Where: Millstone Gallery–
Center of Creative Arts
6880 Washington Avenue
St. Louis, MO 63130
When: April 1 – May 1, 2022
Marking the organization’s 12th year of support for St. Louis-based contemporary artists, Critical Mass for the Visual Arts annually awards the Creative Stimulus Award to three artists. Featured in this exhibition are the 2020 and 2021 award recipients: José Garza, Yowshien Kuo, Marina Peng, Janie Stamm, Simiya Sudduth, and Chloe West.
These six St. Louis artists represent a dynamic and diverse group of creative thinkers and makers exploring themes of identity, labor, spirituality, play, community, belonging, and displacement. Some draw inspiration from popular culture and American history while others use personal and autobiographical narratives to foreground shared human experiences.
The 2022 Creative Stimulus Award Exhibition, “unSEEN”, ushers in more than meets the eye. Through a wide variety of methodologies, artistic mediums, and viewpoints, the artworks in this group exhibition serve as portals that address the seen, unseen and everything in between. What ties the distinct voices of these artists together is the use of art for advocacy. Each artwork has a way of claiming visibility for self, others, culture and community. Collectively, “unSEEN” celebrates creative interventions that have allowed for the unseen and disregarded to become visible and recognized.
This exhibition is organized and sponsored by Critical Mass for the Visual Arts in collaboration with COCA’s Millstone Gallery.
Curated by Surface Design Association’s Vice President, arts advocate and artist Yvonne Osei. Osei also served as the 2017-20 Curator in Residence for the Millstone Gallery.
Press and Documentation:
Opening- April 1, 2022
Critical Mass for the Visual Arts 