Staff Pick

Kehinde Wiley: Saint Louis

Artist Kehinde Wiley leaped into the public consciousness when his presidential portrait of Barack Obama was unveiled in February, but he's been making vital work that explores the nexus of race and representation for years. In 2017 the New York City-based Wiley visited the Saint Louis Art Museum to review the collection with an eye toward a future exhibit inspired by the historic style of portraiture. While he was in St. Louis, Wiley went to north St. Louis and Ferguson to meet with people and find subjects for his own paintings. Kehinde Wiley: Saint Louis is an exhibition of eleven large-scale paintings of everyday black St. Louisans dressed in modern clothing, posed in the manner of kings, statesmen and other powerful figures. Wiley's new work will be on display in galleries 249 and 250 from October 19 to February 10 at the Saint Louis Art Museum (1 Fine Arts Drive; www.slam.org). Admission is free. free admission

Staff Pick

Panoramas of the City

In a year in which the Missouri History Museum exhibition team has given us the stories of St. Louis' greatest civil rights freedom fighters and returned us to the glory days of Route 66, it would take something truly spectacular for the museum to outdo itself — and yet somehow it's done just that. The museum's new exhibition, Panoramas of the City, is as close to time travel as you can get without involving Morlocks. The show comprises seven floor-to-ceiling size images of scenes such as Charles Lindbergh speaking to a crowd of 100,000 people on Art Hill at his "welcome home" party and a 1920 march on Olive Street by the League of Women Voters. These massive photographs are joined by props and interactive media displays that give viewers a better understanding of the historical context of each scene. More than 60 panoramas of various sizes round out the exhibit, which will be on display from September 2 to August 12, 2018, at the Missouri History Museum (Lindell Boulevard and DeBaliviere Avenue; www.mohistory.org). free admission

Staff Pick

Muny Memories: 100 Years on Stage

The Muny is just about to open its landmark 100th season, and its neighbor, the Missouri History Museum (Lindell Boulevard and DeBalivere Avenue; www.mohistory.org), celebrates the occasion with an exhibit dedicated to the history of America's largest outdoor theater. Muny Memories: 100 Years on Stage features exhibits that explain the founding of the theater, display favorite memories from stars and staff, and give a look back stage to see how the dedicated technical crew creates and rigs all those sets and lights. You can also take a look at programs from the Muny's long, storied past. Muny Memories opens on Saturday, June 9, and remains on display daily through June 2, 2019. Admission is free. free admission

Staff Pick

The Immigrants: Works by Master Photographers

America's long history of welcoming new arrivals to Team USA is celebrated in the exhibition The Immigrants: Works by Master Photographers. From the earliest days of photography in the 1890s, when Ellis Island clerk Augustus Frederick Sherman began documenting immigrants with his camera, to today, when Italian photographer Alex Majoli captures the crisis of refugees trying to survive the ocean crossing from Africa to Greece, the exhibit shows the people who fled their homes in search of safety. The Immigrants doesn't shy away from the worst moments; Dorothea Lange's suppressed photograph of Japanese Americans in a U.S. internment camp during World War II is part of the show, as are more ennobling images made by Lewis Hine and Bob Gruen. The Immigrants opens with a free reception from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday, October 5, at the Sheldon (3648 Washington Boulevard; www.thesheldon.org). The show remains up through January 12. free admission

Staff Pick

A Doll's House, Part 2

Henrik Ibsen's classic drama A Doll's House ends with Nora Helmer walking out on her husband and family so that she can live an independent life. This was a shocking, scandalous ending for a play in 1879, but it's less so in the modern era. In Lucas Hnath's A Doll's House, Part 2, Nora returns after fifteen years of traveling, affairs and work. But what does she want? Her dutiful and somewhat dull husband Torvald would certainly like to know. Their youngest child, Emmy, is recently engaged, and neither father nor daughter wants this reminder of a failed marriage around. Is it possible Nora didn't find the freedom she wanted? The Repertory Theatre St. Louis continues its season with A Doll's House, Part 2. Performances are Tuesday through Sunday (October 10 to November 4) at the Loretto-Hilton Center (130 Edgar Road; www.repstl.org). Tickets are $19 to $92. $19-$92

