Home Announcements PRESS RELEASE: Jon Luvelli’s work in exhibition at the State Historical Society...

PRESS RELEASE: Jon Luvelli’s work in exhibition at the State Historical Society of Missouri permanent art collection.

Announcements

by Spyros Papaspyropoulos - Apr 3, 2018

Jon Luvelli is an acclaimed street photographer that is based in Missouri a state in the Midwestern United States. If you are a regular reader of the Streethunters.net website you will remember Luvelli’s work from some of our previous posts.

In 2015 we wrote a feature on his photo “Horns”, in 2016 we wrote a review about his book “One Block” and in that same year he was voted as one of the most influential street photographers of that year by you, our readers.

Today we would like to share with you some exciting news about him. The State Historical Society of Missouri, recognising Luvelli’s fine art photography and his contribution to the portrayal of Midwestern rural townscapes, will be sharing a selection of his work in their permanent art collection. The first installment of photographs is on display now at the State Historical Society’s Columbia art gallery.

"A boy and his doll" by Jon Luvelli — “A boy and his doll” by Jon Luvelli

Joan Stack, SHSMO’s curator of art collections says that,

“Luvelli’s work casts an aesthetic spotlight on contemporary life in the rural routes and small-town streets of the Show-Me State. He avoids stereotypical visions of country life in favor of black-and-white works picturing people and places most individuals overlook or sometimes choose to ignore.”

She continues saying that,

“By allowing spectators to view twenty-first-century central Missouri through an artist’s eye, Luvelli helps us better understand the state and its people.”

Stack also mentioned that Luvelli’s work also conveys social messages, never shying away from the complicated subjects of racism, poverty, sexuality, abuse and addiction.

Aarik Danielsen, the Columbia Daily Tribune arts and entertainment editor in an August 2016 review of Luvelli’s ‘Unseen Columbia’ exhibition at the Montminy gallery wrote,

“Luvelli captures Columbia’s collection history through his focus on the unnoticed. All are equal in Luvelli’s viewfinder. The children and aged, the black and white, the police and the passed-out in the street. The photographer forces us to reckon with economic realities we would do anything not to see.”

If you are ever in the area, we recommend you visit the State Historical Society of Missouri’s diverse art collection, illustrating Missouri’s regional and westward expansion history and check out Luvelli’s work.