In the parent’s wing of the McCormick House we present a portraits from the collection inspired by __Rafael Blanco‘s__ work. 

Three classical portraits painted in oil on canvas - a call back to Rafael‘s skill as a classically trained studio painter - are on the west wall. These are among the oldest works in the Museum’s collection and are attributed to important early American artists. “Housekeeper” attributed to artist and photographer __Thomas Eakins__ is accompanied by a pair of paintings attributed to American Folk artist, social activist, and conductor on the underground railroad __Samuel Peck__.

Across from these, on the wing’s east wall are contemporary portraits, including an energetic sketch of __Mies van der Rohe__ architect of the house, by __Hugo Weber__.

__Patty Carroll’s__ portrait of Don Baum exemplifies her vibrant textured style. Baum was exhibitions director at Hyde Park Art Center for over 15 years providing instrumental support for Chicago artists, especially the Chicago Imagists. His grandson Cain Baum exhibited a sculpture in Love Supreme: the McCormick House Reimagined here in the house last year.

The stone sculpture “Head” is by __Abbott Pattison__ whose large “Woman in the Garden” is in the Moy pavilion on the Museum’s east side. And Rafael’s collaboration with __Matthew Hoffman’s “You Are Beautiful”__ is on the Museum’s Southeast corner. 

__Artists:__

Donald Baecher, Patty Carroll, Deena Des Rioux, Thomas Eakins (attributed), Sheldon Peck (attributed), Hugo Scheiber, Hugo Weber 

__Curated by Liz Chilsen__

__Artwork Image:__    

Patty Carrol   
American, b. 1946   
__Portrait of Don Baum (from “Spirited Visions”)__, 1991    
Cibachrome print   
Cleve Carney Bequest C2014.022

painting don baum portraits portraiture thomas eakins Samuel Peck Patty Carroll Abbott Pattison Donald Baecher Deena Des Rioux Hugo Scheiber Hugo Weber

Portraits from the Museum Collection

Elmhurst Art Museum celebrates 10 years of public art by artist Rafael Blanco, co-creator of Elmhurst’s own *Be Bold* mural. 

This exhibition will introduce the viewer to Blanco’s artistic journey through visual works in progress, video of Blanco’s process, and large-scale new work transforming the Museum’s galleries into its own urban landscape, filled with color, texture, and the serendipity of discovering public art in the wild.

Rafael Blanco’s work is deeply influenced by his own immigrant experience, and the beauty of embracing a new country while maintaining your own identity. Blanco extends that idea in a collaboration with nearly 100 area students, encouraging them to embrace who they are, be inspired by their own identity and culture, and let it all come out in their own work. 

Rafael Blanco creates murals that grab your attention and pull you in.   

This exhibition is sponsored by Wintrust Bank with additional support from the Tom Watson and Mary Cunningham Family Charitable Fund, the Illinois Arts Council, Discover DuPage, and Enjoy Illinois.   

Artwork image:  Rafael Blanco, *Alcatraces*, 2024. 113" x 240"

 Rafael Blanco: Reflecting on a Decade of Public Art


__*Magic & Imaginary Realms*__ presents selections from the Elmhurst Art Museum’s Collection with works by artists who share uniquely inventive perceptions of the world around us - or who invent worlds we are invited to inhabit.   

This peek into the collection draws inspiration from the whimsical worlds of __*The Neighborhood of Make-Believe*__ and __*Someplace Else*__, created by Fred Rogers and continued into today's PBS KIDS show __*Donkey Hodie*__, which were showcased in the Museum's galleries this past summer.

Here, we present visions of the strange and magical by artists working in a variety of media and representing a broad range of dates and approaches. Included are the completely made-up beings in works by __Peter Max__ and __Sonia Delaunay__, strange and mystical interior spaces created by __Nicholas Sistler__ and __Phillip Hansen__, oddly revealing juxtapositions framed by photographer __Caroline Allison__, or the bizarre collision of worlds experienced by __Rebecca Keller__ whilst standing at a photocopy machine, presented to us on a shoe.

