 TANIA BLANCO's “Traces of the Sacred” was an escape and a visual journey into a serene, visionary haven.
Addison Center for the Arts presented TANIA BLANCO: Traces of the Sacred, an art exhibit featuring the artist’s mixed-media works on canvas from February 13 through March 15, 2019. On Saturday, March 2, 2019, from 4 PM to 7 PM members of the community attended a free reception to meet and discuss the artist’s work with her. Blanco is a collage and mixed media artist from Naperville. She has served as the President and Vice President of the Midwest Collage Society since 2003. In this exhibit, she is shared art works that bring you into her personal visionary space. In this space she offers up a refuge for spiritual reflection. “The current exhibit of my work spans a 10-year period of creating collage and acrylic paintings and reflects this philosophy. My work frequently addresses spiritual symbols and themes, and my personal places are natural settings like parks, arboretums, sanctuaries for animals, or at an ocean beach, when the sun rises or sets and where I take meditative walks. I have included sacred symbols in each of the paintings in the current exhibit: mandalas, labyrinths, temples, Buddha images, figures on a spiritual journey and peaceful landscapes. Some of the paintings in this collection are abstract and the sacred may not be obvious to the viewer, but each was inspired by meditation or by contemplation of some sacred space. For me, the process of creating art is often akin to a type of evolving prayer in which layer upon layer unfolds. My hope is that each visitor who sees my exhibit finds some image that invites a personal and peaceful Reflection.”
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 "Take nothing but pictures; leave nothing but footprints."
Enter into "Decaying History" through Michael Vanko's doorways into the past. The Addison Center for the Arts gallery hosted its first pop-up exhibit featuring photographer and urban explorer, Michael Vanko. The show opened Wednesday, December 12, 2018 and continued through Saturday, January 12, 2019. Vanko displayed his videos and series of photographs, “Decaying History,” that document abandoned buildings in Illinois. The artist is a resident of Addison, IL and an alumni of Addison Trail High School. He is currently studying photography at College of DuPage. Several years ago he became active in the urban exploration (a.k.a. urbanex) community and began documenting his adventures with photographs and making videos from those photographs. He is now an emerging urban exploration photographer. His process involves researching abandoned sites, exploring them, and documenting their current state of entropy. Then he shares his discoveries with us through those photographs. Vanko says, “Each picture represents forgotten history and what happens when humans leave a building behind. Some of these places are mummified in time while others have been reclaimed by nature. These photos sometimes contain hidden history that people don’t want you to see. I’m here to take you down the rabbit hole and show you what’s behind that door.” The artist's reception was on January 11, 2019 from 1 to 4 pm. The reception coincided with Addison Trail High School's Alumni Day. As a graduate of the school, Vanko was eager to share his experiences with urbanex photography with AT's current crop of students. The students enjoyed hearing about Vanko's photographic process and adventures in urban exploration.  The Addison Center for the Arts is hosted the Addison Art Guild's Fall Member Show for 2018. The exhibit ran from November 1 through December 7, 2018. This year's exhibit featured the work of: Tania Blanco, Margaret Bucholz, Angelo Campagnolo, Jan Dunteman, June Feil Annette Perrone Leiber, Greg Maksymiw, Melodee McCormick, Marianne McKoveck Beverly Miotke, Bernice Murphy, Ann O'Brien, Jackie Pickell, Irma Pocius, Carol Severson, Elke Simmons, Judy Sullivan, Bala Thiagarajan, and Lyn Tietz. The public reception was on November 8, 2018, from 7:00 to 8:30 pm. At that time the artists' work was judged by Lauren Peterson for judging the exhibit. She offered our artists valuable and insightful feedback and encouragement. Thanks, Lauren! Congratulations to this year's award winners! BEST IN SHOW Marianne McKoveck FIRST PLACE Angelo Campagnolo Annette Perone Leiber SECOND PLACE Margaret Bucholz Melodee McCormick HONORABLE MENTIONS Greg Maksymiw Lyn Tietz June Feil Tania Blanco The competition was fierce. Well done to all of the artists who entered this year.  September 12, 2018 on exhibit : September 19 - October 19, 2018 artist reception : Friday, September 28, 2018 Addison Center for the Arts in Addison, IL presented: “Guelaguetza de colores,” an exhibition of international artists in celebration of Hispanic Heritage month. The exhibit opened Wednesday September 19 and continued through October 19, 2018. The public was invited to the artist reception/fiesta on Friday September 28, 2018 for refreshments, music, and art. “Guelaguetza de colores” was an homage to the pageantry of the Guelaguetza festival in Oaxaca, Mexico. During this annual festival, citizens in their regional costumes enjoy music, parades, and dancing and showcase their finest arts and crafts. Exhibit curator Karla Wong on the meaning of Guelaguetza in Mexico: “The word has Zapotec origin and is supposed to designate the action of offering, sharing or giving. In this celebration folk groups of the eight regions of the state participate, wearing and taking pride in their colorful costumes.” Similarly, the artists of this exhibit displayed their own outpouring of creativity as it relates to their Hispanic heritage. The exhibiting artists included: Lorena Bonilla (Mexico) Alex Brightbill (Chicago suburbs) Mario Carrizosa (Mexico) Carmina Cortes (Des Plaines) Noé Díaz Ibañez (Mexico) Esperanza Gama (Chicago) Miriam Ladrón De Guevara (Mexico) Dolores Leycegui (Mexico) Guillermo Pacheco (Mexico) José Luis Piña Morales (Chicago) Alejandra Villegas (Mexico) as well as the show’s curator, Karla Wong from Addison, IL The Addison Center for the Arts gallery is open Wednesday - Saturday 1- 4pm and is located at 213 N. Lombard Road, Door #4, Addison, IL. Free parking is available in the North lot of Addison Trail High School. Special tours are available by calling 630-458-4500. This exhibit is partially funded by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency through federal funds provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.  