LUTZ BACHER and AÏDA RUILOVA and THE FRONT ROOM
September 12, 2008 – January 4, 2009
3750 Washington Blvd.
St. Louis, MO 63108
MAIN GALLERIES
Lutz Bacher: Spill
For her first major museum exhibition, Lutz Bacher takes over the Main Galleries of the Contemporary. Working since the 1970s in Berkeley, California, Bacher makes use of a broad range of media to search for the noises that disfigure contemporary culture, isolating the alien images that make up our shared visual landscape. Rooted in a tradition of appropriation, she sifts through anonymous books, illustrations, pulp fiction, advertisements, and abandoned photographs. Spill maps out the artist’s most current artistic territory and includes new site-specific installations, a rotating display of older works, and an artist-book.
and
Aïda Ruilova: The Singles 1999 – Now
New York-based artist Aïda Ruilova presents an installation of short videos that draw from horror films, music, and popular culture, combining interests in classic cinema with a frenetic and low-tech sensibility. Ruilova—a classically trained musician and member of the experimental music group Alva—is one of a young generation of artists who employ media with a do-it-yourself aesthetic, often drawing upon structures of cinema and music that exist outside the art world. Co-organized with the Aspen Art Museum, The Singles 1999 – Now presents a comprehensive survey of her single-channel video work since 1999 and is accompanied by a fully-illustrated catalogue.
THE FRONT ROOM
Running alongside the Main Galleries, The Front Room operates at a different rhythm, with exhibitions lasting anywhere from one day to a few weeks. These reactive, nimble, provisional, and experimental exhibitions test the boundaries of conventional programming and echo the elasticity of contemporary culture.
The upcoming Front Room season features projects by:
Reena Spaulings; Wojciech Gilewicz; Chihcheng Peng; Claudia Wieser & Andrew Falkowski & Elad Lassry; Gregor Hildebrandt; Hany Armanious; Diego Perrone; Beatrice Gibson and Alex Waterman; Ian Burns; Roman Signer; Claire Fontaine; Meredith Malone (guest curator); and, Dexter Sinister (carte blanche).
For the exact Front Room schedule, please visit www.contemporarystl.org/frontroom.php
Support for Lutz Bacher: Spill is generously provided by The Nimoy Foundation. Support for the Aïda Ruilova: The Singles 1999 – Now catalog is generously provided by Toby Devan Lewis; Galerie Guido W. Baudach, Berlin; and Salon 94, New York. General support for the Contemporary’s exhibitions program is generously provided by the Whitaker Foundation; The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; William E. Weiss Foundation; Regional Arts Commission; Missouri Arts Council, a state agency; Arts and Education Council; Nancy Reynolds and Dwyer Brown; and members of the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis.
CONTEMPORARY ART MUSEUM ST. LOUIS
With an artist-centered exhibition program, the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis presents the most relevant and experimental developments in contemporary art. The Main Galleries feature large-scale projects with two artists at a time, while The Front Room proposes short exhibitions by artists and others. The Contemporary makes the arts available to wide and diverse audiences throughout the St. Louis metropolitan area by developing successful community partnerships, education programs, and outreach initiatives. Founded as the Forum for Contemporary Art in 1980, the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis re-opened with a new 25,000 square-foot building in 2003. For more information on the Contemporary, visit www.contemporarystl.org
