MCBA Outlook Gallery
February 3–April 16, 2023
Free and open to the public
VIEWABLE FROM THE STREET (AND FROM INSIDE THE SHOP during our open hours)
From the artist:
The elusiveness of historic architecture in the American city is our present. Ubiquitous bits tossed in alleys, unearthed on construction sites, and settled into dilapidated homes are the material culture that surround us. Centering these bits and the communities therein, Pattern Storage is about the historically tedious and back-breaking labor fundamental to mining raw materials, designing and fabricating building resources, and construction itself. Meandering shelves with printed objects log these odds and ends. Bits and pieces of stuff usually aren’t considered consequential. Though, in the midst of a home, a city, a world that feels unstable, teetering and adrift in this present moment, Pattern Storage, apart from that, tries to puts some things back in place.
Sage Dawson is a Saint Louis-based artist and curator. Her work examines dwelling rights, domestic labor, and the identity of spaces. She is a Senior Lecturer in the Sam Fox School at Washington University and is the Co-Director at STNDRD—a gallery project examining the power and potential of flags. Sage completed an MFA and Museum Studies minor at the University of New Mexico, and a BFA at Missouri State University.
Sage has exhibited, lectured, and presented work at various sites including the Center for Contemporary Printmaking Norwalk, Endless Editions EFA Project Space, the Urban Institute for Contemporary Art, The Pulitzer Arts Foundation, the Chicago Artists Coalition, the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, Tate Exchange, Boston University, the Saint Louis Art Museum, Laumeier Sculpture Park, Women’s Studio Workshop, the City University of New York, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Toledo Center for the Visual Arts, and the International Print Center New York. Her work has appeared in Art in America, Elephant, From Here to There (published by Princeton Architectural Press), New Art Examiner, Art in Print, Dwell, and Hyperallergic.