Alan Servoss

media release: Join us at Abel Contemporary for an in-person conversation with Allan Servoss. Servoss will be in conversation with gallery owner, Theresa Abel, to discuss the work in his current show, Just on the Other Side, followed by Q&A with the audience.  

Free and open to the public, this live event will be held in the main floor gallery and will be recorded for later viewing on our website. Related to the current exhibits:

March 3- April 16, 2023, we present Allan Servoss: Just on the Other Side, Teapots: Group Show, In no. 5: Debbie Kupinsky: Topographies

Opening Reception Friday, March 3, 5pm-8pm open to the public (snow date Saturday, March 4, 5pm - 8pm). Shows open online Saturday, March 4th at 10 AM CST.

In-Person Artist Talks:

Allan Servoss: March 18, 2pm 

Debbie Kupinsky: April 1, 2pm

Allan Servoss: Just on the Other Side: For over 45 years, Allan Servoss has created stunning landscapes that are part realism and part fantasy. At first glance these bucolic scenes feel familiar to the Midwest sensibility, but upon further reflection, the spaces reveal a surreal edge. Perhaps a row of corn ends a little too abruptly, maybe an outcropping of trees grows in a not quite believable manner, or moonlight illuminates a scene with an uncanny luminosity. Working entirely in colored pencil, Servoss’ new body of work is inspired by the landscape around him yet, his work takes on an imagined life of its own.

Teapots: Group Show: Emerging around 1500 CE in Yixing, China, the humble teapot transformed the consumption of tea from an individual experience to a communal event. This revolutionary form spread first throughout east and south Asian eventually arriving in Europe. Through this transcontinental exchange, the basic form of the teapot remained relatively unchanged— an ergonomic handle affixed to a bulbous lidded chamber with a long spout for pouring the contents into cups. With the invention of high-fire ceramics, the teapot began to take on elaborate decoration, elevating the quotidian form to an object fit for high society. This exhibition features works which showcase the variety present in contemporary teapots by Margaret Bohls, Craig Clifford, Nick DeVries, Delores Fortuna, Rick Hintze, Kate Marotz, Ryan Myers, Ted Neal, Jose Sierra, Mike Stumbras, and Shumpei Yamaki.

In no. 5: Debbie Kupinsky : Topographies: Debbie Kupinsky is an artist working in ceramics as well as an Assistant Professor of Art at St. Norbert College. Kupinsky is most interested in examining the interactions between the natural and man-made world through creating works that reference branches, birds, other natural elements at the places where the natural world intersects with our constructed environment. These spaces give viewers an immersive experience where they can reflect on their own relationships with the world around them and how human beings impact this world. These installations are inspired by walks in places close to her home such as beside the Fox River, and in nature preserves around the Fox Valley where the industrial and the natural come together in unexpected ways. There is evidence of these collisions every day— railroad tracks, drainage pipes, old trash left behind after the snow melt in Spring and the humming of the paper-mill over the river.