Artist's Statement
"I live in New Orleans. Recent catastrophic natural and manmade events along the Louisiana Gulf Coast have prompted me to ask many questions. What are the inner dynamics of the natural world? How does regeneration and renewal take place after devastation? What explains the ebbs and tides of the river, the processes of erosion and sedimentation, the phases of the moon, the changes of the seasons?
For me, the answers can be found in the process of painting. It is the search for an inherent order in the apparent chaos of nature, the push and pull of color and shape, and the ambiguity of space that brings me into the studio every day. I am building layer upon layer in response to underlying layers, scraping back to expose markings and puddles, adding more and more layers until the painting coalesces into an image that is both familiar and unknowable. I am creating floating worlds that connect me with the mysteries of life."
~ Allison Stewart
Artist's Biography
New Orleans artist Allison Stewart has gained national recognition for her paintings expressing the complex and disturbing dialogue between man and nature. Trained as a biologist, Stewart is inspired by increasingly fragile environments and the ultimate interconnectedness of all living things. She uses layers of color, light, form and texture to address issues of beauty and loss, time and transformation. Residing somewhere between realism and abstraction, the paintings become visual diaries upon which Stewart records her responses to the threatened landscape.
Allison Stewart has exhibited extensively throughout the United States. Her work is included in many public, corporate and private collections, including the U.S. Department of State Art in Embassies Program, the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Historic New Orleans Collection, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, Texaco, Freeport McMoRan, Price Waterhouse Corp., Chase Manhattan Bank, ARCO, American Express, Sun Bank of Florida, Pan American Life, and the Pensacola Museum of Art.
Resume
EDUCATION
M.F.A., University of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA
B.Sc. Biology, Spring Hill College, Mobile, AL
GRANTS, AWARDS, FELLOWSHIPS
2009 Artist Honoree, "Love in the Garden," New Orleans Muserm of Art, New Orleans, LA
2005 Artist-in-Residence, Anderson Ranch Art Center, Snowmass Village, CO
2002 Artist-in-Residence, Roaring Fork Club, Basalt, CO
2000 Artist selected for "Silver Circle Sculpture," Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, LA
1998 Louisiana Division of the Arts Decentralized Arts Funding Grant
1997 Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Grant
1997 Louisiana Division of the Arts Project Assistance Grant
1997 Louisiana Division of the Arts Individual Artist Grant
1995 Mary Freeman Wisdom Foundation Grant
1991 Sheraton New Orleans Public Art Project Award and Commission, New Orleans, LA
1988-1989 Visual Arts Fellowship, Louisiana Division of the Arts
1988 Artist selected for "Century Club Print," Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, LA
1983 Hotel Intercontinental Lobby Commission, New Orleans, LA
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