current
EXHIBITIONS
Exhibition Dates: Through May 30, 2024
“Open to Inspiration” by Maggie Capettini
The title of the exhibit represents a shift in my direction that happened prior to the start of Covid and that was able to incubate during that bizarre time. Previously, I had strongly identified with being an “Oil painter creating landscapes and florals in a representational manner”. I enjoyed this type of artmaking, and I did not push myself beyond the bounds of this definition. However, a curiosity about abstraction grew, and with time, I allowed myself to begin to explore it. The inspiration for the “square vibes” series happened while I was working on a very large commissioned skyline of Chicago – I put in the water using a brayer (a roller used in printmaking) – and I had an “a-ha moment” so strong that I put down the brayer, went directly to the art store, purchased large square canvases, and created two of the paintings in this exhibit: square vibes: balanced crescent and square vibes: chroma, located in the North Gallery. These were the start of a series about color relationships and movement in non-objective painting in which I wanted to cause the viewer’s eyes to dance or soul to vibrate.
I still really enjoy painting flowers and landscapes, especially from life or in the landscape, and I do this regularly as well. The Café Gallery displays flowers that I have painted from life. These works were all created during the same years that I made the “square vibes” paintings. Being “Open to Inspiration” has allowed me to move beyond that self-imposed, narrowly defined identity into a description with more possibilities: “Artist”.
Biography: Raised in Batavia, Maggie Capettini keeps a studio in her Downers Grove home. She is also one of the Resident Artists at Water Street Studios, making art in Studio 17. She has won awards for her paintings and has works in museum/gallery collections in Batavia, Warrenville, and West Chicago, Illinois, as well as private collections in the United States and internationally. A giant fiberglass duck she painted with a Tuscan landscape makes its home in the media center at Lockport Township High School East Campus in Lockport, Illinois.
See her work at maggiecapettini.com or find her on Instagram @maggiepaints.
A Meet the Artist Reception will be held from 2 - 4 p.m. on May 5.
