Last Saturday night a group exhibition, "Urban Landscapes and Holy Places," opened at The Vino Gallery, the wine shop/art gallery space at 4701 McPherson. Pairing artists and bundling their work under an evocative title, such as the one chosen for this show, is an art in itself. At The Vino Gallery that task belongs to art director Matt Pruyn (barely visible in blue shirt behind the new tasting bar). Matt, an artist himself, has had a passion for art for as long as he can remember. He has put his own artistic endeavors on hold in order to focus on bringing local and regional art to The Vino Gallery.
The current exhibition is based on urban landscapes rendered by four artists: St. Louisan Jennifer Richter, Jennifer Bock-Nelson who is based in Quincy, IL, San Franciscan Lauren Tallon, and St. Louis photographer James Holzer. The turnout Saturday night was, in Matt's words, "fantastic!"
Featured artist, photographer Jennifer Richter, is photographed (though unfortunately not very well) in front of her dramatic "California Overpasses" series, above and below. The photographs are limited first edition 20 x 24 archival giclee canvas prints, $650 each.
The landscape photos in St. Louisan James Holzer's (with back to camera in photo above), series, "Holy Places," range from $110 to $900.
The newly-installed tasting bar, shown in larger detail in the first photo, was designed and constructed by Andre Tourrette, a Brooklyn-born sculpture artist who now lives in St. Louis. Tourrette has exhibited his art nationally and examples of his work are also in international collections. Matt said that Tourrette approaches his work with a thought process that is opposite from most sculptors, i.e. the end result is the product of whatever materials are available during the creation of the piece.
Tourrette is also a metal fabricator at Troco, a local company that has designed the light filtration system for the new wing of The St. Louis Art Museum. Matt Pruyen helped Tourrette design the bar top for The Vino Gallery using glass chips and metal shavings as grouting between the chips. The metal shavings are left over from the construction of the Art Museum project (to be installed in the near future).
Jeremy Lampe, an instructor at the CWE's Glass Factory, is exhibiting selected pieces of unusual glass pieces (top shelf), $45 to $1200, and his popular glass pumpkins (bottom shelf) at The Vino Gallery.
"Urban Landscapes and Holy Places," The Vino Gallery, 4701 McPherson, Mon. to Weds. 11-7, Thurs. to Sat. 11-9, until March 10.