Gallery Opening: Group Exhibition "Rooted and Restless"

Rooted and Restless shares four distinct visions of the natural world through abstraction and representation. Despite an acute awareness of climate change, habitat loss, and disrupted ecology, four Midwest painters speak to spiritual connections, the restorative power of nature, and the persistence of life, even in threatened environments. The artists are as follows: Basia Krol, Meg Ladgodzki, Katherine Steichen Rosing, and Sheri Rush. Individual artist bios are found below. Basia Krol : Barbara “Basia” Krol was born and raised in Warsaw, Poland. She studied painting and printmaking at Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts and traveled through Europe to study old masters in major collections, earning a Masters's Degree in Studio Art from Warsaw Academy of Fine Art in 2000. Following several Artist in Residency programs in the US, Krol moved to Chicago in 2004 and then downstate to Galesburg IL in 2011, to raise a family. Since the pandemic, Krol has been painting landscapes based almost exclusively on native and restored habitats of the Midwest. She paints in oil on canvas, considering this tradition the knowledge of her ancestors. Her paintings are loosely realistic but abstract upon closer inspection. She enjoys moving her body through spacetime, hiking, and dancing while painting. The painting is finished in meditative and calligraphic details to transport the viewer to a metaphysical place they don't know they miss. Artist Website: https://basiakrol.com/   Meg Lagodzki : Meg was born in 1970 in Ohio. She has lived all over the country and on both coasts, but for well over a decade has called Bloomington, Indiana home. She has a BFA in painting from St. Mary's College and an MA in Art Therapy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her recent work is focused on the local landscape, drawing on observational study of landscapes around her home and the surrounding area. If not in her studio, she usually paints out in the woods or in one of the limestone quarries so ubiquitous to the Bloomington region. Although her main practice has long been as an oil painter, she recently began a series of acrylic works collaged from hand-painted paper. Meg is represented by Momentum Gallery in Asheville, North Carolina. Artist Website: https://www.meglagodzki-art.com   Sheri Rush : Sheri Rush (b. Fort Worth, Texas) is a Chicago-based painter whose work responds to the current world by considering the intersection of identity, landscape, and recollection. Rush holds a BFA from Texas Christian University and an MFA from the University of Chicago. Recent exhibitions include the Rockford Art Museum, Freeport Art Museum, Stasias Gallery, Ralph Arnold Gallery, The Art Center Highland Park, Arc Gallery, Hofheimer Gallery, Mu Gallery, James Baird Gallery in Newfoundland, solo shows at Hyde Park Art Center, Evanston Art Center, and Epiphany Center for the Arts. Recent awards include a funded residency to the Pouch Cove Foundation in Newfoundland and an Illinois Art Council Agency grant. Artist Website:   https://www.sherirush.com/   Katherine Steichen Rosing : Katherine Steichen Rosing, (b. Appleton, Wisconsin) explores invisible forces and environmental issues in forests and watersheds through vividly-hued paintings and immersive installations. Rosing earned an MFA in painting and drawing from Northern Illinois University, a BFA from the University of Colorado-Denver, and a BA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Rosing, taught for over twenty-five years at universities and colleges in Madison and Chicago. She lives and works in Madison, Wisconsin. Her work has been exhibited in over one hundred solo and group exhibitions in museums and galleries across the United States, Europe, and Asia, including Tokyo, New York, and Chicago. Her work is included in numerous private and public collections and is represented by Groveland Gallery in Minneapolis. She is the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including the 2022 Forward Art Prize, the Madison Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowship, and artist residencies at the UW-Madison Department of Limnology’s Trout Lake Research Station and the St. Croix Watershed Research Station, sponsored by the Science Museum of Minnesota. Artist Website: https://www.studioksr.com/