Previous Exhibitions
Peter Manion: Better When I’m Bad
April 8th - May 14th, 2022
Better When I’m Bad is an intimate collection of new work from Peter Manion, created from 2020 to 2021. During this time, amidst the pandemic, Peter took a sabbatical in Mexico, culminating in the inspiration for this series. The personal journey through culture and terrain set the scene for Peter to process ideas of consumption, celebration, and inner conflicts relating to relationships, love, and impulse.
Foster Owen Atkinson: Head Blooms
Alex Paradowski: Body Language
March 4th - April 1st, 2022
In Foster’s first solo exhibition “Head Blooms”, we will be exploring outside the realm of our imagination with his unique compositions and fabric assembly. Foster Owen Atkinson was originally born in Birmingham, AL in November of 1998. He spent most of his childhood in Norman/Oklahoma City, OK. Foster then moved to St. Louis to attend college at Webster University, where he studied art history, philosophy, and English before choosing to stop his studies due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, he works and maintains a studio in St. Louis, MO.
In Alex’s solo exhibition “Body Language”, we will investigate the deeper meaning of communication in his figurative works. Alex Paradowski began his career as a graphic artist. His current work combines the time-honored techniques of papermaking and mosaic. He uses today’s technology of digital photography to create work from hand-cast paper cubes.
Cory Sellers: Foundation Jump
January 28th - February 25th, 2022
In Foundation Jump, Cory has been thinking about his immediate family and their development. The painted forms are symbolic in their placement, color, and usage. They represent many things that come to mind while painting including his family and the historical context of the forms. Cory is interested in the challenge of incorporating these forms into a visual language and building a strong composition. Certain features get manipulated or exaggerated using a variety of preliminary drawings both digital and traditional. This process continues until Cory feels the composition has developed its own characteristics, reminding him that the finished product does not have to look like the initial intention
Virtual Tour of Exhibition
Winter Group Show: Wild Thing!
Featured Artist: Ken Konchel
December 10th, 2021 - January 22nd, 2022
With a diverse range of styles featured in the exhibition, we explore the wild side of the St. Louis art scene today. With many new and familiar faces, we are all excited to share what we have been working on, a truly wild experience!
Ken Konchel specializes in capturing abstracted architectural images utilizing traditional equipment and silver gelatin printing. He’s won 74 awards in juried exhibitions and art fairs. He has had 25 solo exhibitions, 14 group exhibitions and has been juried into 190 exhibitions across the country.
Nick Schleicher: LIMBOOO
Martin Kahnle: I Am Water
October 22nd - December 4, 2021
In LIMBOOO Nick Schleicher presents a series of paintings with the indelible ability to soften harshness and bring levity to the overly serious. They make beautiful the roughness of life and loss, easing the pains of growing up. This series specifically investigates the parameters of permanence, finding comfort in the ambiguity of a life in flux.
Martin Kahnle explores the way that composition influences a visual narrative by conducting the viewer through the space of the painting, using a hyper-vibrant color palette and the action of the paint and brushwork, rivers flow, trees sway and plants come alive, reminding us that we are alone in our inner and external worlds and part of a universal whole.
Virtual Tour of the Exhibition
Craig Carlisle’s: It Was All Just A Dream…
Andrea Coates: The Presence of Objects
September 3rd - October 16th, 2021
Craig Carlisle's idea of meditation and contemplation play a major role in his paintings. He articulates indelible images which evoke an emotional response from the viewer. The series of heads are generally large canvases deliberately created on a scale to empower a room. The expressions Carlisle creates in his paintings are meant to pull from one’s subconscious, appearing anonymous and genderless, almost child-like. Carlisle opts to place the focus on the raw expression of his characters, eliminating the potential distraction of hair or adornments.
Andrea Coates explores imagination and alternate realities through her history of dressing up, wearing masks, and playing make-believe. She credits this childhood play as emboldening her creativity and identity into adulthood, where she still practices persona play. Her work investigates make-believe and pretend, helping her to tackle the anxieties of being an adult woman, having an autoimmune disease, and losing loved ones. Through this work, we witness her contemplate diads of vulnerability vs. power, hiding vs. revealing, and presence vs. memory.
Virtual Tour of the exhibition
Summer Group Show: Couleur
July 16th - August 28th, 2021
For our annual summer group show, we are highlighting work from 15 different local artists. Finding the right combination of work always proves to be a fun challenge. This year, we explore how color has influenced the community around us. With a wide range of styles and techniques shown throughout, we made sure to include something for everyone to enjoy.