Artists:

Caroline Allison, Tarrant Clements, Sonia Delaunay, Philip Hansen, Sophia Harmon, Nancy Josephson, Rebecca Keller, Richard Koppe, Aleš Lamr, Miles Lowry, Peter Max, Hollis Sigler, Nicholas Sistler, Buzz Spector, Junsuke Watarai 

Curated by Liz Chilsen

__Artwork Image Above:__

Peter Max   
American, b. 1937   
__Universal Runner__, 1970   
Color Serigraph   
Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Ronald H. Stefani, Jr.   
2010.02

Magic & Imaginary Realms:  Selections From the Elmhurst Art Museum Collection

Magic & Imaginary Realms: Selections From the Elmhurst Art Museum Collection

Exhibition: December 1st to January 5th, 2025

Opening Reception: Friday, December 6th, 7-9 pm   

Featured Artist: Jennifer Starchvill

Jennifer Starchvill is a former graphic designer, admirer of typography & crisp, clean lines, deeply inspired by our ancestral creators of petroglyphs found globally on cave walls and canyon floors. A child of the 70’s she is also quite drawn to the hip, cool, modern aesthetics of the mid 20th century & has been deeply influenced by her childhood television favorites: The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Sesame Street & The Electric Company. 

Her work is being highlighted under the banner of EVERCONNECTED this December at the Elmhurst Artists' Guild's feature wall during this year's Winter Members' Show. This show within a show celebrates how a simple act of connecting one shape to another forms unique icons (glyphs) that tell brief, fun stories or invite insightful commentary on modern ideas with themes from nature and family to technology and maybe even politics. 

Image:  Jennifer Starchvill, *Mandala on Purple*, 24"x 24", acrylic painting on canvas, 2024.

Elmhurst Artists' Guild Winter Members' Show

The Elmhurst Artists' Guild celebrates their Fall Members' Show with a theme of Day of the Dead.   

Forty-eight Guild members are participating in the show.  Several of the exhibition artists received awards:

Best of Theme: Ted Strahdt, *Sleep*

Awards of Excellence:    
Ken Reif, *Perpetually Surprised Barn*   
Donna Castellanos, *Give a Dog a Bone*   
John Duffy, *The Good, The Bad, &amp; The Dead*

Honorable Mention:   
Fletcher Hayes, *Hopefully I’m Evolving*   
Deb Vaccaro, *Queen Catrina*   
Diana Gondek, *Maria*__

Artwork this page: Deb Vaccaro, *Queen Catrina*


Elmhurst Artists' Guild Fall Members Show

A VISUAL MEMOIR is a solo retrospective of Cassandra Swierenga’s art practice, exhibited at the Elmhurst Artists’ Guild Gallery at the Elmhurst Art Museum.

Twenty-five years ago, Swierenga's painting journey began with an introductory class at the College of DuPage, in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. In the semesters that followed, Swierenga had the opportunity to experiment with various painting mediums and techniques, such as oils, egg tempera, encaustic, watercolor, fresco, and acrylic. As Swierenga developed her painting practice, she focused primarily on realism in oils. In 2007, she started painting in watercolor and became a member of the Illinois Watercolor Society, achieving Signature membership in 2010. She briefly attended painting classes at the Art Institute of Chicago and taught watercolor painting at the Community School of the Arts at Wheaton College for five years. Swierenga joined the Elmhurst Artists Guild in 2013, where she is currently a member. She also served on the EAG Board of Directors for nine years, holding various roles including Program Director and President of the board.    

Swierenga’s style and focus have changed and evolved over the years. Early in her practice, she focused on realistic figurative portraits of children in oil, with each painting attempting to capture the innocence and spontaneity of a child. Her first solo show in 2002, “Children of Abby Woods”, showcased many of these portraits. Her style, subject matter, and mediums have evolved over the years to include works in woodblock printing, screen printing, oils, watercolors, collages, and acrylics. By creating in these different mediums, styles, and subjects, she aims for her work to capture a sense of wide-eyed wonder about life, surreptitiously giving the viewer insight into their own thoughts and feelings as they view the images. This show, covering her last 25 years of work, reflects her various experiences, influences, and explorations, which quite recently involved a deep dive into Wassily Kandinsky’s approach to art during the pandemic, where she experimented in abstract modernism.   

