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Art North St. Louis Old North People

The Flop House

by Michael R. Allen

Kudos to Kira and Gordon McKinney, who earlier this month hosted the grand opening at what is probably the first art gallery in Old North St. Louis in this century, if not ever. The Flop House at 13th and Hebert opened on December 8 to a ragtag assembly of young people, many of whom had not ever visited the neighborhood before. On display at the opening — again, an Old North milestone — were charcoal-on-paper works, accompanied by the requisite snacks and Stag beer. (Incidentally, Stag Beer was brewed for awhile in the 1950s by the Griesidieck family at the nearby Hyde Park Brewery at Florissant and Salisbury avenues.)

Needless to say, rehab at the Flop House is not yet complete, and it did not have heat for the chilly opening night. Not that such limitations matter to Kira and Gordon or the attendees. In true neighborhood fashion, someone had an idea and didn’t let trivialities stand in the way of making it happen. This spirit has helped Old North’s older generations overcome great troubles, and in newer residents it’s helping generate a vibrant cultural energy that’s infectious.

Keep watch for great things at the Flop House in the new year.

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Art People

Big Small Town

Looking for holiday greeting cards that are witty, well-designed and show scenes from the St. Louis in which we really live?

Check out Big Small Town Designs, the effort of Bill Michalski. He’s got you covered.

Categories
Art Downtown

Toynbee Tiles in St. Louis

by Michael R. Allen

Have you ever seen one of the “Toynbee tiles” in St. Louis while walking around downtown St. Louis? I have spotted one on Chestnut Street near Kiener Plaza, and one around the Railway Exchange Building at Sixth and Olive streets.

In case you are wondering what I am talking about, let me explain. In several American cities for the last 25 years, strange linoleum tiles have appeared embedded in downtown streets, usually at a crosswalk.

The tiles carry the strange message: “Toynbee Idea: In Movie 2001, Resurrect Dead on Planet Jupiter.”

An artist is making a documentary about these strange urban artworks, whose creator remains unidentified. Read the story transcript from NPR for more information.

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Art North St. Louis

Art Opening on North Broadway

by Michael R. Allen

On Saturday night, July 22, we chanced upon an art opening with bands at the old American Brake Company Building on North Broadway. Lacking electricity at home and having been cooped up all day, we were cruising around enjoying the slightly lower temperature at night.

The space is apparently called The Warehouse and leased from the Pyramid Companies. Has the northward migration of the downtown art scene begun?

Categories
Art Downtown

Urbis Orbis Space Returns to Commercial Life

by Michael R. Allen

Nearly half a year after Gallery Urbis Orbis closed, its storefront space at 419 N. 10th Street in downtown St. Louis in finally going commercial again. This week, workers wrapped the windows in paper and banners marking the relocation of the Casa Semplice store to this space.

Some people may recall when this space was the front end of a large, cavernous used office furniture and equipment store. I remember looking for a desk there. This store operated there for over a decade until developer Craig Heller purchased the building in 1998. Urbis Orbis opened its doors there in late 2003 and brought art and civics to the storefront until December 31, 2005. After the departure of the gallery, the space gave life to art for several temporary exhibits. Kudos to Craig Heller for being willing to let the space drag out its non-profit days.

Categories
Art Downtown Urbanism

Brunettin’s Legacy

by Michael R. Allen

Local artist Lyndsey Scott has of late been painting in a certain gallery window on 10th Street downtown. I am glad to see that local legacy of Alan Brunettin lives on, at least for a little while longer. (Brunettin himself can be found in some Illinois city on Lake Michigan, albeit without storefront exposure.) If only some wealthy urbanist would bankroll anyone who wanted to stand in a downtown window and make art to delight the occasional observant passer-by…

Categories
Adaptive Reuse Art

Building: An Instrument

by Michael R. Allen

David Byrne’s installation Playing the Building is intriguing:

“Playing the building is a sound installation in which the infrastructure, the physical plant of the building, is converted into a giant musical instrument. Devices are attached to the building structure — to the metal beams and pillars, the heating pipes, the water pipes — and are used to make these things produce sound. The activations will be of three types: wind, vibration, striking. The devices do not produce sound themselves, but they cause the building elements to vibrate, resonate and oscillate so that the building itself becomes a very large musical instrument.”

