Steve Banks Artwork in Banks' and Philip Laber's "Con/In-Fluence" Exhibit at Quad City Arts -- December 8 through January 26.

Opening Reception: Friday, December 8, 6 – 10 p.m.

Exhibition: Friday, December 8, through Friday, January 26

Quad City Arts Center Gallery, 1715 Second Avenue, Rock Island IL

Works by two Davenport-based artists will soon be on display in one Rock Island exhibit, as the Quad City Arts Center's Con/In-Fluence showcases prints, paintings, mixed media, and more by Steve Banks and Philip Laber.

Holding a 1995 BFA from Northwest Missouri State University and 1997 MFA from Florida State University, Banks is well-known for his extravagant mixed-media painted constructions – works created primarily on canvas that utilize oil paint, cardboard, fabric, and carved wood. As Banks explains in his Web-site Artist Statement: “My artwork is about finding meaningful identity and individuality within popular culture. I strive to make energetic images that explore our relationships and interactions with what is precious, beautiful, necessary, serious, sensual, and nonsensical through juxtapositions of disparate materials, clashing iconography, pungent color schemes, contrasting textures, scale, and simplicity versus clutter.”

Laber, who also earned his BFA (albeit in 1973) from Northwest Missouri State University and received a 1978 MFA from the University of Iowa, creates traditional intaglio prints with a digital component along with large pastels and paintings, and retired from teaching photography, printmaking, and drawing in 2016. Now a full-time artist who has exhibited in international galleries from Los Angeles to Jerusalem, Laber says in his Artist Statement: “My creative interests remain experimental printmaking and photography and, more recently, exploring relief and 3D works in those mediums. Drawing has always influenced the work, and will continue to do so. I have a specific interest in the figurative subjects that support the specific narratives in each work.”

An opening reception for Con/In-Fluence will be held from 6 to 10 p.m. on December 8, with guests invited to meet Banks and Laber and enjoy complimentary beverages and hors d'oeuvres. The Quad City Arts Center Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays, and more information is available by calling (309)793-1213 or visiting QuadCityArts.com.

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