New Art Gallery Exhibits to Host Reception Oct. 18

The University Art Gallery will debut the exhibits “Fact or Fiction” and “I, too, am America” with a public reception from 5-6:30 p.m. Oct. 18.

“Fact or Fiction,” showing in the main gallery, presents contemporary artworks by St. Louis- based artists Brandon Anschultz, Michael Behle and Greg Edmondson. While experimenting with the abstract materiality of artistic media, the space between fact and fiction, they reveal the possibilities of artistic experimentation. Their work covers an exciting spectrum of media, including drawing, painting, sculpture, video and new uses of traditional materials. As part of this exhibition, Anschultz, Behle and Edmondson will spend a day as artists-in-residence in local schools discussing their work, doing art projects with students and talking about careers in the arts.

“I, too, am America,” a collection of photographs taken by fast food workers in the Kansas City area, will be shown in the side gallery. Originally shown last May in Kansas City’s Talk Shop gallery, this exhibition received national media attention for capturing the everyday occurrences, the working conditions and the common struggles of urban low-income workers as captured from their own perspective. The photographs explore major issues that contemporary society faces, including income inequality, race and gender discrimination, workers’ rights and the working poor.

As part of this exhibition, a roundtable discussion will take place at 4:30 p.m. Oct. 28 with four of the workers involved in the photography project and the professional photographer who mentored them, Steve Hebert. Hebert is an award-winning photojournalist whose work has been published in Time magazine, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, among other prominent newspapers and magazines.

The exhibits will both be open from Oct. 18 through Dec. 2. More information about “Fact or Fiction” and “I, too, am America” can be found at the art gallery’s Facebook page, and more information about other School of Arts and Letters events can be found on the school's Facebook page.