The Luminary presents To Pillar, To Platform

The Luminary presents To Pillar, To Platform

October 20 - December 2, 2023

ST. LOUIS, MO, OCT 3, 2023—The Luminary is pleased to announce its fall exhibition, To Pillar, To Platform, a group presentation of new work from those who build the institution as an artist-run community.

Jessie Donovan, Aletheia 1, 4, 6, 5, 2023. Image courtesy of the artist; four images in black and white at varying levels of clarity of a woman with curly hair wrapped up making eye contact with the viewer

Who really builds an institution? 

The artists presented in To Pillar, To Platform exemplify a wide range of practices, subsequent research methodologies, and outputs — many of which occur both intra and extra-institutionally. A common thread among them is their engagement with The Luminary, where many act as volunteers, offering their expertise and insight, time and labor. In some cases, the institution physically holds their practice as studio members.

Andrea Fraser wrote about artist-run institutions in her pivotal essay, "From The Critique of Institutions to an Institution of Critique":

"It's not a question of being against the institution; we are the institution. It's a question of what kind of institution we are, what kind of values we institutionalize, what forms of practice we reward, and what kinds of rewards we aspire to."

For the first time in its history, The Luminary is entirely artist-run and operated. To mark this transition into its new future, To Pillar, To Platform makes visible the creative practices that build us. It enables space through the interdependent relations of an institution with its practice, output, and engagement. It highlights the creative labor that very much supports and builds the organization, its community, and its networks.

The exhibition is the first at The Luminary curated by the organization’s Artistic & Executive Director, Kalaija Mallery.

About the Artists

The exhibition features new works by thirteen artists engaging the institution from many levels and perspectives: 

Heather Bennett (studio member) is a multimedia artist and educator; Grant Benoit (volunteer) is a craft-based artist and Director of Education and Residencies at Craft Alliance St. Louis; Emma Bright (volunteer) is an independent artist and filmmaker who produces projects with other makers across the city; Vaughn Davis Jr. (studio member) is a nationally represented artist, with a current exhibition up at Laumeier Sculpture Park, and works as Public Engagement Producer at the Pulitzer; Jessie Donovan (volunteer) works in tech, has an active studio arts practice, and leads workshops on framing for artists in the city; Kalven Duncan (volunteer) is an experimental, photo-based artist who works in Development at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, Kevin Harris (studio member) is an artist, curator, composer, and electrical engineer; Macayli Hausmann (studio member) is a photographer from the Bay Area who works as a Program Manager at Artists First; Brian Lathan (studio member) is a visual artist and printmaker who holds teaching positions at several institutions across the city; Hayveyah McGowan (studio member) is a multi-disciplinary artist, designer, and muralist; Dr. Bill Russell (volunteer) is a legacy artist of the city who founded Artica Festival St. Louis, and directs Mrs. MacCormick’s Yard, a performance and installation space in South City; Jen Wohlner (volunteer) is an artist who makes detailed drawings, sculptures out of ceramic and wood, and internet art; Kellen Wright (studio member) is an artist who works in a variety of mediums and methods to map queer lexicons through abstraction, and is the Gallery Manager of The Luminary.

About The Luminary

The Luminary is an expansive platform for art, thought, and action. Since its inception The Luminary has been a home for exceptional art that engages the pressing issues of the present. Through an active roster of exhibitions, residencies, performances, publications and gatherings, we act as a point of convergence for diverse publics. We cultivate thoughtful platforms for exchange, support forward-moving art and ideas, and attempt to model a more equitable and interconnected art world as an institution of our time. The Luminary's programs are supported in part by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, The Crawford Taylor Foundation, the Teiger Foundation, the Ruth Foundation, the Regional Arts Commission, the Missouri Arts Council - a state agency, and individuals like you.

Highlights have included the exhibitions CFL:STL by Black Quantum Futurism as a part of Counterpublic (2023); Kelly Kristin Jones: Nwl (2022); Split My Sides (2022); In ℅: Practice (2021); N2EXISTENCE (2020-21); America's Mythic Time (2020); Anthropocene Vernacular: Industry, Indigeneity, And Empire (2019); and Soft Scrub (2019). These exhibitions are complemented by innovative and experimental programs that are responsive to the communities we live in and bring contemporary art as a voice of our time and a means of building new futures and connections in the present.

The Luminary is located on Cherokee Street in St. Louis, Missouri. The gallery is open Wednesday through Saturday, 11am–6pm. Admission is free. For more information, visit theluminaryarts.com.