Laumeier Features Brandon Anschultz in 8th Kranzberg Exhibition Series

ST. LOUIS, MO.- Laumeier Sculpture Park, in collaboration with Longue Vue House and Gardens in New Orleans, presents Brandon Anschultz: Stick Around for Joy, in the eighth installment of the Kranzberg Exhibition Series which features artists from the St. Louis region each year. Anschultz describes his work as the intersection of painting and sculpture—a juncture that will serve as the basis for his installations throughout the galleries. Opened June 11 and continuing through September 26, 2010, a series of brand-new works by Anschultz relate to the domestic nature of the former estate house at Laumeier. Following its run at Laumeier, the exhibition inaugurates “The River Between Us” series by travelling to Longue Vue where Anschultz reconfigures the work to respond to Longue Vue’s unique spaces.

Anschultz’s exhibition meanders through Laumeier’s indoor galleries and includes the artist’s first outdoor artwork—his largest-scale sculpture to date. The exhibition offers a fresh look at the artist’s evolving body of work. “Brandon’s earlier work was more contained or restrained than the work he is doing today,” said Kim Humphries, the exhibition curator and Laumeier’s Director of Exhibitions and Collections. “He formerly employed and played with tenants of modernism—some of the work drew inspiration from the realm of science fiction. The practice now is broader, much more strategically open.”

“I think my work has a slightly evasive optimism,” said Anschultz. “It, at times, is much more optimistic than I am. I’ve been told frequently that joy comes through in my work—that may have to do with the playfulness of material improvisation, exploration and chance—I’m not sure.”

Brandon Anschultz, Approximately 1350 Hours of Painting and 2 Hours of Woodchipping, 2002-2010, 17 paintings, acrylic, oil, enamel, gouache and polyurethane on plywood and MDF, poly film. RIGHT: Brandon Anschultz, For H.O., 2010, Oil on canvas and MDF. Courtesy of the artist and Philip Slein Gallery, St. Louis

The title of the exhibition, Stick Around for Joy, is taken from the Sugarcubes’ 1992 album of the same name. “The album and the band were really important to me at the pivotal time coming out of high school, entering college and deciding to become an artist,” said Anschultz. “A punk band from Iceland was about as far as you could get in Judsonia, Arkansas…”

Brandon Anschultz was born in Judsonia, Arkansas and currently lives and works in St. Louis. He received his BFA from Louisiana Tech University and his MFA from Washington University in St. Louis. Anschultz has had recent solo exhibitions at the Center of Creative Arts, White Flag Projects, and Philip Slein Gallery in St. Louis; @Space Contemporary in Santa Ana, California; and Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York. Recent group exhibitions include Front Desk Apparatus in New York; Monte Vista Projects in Los Angeles; the Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis; the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, Sedalia, Missouri; The Dolphin Gallery and Urban Culture Project’s La Esquina, in Kansas City and Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall, Taipei, Taiwan.

Also on exhibition this summer at Laumeier will be Night Light—a trio of short videos by artists Beate Geissler / Oliver Sann, Doug Ischar and Per Manning that revel in the mystery of the night. The landscape comes alive in their works, and highlights one of the best parts of Laumeier’s landscape—the hidden worlds that exist in the dark. The videos will be shown on an outdoor screen at the Museum Terrace on Fridays in June from dusk-11:00 p.m. in conjunction with the Music+Movies series at Laumeier on June 4, 11, 18 and 25. The films will move to the indoor galleries where they will be screened during regular gallery hours from June 29 to September 26.

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