Featured Review: Honor Awards 2011

Featured Review: Honor Awards 2011 Curated by Marilu Knode, director of Laumeier Sculpture Park, this group exhibition features work by Art St. Louis' ten Award of Excellence recipients from the 2010 season. Rob Millard-Mendez of Evansville, Indiana, displays eclectic assemblages of carved wood, shaped steel and assorted found objects that take the form of dreamlike miniatures of oared ships or networks of stairs and doorways. The work of Khara Koffel of Jacksonville, Illinois, re-envisions common items to imbue them with personal and conceptual worth: 10,000 rose petals handmade from playing cards; Xanax tablets crafted from the artist's to-do lists; a blueprint of the artist's childhood home done in crushed cinnamon. Two series of black-and-white photographs — by Mark A. Fisher of St. Charles and Christine Giancola of Florissant — capture two versions of quintessential Americana: for Fischer, local, rural follies such as a Christian car wash in Sedalia; for Giancola, the streets of New York City, Harlem and the financial district. A significant highlight: the quilts by Sun Smith-Fôret of Elsah, Illinois. In large, intricate tapestries, the artist dissects and mythologizes pop-culture touchstones from Oprah Winfrey to the Magnificent 7; the swaths of cloth form a hybrid of affect that's at once abstract, homespun and star-struck. Through May 19 at Art Saint Louis, 555 Washington Avenue, Suite 150; 314-241-4810 or www.artstlouis.org. Hours: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Mon. and Sat., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Fri.