Artist's Biography

New Orleans artist Allison Stewart has gained recognition for her large, mixed media paintings that express the restless balance between man and nature. Trained as a biologist, Stewart is inspired by landscape imagery, specifically the vanishing Louisiana coastal wetlands. Stewart takes as her subject fragile environments, cycles of life, and evidence of man's mark on nature. She uses layers of color, light, form and texture to address issues of beauty and loss, time and transformation. Residing somewhere between realism and abstraction, the paintings are visual diaries upon which Stewart records her responses to the threatened landscape.

In 1998, Stewart co-founded KID smART, a Louisiana 501.c.3 non-profit organization to teach under resourced children in inner city New Orleans important life lessons through hands on arts activities. Through in-school, after-school and Saturday classes in the visual and performing arts, KID smART provides a safe, nurturing environment for elementary and middle school children to learn life skills that will make them more successful in all walks of life: self esteem, teamwork, creative problem solving and pride of accomplishment. www.kidsmart.org

Allison Stewart has exhibited extensively throughout the UnitedStates. Her work is included in many public and corporate collections including the US Department of of State Art in Embassies Program, the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Historic New Orleans Collection, and the Pensacola Museum of Art.

Stewart is represented by galleries in New Orleans, New York, Aspen, Atlanta, and Ketchum ID. She maintains studios in New Orleans and in Snowmass Village, CO.

Stewart holds a B. S. in Biology from Spring Hill College and a M.F.A. from the University of New Orleans. She has taught art at Loyola University, University of New Orleans, Delgado Community College, New Orleans Academy of Fine Art, the Aspen Art Museum and Anderson Ranch in Colorado. Stewart maintains studios in New Orleans and in Snowmass Village, CO.

Artist's Statement

I am a part of a twenty thousand year old tradition of making marks on a surface. Painting is a means to help me to recognize that we are a part of an interconnected web of life that ultimately we cannot dominate. The act of painting becomes process, accretions of colors and forms, gradually appearing, then disappearing under layers of pigments and washes. Like dance the process is one of directed motion and concentration. Like humidity, it is more felt than seen. Like the tide it ebbs and flows , helping me understand how life works.

Resume

EDUCATION

M.F.A., University of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA
B.S. Biology, Spring Hill College, Mobile, AL

GRANTS, AWARDS, FELLOWSHIP

2005   Artist-in-Residence, Anderson Ranch Art Center, Snowmass Village, CO
2002   Artist-in-Residence, Roaring Fork Club, Basalt, CO
2000   Artist selected for “Silver Circle Sculpture,”  Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, LA
1998   Louisiana Division of the Arts Decentralized Arts Funding  Grant
1997   Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Grant
1997   Louisiana Division of the Arts Project Assistance Grant
1997   Louisiana Division of the Arts Individual Artist Grant
1995   Mary Freeman Wisdom Foundation Grant 
1991   Sheraton New Orleans Public Art Project Award and Commission, New Orleans, LA
1988- 1989  Visual Arts Fellowship, Louisiana Division of the Arts
1988   Artist selected for "Century Club Print," Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, LA
1983   Hotel Intercontinental Lobby Commission, New Orleans, LA

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2007   Renee George Gallery, Charlotte, NC
2006   Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2006   Sardella Fine Art, Aspen, CO
2006   Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID
2006   Gallery Camino Real, Boca Raton, FL
2006   Buchanan Gallery, Galveston, TX
2005   Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID
2005   Kathryn Markel Gallery, New York, NY
2004   Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2004  Pensacola Museum of Art, Pensacola, FL
2004   Duval Smart Gallery, Aspen, CO           
2003   Kathy Albers Gallery, Memphis, TN
2003   Jules place, Boston, MA
2003   Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID
2002  Alexandria Museum of Art, Alexandria, LA 
2002   Sandler Hudson Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2002   Jules Place, Boston, MA
2002   Susan Duval Gallery, Aspen, CO
2001, 1999, 1996, 1994, 1993, 1990, 1988, 1986, 1984, 1982, Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2001   Castle Creek Gallery, Aspen, CO
2001   Jules Place, Boston, MA
2001   Sandy Carson Gallery, Denver CO
2000   River Oaks Square Arts Center, Alexandria, LA   
2000   Kathy Albers Gallery, Memphis, TN
1999   Masur Museum of Art, Monroe, LA
1999   Spring Hill College, Mobile,  AL
1999   Baton Rouge Gallery, Baton Rouge, LA
1999   Sandler Hudson Gallery, Atlanta, GA
1998   Louisiana State University, Alexandria, LA
1997   William Carey College, Gulfport, MS
1996, 1994, 1992, 1991  Mario Villa Gallery, Chicago, IL 
1996   Albertson Peterson Gallery, Winter Park, FL   
1995   Southeastern Louisiana University, Hammond, LA
1994,  1986  Barbara Gillman Gallery, Miami, FL
1994,  1992  Broadway Art Gallery, Asheville, NC
1991   Pensacola Junior College, Pensacola, FL
1985   Gallery 291,  Atlanta, GA

