Congratulations to CAM’s architect, Brad Cloepfil, on the opening of his newest architectural endeavor – the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver, CO. Cloepfil, Founding Principal of Allied Works Architecture, designed a big, horizontal concrete box with a cantilevered entrance and a glass-walled first floor for a cost of $15.5 million. Click here to read an article from The Kansas City Star for more information about Denver’s newest art museum housing some of the greatest and least-known American paintings of the post-World War II era — big, craggy, all-over abstractions made by Clyfford Still (1904-1980), perhaps the most cantankerous and original of the abstract expressionists.

In conjunction with World AIDS Day, CAM is pleased to present Untitled by Jim Hodges. With a run time of 60 minutes, the film will start every hour on the hour.

Untitled is a non-linear montage of archival and pop footage recalling the passionate activism sparked by the early years of the AIDS crisis. Un-spooling at multiple levels, the narrative flies between scenes of tragic brutality to kitschy humor, arch clips of laughter and ironic surprises while shredding traditional chronology. Many references — the title, short excerpts from Golden Girls and Dynasty, popular songs, and contemporary issues — nod towards Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s oeuvre, but the film is not an attempt to portray the artist; rather, it places the viewer “in his room.” In this way, the framing of the artist becomes a means to project any number of people, endlessly.

Click here for more information.

Watch the video put together by Amy from the Pulitzer on the Contemporary’s new media and posted on saintlouisartmap.org. The video is part of a series “catching up with…” St. Louis arts organizations.

The Museum is closed for installation until January 22 which is Opening Night of Sean Landers: 1991-1994, Improbable History and Stephen Prina: Modern Movie Popin the Main Galleries and Xavier Cha in The Front Room. You can stay connected to the Contemporary by visiting this blog, social networking sites, and the Museum’s website. Click here for all the ways to stay connected while we are closed.

The Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis would like to wish you and yours a very safe and happy New Year!

Read the blog posted on saintlouisartmap.org. Find out about the Piñata Closing Party, the event to mark the end of the exhibition For the blind man in the dark room looking for the black cat that isn’t there.

Mariana Castillo Deball / Tessa Rehkop

Mariana Castillo Deball was born in 1975 in Mexico City, and she currently lives and works in Amsterdam and Berlin. Her Klein Bottle Piñata (2009) is being presented as part of the current exhibition For the blind man in the dark room looking for the black cat that isn’t there. The gigantic, blue, Klein bottle-shaped piñata hangs over the Contemporary’s performance space allowing viewers to examine the curious object. It is made out of paper máché and is larger than life. A Klein bottle is a non-orientable surface, meaning the inside and outside cannot be distinguished. This is similar to a Mobious strip, except that a Klein bottle has no boundary. What’s inside the Piñata is a mystery and will be revealed the last day of the show at the Piñata Closing Party held at the Contemporary on Sunday, January 3 from 4:00 – 6:00 pm. Guests will be allowed to take swings at the piñata to break it open!

Falke Pisano / Tessa Rehkop

Falke Pisano was born in 1978 in Amsterdam, where she currently lives and works. Her work, Chillida (Forms and Feelings) (2006), is being shown as part of the current exhibition For the blind man in the dark room looking for the black cat that isn’t there. It consists of a video projection of the artist looking through a book photographs. These photographs are of sculptures by Eduardo Chillida captured by amateur photographer David Finn, who travels all over the world to find them. He eventually publishes the sculptures in a book in the late 1990’s. Using two separate projections, Pisano flips through Finn’s book of photographs while providing her commentary. The artist believed it was important to describe what she felt the moment she first looked at the photographs and their descriptions. Some of the sculptures Pisano views with appreciation because they are what she describes as “strong and natural” just as she herself would like to be. Pisano begins to draw lines and create her own shapes using images of the sculptures, so the viewer doesn’t just hear her interpretation but can now see it also. Click here for the gallery guide.

For the blind man in the dark room looking for the black cat that isn’t there is on view for only a short time longer. It closes on Sunday, January 3, 2010. You can read a review of this major group show that was published in the December issue of Art in America here!

Rachel Harrison / Tessa Rehkop

Rachel Harrison was born in 1966 in New York City, where she currently lives and works. Her work, Voyage of the Beagle, is named after a journal by Charles Darwin and is currently being displayed as part of the current exhibition For the blind man in the dark room looking for the black cat that isn’t there. It consists of fifty-eight photographs of a wide variety of characters. Lining the length of two entire walls, Harrison’s images range from 5000-year old stone figures to a Barbie doll to a figure of Elvis. The series seems to be a playful, humorous way to represent gaps in culture from the past and present but also holes that exist between cultures even today. Along with these images Harrison presents three abstract sculptures that are coated with the artist’s signature pearlescent paint.