FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 2020
Evanston Art Center 2020 Exhibition:
ELEANOR SPIESS-FERRIS: DAPHNE’S SISTER
DATES: February 29 – March 29, 2020
OPENING RECEPTION: Sunday, March 1 from 1 – 4pm
GALLERY HOURS: 9am – 9pm, Monday – Thursday; 9am – 5pm, Friday; 9am – 4pm, Saturday & Sunday
THE EVANSTON ART CENTER (EAC) ANNOUNCES A RETROSPECTIVE OF WORKS BY ELEANOR SPIESS-FERRIS
The Evanston Art Center (EAC) is excited to welcome the public to a retrospective featuring EAC Faculty Member and Artist, Eleanor Spiess-Ferris!
DAPHNE’S SISTER, curated by Doug Stapleton, Associate Curator of Art at the Illinois State Museum, traces the development of Spiess-Ferris’s distinctive figures over 40 years of painting and drawing, often comparing studies and sketches with her final works. Spiess-Ferris has been drawing from a live model since the beginning of her career; an essential practice for her experimentation with the narrative figure. Her life studies often transform into their mythic selves in the process of a drawing session, shifting from observation into invention through distorting proportions and imposing natural forms as essential elements of the body.
Inspired by Hispanic religious icons, folk art and the wild orchard behind her Northern New Mexico childhood home, Eleanor Spiess-Ferris has become a widely exhibited artist nationally as well as internationally. She has received numerous fellowships and grants, including an Arts Midwest Fellowship grant and several grants from the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago where she now resides. The Art Institute of Chicago awarded her the Vielehr Award during the 80th Exhibition of Artists of Chicago and Vicinity. Spiess-Ferris has shown her work in many one-person exhibits and group exhibits throughout the United States at Universities, museums, and commercial galleries: these include venues in Oklahoma, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Missouri, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Washington, Texas, South Carolina, and Illinois to name a few. Internationally she has exhibited in India, Spain and France.
RELATED EVENTS
Sunday, March 8 from 1:30 – 3pm: Women Author Readings, Chicago Quarterly Review
Join us at the Evanston Art Center for readings by selected Chicago Quarterly Review contributors! Featuring Louise LeBourgeois, Dipika Mukherjee, Natalia Nebel, Signe Ratcliff and Eleanor Spiess-Ferris.
Saturday, March 14 from 9:30am – 12:30pm: Artist-led Workshop, Symbolist & Surrealist Parlor Games
Eleanor Spiess-Ferris’s works of art pull their inspiration from a variety of sources, including Symbolist and Surrealist artists. Eleanor will give a brief tour of her retrospective discussing her influences, and then will lead two to three Surrealist and Symbolist parlor games, examining how Max Ernst, Salvador Dali and others used these games as a path to creativity, playfulness, and organic expression. Registration is required. EAC Members: $140 / Non-Members: $160
Eleanor Spiess-Ferris: Daphne’s Sister will be exhibited in the first floor gallery of the Art Center. The Opening Reception and Women Author Readings are free and open to the public. This exhibition is partially funded by the Illinois State Museum, Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, and the EAC’s general membership.
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 accessible. Limited free parking is available.
For more information, please visit us online at www.evanstonartcenter.org or contact Cara Feeney, Director of Exhibitions, at (847) 475-5300 or [email protected]. Visit the Evanston Art Center on Facebook: www.facebook.com/EvanstonArtCenter/, follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/#!/evartcenter, or on Instagram: @EvanstonArtCenter.
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