Rabbit Hole

Rabbit Hole August 5 - September 7, 2017. FREE opening reception Saturday, August 5, 6-8 p.m. 

Please join Art Saint Louis for our new juried exhibit, Rabbit Hole,  featuring new artworks by 48 St. Louis regional artists from Missouri,  Illinois and Kentucky.

Graphic design by Emily Amberger.

Rabbit Hole is a juried visual art exhibition featuring artworks that focus on the ideas of fantasy, whimsy, imagination, and sense of wonder. The multi-media exhibition features 59 artworks by 48 St. Louis regional artists from Missouri, Illinois and Kentucky. Artworks featured express a variety of concepts and myriad sub-themes within the overall idea of Rabbit Hole. The artworks featured are created in many styles, techniques and media including ceramics, collage, drawing, fiber, mixed media, painting, photography, printmaking, and sculpture. We invite you to view images of all of the artworks featured in this exhibit in our Facebook album here. After the show opens we will post photo highlights from the opening reception. The exhibit is presented August 5 through September 7, 2017. A free opening reception is held Saturday, August 5, 6-8 p.m. Gallery hours are Monday 7 a.m.-5 p.m. and Saturday 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Closed Sundays & holidays. Closed September 2-4 for the Labor Day holiday & weekend. The Gallery will also be closed on Monday, August 21 for the Solar Eclipse. We are honored to have the opportunity to work with artists Sarah Paulsen and Justin Henry Miller as our Jurors for the Rabbit Hole exhibition. Artist Justin Henry Miller is Associate Professor of Art and Exhibitions Coordinator, River Campus Art Gallery, Southeast Missouri State University, Cape Girardeau, MO. Justin holds a MFA from University of Notre Dame (2006), MA, Eastern Illinois University (2003), and BA, Art Education, Eastern Illinois University (2002). Justin's work is represented by Zg Gallery, Chicago, IL. Artist Sarah Paulsen is an Art Instructor, St. Louis Community College Forest Park, and an Art Teacher, Miriam Middle School, St. Louis, MO. Sarah holds a MFA from Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, Washington University in St. Louis (2007) and BFA/BA in Fine Arts and Spanish, University of Missouri-Columbia (2000). Sarah is the recipient of the 2018 “Great Rivers Biennial” Arts Award, St. Louis Regional Arts Commission's Artist Fellowship (2014) and RAC's Artist Support Grant (2012), and Saint Louis Critical Mass for the Art's Critical Mass Stimulus Grant (2010).

HEC-TV Spotlights the Rabbit Hole Exhibition

SPECIAL FREE EVENT
COFFEE WITH THE ARTISTS: SATURDAY GALLERY TALK
Saturday, August 19, 11 a.m.    FREE

Please join us at Art Saint Louis on Saturday, August 19, at 11 a.m. and meet four of the featured artists in the Rabbit Hole exhibit.

Guests can enjoy complimentary coffee tastings courtesy of Catalyst Coffee Bar while the artists talk about their works on view in the exhibit, discuss the media that they use and the various techniques that they apply to making their form of artwork. The artists may also bring in samples of their other works or also present a demo of their particular media & techniques. Guests will walk with the artists through the Gallery as they talk about their works on view in the exhibition. This event is FREE & open to the public. 

Meet four featured artists from our Rabbit Hole exhibition on Saturday, August 19 and hear them talk about their featured works:

• Bill Abendroth, wood sculpture
• Brent Becker, mixed media
• Judith Olson, fiber
• Nelson Perez, painting

 The 48 featured artists in Rabbit Hole are:

Jurors’ Statements

  “It was a pleasure and an honor to serve as co-juror for the Rabbit Hole juried exhibition at Art St. Louis. As a general rule, when I jury a show I primarily consider three factors: creativity, originality, and technique. Of the over 300 pieces entered, so many works exceeded my expectations in all three areas. In my estimation I reviewed the submission about a half-dozen times and only with the careful reexamination and conversation between my co-juror and I were we able to decide on the final show. If space was not a consideration I believe this show could have easily included twenty to thirty additional pieces. I also want to relay my appreciation for the variety of interpretations of this show’s theme. In return I tried to choose a mix of works that reflected the breadth and diversity of approaches. I would like to thank all of the artists who entered work and congratulate those selected for the exhibition. I hope the visitors enjoy viewing this show as much as I enjoyed jurying it."

