Inside/Outside

Guest jurors: Susan Smith Trees and Michelle Stone (images above) with a concurrent exhibition in the Main Gallery, Undercurrents.

Congratulations to artists: Jeff Baenen, Heather Brammeier, Susan Chertkow, Eva Marie Fitzsimmons, Jeanne Garrett, Lauren Geenen, Lisa Holzl, Suzanne Horwitz, Judith Joseph, Alexis Kanarek, Jill Kolker, Mary Krebs Smyth, Mara Krumins, Jacqueline Moses (image), Scott A. Mossman, Daniel Oliver (image), Raul Ortiz, Emily Papale, Lewis Rice, Lilach Schrag, Anne Smith Stephan, Jane Stevens, Kevin Swallow, Mark Charles Weidling

Susan Smith Trees is a sculptor who has exhibited throughout the United States for the past 25 years.  She has created installations, wall reliefs and floor works in addition to pen and ink drawings. Her pieces are melted and stained with pigment, wrapped over rocks, marred with crevices and punctures and rolled and kneaded into limbs and organic figurations.  Her career has involved working in multiple materials including thermoplastic, polyurethene, cast bronze and resin. Manipulation of materials are her touchstone to experimentation and the unknown. Trees has won numerous awards including the Artists Program Grant from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and commissions from the Open Lands Association of Lake Forest, IL.  She has been represented by Gallery H in Three Oaks, Michigan and her works have appeared in “Calculated Leap” by Teresa Devine, “Sculpture Invasion 2015 published by the Koehnline Museum of Art, and “Strong Exhibits for a February Spring” the Paul Klein Art Letter. She is affiliated with the International Sculpture Center, the Chicago Artists Coalition, Arts Alliance Illinois, Dialogue Chicago and Woman Made Gallery.  Her sculptures and drawings are included in private collections throughout the United States. She currently lives and works in Chicago, IL. susansmithtrees.com

Michelle Stone is a veteran Chicago artist, best known for her constructed, impasto, painted, acrylic sculptures. Stone builds hybrid shapes hovering between figure and abstraction. Various sized forms crawl on walls, and floors, at times developing into elaborate installations and menageries. In addition to sculpture, she creates portraits, paintings, and drawings that explore relationships, evolving along a wide spectrum of the human condition.  Stone has shown widely, is affiliated with Ceres Gallery, NYC, Chicago Sculpture International, and Dialogue Chicago, has a studio in Chicago with Cornelia Building Artists, and lives in Chicago. michellestoneart.com