It’s different than other sonic projects involving buildings. Two of which I am aware employ buildings as amplifiers of recorded sound rather than instruments with which to make sound. Unlike Silophone, the production and reception of sound in Playing the Building each take place in the same space at the same time, and uses that space itself to produce the initial sound. Unlike Northampton State Hospital: In Memoriam, Playing the Building involves the manipulation of the physical elements of the building.

How do we get the installation to St. Louis?

Categories
Art

Triefenbach and the City

by Michael R. Allen

If you have yet to see Jason Wallace Triefenbach’s video/installation Hero, Compromised at the Contemporary Art Museum, get over there as soon as you can. Jason’s work, part of the Great Rivers Biennial, is a dreamlike reflection on the ideologies and myths embedded in the life of a fictional city dweller, played by the artist. The end credits are interspersed in a monologue-style musical performance that is as fitting an ode to living in St. Louis as I’ve ever seen. Jason is willing to transcend simple parody by pushing his critique past the limits of humor and self-consciousness and into the realm of the uncomfortable — exactly where art should take us.

For an artist whose work is deeply rooted in the everyday experience of life in St. Louis, it would be easy to mock, deride and sulk. That’s what others tend to do — offer their assorted fuck-yous and I-can’t-seem-to-get-always to those of us foolish enough to like this town. Jason is way ahead of others, though, because he curses the town down while making it a better place to be. His curse is full of as much life as the river that flows through St. Louis; it’s no self-indulgent death wish.

Categories
Art Downtown Events

Farewell: The Last Opening at Gallery Urbis Orbis

by Michael R. Allen

Friday marks the final First Friday opening at downtown’s Gallery Urbis Orbis. While the art scene is constantly changing in every city and there are little certainties in terms of gallery spaces, Urbis Orbis could not be confused with your ordinary art gallery. Yes, Gallery Urbis Orbis sold art. Yes, it had exhibits and openings with wine and such. But its more significant function was civic in nature.

During its run of over two years, Gallery Urbis Orbis has provided a foundation for progressive cultural life. The gallery has cleverly used the traditional opening to create a monthly night in which some of the city’s smartest people get together and chat. Ideas have been shared and big plans have been made on even the least-attended First Friday opening here. The gallery has mixed these dependable, almost salon-like evenings with other programming that falls outside of the realm of the “art gallery”: a meetup of political activists and artists; a meet-and-greet with aldermanic candidate and urbanist Steve Patterson; a memorial service for a well-loved city booster; countless planning meetings for cultural efforts large and small; and many other things. Much like the late, lamented Commonspace, Gallery Urbis Orbis served as a civic space with a citywide audience. Creating another space like it — and I do hope that someone does — will be a challenge.

Gallery co-owner and painter Alan Brunettin, whose work will be featured at this final opening, has often graced the gallery window on Tenth Street as he works on a painting. As far as I know, Alan has been the only artist to consistently work in a street-level, visible space. His presence has been encouraging to pedestrians, suggesting a liveliness that complements the solid old buildings around the space well (and draws one’s eye away from the hideous hulk of the Renaissance Grand parking garage across the street).

Alas, the gallery closes. Alan and Margie Newman, his partner and gallery co-owner, will depart for Chicago in January. Things change, of course, but this one is truly bittersweet.

We will be serving the complimentary wine, one last time, this Friday at Gallery Urbis Orbis (419 N. 10th Street) from 5:00 – 10:00 p.m. I hope the turnout is large and spirits high despite the loss, because this fine space and its creators deserve no less.

Categories
Art Downtown

Urbis Orbis Update

by Michael R. Allen

Alan Brunettin wants everyone to know that there will be one last First Friday at Gallery Urbis Orbis, on December 2.