ARTIST STATEMENT

Doom Scroll, is a solo exhibition of artist; Vincent Stemmler’s work, during their time at the Kranzberg Arts Foundation. The exhibition follows the artist through themes of self discovery that involve not only the artist’s own identity, but the socio-economic landscape and how our environments play a part in forming who we are. Sourcing photographs and materials from on site at different locations around St. Louis (as well as some from other parts of the world), the artist creates a type of assemblage, dubbed  “set-ups”, to illustrate interactions between time, space, and the self.

 Materials such as trash, raw clay, live plants, and architectural fragments, all find a home in Stemmler’s work. Each of these materials have been gathered as evidence or artifact, of specific spaces and times – integral to the development of the artist themselves or the history of the region. Set-ups function as a modality, or lens, rather, to analyze subjects such as nature, labor, multiculturalism, memory, history, and change.  The exhibition is comprised of paintings, collages, photographs, video art, and sculptural installation, all of which comes together as a form of archival practice.

ARTIST BIO

Vincent Stemmler was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri and received an associates degree from Florissant Valley Community College, a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Vincent’s work is often a contemplation on the interplay between identity, place, and loss. Often describing their work as a way of “putting together the pieces” or creating assemblages and collages they call “set ups”.  This way of working can take place in any material and is more of a philosophical way of looking at things. Working this way, Stemmler says, comes from their upbringing. They were raised in a single parent family, but had the help of a diverse community of people raise them, and akin to this is Vincent’s multicultural, muli-ethnic background.  While Stemmler holds multiple art degrees, they try to stay true to their roots as a person that comes from personal experience working with these materials as well a background of generations of laborers. In Stemmler’s work you will find traces of materials and their uses that lead back through their hands to a long history of people who use their bodies for work. 

Vincent is currently an adjunct professor at Florissant Valley Community College, teaching ceramics, sculpture and drawing classes. Outside of Doom Scroll, you can also find Vincent’s work at the intersection of Jefferson and Chippewa in St. Louis as part of Counterpublic 2023.

PRESS

Top 5 things to do in St. Louis this weekend: June 9–11 – St. Louis Magazine
New Exhibit at the Kranzberg Considers Dangers of Doom Scrolling – Riverfront Times
The Kranzberg Arts Foundation welcomes resident visual artist Vincent Stemmler for his solo exhibition, ‘Doom Scroll’ – Ladue News