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE AND ACTIVITIES

2007  Guest Instructor, The Studios in Key West, Key West, FK
2003 ,2001, Instructor, Anderson Ranch Arts Center,, Snowmass Village, CO
2003  ,2002   Instructor, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, CO
2000   2002, 2004, Judge- New Olreans Museum of Art Student Art Competition
1997   Co-Founder,  KID smART, nonprofit organization, New Orleans, LA
1997   Board Member, Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, LA 
1998   Artist Teacher, Vermont College of Art, Montpelier, VT
1998   Board Member, Entergy Arts Business Center, New Orleans, LA
2000, 1997   Grants Review Panel Member, Arts Council of New Orleans
1997   Guest Panelist - “The Creative Process”  Delgado College, New Orleans, LA
1994 -  Present,  Member Visual Arts Visiting Committee, Loyola University, New Orleans, LA
1992,  1988  Juror, 1% for Art, Public Arts Program,  New Orleans, LA
1992   Guest Panelist, "Creativity and Rejection"  Symposium, presented by the New Orleans Arts Council and New Orleans Association  for Mental Health Professionals.
1991  Vice President of Arts Policy Committee,  Contemporary Arts Center
1989 - 1993  Board Member, Contemporary Arts Center,  New Orleans, LA
1988 - Present  Instructor, Drawing & Painting,  Academy of Fine Arts, New Orleans, LA
1991   Assistant Professor, Painting, Loyola University, New Orleans, LA
1980 - 1990  Instructor, Drawing, Metro College,  University of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA
1982,  1985  Instructor, Painting, Delgado Community College, New Orleans, LA

PUBLICATIONS

Southern Accents, March-April, 2007n Featured Artist
Louisiana Faces, Jason Berry and Philip Gould, 2000
Southern Accents, January – February, 2000
New American Paintings, June, 1998
The Intimate A genda: Inside the Creative Process, Barbara Seidel, 1996
Louisiana Life, Spring, 1997, p. 36
Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Quarterly, Spring, 1998, pp 66 - 73
Gambit Weekly, November  19, 1996, p 49
New Orleans Art Review, November - December, 1996, pp 3-7
New Orleans Times Picayune, September 13, 1996
New Orleans Art Review, March - April, 1996, p 15
New Orleans Art Review, November - December, 1995, pp27 - 29
Southern Accents, June, 1989, p 124
Art News, November, 1987, p 222

SELECTED COLLECTIONS

Art in Embassies Program, U.S. Department of State
Alabama Power Co. Montgomery, AL
Alston and Bird, LLC, Atlanta, GA
ARCO, Lafayette, LA
Arts Council of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA
Bloomingdales, Miami, FL
Chase Manhattan Bank, New York, NY
Grand Hotel du Cap Ferrat, France
First City Bank of Houston, Houston, TX
First Bank and Trust, New Orleans, LA
Four Seasons Hotel, Scottsdale, AZ
Freeport McMoRan, New Orleans, LA
Hewlett Packard, Sun Valley, ID 
Historic New Orleans Collection, New Orleans, LA
Home Depot Corporation, Miami, FL
Hotel Intercontinental, New Orleans, LA
Hunter Museum, Chattanooga, TN
Hyatt International Hotels, Baltimore, MD
Joseph Canizaro Interests, New Orleans, LA
The Kullman Firm, Memphis, TN
Le Saint Seran Resort, Mauritius, South Africa
Loyola University, New Orleans, LA
Mandarin Hotel, Miami, FL
Masur Museum of Art, Monroe, LA
Memphis College of Art, Memphis, TN
Miami Children's Hospital, Miami, FL
Monroe and Lemann, New Orleans, LA
Morgan Keegan Inc. Memphis TN
MCI Communications, Miami, FL
New Orleans Children's Hospital
New Orleans Museum of Art
Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA
Pan American Life Insurance, New Orleans, LA
Pensacola Junior College, Pensacola, FL
Price Waterhouse Corp., New Orleans, LA
Roger Ogden Collection, New Orleans, LA
Saks Fifth Avenue, Bal Harbor, FL
Sheraton Hotel ITT, Boston, MA
Sheraton Hotel ITT, New Orleans, LA
Southern Bell Telephone, Miami, FL
Stone, Pigman, Walther,Wittman,and Hutchinson, New Orleans, LA
Sun Bank of Florida, Miami, FL
Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA
Texaco Inc., New Orleans, LA
Waverly Hotel, Atlanta, GA

Return to top of page