Tim Hahn, our featured artist of the Summer, is located on our lower level. His work is about the relationship between color, form, and material. This is obvious because his paintings are multi-dimensional and function more as “objects”. He is aiming for a purely aesthetic experience and leaves the interpretation open to the viewer
John Marksbury’s: Leap Year
June 4th - July 10th, 2021
John Marksbury is a St. Louis-based artist and designer who relocated from Boston, MA, in early 2013. Developed through an intuitive process of layering and expressive mark-making, John’s colorful paintings explore ideas of time and space, the fantastic and mystical, symbolism, and the tension between objective and subjective experience. John has found a supportive home in the local arts community, exhibiting work at Art Saint Louis and most recently at Saint Charles Community College’s biannual painting invitational. He is honored and excited to have his second solo exhibition at Houska Gallery.
Virtual tour of the exhibition
Metra Mitchell’s: Other Disguises &
Jenna Bauer’s: KC Trials and Tivoli Dreams
February 4th - March 27th, 2021
In Metra Mitchell’s series entitled “Other Disguises”, archetypal characters appear in many disguises within staged theatrical environments. A certain strangeness in their representation reflects the fragmentation and duplication of the ego in a dream. Unpacking this constellation of imagery carries a strong emotional charge, conjuring a complex process of transformations. This metamorphosis involves the human body- a living presence that may take on different shapes and forms. Concealed identities, masks and other disguises reflect a lack of certainty. As for Jenna Bauer, last winter she boiled her color pallet into grids while living in Kansas City: her KC Trials. The goal with these paintings includes color theory research, storytelling and creating the essence of landscape within the canon of Grid Painting.
Amy Reidel: Mombie Magic
February 4th - March 27th, 2021
Through painting, drawing, and sculpture, Amy Reidel abstractly combines imagery to illuminate the bittersweet conditions of motherhood, family, and sexuality; topics most people experience but are not encouraged to discuss professionally. The innocuous, inherited patterns of Grandma’s scarves and decorative rugs merge together with darling babies and scared caregivers in an absurd representation of home and love.
Winter Group Show
December 4 - January 30
Featuring artwork by Neeka Allsup, Jenna Bauer, Quinn Antonio Briceño, Brian DePauli, Emily Elhoffer, Carrie Gillen, Jeff Kapfer, Justin King, Zachary Lassen, Rachel Lebo, Peter Manion, Jordan McGirk, Metra Mitchell, Jeremy Rabus, Nick Schleicher, Dr. Slime, & Eric Wieringa.
Peter Manion: Stories of Roman Gods of War & Love
October 23 - November 28, 2020
A reflective quarantine series that focuses on the emotional aspects of art making - honoring memories lost and forgotten without becoming burdened by them.
Quinn Antonio Briceño: Como Tú
September 10 - October 17, 2020
A series that explores the tensions and prejudices between ethnicity and social class, elitism and racism, both in the United States and Latin America.
Summer Group Show
July 24 - August 29, 2020
Featured artwork by Neeka Allsup, Brian DePauli, Emily Elhoffer, Mark Hillard, Michael Hoffman, Justin King, Zac Lassen, Rachel Lebo, Peter Manion, John Marksbury, Jordan McGirk, Metra Mitchell, Patrick Owen, Edo Rosenblith, Nick Schleicher, Dr. Slime, Larry Torno, Sam Watkins-Park, & Eric Wieringa.
Nick Schleicher: Increasingly All the Time
April 10 - May 23, 2020
A survey of hyper saturated, iridescent color field paintings and sculptures from Nick Schleicher’s recent exploration into his personal sense of aesthetic and display.
Peter Manion: Peek-A-Boo, Part 2
April 10 - May 23, 2020
An extension of Peter Manion’s February pop-up. View his works in a new context along with new, smaller works created for this encore presentation.
Peter Manion: Peek-A-Boo, A Pop-Up & Performance
February 21 - March 28, 2020
A transformation of the main gallery into Peter’s personal studio.
Mark Pack: Unanswerable Questions
February 21 - March 28, 2020
Mark Pack explores themes of nature and how we as a society interact with it, through the process of brushing, pouring, and layering paint - sometimes hundreds of layers. He then goes into these layers, cutting and reshaping the work and watching it evolve through various stages. For Pack, this is a way to examine the duality between chaos and control.
Winter Group Show
December 13, 2019 - February 8, 2020
Featured artwork by Tony Cray, Harley Lafarrah Eaves, Steve Hartman, Justin King, Julie Malone, Peter Manion, John Marksbury, Jordan McGirk, Metra Mitchell, J.B. Nearsy Wright, Carmelita Nuñez, Renée Raub-Ayers, Gregg Rasmusson, Nick Schleicher, & Eric Wieringa
Paula Haniszewski: Living Proof
October 18 - December 7, 2019
St. Louis-based artist Paula Haniszewski’s work is an exploration of portraiture that pulls from art history, vintage print ads, and film stills, resulting in newly-constructed identities and personas.
