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via the GCADD Facebook page
The Senise-Frei Hall of Fame (Game 4, Away) gift shop at GCADD
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via GCADD's Facebook page
David Burnett's "Ghostwood Estates" in process.
On a blisteringly hot day a few weeks ago, 2016-17 Granite City Art and Design District curator-in-residence Marianne Laury showed me around the campus—if you've never been, it's basically the 1800 block of State Street in Granite City, both the buildings and the grassy lots. There were lots of new things to see, so we didn't dwell too long at INSURANCE, G-CADD's most finished gallery space. We did watch artist Chris Carl hard at work at SLOTLOT, where sections of asphalt were slowly being peeled away and rows of unidentifiable plants sat in green plastic pots, waiting to be put in the ground. We meandered through G-CADD's backyard to see the four new outdoor venues: CLOTHESLINE (which is a clothesline-esque installation space), CRASHPAD (which sits on the same lot as the already established LAUNCHPAD), and PADTHAI.
Back on the street, we visited GREASE, a venue-in-transition next door to INSURANCE that boasts nearly archaeological layers of paint and wallpaper. We also made a pilgrimage to the the second floor of 1822 State Street, DOMESTIC, a raw apartment space that boasts the most astonishing array of faux wood wall paneling you will ever see under one roof. Then we trotted across the street to PLAQUE, another venue that has been up and running for the past year. In the basement, there's a space called MOLD, which is filled with lots of old plaster-pour molds originating from some mysterious former life. They've been used by visiting artists including Amber Hawk Swanson, who used the sea-themed molds for a project she researched at G-CADD this spring. Laury gamely turned on her iPhone flashlight and gave me a quick tour of the tiny basement, which, even after a several visits, I've never seen—after hearing so many artists and curators talk about it, it felt like a tiny pilgrimage. (Just as reported, it was crammed with a mind-boggling array of plaster molds.)
"For people in St. Louis, Granite City can be a little under the radar," Laury told me. "So that's the main challenge. We're trying to pull in different scenes, and draw in a diverse crowd." But, she says, her sense is that weird resistance to driving on a bridge over the Mississippi to go to an art show is melting away a little bit, and G-CADD's audience is growing.
Laury already has some impressive curatorial work under her belt; she co-founded the legendary BANK Projects on Cherokee. She's also the managing editor of the new Mound City Tattler, which releases its first issue next week. She's also shown work all over the Midwest and in the UK, and—speaking of the UK—is currently writing Natalie Portman's Guide to London, in which she channels a fictionalized Portman, who, natch, talks about stuff to do while in London. That is a window into her art, writing, and curatorial practice: she is interested in pop culture fandom and the personas we build around that.
Those interests are evident in the shows she curated for G-CADD's Exhibiton 7. Milwaukee artists Michael Senise and Cody Frei's expansive show, Senise-Frei Packers Hall of Fame (Game 4, Away), is installed in both INSURANCE and GREASE. The work rolls in all kinds of influences, including the artists' friendship, their Packers fandom, and their "philosophies about healthy + reinforced positive energy." The exhibit includes a gift store of sorts (see the photo above) that will be open till the end of the year (you can also view the objects online at their DePop shop). At PLAQUE, Laury curated a solo show of work from Wash. U. MFA candidate Ryan Doyle, These eyes. The Facebook event post has a perfectly marvelous cover image juxtaposing Scully, Muller, and an archetypal pair of cartoon peepers; as an intro to his work, you can see examples—and read his artist's statemen—on his website.
Her goals as curator for the next 12 months, Laury says, will be to continue to focus on shows that continue to bring in a wide mix of people. "I also want to try an incorporate younger artists," she says, "who are eager to show."
Those three exhibits opened concurrently with installations in all of the new spaces. At DOMESTIC, Sarah Paulsen, Jamie Kreher, and Daniel Stumeier's American Dilemna explores the trio's "lived experiences as Midwestern, American artists," including "the difference between our American ideals and the ways they actually exist in our day to day life." Bridget Craft created the Samuel Beckett-inspired End Game at CLOTHESLINE, musing on the state of post-apocalyptic laundry with "a display of rusted, decayed, end of fashion clothing items." Carl's work at SLOTLOT is ongoing; the title of Exhibit 7's incarnation is New American Gardening. And artist Dave Burnett worked on all four pads—LAUNCH-, CRASH-, LEGAL-, and -THAI—to create Ghostwood Estates, a series of architectural installations that use wood and other material repurposed from the G-CADD campus, "paying tribute to the material’s origin as a part of a forest, a living ecosystem."
All these shows opened last Saturday, October 1, and if you weren't there, sadly, you missed all that opening-night energy, not to mention the free hot dogs and the beer truck. But that should be the last thing to stop you from driving over the bridge (or bridges, rather! MLK, McKinley, or Musial) to see the shows. In fact, G-CADD is hosting a Stitch-In for the 5.4 Million and Counting Project tomorrow night from 6-9 p.m. in support of women's reproductive rights. The campus is also open Saturdays from noon-4 p.m. through November 5, with the outdoor exhibits remaining up through the fall. You can find the campus by dialing your GPS to 1822 State Street, Granite City, Illinois, and for more information, go to gcadd.org. We should also mention that outgoing G-CADD curator, JE Baker, has an exhibit opening at Fort Gondo on October 15; you can find info on that at gondo's website. And you can find our past talks with her, not to mention some G-CADD institutional memory, here and here.
