She studied the masters at the Saint Louis Art Museum as a girl; now the museum gives her the retrospective she was owed. ‘Juanita McNeely,’ on view at SLAM through February 28, 2027, surveys some six decades of the pioneering St. Louis feminist artist’s fearless work across painting, drawing and ceramics.
McNeely’s art — raw, figurative, autobiographical, charged with both trauma and beauty — made her a singular voice in American art from her New York years onward. The homecoming runs concurrently with a companion presentation at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (through February 7, 2027), a two-institution tribute few living legacies receive.
See both halves, and you will understand a whole artistic life.
‘Juanita McNeely’ is at the Saint Louis Art Museum, 1 Fine Arts Drive. Details at slam.org.