Julie Malone: Atmospheric Abstractions
October 18 - December 7, 2019
Malone’s abstract landscapes push the boundaries of color theory, creating depth and movement that engage the viewer and allow for emotional connections.
Caleb Gebel: Working For Mr. Hellman At My Hell Job In Hell
September 13 - October 12, 2019
Caleb Gebel’s imagery is culled from past experiences and opinionated daydreams that are filtered through an optical assemblage of video games, cartoons, comedic horror, and thrash metal to create an abstract agnostic narrative. His paintings search for an illusive allegory that evokes meaning through a process of cultivating their own language while simultaneously deciphering it.
Cory Sellers: Clearly Constructed
September 13 - October 12, 2019
Cory Sellers’ work deals primarily with the investigation of space. He’s greatly interested in pictorial drama and illusionism within that space, while also pushing the formal qualities of his medium. Certain features get manipulated or exaggerated, lending to a feeling of solitude and adding to the mystery of his compositions.
Summer Group Show
July 19 - September 7, 2019
Featured artwork by: Myles Keough, Alicia LaChance, Jordan McGirk, Metra Mitchell, Jeremy Rabus, & Chris Scott.
Additional artwork by Carol Fleming, Michael Hoffman, Julie Malone, & J.B. Nearsy,
Carrie Gillen: DREAM CRUSHER/CATCHER/CONTAINER, Studies in the Excavation of Home
May 17 - July 13, 2019
Carrie Gillen’s interdisciplinary work is an exploration of materials used in contemporary building practice, design, and fabrication. She manipulates these materials, investigating and finding visual signifiers that represent a discourse with space. Gillen is interested in re-ordering the material that surrounds, protects, and often defines our livelihood.
Jordan McGirk: We Will Not Leave Wanting
April 5 - May 11, 2019
Jordan McGirk's work explores the anxious embodiment of western hypermasculinity, and represents the fragility of living out fragmented ideologies. His most recent paintings investigate fantasies of power and privilege performed at hardcore and heavy metal shows by posturing young men.
Temporal Contexts: Kit Keith & Christopher Ruess
February 15 - March 30, 2019
Kit Keith's paintings and collages are unmistakable - nostalgic portraits and handwritten sayings over thrift shop paintings, canvas tarps, and antique maps - allowing a glimpse into Kit's unconventional, artistic life.
Christopher Ruess' recent, large-scale paintings explore a visual language inspired by marine shapes and their contexts - particularly vernacular shapes indicative of water and terrestrial forms.
Winter Group Show
December 14, 2018 - February 9, 2019
Featured artwork by Tony Cray, Michael Hoffman, Bethanie Irons, Jeff Kapfer, Myles Keough, Ken Konchel, Julie Malone, Peter Manion, John Marksbury, Metra Mitchell, J.B. Nearsy, Renée Raub-Ayers, Justin Tolentino, Larry Torno, & Diana Zeng
Jeremy Rabus: Since It Is Only The Mirror
October 19 - December 8, 2018
Jeremy Rabus’ paintings are composed using an intuitive process of layering and excavating. He arranges vivid hues alongside subtle tones, or rich and opaque passages with translucent glazes. These elements overlap, intertwine, and accentuate each other.
As the piece evolves, Rabus grinds into the layers with a power sander, revealing new textures, early brushstrokes, and stunning color "conversations" which tell the painting's story of its making. Every painting orchestrates the elements of imagery- hue, contrast, space, texture, and contour into an immersive optical experience in the final piece.
John Marksbury: My Life as an Atom
September 13 - October 13, 2018
John Marksbury is a St. Louis-based artist and designer who relocated from Boston, MA, in early 2013. Developed through an intuitive process of layering and expressive mark-making, John’s paintings explore ideas of time and space, the fantastic and mystical, symbolism, and the tension between objective and subjective experience.
Contemporary Prints
July 20 - September 8, 2018
Houska Gallery is pleased to present a group exhibition featuring a variety of approaches to printmaking. Artists include Laura Berman, Bethanie Irons, Carly Kurka, Lillian Stephen, and Sonya Williams.
Julie Malone: Chroma Glow
May 25 - July 14, 2018
As a colorist, Malone’s abstract landscapes push the boundaries of color theory, creating depth and movement that engage the viewer and allow for emotional connections.
Peter Manion: La Fragua to Vermont: Works on Paper
April 6 - May 19, 2018
La Fragua to Vermont: Works on Paper features work by Peter Manion created during his residencies in La Fragua, Belalcazar, Spain, and the Vermont Studio Center. Needing a “flip of the switch” creatively, these experiences provided the isolation Manion needed to reemerge with a new artistic purpose. It was in La Fragua that he started to experiment with his felt and plaster sculptures - allowing him to reexamine his practice as a whole and create a new pace and vocabulary from which to work.