Critical Mass for the Visual Arts Announces Public Works Project Finalists
Critical Mass for the Visual Arts is pleased to announce three artists as finalists for a new initiative, the Public Works Project. The Public Works Project will commission one artist to create a temporary, site-specific public art project, at a site of their choosing, in the City of St. Louis. The finalists are Meghan Grubb, Amy Reidel and Jessica Witte.
Meghan Grubb makes works of sculpture, installation, photography and video that explore how powerful non-physical responses may be elicited by the experience of physical phenomena. Her work has been exhibited internationally in Norway, Finland, Spain, and Thailand, and nationally at the Sculpture Center (Cleveland, OH), the Shoshana Wayne Gallery (Los Angeles), Heaven Gallery (Chicago), and the Urban Institute for Contemporary Art (Grand Rapids, MI). Meghan received her MFA in Art + Design from the University of Michigan, and her BA in History + Studio Art from Wellesley College.
Amy Reidel’s multimedia work illustrates a fascination with weather and geology as well as Christian and pagan ritual. She fabricates relationships between colorful scientific imagery, popular culture, and religious iconography. Her work has been exhibited at The Amarillo Museum of Art, Sam Houston State University, Meramec Contemporary Art Gallery (St. Louis), Ewing Gallery (Knoxville), and the The Luminary Arts Center (St. Louis). She received her MFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of Tennessee and her BFA from the University of Missouri, St. Louis.
Jessica Witte uses ephemeral or discarded materials and hours of labor to create her work. Her birdseed drawings are created in an improvisational way, using generic geometric forms and alluding to delicate handiwork, mandalas, and kolams. Visitors activate the work by walking across it, altering the configuration, and dispersing the protected interior installation by the handful. Her multi-media work has been included in over 50 exhibitions at venues such as the San Diego Art Institute, the Textile Center (Minneapolis), Museum of Nebraska Art (Kearney, NE), Rockford Art Museum (Rockford, IL), Koehline Museum of Art (Des Plaines, IL), Maas Gallery (Purchase, NY), Good Citizen Gallery (St. Louis), Athens Institute of Contemporary Art (Athens, GA), WomanMade Gallery and Beverly Art Center (both Chicago).
Finalists will be presenting their concept proposals to a three-person jury in January, 2016. The selected artist will be awarded up to $10,000 to design, produce and install and de-install a public artwork.
Critical Mass for the Visual Arts is a nonprofit, self-formed visual arts collaborative dedicated to promoting, enhancing and initiating contemporary visual art in the St. Louis region.
For more information contact Meridith McKinley, Via Partnership, 314.735-9462, mckinley@viapartnership.com
Critical Mass for the Visual Arts 