with Breath

By Kevin Kao

May 7 — July 3, 2021
The Kranzberg*

*Gallery visits by appointment only with COVID-19 mitigation policies in place. For questions or concerns, please contact [email protected]

The exhibition presents recent works by artist Kevin Kao through a series of gilded ceramic sculptures that combine the human form with the shape of air. Originating as an exploration of pneuma, an Ancient Greek concept for air and life, the sculptures manifest breath as a physical form bound to the human experience. Primarily constructed from clay, Kao transforms the pliable into permanent, positioning the role of craft and tradition as important influences. Air, unseen, is abstracted as biomorphic, suspension, and concrete. Through glazing and gilding, surfaces are treated akin to objects of reverence, such as reliquaries and Buddhist figurines, establishing a connection to the broad, universal appeal of gold. With the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the exhibition assumes new perspectives, amplifying the significance of breath as an integral essence to sustain life. Ideas of stillness and distance are imagined as defined spaces of memory, celebration, and remembrance.

Kevin Kao is an artist living and working in St. Louis. His work addresses identity as dependent on formal codes. Typically creating work in multiples, themes of collective identity are contrasted against the individual – often functioning as a metaphor for assimilation. Having exhibited his work across the nation, he is currently Assistant Professor of Art at McKendree University.

Language Arts

by Joan Levinson

May 21 — June 26, 2021
High Low

High Low Gallery is open to view 8 am-2 pm Tuesday through Saturday, no reservation needed. Appointments (30 min.) are available via Eventbrite on Fridays from 2:30-5 pm. For questions or concerns, please contact [email protected]

Joan Levinson’s minimalist works are a confluence of art and language, an exploration of linguistic structure and grammar as well as similarities between visual and literary arts. Building sentences is both a narrative and visual experience, a meeting of logic and lyric.  She is fascinated with painting technique and the physical qualities of different pigments and oil media. The paintings in the exhibit have thirty or more translucent layers of oil paint, which accumulate into a complex surface that is filled with light and hints of color. The constructed, shaped canvases, which are more than support surfaces upon which an image exists,  emphasize the “objectness” of the work and all its elements. They cross boundaries into sculpture.

These works confront the transitory nature of being—here and not here. Is our imagination just as real as the physical world around us? The paintings hover against the wall, sometimes appearing solid as stone with their surface, shape, and depth, yet nearly disappearing in their whiteness. The silvery words convey meaning, but also shimmer as pattern and shape and sometimes get lost in the background. Some of the works emphatically assert their presence in the world, while others live in a more ambiguous realm, a place in between.

The world has turned completely askew with the devastation caused by the coronavirus. Everything that we depended on, that we thought we knew to be true, has changed. These paintings began as an abstract theory about the transient nature of reality, a theory that has turned out to be frighteningly real.

The Midnight Company presents Here Lies Henry

June 10 – 27, 2021
at The Kranzberg Black Box Theatre
Tickets: $20

Henry is a man on a mission to tell you something you don’t already know. It is an idyllic SORT OF miserable SORT OF storybook SORT OF nightmarish SORT OF remarkable SORT OF regular show.

To ensure guest and staff safety, limited, physically distant seating is available by advance purchase only, and face masks are required at all points in time while on-premise. Concessions will not be available at this show. For more information on venue COVID-19 mitigation policies, please visit https://www.kranzbergartsfoundation.org/covid-19/indoor-event-policies/.

CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS

Tesseract Theatre presents Feast

June 11 – 27, 2021
at .ZACK Theatre
Tickets: $15 – $20

A brave new work, navigating the intersection of politics and myth. Highly theatrical and timely, this dinner party is both thrillingly ancient and fiercely present. Starring Donna Parrone, this is an immersive, visceral theatre experience where mythology crashes into pop culture. Feast reimagines an ancient myth as a cautionary tale against the rising forces of authoritarianism.

CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS

Open Air: Matt “The Rattlesnake” Lesch Band

Friday, June 18, at 6 PM & 8 PM

The Grandel
3610 Grandel Square
St. Louis, MO 63103

Tickets $10, plus food or beverage purchased required. Tickets available at www.metrotix.com.

All food must be ordered in advance; link emailed week of the event following ticket purchase. Additional beverages will be available for purchase day of the event.

Please click here to read the FAQ. If you have any additional questions, please email [email protected] or call (314) 710-5643.

Open Air is presented in partnership with Jazz St. Louis, WSIE 88.7 FM The Sound, The Dark Room

Open Air: Lisella Martin

Saturday, June 19, at 6 PM & 8 PM

The Grandel
3610 Grandel Square
St. Louis, MO 63103

Tickets $10, plus food or beverage purchased required. Tickets available at www.metrotix.com.

All food must be ordered in advance; link emailed week of the event following ticket purchase. Additional beverages will be available for purchase day of the event.

Please click here to read the FAQ. If you have any additional questions, please email [email protected] or call (314) 710-5643.

