ON VIEW: June 17 – July 23, 2023
Artist Anne Hayden Stevens was selected for a juror’s award and solo exhibition at the Art Center by juror Kate Pollasch in the 2021 Evanston + Vicinity Biennial. This exhibition, The Philosopher Walks, includes expansive oil paintings and sculpture in which tiny figures make their way through a mountainous world. Stevens’ textured, high chroma landscapes employ simple forms of trees, bodies, refuges, and water to create space for travelers through the paintings. Stevens, a painter and printmaker, has made large scale installations in Evanston in two pop-up exhibitions curated by Lisa Degliantoni and EvanstonMade, and curates outdoor installations and screenings at the Evanston Art Center as Side/Lot with artist Mat Rappaport. Stevens participated in the Center Program and Bridge at the Hyde Park Art Center, and the Field/Work program at the Chicago Artists Coalition.
A series of nine paintings on paper, Accountability, will be on display in the exhibition. These paintings were made in response to assignments given to a group of artists, centered around a class of incarcerated artists, by multidisciplinary artist Damon Locks, the director of the Black Monument Ensemble. Locks works as a teaching artist for the Prison+Neighborhood Arts Project, or PNAP, with incarcerated artists at Stateville Prison.
Locks’ assignments are speculative and forward-looking. He asks the artists to have a conversation with themselves about Accountability, and to ponder a Lost Place, and to make a story about a Transformation. The assignments urge us to envision a liberated world while living in the real world.
Stevens will be present in the galleries for an Exhibition Preview on June 16, 2023, from 3-5pm. The exhibition opens to the public on Sunday, June 25th, from 1-4pm, and there will be a closing reception on Sunday, July 23rd from 1-4pm with an artist’s Gallery Talk at 2pm.
GALLERY HOURS & VISITOR INFORMATION
This exhibition will be held in the Second Floor Gallery + Atrium of the Evanston Art Center (EAC).
Gallery Hours
Monday–Thursday: 9am–6pm
Friday: 9am–5pm
Saturday–Sunday: 9am–4pm
HOW TO PURCHASE ARTWORK
Artwork sale proceeds benefit both the artist and the Evanston Art Center. If you are interested in purchasing artwork on display, please contact Audrey Avril, Manager of Exhibitions, at [email protected] or (847) 475-5300 x 107.
This project is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency and EAC's general membership.
Artwork shown (L to R): The Philosopher Walks, 2021. Acrylic, Spray Paint, Print Fragments: Temporary Installation at Evanston Made 921 Church; On the Precipice, 2021. Oil on Canvas 60x60"