Central West End co-working space, TechArista, has partnered with local architect Cole Hoffarth to curate an Emerging Artists Showcase, featuring St. Louis artists Hope Ainsworth, Matthew Gray and Rici Hoffarth, which will open Friday, August 31st from 6-9pm at 4818 Washington Blvd, St. Louis.

“We have a talented pool of artists in St. Louis and we want to showcase those a little less know to the masses via our space. Our community is full of creatives, who appreciate art. We love bringing it all together during events like this--creatives, artists, entrepreneurs, thinkers and doers,” comments Laura Heying, TechArtista Community & Marketing Director on how this exhibition came together.

The opening of TechArtista's newest exhibition will also feature live mural art by Rici Hoffarth throughout the night, music by STLlegend (Charles Purnell), complimentary beer and wine will be provided, and attendees will be able to shop artists pieces and prints. This event is free and open to all. The exhibition will be on view until Friday, September 28, 2018.

"I strive for visual overload. Mostly painting with glue and acrylic, the collaging of materials and layering of mediums is a continuous experiment. I play with peculiar color combinations and incorporate elements of texture. These works are my souvenir photographs of a world just next to ours," featured artist, Hope Ainsworth, explains.

“Matthew Gray is a local artist who specializes in drawings. As a genre, Gray’s work could be called lowbrow surrealism, and his content often combines fantastical sci-fi imagery with objects from our own daily lives. Trying to capture the insanity of the modern experience through the lens of the absurd, Gray creates pieces that look like Dinosaur Jr. album covers if they were designed by Salvador Dali. Strangely personal, these drawings use perspective in order to help us question the ways we observe the weird shit that happens to and around us. But are we really the watchers, or are we the ones being watched? That depends on your point of view,” describes Adam Rothbarth, writer.

Rici Hoffarth’s work is an attempt to illustrate the absurd, haphazard, confusing and wondrous inner world that is sometimes more real than what’s actually “real.” Geometric patterns explode from or sometimes subtly trail the human figure, giving the sense of the figure’s internal world bursting into the space outside their body. Her portraiture work is an observed catalog of the contours of peoples’ faces and souls. Intricate line work gives a buzzing, moving effect, as if animating the soul's movement through the body. These contemplative, introspective works illuminate the artist’s belief that every single being in this world contains multitudes and pieces of the divine.

TechArtista is a platform that enables independent creatives to be successful, offering professional spaces along with convenient amenities to grow communities, launch businesses, and make our city a better place live and work. Launched in 2014, the flagship center is located in the Central West End in a 1920's-era Pierce Arrow Motor Car facility and houses 350 members. Combining commercial office and event space with unique retail, food and beverage programs, TechArtista provides members of the community with programs to meet their professional and social needs.

See the exhibition during the opening Friday, August 31st 6-9pm at TechArtista. The exhibition will be on view Monday - Friday 7:30am - 4:30pm until Friday, September 28.

Emerging Artists Showcase Preview