Laura Vincent-Arnold's "Rest & the Ascent" at the Quad City Arts Center -- through August 13.
Through Friday, August 13
Quad City Arts Center, 1715 Second Avenue, Rock Island IL
Human figures, evocative colors, and a new yet familiar Quad Cities landmark are among the visuals showcased in the latest exhibitions at Rock Island's Quad City Arts Center, with the venue, through August 13, highlighting new paintings by Port Byron's Laura Vincent-Arnold in Internal Landscapes and Bettendorf's John Born in Bridging the Divide.
With artist Laura Vincent-Arnold using a limited color palette in Internal Landscapes, her exhibition's acrylic paintings reflect on how light impacts the environment being represented. The total body of work uses this light to express the artist’s inner emotions both comfortable and uncomfortable, and this results in obscure landscapes that come from a mix of subject matter viewed from the artist’s inner perspective.
As Vincent-Arnold explains in her Artist Statement: There is a dance when light fragments in the breeze, a heaviness of sadness like walking through water, a deep buoyant breath of hope … that is the way I experience life and respond to the world through my work. It is where my art making process begins. Through a combination of figure and environment, I record the nuances of emotion and life experiences that cannot be captured in words alone. I gather content through my time in nature and my studies of the human figure. Painting with an idea but not with a plan, I enjoy the energy that results and the visual language that takes shape. The process becomes a dance between light and dark each in turn taking the lead. I believe that art is a means of connection and speaks when there are no words.
John Born presents a series of paintings called Bridging the Divide, completed throughout the construction of the new I-74 bridge. These acrylic paintings were created by referencing photographs taken by the artist, the construction workers on site, and shots shared by the media of the ongoing project. Born states that the body of work in Bridging the Divide is a tribute to this architectural achievement, to document this historical landmark, and to honor the men and women who built it.
Laura Vincent-Arnold's Internal Landscapes and John Born's Bridging the Divide will both be on display through August 13, with regular Quad City Arts Center gallery hours 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Mondays through Fridays and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays. Works from the exhibitions are also currently viewable through Quad City Arts' Web site, admission to the gallery is free, and more information is available by calling (309)793-1213 or visiting QuadCityArts.com.
