Ron E. Young

Lost and Found, June 21-July 19, 2019

Opening: Friday, June 21, 6 PM to 8 PM

I scrounge the alleys, boarded-up buildings and vacant lots like an archeologist searching for buried treasure. The ghosts of a once thriving community have a story to tell before all memory of their existence is erased. My current studio practice involves assembling disparate elements, things that I scavenge and collect from the carnage that is now North St. Louis City. From these discarded materials I create my mixed-media assemblages. The materials I collect are from city streets and neighborhoods, a treasure trove of materials left behind for me to collect – wrought iron metal; rusty nuts, bolts, screws; ropes and chains; old broken tools; lots of wood, now burnt and rotten, that were once doors, window frames and decorative molding; and an abundance of bricks. I use these discarded objects to create art that tells a story about what we value and how we treat the people that once owned them.