with visiting artists and area arts organizations. On view is a wide range of work—from murals and video art to contemporary takes on such classic subjects as illuminated manuscripts and cabinets of curiosity.
Nomad Studio: Green Varnish
May 23–September 13, 2015
Designed by New York-based landscape architecture firm Nomad Studio, Green Varnish is the first major, transformational installation in CAM’s courtyard. This undulating yet modulated field of thousands of tiny succulents fills the 45-by-50-foot space, re-imagining the interior courtyard as a lush, growing sculpture. With Green Varnish, Nomad references the act of painting over something in order to beautify it. Rather than wishing to merely cover a surface however, the designers call attention to the need to completely re-envision parts of our built environment. In this case, a petro-floral green carpet elegantly takes over CAM’s gravel courtyard. Like a blanket being unfurled, the structure appears to float at the edges, hovering slightly above the ground.
Liat Yossifor: Pre-Verbal Painting
July 3–August 16, 2015
Featuring all new work made specifically for CAM, Pre-Verbal Painting is the first Midwestern solo museum exhibition of Israeli-born, Los Angeles-based artist Liat Yossifor. Visually recalling the aesthetics of cave painting and the intuitive act of finger painting, Yossifor’s work is abstract, yet viewers may discern recognizable symbols within it. The artist vigorously mixes and shapes thick layers of oil paint, manipulating the surface as if a sculptural medium. The resulting compositions are based solely on Yossifor’s physical, ritualistic, and trance-like interaction with the paint, furthering an approach pioneered by the action painters of the 1950s. Through this practice, Yossifor attempts to create a visual record of the cathartic act of expression.
About the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis
The Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (CAM) presents, supports, and celebrates the art of our time. It is the premier museum in St. Louis dedicated to contemporary art. Focused on a dynamic array of changing exhibitions, CAM provides a thought-provoking program that reflects and contributes to the global cultural landscape. Through the diverse perspectives offered in its exhibitions, public programs, and educational initiatives, CAM actively engages a range of audiences to challenge their perceptions. It is a site for discovery, a gathering place in which to experience and enjoy contemporary visual culture.
