South City Gallery Night: Inspired By Collaboration
Saturday, October 19, 2024, was a day full of art. Bryan Walsh, Gallery Director and founder of Fifteen Windows Gallery, collaborated with galleries across numerous neighborhoods to create South City Gallery Night, which invited patrons to visit six galleries in South St. Louis. To make the evening truly special, four galleries hosted opening receptions. Additionally, Walsh shared exhibit information for two additional Cherokee Street galleries open on Saturdays, which had their current exhibits on display.
Locations participating in the Gallery Night were 31 Art Gallery, Cunst Gallery, Fifteen Windows Gallery, The Luminary, Untitled Fine Art, and Wildfruit Projects. Gallery nights have been organized successfully in other neighborhoods, including the Central West End. Similar evenings are also organized in other midwestern cities. Columbus, Ohio’s Gallery Hop is a longstanding success that can claim a 40-year tradition. Local gallery owners hope to make this coordinated effort a regular thing, and Walsh is open to organizing additional collaborative evenings.
31 Art Gallery
31 Art Gallery, located at 3520 Hampton Ave, is currently displaying the Punk Rock Art Show. This exhibit features work from 18 different artists including Jared Minnick, Maxine Thirteen, Andy Dykeman, Kerry Smith, Erik Thompson, Steven Hayes, Willie Gates, Katie Chilman, Mark Regester, and Paola Scharberg, along with guest artists Metra Mitchell, Cadence Hodes, Livia Xandersmith, JT Walls, Kate Brockmeyer, Theresa Hopkins, Brian Lathan and Henryk Ptasiewicz. The exhibit includes loud, bold pieces that fill two large rooms and multiple smaller spaces with printmaking, paintings, sculpture, photography, and mixed media. Pieces encompass a range of scale and price points. Modern works covered most walls of hallways, hung from the ceiling and partition walls – many with overt influences of postmodernism and pop. The opening reception also featured punk music by local musicians, the opportunity to meet the various artists, and support from local brewer 4 Hands with a specially designed City Wide can wrap.
Punk Rock Art Show is available to view on Saturdays from 11 AM – 4 PM until February 8, 2025. In addition to more traditional media, and as part of the 31 Art Gallery space, owner/artist Jared Minnick also creates custom guitars, some of which are also on display as a part of the Punk Rock Art Show.
Cunst Gallery
Cunst Gallery is in a private residence in the Marine Villa neighborhood on the corner of Salena and President Streets. This gallery is truly unique, including gallery spaces in this home’s living room and basement. The current upstairs exhibit features monochromatic hand-copied texts and drawings on vellum. Opening night for “The Days” by Kansas City-based artist and writer Sierra Faust included a collaborative performance by pianist Ben Havey, a doctoral candidate at UMKC. Faust is a Resident Artist at Pendleton Arts Block, and her studio is at Agnes Arts.
Currently on exhibit in the Basement gallery is “Cyberhunks” by Sophia Malone. Malone is a St. Louis-based printmaker, curator, and small business owner. This exhibit features a wall-to-wall immersive display of Risograph printing in the one-room basement gallery space. The exhibit includes copies of the Melon Press publication “Froot Punch 2!”. This publication is a 100% Risograph-printed, queer-focused submission magazine curated and published by Malone. This exhibit can be viewed by appointment during weekday evenings and weekends until early December.
Fifteen Windows Gallery
Fifteen Windows Gallery, located at 3155 Cherokee Street, is currently exhibiting “Guardians & Gateways,” a collection of 35+ paintings by Joshua Chapman. These bright, psychedelic paintings were created using a combination of ink, watercolor, and gouache. This work features geometric, symmetrical, and mandala-inspired designs. Chapman, a local Tattoo Artist and painter, is the first solo exhibit in the gallery.
Fifteen Windows Gallery is open on Saturdays from Noon to 4 PM or by appointment. This exhibit will run until November 30, 2024, with a closing reception planned for Saturday, November 16, from 6 to 9 PM.
The Luminary
The Luminary Gallery is located at 2701 Cherokee Street. It has two connected spaces: a small shop selling local curated goods and a dedicated exhibition space. The current exhibition, “(An) Anthology of the Ocean” by Chicago-based artist Soo Shin, incorporates sculpture, drawing, and sound, exploring the concepts of identity, belonging, and absence through various works and materials, including ceramic, brass, concrete, wood, and seawater. The exhibit’s design reinforces the tension and longing as you move through negative space between the 14 works and the spacious gallery space.
On the other side of the Luminary building, there is currently a delicate exhibit, “Designing the Underground—A History of St. Louis in Print,” curated by Kellen Wright. This exhibit features nearly 30 hand-bound artist books displayed on two embellished handmade wooden shelves, all by local St. Louis artists demonstrating various printing techniques.
Both exhibits are open Thursday and Friday from 10 AM to 6 PM and Saturday from Noon to 4 PM until December 14, 2024. Artist Soo Shin will also mark the close of her exhibit with an in-person artist talk on 12/14. The Luminary hosts three exhibits annually, each on display for eight weeks.
Untitled Fine Art
Ryan Mocaby owns and curates Untitled Fine Art at 2920 Cherokee Street. Mocaby displays works from nearly 20 local and regional artists and currently has a featured exhibit, “Metousiosis,” featuring illustrious traditional prints by Travis Lawrence. Lawrence’s exhibit is located in the forwardmost section of the gallery, while additional artists have works displayed in partitioned sections deeper in the gallery space. Various artists reflect Untitled’s mission of showcasing a diverse and eclectic blend of artists and styles.
Untitled Fine Art is open from noon- 6 PM on Saturday and Sunday. Works at Untitled Fine Art are constantly being rotated into display for a unique experience each visit, and featured exhibits will open with a reception.
Wildfruit Projects
Wildfruit Projects is a queer-led space dedicated to building community through exhibitions and events in Dutchtown at 4704 Virginia Ave. Their current solo exhibit is “Black Butterfly: In Bloom” by Adria Nicole, an artist, musician, and herbalist. This exhibit of a dozen works showcases digital collages of botanical and portrait photography, creating surreal plantscapes of winged human figures. Interspersed with the 12”x12” portraits are excerpts of interviews recorded during the portrait subjects. Nicole described this exhibit as “an invitation to step into a world where Black liberation takes flight, and the human spirit flourishes in harmony with nature.” The exhibit “Black Butterfly: In Bloom” will be on display from October 9 to November 17, 2024, by appointment only.
Wildfruit Projects also hosts Goodie House, which showcases local poetry and storytelling events on the fourth Thursday of each month from February through October.
Got Art?
At Mound City Media, we seek to cover more of our city’s dynamic visual art scene. Do you have a gallery space or an upcoming exhibit? Send us a message through the form at the bottom of this page or DM us on our socials. Thanks for helping us showcase the fantastic arts community in St. Louis!
