THE HINGE – Art Gallery. Thought Salon. Creative Turning Point.
Day 2 / Apr, 13 @ 4:15 pm
Lower Level : Room C
Recent decades have witnessed a spate of commercial and cultural growth throughout St. Louis city, but elisions persist, especially those that embrace the fine arts. Predominate concerns include where emergent artists can show their work and come into contact with viable patrons, as extant venues by and large do not exist at this time. To engage these questions and launch a dialogue about how the gallery space itself can bring artists, curators, patrons, and communities together, this panel includes a wide variety of arts-passionate professionals: Lauren Pressler, visual artist and curator; Francesca Wilmott, director of Los Caminos apartment gallery and assistant registrar at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum; Eileen G’Sell, Mentor St. Louis activist, poet and lecturer at Washington University; Bryan Laughlin Jr., fine-art furniture dealer and antique restoration specialist; and Galen Gondolfi, proprietor of fort gondo.compound for the arts.
The panel will explore the relatively recent history of the apartment gallery as a space in St. Louis, the pros and cons of such developments, and the prospect of a new kind of gallery in the near future. How could such a space accommodate the emergent artist while bringing together diverse participants? How have upstart galleries already strengthened the region, and what can we learn from each other? How can this type of space serve both as cultural crossroad and nexus of distinguished artistic pursuits?
Speaker(s):
Galen Gondolfi
St. Louis, Missouri
Galen Gondolfi is proprietor of fort gondo.compound for the arts, a St. Louis alternative arts space and Chief Communications Officer with St. Louis-based Justine PETERSEN, a nationally recognized asset development organization and microlender.
Along with fort gondo, Galen has been involved with the Cherokee Street-situated spaces/projects Radio Cherokee, High-Art, Low-Art, Art Parts, Typo and Beverly. He is a past president of the Benton Park Neighborhood Association and past candidate for 20th ward alderman.
With Justine PETERSEN, Galen routinely speaks publicly on the issues of microfinance, community-driven economic development and the plight of the underbanked. He has previously worked for community development organizations in Chicago, Boston and Washington D.C.
Galen was voted “Best Concept to Boost Civic Pride” in 2002 and “Best Citizen” in 2005 by the Riverfront Times, recognized by St. Louis Magazine for “Top 40 Ideas in St. Louis” in 2010 and recognized as one of the “100 St. Louisans to Know to Succeed in Business” in 2011. He has been quoted in The New York Times, Bloomberg Business Week and The Chronicle of Philanthropy.
Galen attended the University of Illinois for undergraduate and graduate studies in communications and urban and regional planning.
He resides with his wife Jessica and their three dogs on Cherokee Street in St. Louis.
Bryan Laughlin
Bryan Laughlin is an artisan with focus on decorative arts and antiques, having received his training in antique restoration and conservation from Bullock’s Refinishing and Antiques. He has most notably attributed a 1869 Herter Brothers budoir writing desk which is now part of the decorative arts collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Laughlin works with the James Scott Weaver architecture firm (New York) as a custom finisher and restoration specialist. He is a St Louis born and based entrepreneur, fine arts dealer, and proprietor of The Option B Designery.
Eileen G’Sell
St. Louis, Missouri
Eileen G’Sell’s poetry has been published or is forthcoming in journals such as the American Poetry Journal, Boston Review, Sonora Review, and Harp & Altar. She received an MA from the University of Rochester in 2003 and an MFA from Washington University in St. Louis in 2006, where she currently teaches English and serves as assistant editor of publications at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum. In 2011 she was recognized by theHerbert Hoover Boys and Girls Club for Outstanding Service to Mentor St.Louis at Farragut Elementary School.
Francesca Wilmott
St. Louis, Missouri
Francesca Wilmott co-founded Los Caminos, an apartment gallery on Cherokee Street in St. Louis, in October 2011. She formerly co-directed Concertina Gallery in Chicago and has additionally organized exhibitions for the Hyde Park Art Center (Chicago), the GOFFO Art Fair at Art Chicago, and the Charlotte Street Foundation (Kansas City). She contributes to Temporary Art Review and St. Louis Magazine and was guest blogger for the Art21 Blog. In 2010 Francesca completed a dual-masters degree in Modern Art History, Criticism, and Theory, and Arts Administration and Policy at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Francesca currently works as assistant registrar at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum.
Lauren Pressler
St. Louis, Missouri
In 2011 Lauren Pressler completed her masters degree in Fine Arts at Washington University. Pressler constructs fabric and found artifice sculptural works that explore contemporary body politics. She was most recently awarded the Millikin Graduate Award for a position as a resident artist at Cite International des Arts in Paris, France. Her art has been exhibited throughout the west coast, in St Louis and most recently in France. Formerly, she served as a guest curator for the Oregon Jewish Museum an archivist at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art and exhibition preparator at the Berkeley Art Museum.
