Put A World of Shine, the current exhibition at projects+gallery featuring Sandra Payne’s series of jewel collages, on your “must see” list. There is so much to absorb surrounding Payne’s work that you’ll want to visit more than once. And now there’s plenty of time to do that, as the exhibition has been extended until October 1.
A World of Shine is delightful on so many levels—learning about the interesting life of St. Louisan Sandra Payne, her art, and a peek into the artist’s University City home via life-size photographs displayed in the gallery’s back room. According to the website, a series of tableaux provides “an intimate view not only into the artist’s past, but the larger mid-century Black middle-class experience in the racially divided city.”
Payne earned a degree in Fine Arts from Washington University, and a Masters of Fine Arts from the University of South Florida in the 70s. After graduation she traveled to New York to join the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program and later pursued a career as a public librarian. She also began showing her work at New York galleries. Payne worked in the New York Public Library system for many years until she moved back to St. Louis to care for her mother.
Payne created vignettes in her home—recreated at the gallery—displaying the ephemera of her life and artifacts from her family history.
Another vignette shows a beautiful display of her paintbrushes.
Her collages of fine jewelry, precious metals, and stones were assembled from vintage magazines and jewelry and auction catalogs.
Untitled 31 (from jewel collage series), 2015.
Untitled (from Most Definitely Not Profile Ladies series) 20″ x 16,” 1986-2022
Three walls display Payne’s collages made into wallpaper by projects+gallery. In addition to the patterns shown above, there are sapphire. emerald. and bug brooch versions. The wallpapers are printed to order and priced by the square foot.
Two life-size photographs show Payne’s collections as displayed in her home, above and below. 
As projects+gallery’s Associate Curator Margaret Rieckenberg described the importance of this exhibition so beautifully on the website: “This exhibition endeavors to give Sandra Payne her due—to stand as testament to the manifold work of a Black woman artist whose name has not been said enough.”
projects+gallery, 4733 McPherson, Thurs. to Sat. 12 to 5, (314) 696-8698.
Two artists with studios in the Central West End are currently exhibiting in a juried group show, Constructed Visions IV, at the St. Louis Artist’s Guild in Clayton.
Judith Shaw, above, emailed that she is coming out of reTIREment with a new tire fabrication, Upended, below. Here’s an earlier post that mentions what was on Shaw’s drawing board during the early days of the pandemic.
In her artist statement, Shaw says that Upended, 60″ x 44″ x 11,” was “created during the pandemic. The piece responds to the uncertainty and turbulence of our time.” Amen to that.
B. J. Parker’s Undefined, 2021, a 7″ x 7″ x 2.5″ assemblage, oil paint, $1500.
Parker, co-founder, artist, and instructor at the CWE’s Gateway Academy of Classical Art, is a 2021-22 Resident Artist at the Kranzberg Arts Foundation. The painting, above, is one among a large body of work that Parker will be exhibiting in March, 2023.
Constructed Visions IV closes August 6.
St. Louis Artists’ Guild, 12 N. Jackson, Tues. to Fri. 10 to 6, Sat. 10 to 4, (314) 727-6266.