The Evanston Art Center (EAC) is excited to welcome the public to an exhibition of works by Peggy Macnamara. From September 11th through October 9th, the Art Center will be exhibiting a retrospective of Macnamara’s work produced between 1981 and 2016. Macnamara presents an exceptional perspective into the relationship between science and art. Macnamara has painted watercolors at the Field Museum for over three decades and was named the museum’s artist-in-residence in 1990. Some of her drawings done in other museums across the US and Europe will also be included in the exhibition. Her work presents the viewer with colorful scientific illustrations of birds, mammals, reptiles and insects from the museum’s vast collection. Macnamara collaborates with scientists and writers to enhance her work, imitating the energy of living creatures through tone and form. The exhibition studies the beauty of nature through artistic process.

Macnamara is an adjunct associate professor in the Visual Communications Department at the School of the Art Institute and Associate of the Zoology Department at the Field Museum. Her work can be found in the collections of the Field Museum; Illinois State Museum; New York State Museum and Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum. Macnamara’s recent work was shown at the Peggy Notebaert Museum, The Roger Ramsay Gallery, Vedanta Gallery, and Packer-Schopf Gallery. Macnamara has written several publications including Painting Wildlife in Watercolor, 2003; Illinois Insects and Spiders, 2005; Architecture by Birds and Insects, 2008; The Art of Migration, 2013; Ten, 2010; Rosie the Spider, 2016; and an adult coloring book Coloring Nature, 2016.

Museum Perspectives will be exhibited in the main floor gallery of the Art Center. There will be an opening reception on Sunday, September 11th from 1-4pm. On Sunday, October 2 from 1-3pm Macramara will also host Naturally Drawn, a workshop where audience members will be introduced to Macramara’s artistic process as she guides participants through close looking and sketching of natural specimens. This workshop is in collaboration with The Big Draw Evanston, a month-long citywide festival activating public spaces and informal art making processes. The exhibition and workshop are free and open to the public.