BILL CHRISTMAN

Y E S

January 16 - February 21, 2026 | OPENING: Friday, January 16, 2026 | 6-8 pm

Bruno David is pleased to present in the Project Room, three large prints from the YES series (along with an installation at the WINDOW ON FORSYTH space) by St. Louis–based multimedia artist Bill Christman. This is Christman’s second exhibition with the gallery.

Bill Christman writes about his upcoming show: “WORDS HAVE A GREAT POWER…TO HURT…and TO HEAL

The word YES, is defined as AFFIRMATION, CONFIRMATION, CONSENT, AGREEMENT!

Its opposite NO, expresses REFUSAL, DENIAL, DISBELIEF, DISAGREEMENT!

A year ago, my friend Cara Spencer, intending to run for mayor, told me of her “encounter/ inspiration” of this word, YES. I recounted my own mysterious fascination, when a tree of LED lights at Crystal Bridges burst into gold lights during an environmental sound and light sculpture upon my yelling the word “YES” into a battery of microphones. I added that I acquired three 27 inches neon letters…Y, E, and, S (from the demolition of Northwest Plaza Shopping Mall 20+ years ago). So, I installed the neon YES on a wall in her backyard and began obsessively doodling these three letters on napkins and scraps of paper. I then solicited (invited) my grandson and other artists and associates to give their opinions and responses.

Thus came this collection of YES iterations/sketches that festoon these walls. Now Bruno David Gallery is dignifying the enterprise by declaring it worthy of an exhibition. We all need positivity and optimism in this period of human history! May it crawl under your fingernails and up your spine and into your cranium and release its goodness, gladness, and gratitude.”

Bill Christman, St. Louis native, inherited his artistic skills from his father who was a procedures engineer at McDonnell Aircraft, and his vibrant sense of humor from his Alsatian/Jewish mother. He went to University of Missouri in Columbia for four years to escape the draft and Vietnam War. He studied Art History, Drawing, and Sculpture, but was chiefly occupied with the party school ethos and bohemian pursuits. He didn’t learn much, but he cannot truly be called an “outsider” artist. His excellent penmanship directed him to a career as a sign painter, and 15 years of painting scenery with the MUNY exposed him to collaboration with other skilled artists/builders. A workshop with Milton Glaser at the School of Visual Arts opened his creative spirit and later, Bob and Gail Cassilly invited him to be a collaborator in the St. Louis City Museum. Talk about luck! Now he hopes to finish his café/music venue, Joe’s Café, and sculpture garden in the West End of St. Louis. He believes that art and music and poetry will heal us. Gratias agamus tibi – ad deum qui laetificat juventatem meam! (Let us give thanks to you – to God, who gives joy to my youth).