Bits and Pieces

Sam Moyer & Lesley Vance & Stan VanDerBeek, the new exhibition in the Front Room of the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (3750 Washington Boulevard; 314-535-4660 or www.contemporarystl.org), features three artists who work independently of one another. Nonetheless, there seems to be a faint conceptual thread linking the artists. Sam Moyer's art often deals with the aftermath of a moment, such as her photographs from the final moments of a Willie Nelson concert. Lesley Vance contributes small paintings of organic objects, such as flowers, horns and coral, to the show. Stan VanDerBeek, best known for his multilayered film and video techniques and his fusion of art and technology, posthumously displays a mass of small paintings from the early part of his career. VanDerBeek's idea of many layers projected simultaneously is the conceptual bond holding the exhibit together. Vance's paintings of living things in stasis, Moyer's captured moments from the end of an event and the physical evidence of VanDerBeek's beginnings taken together could be a VanDerBeek installation in itself, as the discrete layers of each artist coalesce to provide an intuitive-yet-abstract record of the whole of life. Sam Moyer & Lesley Vance & Stan VanDerBeek remains up through Sunday, July 26. The Contemporary is open Wednesday through Sunday. Admission is $3 to $5 and free on Wednesday and Saturday.
Wednesdays-Sundays. Starts: July 1. Continues through July 26, 2009