Feedback Loop: Anne Stagg and Laura Tanner

Anne Stagg and Laura Tanner Graham are visual artists whose work pulls from their experiences growing up in the South. Though outwardly, their work appears to be very different, one using abstraction and the other using collage with pictorial imagery, they both turn a critical eye towards the South and explore how built systems and false narratives reinforce systems of inequity and invisibility.

Opening Reception: November 4, 5-7pm • See it first. See it free. This event is open to the public. Come meet your neighbors at this free event!

Artist Walk and Talk: November 5, 10 am • Meet the artists as they talk through their process at this free event.

Anne Stagg

Anne Stagg eloquently addresses some of the humanitarian issues of our time through modes of formal abstraction, employed not only within her densely layered paintings, but also in the iterative process through which her work is made. The paintings in her Edits & Omissions series, on view in the gallery, develop over a number of years and are the result of her re-working discreet individual paintings and then re-exhibiting them in their altered state. Her process is not one of economy, but one of catastrophic loss through an unforgiving process of elimination using white paint. Artworks in various states of her evolutionary process are included in the exhibition.

 

Laura Tanner

Laura Tanner’s examines revisionist histories that reinforce systems of inequity through her richly detailed, hand drawn and hand cut collage-like constructions. She combines invented imagery derived from oral histories together with images borrowed from wallpaper patterns, cookbooks and Americana advertisements, capitalizing on America’s propensity for sentimentality to expose discriminatory power structures through the lens of a Southern female perspective. Using double sided mylar, her meticulous craft weaves together depictions of Americana in drawn tapestry. Tanner’s dense use of visual language both conceals and reveals alternative narratives, enticing engagement with and reflection on the social textures of our contemporary culture.

 

Theatre Lobby Gallery: Carol Imes-Luscombe and Kathryn Kain

The work in this show was executed in the Catawba Island studio the past summer. The botanical prints are from plants foraged in the fields and gardens on the Ohio island. Imes-Luscombe and Kain began this venture several years ago by gathering plants that interested them visually but has led the artists to research the plants’ botanical names and their unique qualities. It is exciting to see the vegetation transformed into unusual colors and compositions unlike the reality they live in. The artists have been on a journey into the art of the monotype; resulting in pieces that are both surprising and delightful. This process has incubated new ways of working and each session brings new inspiration and concepts to spur the artist duo onto further exploration into the art of ink, paper and plants.

Member Gallery: The Fort Myers Beach Art Association

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• Please note the Alliance for the Arts’ updated gallery and administrative office hours are Tuesday through Friday from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m.

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Help us prove the impact of arts in our community by getting involved the Arts & Economic Prosperity Study 6 (AEP6). The information you provide will help to measure the economic impact of the arts in Lee County. 

We are excited to partner with Americans for the Arts to announce the launch of AEP6, the sixth national study of the economic impact of the nonprofit arts and culture industry! Economic impact studies such as these expand the conversation about how many people view the arts. While most appreciate the cultural benefit provided to our community, few realize that our local arts industry supports jobs, generates government revenue, and is a cornerstone of tourism.

We need your help to collect this data. While attending any performance, activity, event or program on our campus, please take a few moments to participate in the Audience & Attendee Survey. All answers are anonymous and help to measure the economic and social impact of arts and culture in our community!

Audience & Attendee Surveys will be available at the front desk in multiple formats, including hard-copy, accessible by QR code or at our laptop station.

Let’s change the conversation. The arts mean business. Learn more about the AEP6 study: AmericansForTheArts.org/AEP6