Brenna Youngblood said her new exhibit opening at Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (CAM) on Friday, “Loss Prevention,” has “layers of meaning.”
“’Loss prevention’ is a retail system you put in place to stop shrinkage and fraud,” Youngblood told The American Friday morning at CAM, 3750 Washington Blvd. “But it’s also reusing discarded elements, like the sole of a shoe or a CVS bag.”
Her mixed media works on exhibit in the Front Room at CAM do in fact incorporate the sole of a shoe and a pharmacy bag, which introduce humor into images that tend to have a brooding beauty. “There is a darkness,” she said of her work.
Youngblood also paints around torn fragments of her own photographs. The Los Angeles-based artist started as a photographer but found she “wanted a hand in the work.” This led her to make photo assemblages, which evolved into this mixed-media work, which is shaped from photographs, abstract paintings and found objects.
The found objects – some might call them trash – now play an active role in her artistic process.
“I’ll work on 10 or 12 paintings at once, and on the floor I’ll have a bunch of objects,” she said. “And I’ll try to match the palette of the painting with found things or things friends gave me, which then make their way into the paintings.”
Youngblood, 35, earns her living through her art. “Loss Prevention” is the first solo exhibition of her work at a Midwestern museum. She was issued an open invite by CAM Director Lisa Melandri, who first saw Youngblood’s work at Honor Fraser Gallery in Los Angeles.
“I was given a lot of freedom,” Youngblood said. “Lisa said, ‘Do what you want here. We have a space for you.’”
This is Youngblood’s first trip to St. Louis. She arrived on Wednesday and immediately judged St. Louis to her liking. “It’s cool,” she said. “The people are real chill, relaxed.”
She has done some sightseeing (the Missouri Botanical Garden) and sampled local delicacies (toasted ravioli). At the media preview on Friday morning, she said she was ready for more.
“I hope to have some of that frozen custard,” she said. “I want to try it all.”
“Loss Prevention” opened Friday and closes June 22. For more information on CAM, which is offering free admission this summer, visit http://camstl.org/.