This exhibition, titled A VISUAL MEMOIR, will feature selections from various collections Swierenga has created over the years. The showcased pieces will include works from the watercolor Black Bird Farm series, the Rock and Water series in oils and watercolor, and her abstract watercolor series. Additionally, her latest graphite series, Looking in the Mirror, will complete the show with over 40 plus small portraits of people. These portraits demonstrate a wide range of facial expressions that can be conveyed through simple lines and shading.
Please join us for an opening reception on September 13, 2024, and take the opportunity to meet and talk with Swierenga about her art practice.

The artist's proceeds go to Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy.


 A VISUAL MEMOIR is a Solo Retrospective of Cassandra Swierenga’s Art Practice

The Elmhurst Art Museum has recently completed a roofing restoration project. This roofing restoration was made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom.

The National Endowment for the Humanities website can be found [here](https://www.neh.gov/).

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this Elmhurst Art Museum website do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Museum Roofing Restoration

The Elmhurst Artists' Guild Summer Member Show opens on July 13th, 2024, featuring works by Katie Marisco and other EAG members. Katie will showcase some of her favorite pieces, centered around the theme "Fantastic Fauna."

Participating Artists:  Joe Abboreno • Dalia Abdelaziz • Colette Wright Adams • Judie Anderson • Kyrstin Avello • Bernard Bahr • Peter Bialecki • Kera Bjerga • Mary Blinn • John Brudek • Paul Callahan • Maggie Capettini • Sandra Chlebek • Bethany Cordero • Judy Druschitz • John Duffy • Emily F Friel • Mohammad Abdul Gafoor • Jeanne Garrett • Kathryn Gauthier • Cherylyn Gnadt • Diana Leviton Gondek • Fletcher Hayes • Nancy Hlavacek • Susan Janssen • Donald Johnson • Louie Jones • Heather Jones-Pryor • Ken Kucera • Joan Ladendorf • Kim Laurel • Cynthia Lee • Linda Lindstrom • Katie Luo • Lynn Mackenzie • Carol Marcus • Julie Mars • Nolan McCants • Jeane McGrail • Siegfried Mueller • Susan Nester • John Nester • Shereen Oehler • Dave Pryor • Anke Richert-Korioth • Janet Roller-Schmidt • Rebecca Russow • Gary Schirmer • Adrienne Smith • Annemarie Spencer Toedt • Jennifer Starchvill • Ted Strandt • Karen Sugay • Cassandra Swierenga • Catherine Tanner • Anna Toberman • Catherine Tully • Debra Vaccaro • Marlene Vitek • Charles Williams, Jr • Jeanne Yargicoglu


Elmhurst Artists' Guild Summer Member Show

__Sustenance & Land: Five Artists Consider Our Relationship with the Earth__ is a group exhibition exploring human connection to the land and the many ways the earth sustains us. Participating artists Barbara Ciurej + Lindsay Lochman, Chunbo Zhang, Lydia Cheshewalla, Claire Pentecost, and Tomiko Jones work in a variety of methodologies addressing human relationships to the land, exploring a broad spectrum of themes including nutrition, cultural relationship to food, scientific investigation, spirit, history, and the future. Humor and creativity are woven throughout, guiding viewers through a rich tapestry of ideas about how we interact with the earth.

Image: Tomiko Jones, *These Grand Places*. Digital Image collage: BW photograph with cyanotype overlay. 2020. Dimensions variable

Sustenance & Land: Five Artists Consider Our Relationship with the Earth

__Landscape Photographs by Joe Jachna and Michael Tropea__, a tandem exhibition in Mies van der Rohe’s McCormick House, presents photographs from the Elmhurst Art Museum collection, including black and white photographs by Chicago photographers Joe Jachna and Michael Tropea selected from a gift to the Museum from the David C. and Sarajean Ruttenberg Arts Foundation. Jachna’s photographs depict the landscape in abstract compositions, which impart a mysterious or otherworldly sense, while photographs by Michael Tropea capture industrial and pastoral views using the Kodak Panorama #1 camera manufactured in 1897.

Image credit:  Michael Tropea, *Railroad Yard, Chicago*. From Landscape Portfolio, 1979-1981. 

Exhibitions