hidell brooks is thrilled to present three solo exhibitions for female artists page jones davis, anke schofield and kate long stevenson. each artist has created a new body of work on view throughout march. walking into the gallery the viewer is immersed in rainbow hues of page jones davis’ abstract mixed media paintings. page created a series of paintings that can stand alone or combine together to make an endless amount of larger paintings. anke schofield’s mixed media and resin on wood panel large scale paintings are in the middle gallery. anke’s surreal dream like paintings open a portal to another world with their gleaming surfaces and structural compositions. kate long stevenson’s abstract figurative mixed media paintings are in the third gallery filling the space with energy and movement. kate’s work is all about her mark making and subtle washes of color combining to suggest a figure in motion and in rest.
page jones davis was born in atlanta and now resides in inman, south carolina. she recently received her ma from the savannah college of art and design. her abstract paintings were exhibited in a group exhibition entitled siblings at the spartanburg museum of art. page's color saturation and her compositions are spot on. her paintings are bursting with color and form.
“the infinite color combinations in nature and in the material world alike are etched into my mind. that bright green patch of moss i saw on my walk that stood out so boldly against the dead winter leaves had such strength and grace. that wacky color combination in a gorgeous fabric was unapologetically loud. the nature of color and its complexities is the fuel for my work. the story that ensues as color becomes form is my fire.”
-page jones davis
anke schofield was born in ithaca, new york, 1972 and was apprenticed as a professional photographer assistant when she was still in the 8th grade. her father introduced her to the wonders of the camera early in life. anke took to the form readily and with enthusiasm. during high school anke apprenticed with a number of artists in the new york area and eventually won a scholarship to the savannah college of art and design, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in fine art. throughout this period she pursued her studies of color theory and painting, continuing to find in these endeavors greater creative stimulus and inspiration than she had known in her photographic work.
anke’s successful large-scale works feature fantastical dream-like images created through complex layering. piqueing the imagination, anke’s whimsical imagery of animate and inanimate objects integrated in unexpected ways is a sophisticated combination of photography, collage, oil paint, acrylic paint, wax, and sometimes even tar. the surreal juxtaposition of images is reinforced by the eclectic use of media. anke finishes her works with a smooth, shiny veneer of epoxy resins, creating the dreamlike “trance” by further separating image from reality and distancing the viewer from the textural physicality of the imagery.
expressionist painter kate long stevenson was born and raised in north carolina, and began her professional career while a student at the university of the south. gestural brushstrokes and a passion for color are characteristic to all of her pieces, ranging from figurative paintings to abstracts. a life-long lover of music, kate relies on mostly classical compositions to guide her as she builds a painting, layering chords of color over energetic swirls of charcoal and paint. "it's important to me that my paintings have a subject, despite how non-subjective some can seem. with my nude paintings, the figure is the vehicle that invites you to discover the true subject: the elements--the way it was painted. the abstracts have just skipped that introduction, altogether, but they're still about something--music, tempo, motion and emotion. it all comes from a feeling, but then the challenge is not only to translate that to the canvas but to have it make sense, compositionally." kate lives in charleston, south carolina with her two sons.
