Yvonne Osei

The 2017 Kransberg Exhibition Series presents Tailored Landscapes at the Adam Aronson Fine Arts Center at Laumeier Sculpture Park. The opening on Saturday November 4, 2017 is a treat. The exhibition is installed in a way this space has yet to have experienced. Minutes before the doors opened the artist was cutting pieces of the large scale photography based installation on the ceiling in the entryway. But as people arrive there is a joy in the room that leverages Osei’s “Tailored Landscapes” that allow visitors to step into the work and engage. Families and art enthusiasts are challenged to see the textures of the sculpture park in new ways.

Yvyonne Osei was born in Germany of Ghanaian parentage. She got her MFA at Washington University in 2016. Her exhibition here cannot project fully what this artist will accomplish in her lifetime. But it is for certain that she is the sort of personality that helps us see the beauty in texture, patterns and repetition. The sort of critical eye that sees a sculpture park as a pallet that can be repurposed and applied to atmosphere and apparel.

I am planning to visit the Lambert Airport to see evidence of what this artist has to say in Africa Clothe Me Bare, Saint Louis IV 2017 which will be on view at the St. Louis Lambert Airport somewhere near the baggage claim while so many travelers will be looking to get somewhere for Thanksgiving. Thanks to Osei, some people will stop and see.

I was especially inspired by the impression Yvonne Osei had on young visitor to the exhibition who instinctively understood the art and iconic imagery and how we see ourselves and how we see the world around us.