Contemporary Runneth Over

Lutz Bacher: Spill is the first-ever solo exhibition by this prolific artist, which is surprising considering she first gained notice with her document collage piece The Lee Harvey Oswald Interview in 1976. What's more surprising is that Spill and its attendant art book SMOKE (Gets in Your Eyes) are only two-thirds of the show; the other third, My Secret Life, opens in New York's P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center in 2009. This fragmentation represents in part how an artist's mind functions, with leaps and digressions as ideas percolate. And Bacher's mind is firing on all cylinders for Spill, which features a site-specific installation with electric-guitar shards, cutouts of Star Trek characters and a multi-channel video projection; enlarged photocopies of her earlier projects will hang for a few weeks and then be replaced by new photocopies; an assemblage of Budweiser cases fills a second room; and a motion-triggered sound installation waits in the courtyard. Lutz Bacher: Spill opens with a free public reception from 5 to 10 p.m. on Friday, September 12, at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (3750 Washington Boulevard; 314-535-4660 or www.contemporarystl.org). Aïda Ruilova: The Singles 1999-Now, a concurrent exhibit of narrative video works with a heavy emphasis on unique, musique concrete soundtracks composed and assembled by Ruilova, is also on display (a still from her life like is pictured). The Contemporary is open every day except Monday, and both shows remain up through Sunday, January 4.
Tuesdays-Sundays. Starts: Sept. 12. Continues through Jan. 4, 2008