The Philosopher Walks | Evanston Art Center

Paintings, Prints & Sculpture by Anne Hayden Stevens

Evanston Art Center, 1717 Central Street, Evanston, Illinois

Exhibition Dates: June 17 - July 23, 2023
Gallery Hours: MON-THURS: 9 am - 6 pm; FRI: 9 am - 5 pm; SAT & SUN: 9 am - 4 pm

Exhibition Preview: Friday, June 16, 3-5pm
Exhibition Opening: Sunday, June 25th, 1-4pm
Gallery Talk and Exhibition Closing: Sunday, July 23rd, 2pm Gallery Talk 1-4pm Closing Reception

Artist Anne Hayden Stevens was selected for a juror’s award and solo exhibition at the Evanston 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. 

Go On Ahead, 2023. 20x16” oil on panel.

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. 

We Are / The Owls, 2023. Two paintings of a nine painting series, Accountability. 22x15” oil on paper.

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.

Girl’s Night, 2022. 9x12” oil on panel.

The Philosopher Walks: Gallery 901 Open Studio Projects

Open Studio Project, 901 Sherman Ave. Evanston 60202

Press inquiries: Anne Hayden Stevens at anne.h.stevens@gmail.com or Sarah Laing at 847-475-0390

Exhibition Dates: August 6–30, 2022

Open Hours: M-F 10am-4pm. To schedule a weekend visit, contact anne.h.stevens@gmail.com

First Saturday in Evanston and Artist’s Opening: August 6, 2022

The Philosopher Walks is an exhibition of 14 luminous landscape paintings, in which tiny figures make their way through a mountainous, unknown world. Stevens, a painter and printmaker, has made large scale installations in Evanston in two pop-up exhibitions curated by Evanston Made and Lisa Degliantoni, 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, and is on the planning committee for the Terrain Biennial, an international public art exhibition based in Oak Park, Il.

In this exhibition at the Open Studio Project, Stevens shares a series of intimate paintings produced during the pandemic. Stevens’ textured and lyrical landscapes employ simple forms of trees, bodies, mountains and water to hold space for the travelers through the paintings. The difficulty of this period, politically and socially, has made it really important to carry the weight of possibility, and the wisdom we know we hold, into the future.

The exhibition includes nine framed paintings on paper, titled ‘Stay Beautiful’, after a song by the Black Monument Ensemble. The paintings’ were made in response to an assignment I received during 2020 from 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. During the pandemic, Locks ran a correspondence class for the artists at Stateville and gave them four assignments. He gave the same assignments to some artist friends in the area.

Locks’ assignments are speculative and forward-looking. He asks the artists to have a conversation with themselves about Liberation, and to ponder a Lost Place, and to make a story about a Transformation. The assignments made Stevens think broadly about a liberated world, one full of love and strength and peace for all people. We can talk about Survival, and we can talk about Liberation: the process of doing the assignments helps to set our sights on Liberation for all people.

https://www.openstudioproject.org/gallery-901/

https://www.annestevens.com/

Survival of the Unexpected | June-August 2021

Statement

Survival of the Unexpected: Featuring new work from Kassandra Palmer, Anne Stevens, & Kelly Justice. Online Exclusive exhibition runs June 5th- Aug 31st 2021.

Press Release

James May Gallery is pleased to present: Survival of the Unexpected: a group show featuring new work by Anne Stevens, Kassandra Palmer, and Kelly Justice.

Palmer:
Kassandra Palmer’s work consists of small predicaments that freely oscillate between figuration and abstraction. Beacons that point to the survival of the unexpected, each of her constructions
is an excavated artifact from the wilderness of a mind. Being both lonesome and playful, each of these paradoxical propositions is like an echo that rings true but does not compute.
Kassandra was born in Fairfield, California and raised in Green Bay, Wisconsin. In 2013, she graduated summa cum laude from Santa Clara University with a degree in physics, and in 2018, she earned an MFA degree from the University of Iowa’s program in painting and drawing. Kassandra has exhibited her work throughout the United States, and she is currently based out of Madison, Wisconsin.

Justice:
My work begins as a collage, parts and pieces of found objects compiled together. I am constantly on the look-out for alluring shapes, patterns and textures for potential use: vintage glassware from thrift stores, old light fixtures from architectural salvage shops, plastic food canisters, silicone mats for rolling out cake fondant. Through the processes of mold-making and slipcasting, I alter these objects and compose them into new forms. I use a combination of intensely colored porcelains and glazes to activate the forms, superimposing patterns over textures, and contrasting glossy surfaces with smooth matte finishes. The surface imagery (floral motifs, sunbursts, geometric and radial designs) in bright pops of color, paired with the symmetry of the forms, serves to elicit a sense of lightheartedness and play, abundance and multiplicity. I create vibrant wares that are not only functional but exist as statement pieces in the home. Confident and assertive, these pieces brighten your living space and add a bit of joy each time they are used.
Kelly is a full-time practicing artist in Rochester, NY. Kelly received her MFA in Ceramics from Alfred University in 2015. She is originally from Marion, Arkansas.

Stevens:
My work looks at the unwritten histories of women through landscape painting and collage. I make oil paintings of invented landscapes, which I then photograph and re-purpose to create collages and prints.
History and painting marginalize women. I study in these margins, looking for women I know were there. To re-write the record, I make pictures of moments not collected in existing histories.

Anne Hayden Stevens is a painter and printmaker living outside Chicago, IL.
I have an MA in Visual Studies from the University of California at Berkeley, and a BFA in Printmaking and Drawing from California College of the Arts. I grew up in Northern California. Prior to coming to Illinois, I spent ten years in Seattle, where I taught drawing & digital media at the University of Washington.
My work ranges across painting, drawing, printmaking and public art. My work has been exhibited in Chicago at the Hyde Park Art Center, the Evanston Art Center, the Governor's State University Art Gallery, the Koehnline Museum of Art, and at the Harold Washington Library Center during Chicago Artists Month. Public art pieces are located on Rainier Avenue South in Seattle, the Seattle Municipal Tower, and the University of Washington.