Facebook pixel “SSSS*” Exhibit on Display at STLCC-Forest Park

“SSSS*” Exhibit on Display at STLCC-Forest Park

SSSS* exhibit

The Gallery of Contemporary Art at St. Louis Community College-Forest Park will showcase a new group exhibition, “SSSS*,” featuring works by Shawn Burkard, Vaughn Davis, Conor Murphy and Nick Schleicher.

The exhibit is on display through Nov. 1. An opening reception will be 6-8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 12. Gallery hours are 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday-Thursday.

All four artists have their own respective styles concerning practice and materials. However, the unifying thread of this exhibition is through various degrees of each artist's own investigations relating to the significance of place, systems of actions, and social constructs. The works in this exhibition upend conventional assumptions about household hardware, beauty, consumption and artistic subjectivity.

Shawn Burkard is a multimedia artist. His work includes abstract gradient paintings and employs industries such as photographic digital printing. He engages with manufactured items and presents them formally. His work alludes to surf culture intertwined with the culture of Instagram, and he uses it for inspiration as raw material. Burkard embraces and slants the clichés of today's “American Dream” as interpreted through the lens of Los Angeles, Calif., the iPhone and Instagram influencers calculated “brand” creation, as a fundamental online strategy.

Burkard (Instagram @shawnburkard) holds a bachelor’s degree with emphasis in painting from Webster University, and a master’s degree in fine arts from Washington University. His artwork has been exhibited at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Des Lee Gallery, Andrew Edlin Gallery New York (group exhibition) and Grease 3 Gallery. Burkard currently is resident artist at Granite City Arts & Design District.

The work of Vaughn Davis (Instagram @vaughnvofficial) is frequently a synthesis of actions enacted by the artist. Frequently cutting, dividing, filleting, fraying, slicing, splitting and tearing his dyed canvases reveal the aftermath of a premeditated process. Soaked in bright hues most surfaces contradict the post action. Davis received a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Webster University.

His recent exhibitions include “Freedom: American Hustle, Arcade Contemporary Project” in St. Louis; “Freestyle,” Philip Slein Gallery in St. Louis; “Dwell In Other Futures,” Pulitzer Arts Foundation, St. Louis; “Kingz Pleazure III,” Urb Arts, St. Louis; “This Won’t Last Long,” Electro Pathologies Museum in Vienna Austria; “Oppositions,” The Luminary in St. Louis; and “SHOW SHOW SHOW SHOW,” a group pop-up exhibition in St. Louis. He currently lives and works in St. Louis.

Conor Murphy’s (Instagram: @lousycon) recent work focuses on American consumerism by using common utilitarian materials that make up our built environments. By using minimalist gestures and abstracting materials typically found in hardware stores, his work asks the viewer to be conscious of the space they are in and how they interact with it. Murphy received his bachelor’s degree in photography from Webster University. He currently is pursuing a master’s degree in painting at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana. Recent exhibitions include “Screen Time,” Granite City Art & Design District.

Nick Schleicher’s (Instagram @nickschleicherart) work ranges from a formalist approach to color field painting inspired by cosmology and popular culture to sculptural works that take form as monolithic shapes. Conceptually these works stimulate thoughts and theories of origin and significance of location. Schleicher received a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he focused on painting and sculpture.

Schleicher's recent solo exhibitions include “6 Paintings 9 Sculptures,” “Grease 3,” St. Louis; “.skin, PLAQUE” at Granite City Art & Design District; “Synthesizer,” Hoffman LaChance Contemporary, St. Louis; and “Vibration Process,” Millitzer Gallery, St. Louis. Selected group exhibitions include “SHOW SHOW SHOW SHOW,” and the Whitney Houston Biennial, Julius Caesar, Chicago, Ill. He currently lives and works in St. Louis.

For more information about the exhibition, call 314-644-9231.

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