STELLA EBNER: EVERYTHING YOU HAVE BEEN TOLD IS TRUE
Opens Saturday 3/3: Who knew the ordinary could be so special? Obviously, Stella Ebner. In her current offering of screenprints, woodcuts and watercolor studies, the Elk River native, who now teaches drawing and printmaking at State University of New York-Purchase, makes the mundane magical. Her studied but empathetic vision makes commonplace moments -- such as American flags waving against a bright, blue sky at a Memorial Day parade -- magnetic. She transforms her portraits of daily activity into slightly off-key visual signposts that psychologically inflate the passage of time, make tactile the loss of a simpler way of life, and invest heavily into the very idea and veracity of memory itself. Self-described as a "biography of my childhood in Elk River," the prints depict family, strangers, distant hunters, karate practice and restaurant tables -- and a way of life that Ebner sees in grave danger of being eliminated.