Open Air is presented in partnership with Jazz St. Louis, WSIE 88.7 FM The Sound, The Dark Room

Open Air: Dizzy Atmosphere

Sunday, June 20, at 11 AM & 1 PM

The Grandel
3610 Grandel Square
St. Louis, MO 63103

Tickets $10, plus food or beverage purchased required. Tickets available at www.metrotix.com.

All food must be ordered in advance; link emailed week of the event following ticket purchase. Additional beverages will be available for purchase day of the event.

Please click here to read the FAQ. If you have any additional questions, please email [email protected] or call (314) 710-5643.

Open Air is presented in partnership with Jazz St. Louis, WSIE 88.7 FM The Sound, The Dark Room

Emerson SPRING TO DANCE® Festival 2021
The Big Top
Friday, June 25 at 7:30 p.m. | Saturday, June 26 at 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. | Sunday, June 27 at 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

Dance on! Dance St. Louis and Whitaker Foundation are proud to present the Emerson SPRING TO DANCE® Festival 2021 under The Big Top!

Now in its 13th year, and noted as one of the region’s must-see festivals, the vibrant dance extravaganza returns, bringing prominent dance companies from across the country and beyond to St. Louis for three days of nonstop dance.

Guests enjoy a smorgasbord of dance—ballet, contemporary, modern, hip hop, flamenco, and more—from a lineup of professional dance companies from San Francisco, Chicago, Miami, Detroit, Kansas City, St. Louis, and more!

In collaboration with the Kranzberg Arts Foundation and in consultation and approval by city officials, guests will experience the festival through socially distant pod seating and contactless ticketing.

SPRING TO DANCE offers something for everyone with a different program each day and remains the best opportunity to see a wide range of nationally touring professional dance companies in one place.

Emerson SPRING TO DANCE Festival 2021 program order*:

FRIDAY, JUNE 25
Karlovsky & Company Dance
Visceral Dance Chicago
Nashville Ballet
Boom Crack! Dance Company
1 additional dance company to be announced

SATURDAY, JUNE 26
Wylliams/Henry Contemporary Dance Company
Störling Dance Theater
Kansas City Ballet
Irene Rodríguez
Owen/Cox Dance Group

SUNDAY, JUNE 27
DanceWorks Chicago
Eisenhower Dance Detroit
dawsondancesf
PARA.MAR Dance Theatre
Miami City Ballet’s Jennifer Lauren & Rainer Krenstetter

(*Program subject to change.)

For the past 12 years, the festival has gained national attention for thrilling audiences with a wide array of dance styles from the country’s premier and emerging professional dance companies. The Chicago Tribune hails SPRING TO DANCE “arguably the best dance buffet in the Midwest.” The St. Louis Post-Dispatch calls it “consistently exciting” and Time Out Chicago says, “Audiences flock to the performances.”

Emerson is the title sponsor of SPRING TO DANCE. Whitaker Foundation is the presenting sponsor. Ameren and Edward Jones are the festival’s major underwriting sponsors along with the National Endowment for the Arts and Mary Strauss. Kranzberg Arts Foundation is the festival’s reimagined season partner.

Open Air: Brady Lewis Quintet

Friday, June 25, at 6 PM & 8 PM

The Grandel
3610 Grandel Square
St. Louis, MO 63103

Tickets $10, plus food or beverage purchased required. Tickets available at www.metrotix.com.

All food must be ordered in advance; link emailed week of the event following ticket purchase. Additional beverages will be available for purchase day of the event.

Please click here to read the FAQ. If you have any additional questions, please email [email protected] or call (314) 710-5643.

Open Air is presented in partnership with Jazz St. Louis, WSIE 88.7 FM The Sound, The Dark Room

Open Air: Chuck Flowers

Saturday, June 26, at 6 PM & 8 PM

The Grandel
3610 Grandel Square
St. Louis, MO 63103

Tickets $10, plus food or beverage purchased required. Tickets available at www.metrotix.com.

All food must be ordered in advance; link emailed week of the event following ticket purchase. Additional beverages will be available for purchase day of the event.

Please click here to read the FAQ. If you have any additional questions, please email [email protected] or call (314) 710-5643.

Open Air is presented in partnership with Jazz St. Louis, WSIE 88.7 FM The Sound, The Dark Room

Open Air: Dj Reminise & Rhashadism is the Vaporz

Sunday, June 27, at 11 AM & 1 PM

The Grandel
3610 Grandel Square
St. Louis, MO 63103

Tickets $10, plus food or beverage purchased required. Tickets available at www.metrotix.com.

All food must be ordered in advance; link emailed week of the event following ticket purchase. Additional beverages will be available for purchase day of the event.

Please click here to read the FAQ. If you have any additional questions, please email [email protected] or call (314) 710-5643.

Open Air is presented in partnership with Jazz St. Louis, WSIE 88.7 FM The Sound, The Dark Room