Route 69 is a joint exhibition featuring the work of St. Louis based artists Janie Stamm and Brittany Mosier, celebrating the all that is wholesome and horny in the great American establishment: the gas station.
As we approach the hundredth anniversary of Route 66, you may find yourself inundated with exhibitions surveying the history and legacy of the now decommissioned 2,448-mile, iconic road that once connected Chicago to Santa Monica. Route 69 is not actually about that but kind of is.
While the rise of the fast, full-service gas station can be traced to Route 66—road trips, mobility, the promise of an oasis in a cross-country odyssey—the function of the gas station has morphed. It has become, dare we say, a third space: a place where, regardless of who or where you are, you find yourself briefly in community with other seekers of goods and services.
What the Midwest lacks in bodegas we make up for in gas stations. You have your commodities and your characters, and much of the story plays out in the comings and goings of all of the above. At a gas station, because you are neither here nor there, if you stop for just a moment, you can feel a deep sense that anything is possible. But, we often move so quickly through these communal spaces we rarely have time to analyze… what in the hell is actually going on.
Route 69 plucks out the items and iconography intrinsic to the gas station experience and places them up for examination. Janie and Brittany intersperse fabricated objects with real ones—slot machines, cigarette posters, tchotchkes—with Opaque Collective’s crew contributing much of the found signage, sourcing advertisements from defunct stations. The result is a chaotic, synergistic collaboration: an assemblage, an amalgamation that invites viewers to consider the design sensibility of a condom dispenser or the color theory of a lotto ticket when paired with a blunt wrapper.
At the gas station, you experience the confluence of novelty and necessity. Everything is an impulse buy because you’re always operating under a time constraint. It’s a brilliant model for merchandise. Entire fandoms have formed around gas station chains (are you a Kum & Go girlie or a QT queen?), alongside a distinct culture of collectors devoted to shot glasses, seashells, and fridge magnets acquired en route to Florida.
Route 69 heavily obscures the line between art and merch, a concept made possible by Opaque Collective’s in-house master printers and full-service print shop, which expanded the exhibition’s scope. Merch is turned into Art which is turned back into Merch about the Art which is then displayed. You can buy it, don’t worry.
The work in Route 69 drives home a central theme: the gas station doesn’t judge the desires of its patrons; it simply caters to them. In fact, it capitalizes on your most basic needs. You need to have sex. You need to eat gummy Life Savers. You need to get drunk, win the lottery, grab a can of chew so badly you could die. Works like an embroidered Big Gulp cup, illustrated lighters stamped with slogans like “MILF,” and a full-scale diptych depicting every item in a gas station refrigerator reinforce the idea that every vice is valid. Your pickle obsession is equal to your fixation on Calvin (minus Hobbes) decals. This equalization of commodities in many ways mirrors how the gas station democratizes its patrons. Here, a rare mixing of classes, cultures, orientations, races, and ideologies occurs, often in an atmosphere of acceptance that’s scarcely present in other communal spaces.
In Route 69, the gas station is recognized as a hallowed institution: a hot slice of Americana, revered and elevated with a wink of kink. We encourage you to engage in reflection, and of course, honk if you’re horny.
