Mary and Frances Wade, two of our EAC Interns, write about Alpha Bruton's work in Women in Nature: Taking Up Space, in the EAC's 2025 Curatorial Fellowship exhibition curated by Sholo, displayed in our First Floor Gallery from July 12 - August 10, 2025:
Alpha Bruton expresses a drive for unconventional environments and immersive experiences as she broadens her artistic practice, aiming to challenge the legacy of the traditional museum and the limitations of conventional presentation, particularly within the genre of portraiture. This sentiment resonated with sisters Mary and Frances Wade on their first day as interns at the Evanston Art Center. Bruton's contribution to the exhibition features a moonlit woman who confidently engages the viewer through direct eye contact, a motif echoed in the anthropomorphized moon above her. The viewer is ultimately drawn into a parallel engagement with both representations of womanhood and nature. This communion invites the viewer’s active participation and fulfills Bruton's vision of immersive, nontraditional viewing experiences.
Mary Wade
Frances Wade
Images taken by Erica McKeehen