Cecille R. Hunt Gallery

Department of Art, Design and Art History (DADAH)

Leigh Gerdine College of Fine Arts

A non-commercial alternative venue

Hunt Gallery presents exhibitions of individual artists and/or groups of artists of regional, national and international renown whose works demonstrate significant aesthetic achievement and art historical importance.

An integral part of the educational mission of the Department of Art, Design and Art History (DADAH), the Gallery features curated exhibitions of contemporary art for the academic community and broader St. Louis area public.

Current Exhibition:

Everything Everywhere All at Once

Nov. 22, 2024–Jan. 17, 2025

Four rows of seven square mixed media canvases in pale colors with various shapes. 2022 Through the Looking Glass

International artist Rebecca Olsen's new exhibition, “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” visually addresses themes of infinity and asks existential questions about the nature of reality, the infinite nature of the universe, and perception. In her work, Rebecca Olsen creates symbols and uses geometric forms to translate myths and discuss what existence feels like. Through her creative lens, she contemplates significant scientific discoveries, psychology, the meaning of life, chaos theory, climate change, and the nature of power. At the heart of this exhibition is the desire to create an immersive space filled with ideas. She develops this visual language, creating a formal landscape for the ideas to dialog.

Born in Florence, Italy, to American artists, Olsen is president and co-founder of the Santa Reparata International School of Art (SRISA), one of Florence's most notable private art schools hosting students and faculty from all over the globe. Olsen's father, Dennis Olsen, who co-founded SRISA, was a native St. Louisan and an artist. As such, Rebecca Olsen still maintains close ties here. Rebecca Olsen has shown her work internationally, with gallery representation in Berlin, for her visual art, and she sells her wearable art at the Whitney Museum store.

Read Nov. 14, 2024, Article, "New Exhibition by International Artist Rebecca Olsen Opens at Hunt Gallery"

Join Us!

Opening Artist Reception

5:30-8 p.m., Friday, Nov. 22, 2024

Past Exhibitions

current debris by Peter Bolte

This exhibition consisted of new paintings, photography, AI generations (with additional manipulation) and select films. Bolte utilizes recognizable (albeit absurdist) iconography and figures as tools to create a narrative that both reveals and contradicts itself as it is played out. Whether presenting a blatant reaction to our social environment or portraying a surreal disassociation, Bolte weaves themes that address humanity’s lack of critical thought, our human fallibilities expressed through miscommunication, lowered attention spans, celebrity idealization, dopamine spikes and dips, and modern-day superficial addictions — and then spits them all out through a post-pandemic paradigm, resulting in a sardonic and existential nightmare.

Peter Bolte is a St. Louis-based filmmaker and painter who has exhibited his work internationally. He has directed the feature films "All Roads Lead" and "Dandelion Man," several experimental and narrative short films and music videos. Other notable credits include being cinematographer on The Booksellers (Greenwich Entertainment), the Emmy nominated documentary Casting By (HBO Documentaries), as well as being invited to the Artist Academy as an emerging filmmaker during the 2013 New York Film Festival at Lincoln Center.

Stylized head with attached teeth in blue turtleneck with woodpecker attacking skull. — *Valhalla, Awaken! How we learned to carry stress in the jaw*, 2024, oil on panel, 8"x10"

Lost & Found: Thinking & Forming: MA Exhibition, featuring Michael Paradise and Sara Haag

Michael Paradise has taught Art at Roosevelt High School since the fall of 2000. He has taught Drawing, Design and Art Appreciation at St. Louis Community College, Forest Park and Wildwood, St. Charles Community College, and Southwestern Illinois College, Granite City. Paradise received a MFA in Painting, from Fontbonne College and a BFA in Painting from Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville. Paradise’s artistic investigations toward the Webster University Master of Arts has been primarily found object construction and modeling forms. Coming with a background of mostly painting, for Paradise, stuff is the new paint.

Sara Haag received her BA in Art Education with a K-12 Certification from Maryville University in 2002. She has been teaching art at Roosevelt High School since 2015.

This artwork is a meditative process that surprises the viewer with how it transforms media into the unexpected.

Ferguson and Beyond: Artistic Responses to a Decade of Social Upheaval

"Ferguson and Beyond: Artistic Responses to a Decade of Social Upheaval 2014-2024" captured the power of individual and cultural histories brought forth by the killing of Michael Brown, Jr., in Ferguson, Missouri, nearly 10 years ago and the ensuing response locally and from around the world in the decade following his death. The exhibition was comprised of painting, sculpture, video and poetry with a focus on responses from artists of color from the St. Louis region and beyond. Participating artists included Dannie Boyd, Damon Davis, Lillian Gardner, Cheeraz Gormon, Jon Henry, William Morris, Mallory Rukhsana Nezam, Yvonne Osei, Hank Willis Thomas and Ronald Young. The Missouri Historical Society gave permission to print Ferguson Uprising images from its African American History Initiative collection for the show. Poets included DuEwa Frazier, Jacqui Germain, Aya de Leon, Jason Vasser-Elong as well as Gormon. Curator: Terri F. Reilly, MFA; Artist-Curators: William Morris, MFA, and Lillian Gardner, BFA

Wall with several black and white photos of black hands

Exhibitor talks with attendee next to chalk outline art piece

Five of the exhibitors pose together under Ferguson and Beyond exhibit opening wall

Attendee stands in front of wall covered in writings

Here the Sky is Cloudy: Karo Ahmandi

The Hunt Gallery exhibition, Here the Sky is Cloudy, served as a metaphor for the complexity and resilience of the human spirit, especially reflecting the ongoing struggle for women's rights in Iran. This exhibition showcased poster art’s vital role in visual communication and its impact on societal discourse, particularly focusing on the Woman, Life, Freedom movement in Iran.

Karo Ahmadi, an assistant professor of Graphic Design at Webster University, has dedicated the last ten years to using poster art as a medium to express a powerful and resonant voice in cultural and political spheres, this exhibition was a culmination of that journey.