JACOLBY SATTERWHITE
Jacolby Satterwhite, We Are In Hell When We Hurt Each Other, 2020. Video still from HD digital video. Courtesy the artist and Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York.
St. Louis’ art scene has hit its groove recently with a ton of exciting exhibit openings.
On Friday, the Pulitzer Arts Foundation (3716 Washington Boulevard, 314-754-1850) opened two shows: Faye HeavyShield’s Confluences and The Nature of Things: Medieval Art and Ecology, 1100-1550. And the Contemporary Art Museum (3750 Washington Boulevard, 314-535-4660) opened a three-part spring show that includes: Jacolby Satterwhite’s Spirits Roaming the Earth, the CRXLAB x CAM: Artwork for Equity and ArtReach: Tales from North St. Louis.
But if going to more than one exhibit at a time sounds like too much, the geographic proximity of these shows should put your mind at ease: They are all next to each other, and admission is free.
Faye HeavyShield: Confluences
March 10 through August 6
A member of the Kainai Nation, Faye HeavyShield has been crafting her multimedia, spare sculptures, drawings and installations for over 30 years. Working in the Blood Reserve in Southern Alberta, Canada, HeavyShield draws upon her own family’s history as well as the collective legends and knowledge of the Kainai people.
The Pulitzer Arts Foundation’s exhibit spans the breadth of HeavyShield’s career, and her spare and minimalistic work reflects the prairie lands of her home place.
The Nature of Things: Medieval Art and Ecology, 1100-1550
March 10 through August 6
While HeavyShield’s artistic sensibilities reflect contemporary aesthetics, the Pulitizer’s other exhibit, The Nature of Things: Medieval Art and Ecology, 1100-1550, taps into the past. Featuring almost 50 sculptures, textiles and illuminated (a.k.a. illustrated) books, the exhibit covers artmaking during the latter half of the Middle Ages.
The show looks not only at that artwork but how it was made — that’s the ecology aspect. That means everything from what natural resources were needed as well as how that artwork drew inspiration from nature. The work comes not only from Europe but also Africa and Asia.
Jacolby Satterwhite: Spirits Roaming on the Earth
March 10 through August 3
Jacolby Satterwhite is interested in questions of human creativity, which is immediately apparent in his work. Surreal on one hand, his 3-D illustrations, painting, sculptures and videos tap traditions of sci-fi / fantasy, pop culture, mythology and art history. This show is the first comprehensive look at the multimedia artist’s body of work and explores the impact of Satterwhite’s mother, Patricia Satterwhite, who he has referred to as his muse.
The show takes up most of CAM’s real estate, and different rooms of the museum explore topics, such as his mother’s influence and the addition of Black and queer culture into his artwork.
CRXLAB x CAM: Artwork for Equity
March 10 through May 14
The Creative Reaction Lab, also known as CRXLAB, is a nonprofit founded after the death of Michael Brown to foster the growth of young Black and Latinx leaders. With Artwork for Equity, CRXLAB partnered with CAM to showcase the work of lBack and Latinx designers and artists “that promote inclusion, equity, liberation, and justice” made as part of the organization’s MisEducated campaign in 2021 and Reproductive and Human Rights campaign in 2022.
The posters displayed as part of the CAM show explore topics that range from how the public school system in the U.S. treats African American history to the ironies of physical appearance to the relationship of overturning Roe v. Wade and maternal mortality.
ArtReach: Tales from North St. Louis
March 10 through August 13
Part of CAM’s mission is to serve the St. Louis community. That’s where ArtReach and its weekly art classes for high school students come in. Since 2017, the museum has partnered with Vashon High School in the Jeff-Vander-Lou neighborhood to provide art classes; in 2021, the program expanded to Sumner High School in the Ville. Tales from North St. Louis features work from those classes; through drawing, sculpture and writing, the students looked at their schools’ neighborhoods as well as those in which they live.
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