phd gallery

This gallery sucks ass! I recently moved to St. Louis area from California. My wife and I collect contemporary art and like to go gallery hopping on the weekends. There’s only one or two galleries that promote urban/​hip artwork in St. Louis. We were excited to find out about phd gallery and decided to attend one of their openings. While looking for parking on the street, I could tell the gallery was jam packed. Most of the people were dressed up so when I walked in their with my t-​shirt and jeans, people looked at me like I should be thrown out. You could hardly see any artwork as the small gallery was jam packed like can of sardines. I asked the receptionist if I could take a picture of one of the prints. She hesitated for a second but she said it was okay «if it was for my personal use». As soon as I approach the print, the owner pops out of nowhere and tells me «I would appreciate if you wouldn’t do that». I wasn’t planning to reproduce a reproduced work. For the next five minutes or so, the owner kept eyeballing me like I was going to rob him of his cheap art collection. I wanted to say few words to him but I did not want to make scene on his opening night. We decided to walk down few blocks and enjoyed some great Mexican food. The Mexican joint had much better décor and excellent service!

PHD is a collection art for the mature eye. If your looking for an objet d’art to take you out of your daily routine, a well-​made art piece by artists truly committed to their medium, PHD might be the spot for you. No, PHD doesn’t have «idea art» by recent BFA or MFA graduates. Instead, the gallery presents work based on the talents and vision of the seasoned and (yet still-​seeking) artist. If your looking for art as revolution, you’ll find plenty of it on Cherokee street, but at PHD you’ll find a something crafted with intention. For the superyoung it might be kitsch, but for the person wanting to invest in the mid-​career artist and objects they make it’s a wonderworld.

One word. Kitsch.

I’ve only been to phd once or twice, but as far as I can tell, the main focus of exhibitions here is naked dudes. Just kidding, I just looked at their website and it appears that the current show involves not just naked dudes, but naked ladies. And there have been a couple of shows, like one of paintings of Hello Kitty invading miniature reproductions of classic and famous paintings. So, it’s naked dudes with a peppering of other stuff. Meaning, it might not be the best place to check out if for some reason you are gallery hopping on a Friday night with children. Or if sadly, you’re homophobic (some of the naked men are with other naked men). Personally, I’m often kind of bored with black and white nude photos as it’s been done, and done, and done countless times.
The gallery, although very nicely renovated (it opened last year), is rather small and it can easily become packed with bodies leaving no way to actually look at art on an opening night. But, I’m sure if I’m going gallery to gallery, as I like to do when there are openings, that I will stop in and look art involving naked or not so naked things.