SLUMA Exhibitions
Current Exhibitions
Expressions from Within: Art from SLU's Prison Education Program
March 10, 2025 to April 12, 2026
Opening Reception 5 - 8 p.m., March 31, 2026
The works in this exhibition were created through an “open studio” held at the Eastern
Reception, Diagnostic Correctional Center (ERDCC), a men’s state prison in Bonne Terre,
Missouri. For the past year, a self-selected group has gathered each Thursday afternoon
in a classroom in the prison’s education wing to make art together under the guidance
of artist-in-residence Stan Chisholm, part of Saint Louis University’s Prison Education
Program.
The program brings creative and intellectual opportunities to incarcerated people
in Missouri and emphasizes human connection, artistic engagement, and meaningful avenues
for self-expression. The open studio encourages experimentation and collaboration.
At times, Chisholm invites participants to try new materials — such as ink, gouache
or pastels — to expand their skills and creative perspectives.
In addition to the open studio, Chisholm leads a mural program at ERDCC with a small
team of incarcerated artists. Together they develop projects from initial concepts
to finished walls, combining different levels of experience and leadership. The group
paints at a steady pace, regularly stepping back to reflect on the work and welcoming
feedback from residents and staff who pass by. They have completed a mural for the
children’s area of the Visitors Center and are currently creating another at the entrance
to the education wing near the prison library.
Stan Chisholm (also known as 18andCounting) is the artist-in-residence for Saint Louis
University's Prison Education Program. Visually, Chisholm’s works use an ever-evolving
lexicon of characters, graphic abstractions and text.
Chisholm earned a B.F.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2009.
He co-founded Blank Space, a creative hub on Cherokee Street in St. Louis, in 2012
and was named the Regional Arts Commission’s first “Artists Count” Fellow in 2013.
In 2018, he served as the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis’ first DJ-in-residence.
From 2019 to 2023, he taught at Kairos Academies Middle School in St. Louis, where
he developed the school’s visual arts program, and in 2021 he became the first recipient
of an STL Art Place Initiative home. His work has been exhibited at Laumeier Sculpture
Park, City Museum, the Hyde Park Art Center, Paint Louis, Hoffman-LaChance Contemporary,
and numerous other museums, galleries, festivals and DIY spaces.
Intersections: Memory, Identity, and Place
Sep. 12, 2025 to May 31, 2026
Opening Reception 5 - 8 p.m., Sep. 12, 2025
Memory, identity, and place are integral to the human experience; this exhibit explores how contemporary Aboriginal and non-Indigenous Australian artists engage with these interwoven themes. Curated with an emphasis on thematic inquiry, Intersections challenges the viewer to reconsider established narratives and develop their own interpretation of the central themes, expanding the scope of what contemporary Australian Art can represent.
This exhibit features a selection of Australian artworks gifted by Gerald and Mary Reid Brunstrom to SLUMA and MOCRA. Mary Brunstrom and the Austral Galley in St. Louis, MO—which she founded—have played pivotal roles in introducing contemporary Australian and Aboriginal art to North American audiences.
This exhibit features audio narration. Bring headphones to access this experience.
Long-term Exhibitions
Einar Hákonarson: The Auschwitz Etchings
Over the course of a 40-year career, Einar Hákonarson (b. 1945) has become one of Iceland’s most distinguished artists, with 30 exhibitions in multiple countries. He was educated at the Iceland Academy of the Arts (Iceland’s national art school) and the Valand School of Fine Arts of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. Primarily a painter, he has also won numerous awards for his work in printmaking, and he reignited interest in the medium of printmaking in Iceland. In 1965, as a student at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, he made a life-changing trip to Auschwitz. Reflecting on that experience, the artist said, “this visit [to Auschwitz] influenced me tremendously. I simply was not the same as before.”
While a large portion of his work since the Auschwitz visit has dealt with human suffering, Hákonarson made a series of six etchings between 1965 and 1967 that specifically referenced his reflections on Auschwitz. He dedicated the six etchings to the victims of the Holocaust as well as to all victims of hatred, bigotry and injustice. Although intimate in scale, the etchings explore the spirit of the human person to persevere and triumph even in the midst of atrocities on such an epic scale. The etchings remain witnesses to humanity’s dark side, but they are also expressions of hope that in the face of such evil, the vigilant human spirit can still triumph and prevail.
We invite you to spend time with these works, to read the artist’s own reflections on the themes in each of the prints, and to see that, in light of the many contemporary global trouble spots, the message of the Auschwitz Etchings is timelier than ever.
Cartier: A Visionary Journey
In 1847, Louis-François Cartier founded the luxury jewelry and watch brand Cartier. Through his visionary entrepreneurship and the strategic and creative acumen of his sons and grandsons, Cartier rose to become the pinnacle of the international jewelry industry. Louis-François' grandson Pierre married Ella Rumsey, daughter of American tycoon Moses Lee Rumsey Jr. This strategic marital alliance facilitated Cartier's expansion into the American market.
This exhibition provides a glimpse into the lives of the Cartier and Rumsey families through photographs, letters, and documents gifted to Saint Louis University by the family of Marion Rumsey Cartier, daughter of Pierre and Ella, in 1997.