— Justin Henry Miller, artist, Associate Professor of Art,
Southeast Missouri State University, Cape Girardeau, MO

  "There was an amazing range of artworks submitted for the Rabbit Hole exhibition. Looking through these entries, I looked for commonalities about how the artists interpreted the call for fantasy, whimsy, imagination, and a sense of wonder. Thematically the artworks ranged from lighthearted, nostalgic and childlike imaginations, to dark, frightening and nightmarish dreams. I looked to art movements of the past that helped us define these sorts of work- Surrealism, Magic Realism, Dada, Cobra Art, and the Situationists. Many of these movements embraced techniques that involved an expression of the unconscious, such as automatic writing and gesture, or the associations born out of collage or wandering the street. I saw these ideas in moments where the artists presented everyday scenes as strange and odd, or when artists manipulated images, technically, to create new unfamiliar spaces. These ideas were also present when material experimentations rendered new forms, or the very use of materials had a sense of whimsy and imagination.
  Of course, we had several works that drew connections to Alice in Wonderland, in these instances, I looked for artistic reinterpretations. Many artworks revealed the iconic qualities of this story and how it was still present in contemporary life. Alice, an anthropomorphic novel, had connections to Surrealism as well, Salvador Dali created his own illustrations of the novel. This show indeed reflects the Surrealist goals of liberating the mind and imagination. While their movement was born out of World War I and the absurdities of war, I am not surprised that theses ideas still hold weight as we attempt to make sense of a world in which magic meets technology, and we wrestle, perhaps more polarized, with the inconsistencies of our existence."

— Sarah Paulsen, artist, Art Instructor, St. Louis Community College Forest Park,
and Art Teacher, Miriam Middle School, St. Louis, MO

Some of the 59 artworks featured in Rabbit Hole:

Lon Brauer, Granite City, IL. "Mona of the Fishbowl." 2016. Oil on Panel, 40”x24”. $2,450.	Howard Kuo, Hannibal, MO. "Don’t Slam My Door." 2017. Watercolor on Paper, 30”x20”. $800. This work was selected for an Honorable Mention.	Allison Sissom, St. Louis, MO. "Quaking Aspen Trees Shade a Mixture of Snowberry, Bluegrass and Dandelion." 2017. Collage: Children’s Books, Nature Magazines, 13.5”x18”. SOLD. This work was selected by the exhibit Jurors for an Award of Excellence.
James Wilson, Farmington, MO. "Turbulent Progression." 2017. Oil on Canvas, 48”x72”. $3,000.	Maria Cooper, Collinsville, IL. "Alice’s Fall II." 2016. Photo Composite, 18”x24”. $500.	Connie LaFlam, St. Louis, MO. "Going Going Gone." 2017. Photograph, triptych, 32”x66”. $900. This artwork was selected by the exhibit Jurors for an Award of Excellence.
Mary Robbins, Cape Girardeau, MO. "Nurture." 2017. Mixed Media Sculpture, 10.5”x10”x9”. $150.	Andrew McIlvaine, Olivette, MO. "Remembering." 2015. Oil on Wood Panel, 12”x12”. $500.	Diane Reising, St. Louis, MO. "Ride a Cock Horse." 2016. Oil on Canvas, 30”x24”. $625.
Linda Horsley, St. Louis, MO. "Queen Stealing Pig." 2016. Oil on Canvas, 36”x24” $950.	Dallas Moses, St. Louis, MO. "The Mad Hatter." 2014. Spray Painted Stencil on Panel, 24”x20”. $1,000.	Ben Walker, Paducah, KY. "The Grinder." 2017. Pen & Ink on Illustration Board, 20”x17”. $750.