Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis: Friday, 30 April 2010

THE FOURTH GREAT RIVERS BIENNIAL EXHIBITION
Opening Night Reception: Friday, April 30, 2010, 7:00-9:00 p.m.
April 30 - August 8, 2010

New works by three St. Louis artists will fill the galleries of the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis this spring for the 2010 Great Rivers Biennial. This exhibition, which opens on Friday, April 30, 2010, marks the fourth installation of this popular awards program, co-presented by the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis and the Gateway Foundation. A series of free public programs and community collaborations highlighting the vibrancy of the local art scene will accompany the exhibition.

The 2010 Great Rivers Biennial winners are Martin Brief, Sarah Frost and Cameron Fuller. These local artists were selected last fall from a pool of more than 200 applicants by a prestigious national jury: Douglas Fogle, chief curator and deputy director of exhibitions and public programs at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Melissa Franklin, director of the Pew Fellowship in the Arts, Philadelphia; and Laura Steward, Phillips Director of SITE Santa Fe, New Mexico. In addition to winning participation in the Great Rivers Biennial exhibition, each artist received a $20,000 cash award.

THE 2010 GREAT RIVERS BIENNIAL EXHIBITION
The 2010 Great Rivers Biennial will feature new works by all three artists ­ both intimate and monumental ­ that span a variety of media and disparate practices.

Martin Brief’s work is characterized by precision and alteration, as he takes robust sources of information and translates them into images with only traces of their former selves. His involved process of obscuring and renewing textual data presents us with new ways of experiencing networks of information. He presents a new suite of large-scale drawings at the Contemporary.

Interested in the repurposing of soon-to-be-obsolete commodities and the history of objects, Sarah Frost creates large-scale installations and sculptures using materials as diverse as computer keyboards, Bundt pans and toilet-seat covers. Her work not only serves as a reminder of our object-driven culture but also demonstrates a desire for the personal through her cold masses of forgotten objects. Her simultaneous interest in the finely crafted and the ready-made is revealed in a new, monumental installation in the galleries.

Cameron Fuller has created a new and ambitious environment for this exhibition. The influence of folk art and Native American artifacts is evident in Fuller’s whimsical, imaginative and, at times, ephemeral artwork. Through his playful and fanciful imagery, Fuller evokes the uncanny presentation of natural and cultural histories.

THE FRONT ROOM
In conjunction with the 2010 Great Rivers Biennial, the summer 2010 Front Room season at the Contemporary will feature short exhibitions by independent art spaces and voices local to
St. Louis. Here, participants and exhibitors will use the opportunity to stage interventions, disruptions, events and films, some lasting two weeks, others lasting a few days. The Front Room is located inside the lobby of the Contemporary.

Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis
3750 Washington Blvd.
St. Louis, Mo., 63108
314-535-0770