On View August 8 - September 6, 2026
Opening Reception Sunday, August 9, 1-4 pm
Place and Passing is a two-person exhibition that approaches landscape as shifting fields of memory, sensation, and emotion. Both artists draw from the transformative nature of their materials in constructed and deconstructed layers. Place and Passing reveals the artists' experience of place carried within us and evolving through the act of creation.
Ellen Holtzblatt
My paintings and drawings express shared human vulnerabilities—the tenuous threads of existence and the inevitability of decay. The landscape is an overpowering force in my work, toggling between images that are recognizable and ambiguously abstract. I immerse myself in the transitions between ground and sky, and the emotional response to being enveloped by, and yet unprotected in nature.
My primary artistic media are oil painting and ink drawing. Oil paint is transformative and often feels sculptural through both adding and removing the medium from the canvas. Sometimes I layer the paint until parts of the work become obliterated. I wipe away paint and leave behind ghost images. Using bristle brushes, some old and worn, I make lines and marks that are driven by visceral urges that do not feel like intentional choices.
Through the process of creating my ink drawings on Japanese paper, I have developed techniques to alter this exacting material by cutting, tearing away layers, and gluing torn paper to the surface. Although this can create an impression of instability and fragility, the paper and drawing maintain their underlying integrity and essence.
The techniques and processes I describe here are foundational to my practice as an artist, with both oil paintings and ink drawings layering and embedding creation and destruction in their making.
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Ellen Holtzblatt, a Chicago-based artist, exhibits her work in the United States and internationally at venues including Rockford Art Museum, St. Xavier University, Chicago Cultural Center, Fermilab Gallery, Freeport Art Museum, Jerusalem Biennale, Museum of Biblical Art, Spertus Institute, Inselgalerie in Berlin, and Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art. She has been awarded artist residencies in the U.S. and Iceland, and was a 2019/2020 artist resident with the Chicago Artists Coalition, where she exhibited in two-person and group exhibits. Holtzblatt’s work is held in numerous public and private collections and has been written about in multiple publications, including New City, The Chicago Sun-Times, and Sixty Inches From Center. Holtzblatt graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with degrees in painting and art therapy.
Paula Menchen
My practice investigates questions of home and belonging, exploring the shifting boundaries between what is familiar and what is foreign. Through experimentation with materials, establish connections between layers, integrating physical spaces found in architecture with evocative landscapes drawn from memory. Rooted in both painting and printmaking, my work explores materiality, process, and tactility. I create layered surfaces where forms dissolve, horizons blur, and traces of time accumulate. Through silk cycles of accumulation and disruption, the landscape becomes internalized, transformed into an emotional and sensory experience.
Drawing inspiration from landscapes and seascapes, I juxtapose the vastness of open spaces with the intimacy of personal places, focusing on the ephemeral. I am continually drawn to the beauty, fragility, and ethereal qualities of nature and the places I once called home.
Central to my practice is the intersection of Japanese washi paper with painting and printmaking. I create layered, evocative works that emphasize tactile surfaces and transformative colour. My collage-based of handmade Kosho paper. These experiences deepened my engagement with process and material, informing an approach to landscape that is grounded in tactility.
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Paula Menchen’s work incorporates memory, textures, and surfaces, deconstructing and reconstructing the pictorial space. Born in East London, Paula immigrated to the US at age 2, growing up in Los Angeles. She earned her BFA from Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design in Los Angeles and studied at Parsons in New York. Immigrating for a second time to the USA in 2022 led her to question home, belonging, what is familiar and what is foreign, preservation and destruction. Paula’s work can be found in collections in America, England, Belgium, Spain and Portugal and has also been exhibited in Japan, Holland and Italy.
GALLERY HOURS & VISITOR INFORMATION
This exhibition will be held in the First Floor Gallery of the Evanston Art Center (EAC). Masks are optional but strongly recommended for students, visitors, and staff.
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 Emma Rose Gudewicz, Director of Development and Exhibitions, at [email protected] or (847) 475-5300 x 102.
This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council through federal funds provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.