September 26th through October 25th, 2008 Retreat new works by Donna Stephenson and Jill Hadley Hooper Opening Reception: Friday September 26th, 6 -10 pm (We'll be watching the presidential debate in the Blue Door Media Room) Open First Friday: Friday October 3rd, 7 -10 pm Ironton Studios is open Monday through Friday from 10 to 4, and Saturdays from 12 to 4. Retreat is an installation of two artists’ work, one presenting large-scale monochromatic prints of rustic, decaying buildings, and the other offering expressively painted deep forest scenes. The result is an investigation into impermanence using one place, a forest, through two perspectives. Hooper’s dwellings, in various states of disrepair, offer the opportunity to recognize change and natures steady hierarchy. In one painting fragments of Carl Sandburg’s poem, "Grass", are woven into the mortar and stones of the edifice: “I am grass I cover all. I am grass, let me work.” The forest paintings by Stephenson represent idealized nature. In contrast to the buildings, they are lush and colorful. The forest offers the possibility of both discovery and loss. They are alive and dark and are where all the good stories start. And, in the end, the woods will reclaim the efforts at constructing in their midst. The Artists: Donna Stephenson (formerly Donna Van Horn) is an accomplished oil painter with a direct and spontaneous style. Jill Hadley Hooper is a painter and illustrator. Donna and Jill met in 1982 at the Kansas City Art Institute. Donna was old enough to buy beer, Jill had a car. More information on the artists is available at donnastephenson.com and hadleyhooper.com.     Next up at Ironton: October 31st - November 29th, 2008 Sharon Bankert site specific installation Ironton Studios is open Monday through Friday from 10 to 4, and Saturdays from 12 to 4.   Want to be informed about what's coming up at Ironton? Visit the contact us page and sign up for our email list. Past Shows at Ironton: July 2008 Kay Tuttle: Lost and Found July 2008 Fourth of July Ironton Group Show and Party May 2008 Sticks and Stones, Loay Boggess and Vicki Rottman April 2008 Passages, new work by Sharon Feder and John Ferguson March 2008 Clearing: The Aspen Series, new works by Meredith Nemirov February 2008 They Are What They Are, New Sculptural Works by Michael Brohman January 2008 Paper, Scissors, Rock, Works on Paper and Space Specific Installation by Mindy Bray November 2007 Sporting and Recreation, Furniture by Chase DeForest September 2007 Mum Immortals, Stone Sculpture by Dan Brandemuehl August 2007 Digit-all Art, Jerry De La Cruz July 2007 Glacial, Tim Berg and Bob Koons June 2007 New Works, Heidi Jung and John Ferguson April 2007 Since the House is on Fire let us Warm our Hands, Sharon Feder and Mike Mancarella March 2007 Recurrent Nightmare, an installation of miniature proportions by Chelsea Hunt February 2007 NEMESIS, new paintings by Robin Schaefer January 2007 Iron, Et Cetera, curated by Rian Kerrane and Mark Guilbeau December 2006 IAMAMAN, Charles Counter, Randy Brown, and Stan Meyer November 2006 Eudora's Belles, Patricia "Murph" Murphy September 2006 In the Between, Jill Hadley Hooper August 2006 ...and we all fall down, Sharon M Bankert July 2006 Derniers Soupirs, Viviane Le Courtois June 2006 Ironton Group Show 2006 May 2006 "Year of Art, Year of Words", Disparate Women April 2006 "Reflections", John Ferguson and Phyllis Ryder March 2006 Between Words, Emily vonSwearingen and Jake Adam York February 2006 Considering the Sublime, Scott Engel and William Sutton January 2006 Marking Three Paths, Bill McDonald, Jennifer Bowes, and Tonia Bonnell November 2005 Nothing of Their Being Red, Robin Schaefer and Syrie Kovitz September 2005 Paper Sky, Peter Arcidiacono August 2005 Between Elements, Sharon Feder and David Walter July 2005 Ironton Group Show 2005 May 2005 Ecoficial, Tim Berg April 2005 Dual Nature, Sharon M Bankert and Michelle Barnes March 2005 Functional Shift, Kim Ferrer February 2005 Walking Through, Judy Anderson and Ginny Hoyle January 2005 Borrowed Light, Marina Graves, Gwen Laine, and Ron Pollard   Ironton Studios is proud to be a member of the River North Art District. RiNo. Where art is made. Visit the RiNo website at rivernorthart.com