Staff Pick

Lola Álvarez Bravo: Picturing Mexico

Lola Álvarez Bravo was a Mexican artist, educator and curator whose life spanned nearly the entire twentieth century. From the 1930s to the 1970s, Álvarez Bravo crisscrossed her way across the country with camera in hand, creating portraits of other working artists. Always shooting, she also made images of regular people and the architecture — both old and new — at a time when Mexico was rapidly growing and transforming. Lola Álvarez Bravo: Picturing Mexico, the new exhibition at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation (3716 Washington Boulevard; www.pulitzerarts.org), features more than 40 of her black-and-white photographs in all their glory. Picturing Mexico opens with a free reception from 6 to 9 p.m. on Friday, September 14. Also debuting the same night are more than 60 sculptures by Ruth Asawa, who often worked with wire. Both shows remain on display through February 16. The Pulitzer is open Wednesday through Saturday. free admission

Staff Pick

Sanford Biggers and Basquiat Before Basquiat: East 12th Street, 1979-1980

The Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis opens some of the most ambitious and vital shows in its history this month, with a series of exhibitions by, and about, black artists and the black experience. Sanford Biggers works directly with the materials of his forebearers — quilts and African sculptures — only he reshapes and repurposes them as contemporary statements about black identity, history and trauma. Biggers gives found quilts new life with new handwork, encoding personal messages into their original pattern. The fact that the work of an anonymous black craftsman or woman now appears in galleries and museums around the world, even in Biggers' modified form, is both subversive and celebratory. With wooden sculptures, some of which are copies, he dips them in wax and then works them over with firearms. What begins as a statue of a human or human-shaped supernatural being becomes obscured, disfigured and unrecognizable through the violence wrought upon it.

In addition to Biggers' work, CAM presents a show of the private photos of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Basquiat emerged from the New York City hip-hop/punk/graffiti scenes in the 1970s as one-half of the graffiti duo SAMO, along with Al Diaz. The pair together tagged buildings with cryptic phrases denouncing the establishment, politics and religion, always signed "SAMO" (an acronym for "Same Old Shit"). When the duo broke up, Basquiat performed in the noise rock band Test Pattern (later named "Gray") with Vincent Gallo and Michael Holman. He lived on the streets, sold drugs and experimented with Xerox art, painting and drawing. Basquiat Before Basquiat: East 12th Street, 1979-1980 will showcase everything the artist made while living in a small East Village apartment with his friend Alexis Adler before he hit the big time. It's a treasure trove of paintings, sculptures and works on paper, as well as Adler's photographs of his friend.

Both exhibitions open with a free reception from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday, September 7, at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (3750 Washington Boulevard; www.camstl.org). The shows continue through December 30.

Staff Pick

The Last Days of Judas Iscariot

Judas Iscariot's crime is well known, and his fate of eternal damnation was decreed long ago. An enterprising defense attorney believes he's being unjustly punished, however; if the essential tenets of the Christian faith are love and forgiveness, isn't the former apostle entitled to them? This legal argument brings about a trial that sees Pontius Pilate, Sigmund Freud, Mary Magdalene and Satan himself called to the stand to testify either for or against Judas' plight. Mustard Seed Theatre opens its twelfth season with Stephen Adly Guirgis' courtroom black comedy The Last Days of Judas Iscariot. Performances are at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday and at 2 p.m. Sunday (October 10 to 28) at the Fontbonne Fine Arts Theatre (6800 Wydown Boulevard; www.mustardseedthreatre.com). Tickets are $15 to $30. $15-$30

