Hunt Gallery presents exhibitions of individual artists and/or groups of artists of regional, national and international renown whose works demonstrate significant aesthetic achievement and art historical importance.
An integral part of the educational mission of the Department of Art, Design and Art History (DADAH), the Gallery features curated exhibitions of contemporary art for the academic community and broader St. Louis area public.
ThreadLine presents a compelling perspective on contemporary textile art as a significant and engaging form of fine art. The medium has dramatically expanded beyond traditional methods and materials by merging unconventional components into striking contemporary textural forms. By challenging historical hierarchies and embracing material experimentation, artists in the exhibition reframe textiles as an expansive and deeply relevant fine art practice.
This exhibition invites the reconsideration of the boundaries of art and craft, offering a diverse exploration of texture, form, and meaning in contemporary textile-based work. ThreadLine includes works by Kansas City, Missouri-based artists Becky Stevens and Char Schwall; Los Angeles, California-based Patrick Carroll; Cupertino, California-based Consuelo Jimenez Underwood; Chicago, Illinois-based Savneet Talwar and Bryana Bibbs; and St. Louis, Missouri-based artists Ethan Meyer, Quyunn Douglas Dale and Marina Peng.
Opening Reception: Feb. 6, 2026, 6-8 p.m.
“The Surface — The Space” was an exhibition of paintings and wall drawings by Kansas City-based artist Laura Nugent. Nugent’s works investigate the continued restating of abstract painting. Aleksandr Rodchenko declared of his red monochrome in 1921 that he had accomplished the “last painting,” yet 100 years later there remains meaningful, significant dialogue in much contemporary art practice with myriad expressions of pure color and form. With the “tradition” of the repeated statements of the death and rebirth of abstract art, Nugent literally repurposes, reincarnates older works to create new forms and unique, unexpected juxtapositions. For the Hunt Gallery exhibition, the artist will create large-scale abstract wall paintings.
Laura Nugent earned her BFA degree from Maryland Institute College of Art, she also studied in Florence, Italy in the Independent Painting Program of the Studio Arts College International. Her work is in numerous private and public collections, she has an extensive exhibition record, including exhibitions at Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, Florida; A.I.R. Gallery, New York, New York; Sheldon Swope Museum of Art, Terre Haute, Indiana; Jewish Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, Kansas; Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison, Wisconsin; Leedy Voulkos Art Center, Kansas City, Missouri; etc. In addition to her studio practice, Nugent is also a curator, arts advocate and a former board president of the Kansas City Artists Coalition.
Through sculpture, video and DIY craft-based processes, “Where nobody gets old, godly, and grave,” explores the function of fakery and fantasy in contemporary culture. Drawing from online culture, rave culture, history and fairy lore the artist investigates where fantasy meets reality, where illusion opens into insight, and where the digital and the mythic intertwine.
St. Louis-born, Chicago-based artist Chloë Simmons (BFA 2019) is a conceptual artist whose work involves various channels of information and interpretation of materials. She works in combinations of video, consumer products, print and fashion. Simmons received the MFA from the University of Wisconsin, Madison; she has exhibited at Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta, Georgia; Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; The Sheldon, St. Louis, Missouri; numerous group exhibitions; and solo shows in Milwaukee, Madison, Wisconsin, and Columbia, South Carolina.
The Sanskrit word atra, meaning "here," refers literally to an actual place or specific location, while its negation, atra na, meaning "not here," suggests the dialogue inherent in the diasporic experience. This situation involves a segment of one’s identity being anchored to one location or heritage as something local yet equally rooted in a culturally and environmentally different locale. Cultures are not monadic, relying on a single place; instead, they consist of fragments that survive and manifest in multiple locations.
The ATRA exhibition examined some of the competing forces of tradition and modernity, indigence and diasporas, and the dualities mirrored in cultural hybridity. ATRA featured works by eight artists of South Asian heritage who live and work in the U.S. ATRA artists: Saumitra Chandratreya, Mee Jey, Shreepad Joglekar, Priya Kambli, Shreyas R. Krishnan, Renluka Maharaj, Al-Qawi Nanavati, Udita Upadhyana. The exhibition was curated by Jeffrey Hughes, Professor of Art History and Director of Hunt Gallery in the Department of Art, Design and Art History at Webster University.
Christina Shmigel is a contemporary Ukrainian-American artist working in sculptural installation and drawing. As a first-generation American growing up between cultures and languages, she became an observer of cultural cues. This habit of being informs her artistic practice; as she moves from place to place, she explores how a locality’s particular character manifests in its material culture. Combining handmade objects with unaltered acquired components, employing shifts of scale and viewpoint, the theatrical spaces of her installations are experienced through slow revelation, in time and through memory. Shmigel’s sensibility as an artist is tuned toward making visible the wonder and poignancy lodged inside.
International artist Rebecca Olsen's new exhibition, “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” visually addresses themes of infinity and asks existential questions about the nature of reality, the infinite nature of the universe, and perception. In her work, Olsen creates symbols and uses geometric forms to translate myths and discuss what existence feels like. Through her creative lens, she contemplates significant scientific discoveries, psychology, the meaning of life, chaos theory, climate change, and the nature of power. At the heart of this exhibition is the desire to create an immersive space filled with ideas. She develops this visual language, creating a formal landscape for the ideas to dialog.
Born in Florence, Italy, to American artists, Olsen is president and co-founder of the Santa Reparata International School of Art (SRISA), one of Florence's most notable private art schools hosting students and faculty from all over the globe. Olsen's father, Dennis Olsen, who co-founded SRISA, was a native St. Louisan and an artist. As such, Olsen still maintains close ties here. She has shown her work internationally, with gallery representation in Berlin, for her visual art She also sells her wearable art at the Whitney Museum store.
Politics of Exchange
Politics of Exchange
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8342 Big Bend Blvd.
Webster Groves, MO 63119
Phone: 314-246-7957
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