Gallery at the Regional Arts Commission: Friday, 8 February 2008

Our Commodity: Juan William Chávez, Sarah Frost and Leslie Mutchler
Friday, February 8 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
at The Gallery at the Regional Arts Commission (RAC).

This opening also marks the debut of our newly refurbished first floor, so plan to stop by and celebrate with us!

Curated by Shannon Fitzgerald, the exhibition includes sculpture, installation, video, collage and drawing by Juan William Chávez, Sarah Frost and Leslie Mutchler. The three artists explore multiple themes in their art, but find common ground in the investigation of the place art occupies in a world defined by consumerism of goods and ideas.

Chávez captures social situations in drawings that he produces at the spot. "The adrenalin of live drawing helps me connect and participate with the subject's social experience," says Chavez. While Chávez focuses mostly on situations, Frost and Mutchler address the more tangible aspect of our consumer society. Frost's work "examines our culture through the collection of its remains, such as discarded consumer objects." Through her collages, video, drawings, and installations, Mutchler investigates consumer desires to purchase an organized lifestyle. Her digital drawings of cabinets and shelving systems are fragile and robust at the same time - evidence of the dichotomy in her work as the storage systems "grow in response to collection, yet strive to minimize such expansion."

The exhibition runs through March 23, 2008.

The Gallery at the Regional Arts Commission, located on the first floor of the Cultural Resource Center, is committed to exhibiting the work of local artists and fostering opportunities for curators living in the St. Louis region.