Staff Pick

Silent Sky

Henrietta Leavitt has questions about deep space and Earth's place and role in the universe, so she gets a job at the Harvard Observatory in hopes of finding satisfying answers. Instead, she's confronted by the unsatisfactory reality that women aren't allowed to use the telescope. Her dream job turns out to be grunt work, as she's expected to catalog all the stars revealed on the telescope's photographic plates while men pursue the business of discovery. Yet women are capable of seeing what men cannot, and in those plates Leavitt finds something no one else has noticed, breaking new ground in astronomy. Lauren Gunderson's play Silent Sky charts the lives and work of early-twentieth-century female astronomers and how they defied the odds to do great work in an age when society mostly demanded they stay out of the way and procreate. Insight Theatre Company closes its current season with Silent Sky. Performances are at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday (October 19 to November 4) at the Kranzberg Arts Center (501 North Grand Boulevard; www.insighttheatrecompany.com). Tickets are $15 to $35. $15-$35

Staff Pick

Evil Dead the Musical

What happens if you take the comedic-horror stylings of Sam Raimi's Evil Dead 2 and smash it into the modern musical? You get Evil Dead the Musical, which grafts an emotional arc and frequent song breaks onto the gory, nightmarish story of a group of stock-character teenagers who find an unholy book and with it awaken demonic forces. Over the course of one night they're possessed, tormented and ultimately destroyed. And when one of them is slain, the rest sing about their fear while making crass comments. Stray Dog Theatre has mounted the horribly funny show twice before to great acclaim, and now the company brings it back by popular demand. If you're really into it you can buy tickets for the splatter zone. It comes with a souvenir white T-shirt, which will be mostly red by the end of the show. Performances are at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday (October 11 to 27) at the Tower Grove Abbey (2336 Tennessee Avenue; www.straydogtheatre.org). Tickets are $25 to $45. $25-$45

Staff Pick

The Rocky Horror Show

Richard O'Brien's Rocky Horror Show is eternal because there's always another generation that's ready for its message of choosing personal joy over blind conformity. The Washington University Performing Arts Department ushers a new version into the world with its season-opening production of the Halloween favorite. See straight-laced Brad and Janet set off on a drive to visit their old science teacher (romantic, Brad), only to break down outside a very odd castle. Inside, pansexual freakazoid Dr. Frank-N-Furter is about to breathe life into the perfect man, but he'll make time for (and with) Brad and Janet. But something is rotten in Frank-N-Furter Castle. Will Brad and Janet survive their wild night? Performances are at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday (October 19 to 28) at Washington University's Edison Theatre (6445 Forsyth Boulevard; www.edison.wustl.edu). Tickets are $15 to $20. $15-$20

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Muddy River Arts Annual Show and Sale

Founded in 2003, Muddy River Arts is a group of artists based in St. Louis who come together to exchange ideas and information. Our goals are to encourage one another as artists and to promote the idea that supporting local artists nourishes the St. Louis community. This is the annual show and sale of our talented artists. Free

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Point of Departure

With a limited palette, harmonizing hues and a play of light, landscape artist Janet Fons offers us an escape from the constraints of reality art and a means to explore the emotions nature stirs in each of us. We are encouraged to leave behind the superficiality of the material world and allow ourselves to revel in the beauty that surrounds us. There will be an opening reception for “Point of Departure” on Friday, October 26 from 5 to 8 pm at Grafica Fine Art. The show will run through November. Hours: Tu-Fr 10 to 5:30 - Sat 11to 3. Free

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Witches Night Out STL

check out the Popular Witches Night Out STL Costume Event As We Host Halloween in a New Venue! The hugely popular Witches Night Out STL Halloween event has moved its annual ladies-only 21+ costume dance party from Eureka to a new home at The Family Arena in St. Charles on Friday, October 26 from 5:30pm-10pm. Admission includes fire jugglers, opportunities to have photos taken with several costumed characters from popular Halloween movies, a DJ dance party, and inclusion in door prizes & costume contests! Arena parking$10 $30/ticket

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Boos and Brews

Support a great cause while getting into the spooky spirit with the Boos and Brews event on Friday, Oct. 26 from 6 to 10 p.m. at The Biergarten at Anheuser-Busch St. Louis Brewery! Help stock the shelves for Operation Food Search as your entry fee by bringing either 20 canned goods or $20, with all proceeds benefiting Operation Food Search. Free with donation