Honor Awards 2018

Honor Awards 2018 June 16 - July 19, 2018. FREE opening reception Saturday, June 16, 5-7 p.m. 

Please join Art Saint Louis for Honor Awards 2018 exhibition featuring new artworks by ten award-winning artists curated from our 2017 juried exhibitions.

Graphic design by Emily Amberger.

Honor Awards 2018 features recent artworks by ten St. Louis regional artists from Missouri and Illinois. The 48 artworks in this exhibition include ceramic sculpture, handcast paper, mixed media, painting, and photography. The exhibit is presented June 16-July 19, 2018. A free opening reception is held Saturday, June 16, 5-7 p.m. Gallery hours are Monday 8 a.m.-4 p.m. and Saturday 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Closed Sundays & holidays. Closed for Fourth of July holiday & weekend. Serving as Curator of the Honor Awards 2018 exhibition was St. Louis-based artist Brian D. Smith. Brian D. Smith is Professor of Visual Arts at St. Charles Community College. Brian received his MFA in painting from the University of Chicago (1989) and a BFA in painting from Boston University (1984). A nationally exhibited artist, his work is included in numerous private and corporate collections throughout the U.S., including Emerson, Macy’s, Plaza Frontenac, Polsinelli Law Firm, Wells Fargo Advisers, Marketing Lab, and Washington University in St. Louis. Brian D. Smith is represented by the Duane Reed Gallery, St. Louis, MO. Our Honor Awards exhibition is an annual exhibit presented so that our Award of Excellence-winning artists from the previous year's juried exhibitions have an additional opportunity to show their newest or more recent works and potentially have those works curated into a special ten-artist exhibition in the ASL Gallery. Although this is a curated exhibit, it is still highly competitive. For this year's exhibit, 19 St. Louis regional artists were eligible to submit works for curating and consideration—those artists who earned Awards of Excellence in our 2017 juried exhibits here at Art Saint Louis. Exhibit Curator, Brian D. Smith, considered 138 artworks in all media by those 19 artists, and his main role was to select only ten artists and the specific artworks by those artists to be exhibited for the final show. You can view all of the 48 featured artworks in our Facebook album for the exhibit here. The ten featured artists in Honor Awards 2018 are: Bruce Alves, Wentzville, MO Rick Battram, Town & Country, MO Ken Clay, Maplewood, MO John DenHouter, Edwardsville, IL Linda Horsley, St. Louis, MO Connie LaFlam, St. Louis, MO Garry McMichael, St. Louis, MO Alex Paradowski, St. Louis, MO Mark Schatz, Lake St. Louis, MO James Wilson, Farmington, MO

Curator’s Statement 

 
  “I enjoy the role of curator. One is presented with the work of several artists and is expected to produce an exhibit that embraces quality, relevance and impact. It’s the arrangement of selected artifacts that become a temporary collection for others to behold. The curator gets to borrow that work, to think about it and be an ancillary representative of it.
  The Art Saint Louis gallery serves an important function: it is free and open to all who choose to visit. It isn’t just artists and art lovers who view the multitude of works on display throughout the year. It is passers by, tourists, local residents and customers of Catalyst Coffee Bar. Some people may have little to no expectations about what they will see but no matter who the audience, it is important that the art in the space be considered credible and of the highest quality.
  Surprisingly, my job as curator was easier than I had anticipated. There were almost twenty stylistically diverse artists from which to choose but only ten would be represented in Honor Awards 2018. I am confident in my choices, as it was clear in the beginning of the selection process, which artworks deserved the honor of being included.
  Having had a long history of curating art exhibits at Saint Charles Community College I knew that it would be important to emphasize cohesion. In other words, is there a sense of what each artist intends the viewer to understand about their art? Does the skill of the artist enhance the inherent concepts unique to each work? Can the art be understood both separate from and part of the entire exhibit?
  At the core of the work in Honor Awards 2018 is the dedication to formal concerns and practices.  Each artist is clear about what specific image they want us to see. But just as importantly, this exhibit is not only about naturalism and its variations. In fact, it is an overall playful mix that is both imaginative and mysterious. The actual narratives of these works challenge us to understand what we are seeing beyond the readily identifiable forms.
  For me, James Wilson’s paintings feel allegorical. I wonder from where Bruce Alves’ humor is derived.  Is Rick Battram commenting on people transfixed by the glow of a computer screen?  Where might we find the fantastical figures and places in Linda Horsley’s paintings?  Or, consider the juxtaposition of forms in the work of Ken Clay and Garry McMichael. These still lifes become intriguing by way of unexpected context.
  We can find these qualities in other media as well.  Compare the soft and blurred figures of Connie LaFlam’s photographs to Alex Paradowski’s harder edged portraits formed through hand-cast paper cubes. And finally, there are the observations of the built environment in the photorealism of Mark Shatz’s paintings that are in contrast to the immediacy of John DenHouter’s plein air, urban landscapes.
  It was my honor to assist with the production of this exhibit and it is my wish for you the viewer that this collection of artwork may provide an intriguing, challenging and enjoyable artistic experience.”

— Brian D. Smith, artist, Professor of Visual Art, Saint Charles Community College

Some of the 48 artworks featured in Honor Awards 2018:

Bruce Alves, Wentzville, MO. "Fairy Dust Smuggler." 2016. Ceramic, Found Objects, 9”x17”x7”. $750.	Rick Battram, Town & Country, MO. "Isocon 3." 2017. Oil on Canvas, 30”x20”. $500.	Ken Clay, Maplewood, MO. "Shoe Boxes #4." 2017. Oil on Panel, 7.75”x14.25”. $770.
John DenHouter, Edwardsville, IL. " January Junk, Plein Air." 2016. Oil on Canvas, 15”x18”. Not for Sale.	Linda Horsley, St. Louis, MO. "Reaching in Water." 2017. Oil on Canvas, 30”x30”. $950.	Connie LaFlam, St. Louis, MO. "As I Picture Myself." 2017. Photograph, Mixed Media, 21.5”x31.5”. $450.
Garry McMichael, St. Louis, MO. "North Shore Cairn." 2015. Acrylic on Canvas, 24”x24”. $800.	Alex Paradowski, St. Louis, MO. "Good Guys Wear White Hats." 2018. Handcast Paper Cubes, Acrylic, 44”x31”. $3,000.	Mark Schatz, Lake St. Louis, MO. "Airport Hotel, London." 2017. Acrylic on Canvas, 48”x36”. $3,500.

James Wilson, Farmington, MO. "Marquand." 2016. Oil on Canvas, 48"x72”. $4,000.