Collection: THE NEIGHBORHOOD: Building Blocks by Norman Spencer

The Neighborhood: Building Blocks by Norman Spencer

ON VIEW Sept 5 - Nov 29

The Neighborhood: Building Blocks by Norman Spencer is an exploration of the neighborhoods that unfold behind the facades of homes across our neighborhoods in St. Louis. This exhibition is born from Spencer's experience of creating house commissions in various neighborhoods and listening to the countless stories that reveal the rich, complex lives lived within these walls. Through these collages and sculptures, he aims to highlight the connections that bind our communities together - interconnections that often go unnoticed or unappreciated in daily life. 

In creating this series, Spencer drew inspiration from his experiences with the house commissions over the last four years as well as his experience growing up in Louisville, Kentucky. "The Old Louisville neighborhood in my hometown is the largest contiguous collection of Victorian mansions in the United States. While many of the homes have been turned into apartments and multi-family homes over the years, some remain as single-family mansions. Living there, I was enamored with the architecture, the small unique details of each home, the chromatic colors and the effortless way that millionaires, students, and low-income families could live together seamlessly. I started making prints of these homes as a hobby in college, to commemorate my favorite homes that I lived in, visited, or walked by every day. As my artistic practice grew, I began doing house portrait commissions for people in the neighborhood. With these commissions, I would hear the stories of the homes, getting a glimpse - beyond their facades - at how the homes shaped peoples’ lives and vice versa.

When my wife and I moved to Saint Louis, I was overwhelmed by the size of the city and how unfamiliar yet vaguely familiar it felt. Despite the similarities that can be found between the cities, I initially had a hard time navigating the area and often found myself lost, unable to differentiate one neighborhood from the next. To ground myself in my new home, I decided to continue my practice of offering house portrait block prints and use it as a way to get to know my new city and the neighborhoods that make up St. Louis. Four years later, I have completed hundreds of house commissions for residents all over the city and felt my roots here deepen with each story I hear and each home I carve and print."

Through this exhibition, Spencer hopes to highlight the interconnectedness of our neighborhoods and the city as a whole. Each neighborhood, though distinct, is a vital part of a larger ecosystem dependent on its neighbors to thrive or falter. The juxtaposition of different aspects of houses, materials, and textures in his work reflects this dynamic, illustrating how the stories and lives of those who inhabit these spaces are intricately woven into the fabric of the city itself and highlighting how much deeper we all are than the facades we live behind. These collages and sculptures, in their layered complexity, mirror this relationship, inviting the viewer to look beyond the surface.