Work from Chicago-based artist Maggie Meiners will be featured in the upcoming “Revisiting Rockwell” exhibition at Gallery 210. The exhibition opens on Sept. 12. (Image courtesy of Gallery 210)
Gallery 210 at the University of Missouri–St. Louis will continue its 2020-21 season with Chicago artist Maggie Meiners’ “Revisiting Rockwell.”
The exhibit will open with a Zoom presentation by Meiners on Sept. 12 at 4 p.m. Like all other Gallery 210 exhibitions, “Revisiting Rockwell” will be open to the public by appointment only to groups of no more than 10 people due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Masks will be required upon entry.
In Meiners’ “Revisiting Rockwell,” she recreates scenes from Norman Rockwell’s iconic cover illustrations for The Saturday Evening Post. In her photographs, she reframes those pieces of classic Americana through the lens of contemporary issues.
“I wanted to bring Maggie Meiners’ exhibition ‘Revisiting Rockwell’ to Gallery 210 as these works, in particular, stand in sharp relief to the sepia-toned ideal of Norman Rockwell’s America that never was the reality of the America that is,” Gallery 210 Director Terry Suhre said. “Ms. Meiners’ beautifully staged photographs retain the humor and humanity that characterizes Rockwell’s paintings but shifts these iconic images from a wistful nostalgia to contemporary relevance.”
While Rockwell used staged photographs as templates for his paintings, Meiners’ work is represented solely through photos. She creates scenes that reference many elements in Rockwell’s work, but her pieces weave in social issues and physical attributes more representative of contemporary society.
Ultimately, “Revisiting Rockwell” reveals there is much in society that has remained the same despite the rapid change from Rockwell’s era.
This exhibition is made possible by the Missouri Arts Council and the College of Arts and Sciences at UMSL.
For more information, visit https://gallery210.umsl.edu/ or contact Gallery 210 at 314-516-5976 or by email at gallery@umsl.edu.
Image citation:
Maggie Meiners
Captain Carrie 2014
Archival pigment print 30” x 23 9/16” (framed)
