Local art nonprofit Evanston Made opened its Photography & Mixed Media group show at Gallery OTR Saturday, featuring everything from photography to bubble wrap art.
The exhibit, which will run until Jan. 31, spotlights the work of 47 artists and members of Evanston Made. For the last nine years, the collective has provided a bustling space for local artists to promote their art.
“We want to do exhibits and events that connect the community members to the artists and the creatives that live here,” said Lisa Degliantoni, founder and co-director of Evanston Made. “Everything is designed to connect artists to community members, but in a really small, hyper-local way.”
The group show is one of many the organization has planned for the year. Its sequence of First Saturday Evanston Art Events has long been a popular means for Evanston artists to mingle and make art regularly.
Former Chicago Tribune photographer and Evanston resident Chris Walker is on display. He has been a member of Evanston Made for over a year, but said this is the first time he’s submitted a piece of an exhibit.
“When I retired from my job at the Chicago Tribune, I started doing more art instead of journalism,” he said. “I needed a place to show my work and I wanted to be in a group with like-minded people. And Evanston Made seemed like the perfect place to be.”
Walker’s piece portrays apples using tintype, a form of photography that dates back to the 1840s. It is made using wet plate collodion on aluminum, he said.
“It’s a very painstaking process. You do one at a time, and whatever you come up with, that is the image. You don’t do Photoshop or anything like that,” Walker said. “So I’m kind of getting back to a pure form of photography.”
Hazel Dixon, another Evanston Made member, said she has been attending First Saturday Evanston Art Events since last summer.
Dixon specializes in color pencil drawing and recently started painting with acrylics. Although she hasn’t had her work on display yet, she plans to submit a piece for the next show and called the exhibit “inspiring.”
“Our whole mission is to bring visibility and opportunity to the artists in our community,” Degliantoni said.
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