The Golden Hour

The Golden Hour September 16 - October 26, 2017. FREE closing reception rescheduled for Saturday, October 21, 5-7 p.m. 

Please join Art Saint Louis for our new juried exhibit, The Golden Hour, featuring new artworks by 39 St. Louis regional artists from Missouri and Illinois.

Graphic design by Emily Amberger.

The Golden Hour is a juried visual art exhibition featuring artworks that focus on specific times of day when the light is just right, typically right after sunrise and before sunset: generally referred to as The Golden Hour because of the color of the light. The multi-media exhibition features 49 artworks by 39 St. Louis regional artists from Missouri and Illinois. Artworks featured express a variety of styles, techniques and media including collage, drawing, fiber, mixed media, painting, photography, printmaking, and video. We invite you to view images of all of the artworks featured in this exhibit in our Facebook album here. After the show opens we will post photo highlights from the opening reception. The exhibit is presented through October 26, 2017. The free reception, originally scheduled for Saturday, September 16, has been rescheuduled for Saturday, October 21, 5-7 p.m. Regular gallery hours are Monday-Friday 7 a.m.-5 p.m. and Saturday 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Closed Sundays and holidays. EFFECTIVE OCTOBER 2, 2017: NEW GALLERY HOURS: M-F 8 a.m.-4 p.m. & Sat. 9 a.m.-3 p.m. We are honored to have the opportunity to work with Olivia Lahs-Gonzales and Larry Torno as our Jurors for The Golden Hour exhibition. Olivia Lahs-Gonzales is Director of The Sheldon Art Galleries where she has worked since 2001. Prior to the Sheldon, Olivia served as Assistant Curator of Prints, Drawings & Photographs at The Saint Louis Art Museum (1992-2001). She holds an MFA in Photography & Art History from Columbia College Chicago and a BA in Photography & Art History from West Surrey College of Art & Design, Farnham, Surrey, England. Olivia is a photographic artist and has exhibited her work regionally, nationally and internationally; and Larry Torno is a St. Louis-based photographic artist whose works have been exhibited in regional and national exhibitions. Larry earned his Bachelor of Arts from Webster College, Webster Groves, MO. He worked as a Graphic Designer, Art Director and Creative Director for HOK Architects, Saint Louis Art Museum, and Fleishman-Hillard, Inc. Congratulations to Donna Broyles on the sale of her fiber artwork Cosmic Dreams through this exhibition.

HEC-TV Spotlights The Golden Hour at Art Saint Louis

 The 39 featured artists in The Golden Hour are:

Jurors’ Statements

“Like my co-juror, Larry Torno, the “Golden Hour” has been one of my favorite times of the day, aside from that “Maxfield Parrish” deep blue dusk (alternately termed “twilight”) that follows close on the heels of the golden hour. The “golden hour,” in fact is fragile and transient, and for that reason lends itself well to cerebral and conceptual artistic interpretations.

What I enjoyed most about the submissions was the breadth of conceptual and compositional approaches. Some artists chose to approach the subject traditionally, submitting über-gorgeous sunsets and paintings depicting the realities of an idealized golden hour. Others, approached the subject more conceptually, submitting abstractions that suggested psychological equivalents. As jurors, we challenged ourselves not to interpret the subject too literally. The many diverse entries allowed us to push our boundaries in the same way that the artists were also asked to push theirs. In fact, though we did include a few of the most spectacular sunsets and other literal interpretations that were just too good to ignore, we tried to move away from more obvious interpretations to create psychological depth within the exhibit.  We were delighted to see so many varying and sometimes challenging to our own status-quo interpretations of the subject!

Exhibit curation is a complex process and involves the concept or idea of the exhibit, the collection of artworks to support the thesis, and culminates in the final layout that tells the story and communicates the thesis. With “call for entry” exhibits, the narrative is much more challenging because the curator has no control over what artwork comes in for review or what is chosen by the jurors. In the case of Art Saint Louis’s exhibitions, the final exhibit is always a collaboration between the jurors, the artist’s work and the curator who is challenged with the task of creating a narrative within sometimes very disparate viewpoints. At the time of the writing of this statement, I have not yet seen the final layout of the exhibit, though I know what pieces were ultimately chosen. I know Art Saint Louis’s curator, Robin Hirsch-Steinhoff, is brilliant at creating complex dialogues with the chosen works, and look forward to seeing how she will make each piece converse with its neighbors.”

— Olivia Lahs Gonzales,
Director, The Sheldon Art Galleries, St. Louis, MO

“The Golden Hour is a time that is close to my heart. For years I’ve heard about this magical hour and gone out relentlessly in search of the quintessential image that represents it. The more I attempted my photography, the more I realized that often times, the camera had to be put away and the changing light just had to be witnessed in silence. Once you’ve experienced the Golden Hour; waiting for the right moment is the discipline you employ.

My first run through of the images submitted for The Golden Hour exhibition was exciting, eye opening, and a bit of a sensory overload. Some of the images stood out immediately, without hesitation, as the best understood interpretations of the theme. Others needed time to be observed, studied, and absorbed.

Upon viewing the collection time after time after time, nuances emerged as compositional definitions. The series began to take shape with careful examination of each individual image and it’s interpretation of the theme.

Black and white works had to stand in balance with the changing hues of dimming light. Artists working in various media had to successfully present their vision of what they saw, imagined, or felt. All sensitivities are blended together to create a show of the moment when the light takes over and shows us something we hadn’t expected.

Congratulations to all who participated in this call for entries. Shows like this make us think, observe, and experiment. Each work is a chapter that we read and re-read time and again, and share with others so that they may see what we have seen.”

— Larry Torno, artist, St. Louis, MO

Some of the 49 artworks featured in The Golden Hour:

Russell Vanecek, St. Louis, MO. "Flad Avenue Alley." 2015. Oil on Canvas, 42”x32”. $600. This artwork was selected by the exhibition Jurors to receive an Award of Excellence.	Sarah Bernhardt, St. Louis, MO. "Studio." 2016. Oil on Canvas, 36”x52”. $800. The exhibition Jurors selected this artwork for the Best of Show Award.	Lorraine Cange, Swansea, IL. "Jewel Box Lily Pond 3." 2016. Photograph, Silver Gelatin Print, 14”x18”. $300.
Blake Carroll, Imperial, MO. "Blue Precision." 2017. Photograph, Archival Inkjet Print, 21”x17”. $400.	Cathie Crawford, Peoria, IL. "Breaking." 2016. Color Reduction Woodcut Bleed Print on Paper, 29”x40”. $950.	John DenHouter, Edwardsville, IL. "American Afternoon-plein air." 2014. Oll on Canvas, 20”x16”. Not for Sale.
Tracey Farmer-Luster, Fairview Heights, IL. "Jacbob’s Ladder." 2017. Photograph on Paper, 30”x36”. $600.	Bob Rickert, Chesterfield, MO. "Palouse Golden Hour Number 3." 2017. Digital Photograph, 25”x29”. $350.	Ann Aurbach, University City, MO. "Sunset over Lake." 2016. Photograph, 18”x22”. $275.
Emily Cross, St. Louis, MO. "Sunset Silhouette 2." 2017. Cut Paper, Watercolor, 10”x8”. $250.	Monika Burkhart, St. Louis, MO. "Golden Shimmer." 2015. Digital Photograph on Metal, 20”x20”. $350.	Judith Medoff, Clayton, MO. "Skinker at Dusk from Art Hill." 2017. Oil on Canvas, 24”x30”. $750.