Curatorial Statement

Scattered, a new conversation by Leslie Friedman and Stacie Maya Johnson is an exploration of color and pattern through the mediums of print media and painting. Both artists work in an additive method, generating powerful visual experiences.

However, one communicates issues relating to social/political concerns, while the other’s lies in abstraction and relationships that function more ambiguously. These aspects are one reason for the pairing of these two artists; this new conversation explores their fully formed and forceful visual languages that share similar dialects while representing completeness on topics they explore singularly and in combination.

There is a one of a kind figure-ground relationship that exists when these two artists’ works are brought together. Johnson’s paintings tell of a mystical space in which Friedman’s figures perform their unavoidable actions. Collectively they remind us that we live in a world of constructed intensities that at times can reach the absurd and beyond, while at another moment, and almost instantly, they are able to bring us to a place that feels naturally right. Johnson and Friedman possess uniquely personal traits in their practices; this exhibition allows for the viewer to participate in that aspect. Through the content that goes beyond the actual website, both artists will be able to engage with their audience in a different manner, readjusting to our society’s way of life.

As virtually only space, the Museum Blue team hopes to continue to be generators of curatorial content engaging with a larger art discourse. Removing the constant of the blue floor (which anchored much of the programming at Museum Blues’ previous space) and replacing it with a small 6”x6” blue tile, we hope that new conversations and artists’ relationships will arise beyond our own designated cities. This project is an attempt to adapt to the current moment. Adaptation leads to the engagement with the current conversation and general discourse revolving around contemporary art.

Selected Works

Artists’ Bios

Leslie Friedman is an artist and educator who specializes in printmaking, sculpture, and installation. She has a BA in political theory from Brown University and an MFA in printmaking from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University. Between her undergraduate and graduate course of study, Friedman spent two and a half years living in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Friedman is an active player in the alternative gallery world. She founded the art collective NAPOLEON in 2011, was a member of Good Children in New Orleans until 2019, and is currently a member of Baton Rouge Gallery in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally with some highlights including solo shows at Space 1026 in Philadelphia, Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi, and the Delaware Contemporary in Wilmington.

Stacie Maya Johnson was born in Iowa and lives and works in Bushwick, Brooklyn. She received her MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her work has been included in recent exhibitions at the Dodd Galleries, University of Georgia; Elijah Wheat Showroom, Brooklyn, NY; The Times Club Gallery, Iowa City, IA; Couples Counseling, Ridgewood, Queens; Geoffrey Young Gallery, Great Barrington, MA; and The Pit, Los Angeles, CA

Artist Talk

excerpt from museum Blue: a virtual Rebirth by ashley ray

Museum Blue, with its cobalt blue floors and its unique space, served as a hub for contemporary art and conversation in the St. Louis community for over three years. Featured artists were asked to respond to and activate the space for their exhibitions or actions, and in that way the physical space was integral to the idea of Museum Blue. However, now, in a world disrupted by a global pandemic, physical spaces are best avoided. To respond to this moment, the Museum will be reopening in a virtual-only format, thus creating an “unrestricted curatorial content generator.” But what exactly does it mean to be a virtual exhibition space?

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