Courtesy of the Contemporary Art Museum-St. Louis
Domonic Molon, the Contemporary Art Museum's former chief curator, made his exit last fall after putting together CAM's 10-year anniversary show, "Space is the Place." Soon after it opened in September, he departed for a new gig as Richard Brown Baker Curator of Contemporary Art at the Museum of Art Rhode Island School of Design. (You can read a Q&A with Molon, conducted by our former arts critic William Gass here; it ran shortly after Molon's arrival in STL).
Today, CAM executive director Lisa Melandri announced that his replacement will be New York City-based curator Jeffrey Uslip. In a few weeks, St. Louisans can get a taste of his curatorial work when "Joyce Pensato: I KILLED KENNY, " opens on January 24.
Organized by the Santa Monica Museum of Art, where Uslip serves as curator-at-large, "I KILLED KENNY" represents Pensato's first big musem survey. In addition to the traveling exhibit, the artist will spend two week in situ at CAM, painting a site-specific wall-sized painting of Mickey Mouse. If you're not familiar with Pensato's work, she makes large, energetic paintings of pop culture icons like Bart Simpson, Batman, Felix the Cat, and of course that ubiquitous mouse. You can see a sildeshow of her work on CAM's site.
Uslip will be working on several projects after he takes up his post in February. From the press release:
At CAM, Uslip will present an expansive series of exhibitions, including acclaimed artist Kelley Walker’s first career survey in America; a solo project with Jesse Howard, one of Missouri’s key self-taught artists; and a survey exhibition with Los Angeles-based artist Joe Goode, his first museum survey outside of California. In September 2014, Uslip will organize a solo exhibition with Texas-based artist Mark Flood, who, for over twenty years, has developed a signature approach that questions our cultural vernacular.
Exciting stuff. We look forward to seeing/hearing/knowing more. In the meantime, there's a riotous amount of art to see at CAM on January 24 along with Pensato's show. In the Main Gallery, that includes "Dear Nemesis, Nicole Eisenman, 1993-2013," curated by CAM's Associate Curator Kelly Shindler; "Ron Gorchov: Serapis," organized by Melandri; "Readykeulous by Ridykeulous: This is What Liberation Feels Like™," organized by Eisenman and A.L. Steiner, on view on the mezzanine level; sound installations throughout the building by Nathan Cook & Andrew James, organized by Kevin Harris; plus Takeshi Murata's electronic mural on the facade of the building, aand Tomasz Kowalski's paintings in the Front Room, both also curated by Shindler.
