The Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis is an

art museum An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art, usually from the museum's own collection. It might be in public or private ownership and may be accessible to all or have restrictions in place. Although primarily con ...

for

contemporary art Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic co ...

, located in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

. Known informally as the CAM St. Louis, the museum is located at 3750 Washington Boulevard in the Grand Center Arts District. The building is designed by the American architect

Brad Cloepfil Brad Cloepfil (born 1956) is an American architect, educator and principal of Allied Works Architecture of Portland, Oregon and New York City. His first major project was an adaptive reuse of a Portland warehouse for the advertising agency Wieden ...

. The institution that would become CAM was established in 1980, and operated under a number of names including First Street Forum and the Forum for Contemporary Art. On September 19, 2003, the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis moved to the new building in the Grand Center Arts and Entertainment District in midtown St. Louis. The Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis is a non- collecting museum that hosts no permanent art exhibitions. The museum has mounted more than 120 exhibitions and exhibited over 260 artists. It usually shows six Main Gallery exhibitions each year of American and international artists. It has exhibited work by Richard Aldrich,

Laylah Ali Laylah Ali (born 1968Baker, Alex (2007) ''Laylah Ali: Typology''. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. p. 47. ) is a contemporary visual artist known for paintings in which ambiguous race relations are depicted with a graphic clarity and cartoo ...

, Lutz Bacher, Rosa Barba,

Leslie Hewitt Leslie Hewitt (born 1977, Saint Albans, Queens) is an American contemporary visual artist. Education Leslie Hewitt was born in 1977 in Saint Albans, Queens in New York City. Hewitt received a B.F.A. from the Cooper Union's School of Art in 2 ...

Hayv Kahraman Hayv Kahraman (born 1981) is an Iraqi-American-Swedish artist of Kurdish descent, who was born in Baghdad and fled to Sweden with family during the Gulf War, studied in Florence, and is currently based in Los Angeles. She is primarily a painter. ...

, Wyatt Kahn, Elad Lassry,

Marilyn Minter Marilyn Minter (born 1948) is an American visual artist who is perhaps best known for her sensual paintings and photographs done in the photorealism style that blur the line between commercial and fine art. Minter currently teaches in the MFA de ...

Gedi Sibony Gedi or GEDI may refer to: People * Ali Mohamed Gedi (born 1952), Prime Minister of Somalia, 2004–2007 * Bashir Nur Gedi (died 2007), Somalian dissident journalist who was murdered * Ahmed Jimale Gedi, Somalian Chief of Army, 2010–2011 * M ...

Carey Young Carey Young (born 1970) is a visual artist whose work is often inspired by law, politics and economics. The tools, language and architectures of these fields act as material for her videos, text works, performances and photographs, often develo ...

Richard Artschwager Richard Ernst Artschwager (December 26, 1923 – February 9, 2013) was an American painter, illustrator and sculptor. His work has associations with Pop Art, Conceptual art and Minimalism. Early life and art Richard Artschwager was born to Euro ...

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Sean Landers Sean Landers (born 1962) is an American artist. He is best known for using his personal experience as public subject matterHa, Paul, Cynthia Daignault and Michelle Reyes Landers, eds. Sean Landers: 1990–1995, Improbable History. Zürich: JRP, ...

Cindy Sherman Cynthia Morris Sherman (born January 19, 1954) is an American artist whose work consists primarily of photographic self-portraits, depicting herself in many different contexts and as various imagined characters. Her breakthrough work is often co ...

, Arcangelo Sassolino, and Amy Sherald.

History

In 2016, Jefferey Uslip resigned from the chief curator position at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis due to criticism about a controversial exhibition. The ongoing criticism of Kelley Walker's seemingly racially insensitive exhibit "Direct Drive" caused more than twenty artists to withdraw from the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis's annual open studio tour.

Architecture

Paul Ha, the director of the museum, had an idea of trends he wished to display but didn't plan on which exhibits/collections he wanted to showcase, so the architects had little to no idea on what type of spaces to create. The architects came up with a plan to create a space that is able to convey its own energy and calm feelings. With a budget of $6.5 million, the architects and director worked together to create a rather bland structure, the reason for this being that Paul Ha wished for artists to be able to use all areas of the museum to display their work. Local architects questioned the design by claiming that it looked too much like a fortress with little to no indication of original design.

References

External links

Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis
{{authority control Art museums and galleries in Missouri Contemporary art galleries in the United States Modern art museums in the United States Museums in St. Louis Midtown St. Louis 1980 establishments in Missouri Buildings and structures in St. Louis Tourist attractions in St. Louis