DATES: July 14 – August 5, 2018 OPENING RECEPTION: Sunday, July 15 from 1 – 4 pm GALLERY HOURS: 9am – 9pm, Monday – Thursday; 9am – 5pm, Friday; 9am – 4pm, Saturday & Sunday

THE EVANSTON ART CENTER (EAC) ANNOUNCES A SOLO EXHIBITION OF WORKS BY EMILY STOKES

The Evanston Art Center (EAC) is excited to welcome the public to an exhibition of works by Emily Stokes. From July 14th to August 5th, the Art Center will be exhibiting her artwork in a solo exhibition.

Emily Stokes is an Associate Professor of Art at Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa. She holds an M.F.A in printmaking from Arizona State University, and a B.A. in studio art and English from Wellesley College. Raised in Ohio and Michigan, Stokes weaves together narratives with the iconography of rural vernacular culture to create her visual work. She combines painting, printmaking, drawing, and digital imaging, building images and sculptural works not easily discernible as painting or print. Recent achievements include a Northwestern College Endowed Research Fellowship, a Purchase Award at the 29th Annual McNeese Works on Paper juried exhibition, and an Alice C. Cole ’42 Alumnae Grant from Wellesley College. Stokes has had solo exhibitions at: Illinois Wesleyan University; Northwestern College; MacRostie Art Center in Grand Rapids, Minnesota; Washington Pavilion in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; and the Krasl Art Center in St. Joseph, Michigan.
Emily’s visual work stems from an investigation into the ways in which Northern Renaissance and Romantic artists staged coded imagery to build plural meanings into their work. Although her work is rooted in their covert approaches to visual communication, she uses a language of symbols derived from seven years of being immersed in northwest Iowa, home to the nation’s most moneyed soil. Everything seems amplified, almost cinematic in a sparsely populated place – especially as political, religious, and demographic shifts disrupt the comforts of stasis in rural America.
Using painting, printmaking, drawing, and digital imaging, Emily choreographs the recurrent iconography of her immediate surroundings to suggest visual narratives. She mounts printed imagery onto organically shaped wood or interlock wooden panels to form sculptural panoramas. Her imagery includes animals such as the lamb, a nod to agriculture and the animal’s loaded iconic value, as well as jewel-like clusters of ice or silhouetted haystacks. The fragmented imagery that Emily composites together arises from encounters with beauty, generosity, humor, and conflict in a landscape that teaches keen observation.

Emily Stokes’ artwork will be exhibited in the second floor gallery of the Art Center. There will be an opening reception on Sunday, July 15th, from 1 – 4pm, which will be free and open to the public.
Evanston Art Center, a nonprofit 501 (c)(3) organization, is dedicated to fostering the appreciation and expression of the arts among diverse audiences. The Art Center offers extensive and innovative instruction in broad areas of artistic endeavor through classes, exhibitions, interactive arts activities, and community outreach initiatives.

Evanston Art Center is located at 1717 Central Street, Evanston, IL. Evanston Art Center Gallery Hours: 9am – 9pm, Monday – Thursday; 9am – 5pm, Friday; 9am – 4pm, Saturday & Sunday. First and second floor gallery spaces are handicapped accessible. Limited free parking is available.

For more information, please visit us online at www.evanstonartcenter.org or contact Cara Feeney, Manager of Exhibitions, at (847) 475-5300. Visit the Evanston Art Center on Facebook: www.facebook.com/EvanstonArtCenter/, follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/#!/evartcenter, or on Instagram: @EvanstonArtCenter.