ROUTE 69 WORKS LIST
Out of Order
Brittany Mosier
Marlboro Racing Edition slot machine, Zyns, Missouri brochures, rock candy, styrofoam Pepsi cup, small can of Diet Coke, novelty plush plunger hatNFS
Big River
Brittany Mosier
Crayola crayon on Canvas
2026$280
Calvin Pissing
Janie Stamm
Glow-in-the-dark thread, leather, chainmaille
2026$500
Citrus
Janie Stamm
Felt, thread, grommets
2022$150
Dearly Beloved
Janie Stamm
Wood, paint, colored pencil, chain, carabiner
2021$550
7 Scratcher
Brittany Mosier
Crayola crayon on Canvas with Jewels
2026$80
Green Scratcher
Brittany Mosier
Crayola crayon on Canvas with Jewels
2026$80
Discount Tickets
Janie Stamm
Felt, thread, grommets
2022$250
Orange Blossom Baby
Janie Stamm
Felt, thread, grommets
2022$300
Tattoo
Brittany Mosier
Crayola crayon on canvas with jewels
2026$80
Brush Babies
Janie Stamm
The artist’s hair (collected from 2012-2026), thread, tulle, googley eyes
2026NFS
Hooked
Brittany Mosier and Janie Stamm
Fishing bobbers, lures
2026NFS
Safety First
Brittany Mosier
Crayola crayon on Paper backed by Conservation Collage
2026$169
Dolphin Princess
Brittany Mosier and Janie Stamm
Dolphin lamp, dolphin table, with glass dolphin sculpture, fishing lures and various tchotchkesNFS
Refrigerators
Brittany Mosier
Crayola crayon on Canvas
2026$400 each
Miami Bitch
Janie Stamm
Target thong, thread
2025NFS
Fayho
Janie Stamm
Walmart thong, thread
2026$69
Lot Lizard
Janie Stamm
Walmart thong, thread
2026$69
Fruit & Shells
Janie Stamm
Felt, thread, grommets
2022$250
$50 in a Flash
Brittany Mosier
Crayola crayon on Paper, collage, glitter
2026$220
Bug Coffin
Janie Stamm
Shells and sand from Florida, googly eyes, paper stamens, glass trinket box
2025NFS
Cuff It
Janie Stamm
Coconut from Florida, chain, o-rings, jump rings, vintage metal box
2023$666
Sweet Nothings I
Janie Stamm
Shells from Florida, chain, glass beads, thread, jump rings
2023$169
Lost Lighters
Brittany Mosier
Crayola crayon on Canvas
Set, Dimensions Variable
2026$120
Fantasy
Janie Stamm
Holographic relic, Meramec Caverns
2026NFS
Rush Bottle
Janie Stamm
Papier mache, paint, felt
2021$300
Super Big Glup
Janie Stamm
Thread, felt, used straw
2026$400
Scratch off Garland
Brittany Mosier
Lottery Tickets
Dimensions Variable$100
Unnumbered
Judith Shaw
Opaque Collective
Corrugated plastic signs, unmodified
Various Dimensions
2026
NFS
Life is a Highway
Brittany Mosier, Janie Stamm, Marina May Schleicher
Digital prints
2026
NFS
About the Artists:
Janie Stamm (b. 1988) is an artist based in Pacific, MO. Born and raised on the edge of the Everglades in Broward County, Florida, her work focuses on preserving Florida’s environmental and Queer history in the face of climate change through embroidery and assemblage sculpture.
Janie received an MFA in Visual Art from Washington University in Saint Louis, where she received the Dubinsky Scholarship for study at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA and the Frida Kahlo Creative Arts Award. She has received additional awards from the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis and Critical Mass. She has been an artist in residence at ACRE, the Cite Internationale des Arts, Aquarium Gallery, SAFTA, and Craft Alliance. Her work has been featured in outlets including Poetry Magazine and CandyFloss. She regularly exhibits her work throughout the United States. Janie’s solo exhibition, Mermaid’s Purse, will be on view at the Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis, for Spring and Summer of 2026.
Website: www.janiestamm.com/
IG: @glitterpuppies
Listen to Janie’s episode on the podcast cool WIP: https://coolwipofficial.com/cool-wip-episode-17-coolin-with-janie-stam
Brittany Boynton Mosier is an artist, illustrator and mom to Clark Mosier. She is currently living a double life as a resident of both St. Louis and De Soto, Missouri. She always makes art for reasons unknown. She was formerly known as a member of Butt'nBooty and Grease 3. She works with themes of hope, humor, pop culture, personal memories, family, and partying within a melancholy Missouri existence. She has been regularly exhibiting work and curating projects since she graduated from Webster University in 2012 (Note: it was fun to attend Webster at the time of indie sleaze culture.)
From an interview with cool WIP:
“But what happens when you take serious, timely, and conceptual subject matter then strip it of its pretentiousness and add a wink? Brittany Boynton.
Her body of work is the artistic equivalent of a Carol Burnett ear tug at the end of a sketch or Dolly’s blinding smile on the cover of Playboy. She knows. Culling content from both her personal history and enigmatic pop culture moments, she recreates and formats these vignettes into typically small-scale illustrations and paintings.
By removing iconic, obscure, or jarring images from the media “zeitgeist,” it allows for space. For room to understand the complexities of a single image. The pieces are witty access points for further exploration and catalysts conversation, without a prescriptive narrative. In this way, her work allows for freedom of discussion by minimizing the barrier of access to the subject and implied connotations.”
Website: https://brittanyartprincess.com/
Listen to Brittany’s episode on the podcast cool WIP: https://coolwipofficial.com/cool-wip-episode-8-coolin-with-brittany-boynton