Photo by Gina Grafos. Courtesy of Kranzberg Arts Foundation.
In St. Louis artist Amy Reidel’s new exhibition, guests can navigate a space brimming with high chroma color. On the gallery’s front wall—painted with a custom mauve and peach raindrop pattern—two large canvas paintings beckon the eye forward. The floor is occupied by a twinkling 60-by-84 inch glitter rug. A display table features 11 colorful works on paper. At first glance, the gallery might seem like an otherworldly party. Yet, as viewers take a closer look, Reidel tells a nuanced story.
The interdisciplinary exhibition, titled Cling II: A Carescape, is on view now through February 3 in the Kranzberg Arts Foundation’s High Low gallery space. While all of its pieces are new, the exhibition builds on themes that Reidel has explored for over 15 years. Her art often focuses on the relationship dynamics within families—what she calls “the messy business of loving another person in a world that is constantly shifting.” Much of the work featured in Cling II draws from Reidel’s perspective as a parent.
“I wasn’t making work from the viewpoint of a daughter, but instead from a mother—the mother of a daughter, specifically,” Reidel says. “That picture just got a lot bigger for me in terms of this idea of caregiving: between romantic relationships, family relationships, from parents to child and then back from child to parents when parents are ill or elderly. [Cling II highlights] this immense joy and meaning that we get from these relationships, even as the world is kind of crumbling around us due to climate change or socio-political strife or warfare.”
Paintings such as “Beach Putty Snuggles,” “Yoga Guru Kid and Sinking Parents,” and “Pedernal Sunset” depict subjects who, while connected to one another, must grapple with the changing environment around them. These ideas also carry into the exhibition’s ancillary room, where a group of small sculptures are gathered on an altar-like pedestal. The arrangement, called “From the Mombie Series,” depicts caregivers from all walks of life, many of whom are “clinging” to a baby or child.
Another focus of the exhibition is the reclaiming of both materials and subject matter. Stepping closer to the works, guests might notice supplies that they recognize—including drywall, glitter glue, and 69-cent paint.
“[These materials] run through all of my different disciplines, and that's not at all an accident,” Reidel says. “When you go to so much school to be a painter, you carry the baggage of art history around with you. I like reclaiming these sort of crappy and crafty materials as a professional female artist today.”
While Reidel says there’s nothing wrong with traditional art practices, she also recognizes that the art establishment has historically excluded the voices of women and mothers. With Cling II, their narratives come to the forefront.
“This very everyday topic that we’re all dealing with is looked down upon by the art world because there’s not enough representation of it,” Reidel says. “The people that typically do a lot of the caregiving throughout history have been women, and those voices were not recorded.”