Addison Center for the Arts Avenues of Inquiry : A Retrospective Artist : Joan M. Ladendorf on exhibit : August 8 - September 8, 2018 Addison Center for the Arts welcomed the public to view the exhibit “Avenues of Inquiry” in the gallery from August 8 to September 8, 2018. The show was a retrospective the work of artist Joan Ladendorf. Joan is a self-taught artist who has been exploring various artist possibilities over the past 40 years. Her journey covered theater costuming, graphic design, quilt making and paper collage. Currently, she is back on the computer creating what she likes to call “Photo Collage”. Making use of her image collection of textures and landscape backgrounds, throwing in shapes taken from her fabric compositions or drawn with the computer mouse, she is creating “Visions”, “Monsters” and most recently “Creatures”. The elements are digitally assembled using Photoshop’s various layering techniques, and further enhanced with dimensional effects. The artist reception was on Saturday, August 11th between 2 - 4pm. This exhibit is partially funded by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.  Award winning Addison artist, Annette Perone Leiber's work was in the Addison Center for the Arts Gallery from May 11 to June 30, 2018. Annette uses her nom de plume, Perone, on her art. During this exhibit "Past & Present Inspirations.” She will feature mixed media paintings, watercolors and sculpture. She states: "Today, I embrace contemporary concepts, materials and images from many sources. My senses fill me with wonder compelling me to create art that will communicate my thoughts and feelings. Possessing voice, vision and creative energy, I understand myself as imagination leads me through the stages of a developing artist as in "Past & Present Inspirations.” Annette has received over 200 awards for her art and on behalf of the arts in her community. She has had nine one person exhibits and has her art in public and private collections in the United States and abroad. She lectures on art, gives demonstrations and teaches art to children and adults. She is affiliated with numerous art associations and is involved in and founded art groups in Addison. Tours were available. Creative Insights culminated in the Artist Reception on April 13th. The gallery was full of wonderful energy and warm hearts as everyone honored the work represented in the juried exhibit. There is truly exceptional work in the gallery. Thank you to the artists for their submission and to all the families and friends for their support. We are grateful for the volunteers for all their hard work to help make this event a success. Thank you Firehouse Subs in Addison for providing subs, chips and cookies for the judges and volunteers before the reception. Thank you also to our judges, Gary Brown and Pamela Carron for jurying and providing a short critique for the selected works. Announcing the winners of the exhibit:  "This Time, That Place" Best of Show Dorothy Bury Shaw First Place: Joan Ladendorf  "Prairie Style", Hand-Altered Paper Collage
Honorable Mentions
 Karla Wong "Dreams of the Blue Cat" Oils
The District #4 Elementary School “Young at Art” exhibit reception was on Wednesday, January 17th. The Addison Center for the Arts Gallery opened their doors to an estimated 150 students, parents, teachers and administrators. The student’s artwork is absolutely covering the walls — floor to ceiling. The “Young at Art” exhibit is a compilation of artwork from eight different elementary schools in Addison. Each school selected approximately 25 works from students K-8, highlighting their talents and techniques learned throughout the year. The art curriculum in Addison is based on national standards, combining history, technique and imagination into their studies. A special thank you to the elementary and junior high art teachers in Addison for promoting and encouraging the creativity shown in the artwork. If you want to hear a little more about the exhibit, be sure to watch the segment on Addison Community Television, Arts in Addison featuring Sue Bortko, ACA board member, Arts in Education chair and retired Dist #4 Art Educator. Click to view.
 BEST OF SHOW : Marianne McKoveck FIRST PLACE: Melodee McCormick and Terry Johnson The Addison Art Guild Fall Members’ Show was on display November 6 – December 9, 2017. As promised, it was a show not to be missed. The show will consisted of artwork from members representing a wide range of art mediums – oils, pastels, acrylics, colored pencil, graphite, photography, mixed media, water color and sculpture. “Our members have been hard at work getting ready for this show. Each year the art work gets better,” commented AAG President, Margaret Bucholz. The Artist Reception was held on Thursday, November 9 from 7:00 – 8:30pm. It was juried by abstract artist Penélope Osio-Brown. The Addison Artist Guild will have its next meeting on January 11, 2018 which will include member's critique. If you would like to hear more about the Guild, check out the ACTV interview from the week of the show opening. Here are some pictures of the reception taken by guild member Greg Maksymiw. |
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