current exhibition
Current Exhibition
Vol. VI No. 5
Gutter Box x The Nook
Rachel Lebo
I am Rachel, but let’s be Edith
Acrylic, ceramic, and cloth
Sep 10 - Nov 02, 2025
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Artist Statement:
I am Rachel, but sometimes I find it more informative and effective to be someone else. Most of my practice is an exploration into characters. Some are short story characters written by authors, like A.M. Homes, Carmen Maria Machado, Margaret Atwood, Mary Gaitskill, ZZ Packer, Lucia Berlin, and many more. Some are the characters that I have developed from the women in my life - friends, mentors, and family - and the sensationalized myths that I have created around them. I step into these characters and make work through their lens. There are many themes that these charactersexplore - becoming/unbecoming, exchanges of power, vulnerability, disguise - all thinly veiled ways of understanding myself and others. In this little collection of objects, I’m exploring Edith, who has just settled into her painting after having strewn her items on the floor and is now gazing apathetically down at the floor.
Artist Info:
Rachel grew up on the East Coast in Baltimore County, Maryland. She currently resides in St. Louis, Missouri, working across media in painting, sculpture, and storytelling. She looks at her works as operating similarly to short stories, using color, emphasis on certain details, and characters in order to float as close as she can to the point without ever introducing a plot.
In 2019, Rachel received her MFA in visual arts from Washington University in St. Louis. She is the recipient of the Ernestine Betsberg and Arthur Osver Scholarship, a Dubinsky Scholarship to study at the Fine Arts Work Center, and the Regional Arts Commission’s artist support grant. Recent solo exhibitions include Lilac Quilt at The Kling Family Gallery in St. Louis, MO, I’m Rachel, But let’s be Emily at The Foundry Art Center in St. Charles, Missouri, and A Bull called Flamingo at Granite City Art and Design District in Granite City, Illinois. She has been featured on/in Cool Whip, All the Art magazine, and attended Jentel Residency in Sheridan, Wyoming.
About the Nook:
The Nook is a small-scale curatorial project in a kitchen nook in St. Louis, Missouri. This intimate, experimental project measures about 14 x 16 inches and is a former home to a landline. The Nook subverts the boundaries between public and private and seeks to elevate emerging and experimental artists who thrive with unconventional parameters. Run by Emily Mueller, The Nook was started in November of 2024 and will continue as long as she is able to rent her current apartment (or until she finds another nook).
