Art Exhibition Opening April 6 with Jennifer Mannebach, Jeffly Gabriela Molina, Brad Stumpf

Exhibition Dates: April 6 - May 10, 2025 Opening Reception: Sunday, April 6, 2025, 3:00 - 6:00 PM Join us afterwards for a private cocktail hour at the Quincy Street Distillery Exhibition on view: Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays 1:00 – 5:00 PM Artist Talk: Saturday, May 10, 2025 at 2:00 PM The Riverside Arts Center is pleased to present Ruminations on Home, an exhibition of art by Jennifer Mannebach, Jeffly Gabriela Molina, and Brad Stumpf, guest curated by Karen Azarnia. Please join us for a reception for the artists on Sunday, April 6th at 3pm. Stay later for a private cocktail hour of artisanal beverages across the street at the Quincy Street Distillery. An artist talk and closing reception will be held on Saturday, May 10th at 2pm. The exhibition will be on view Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays 1-5pm through May 10, 2025. Delving into the rich history of the Riverside Arts Center, the unassuming row of connected buildings housing the Freeark Gallery, Flex Space, and art studios were once apartment buildings. People lived out their lives there. They went about daily activities of work, school, and caregiving – mundane routines of the everyday. They celebrated milestones and holidays and mourned the loss of loved ones. The buildings housed not just people but helped forge relationships – between friends, family, and neighbors. Considering all this begets the question, one that holds myriad meanings to different people: what constitutes a home? Home is a site where the familiar forms and contours of objects evoke fragments of memory, as seen in the sculptural works of Jennifer Mannebach. According to the artist, Mannebach’s formal investigations into material and surface “break down boundaries between body and environment, natural and unnatural objects, past and present.” In her recent sculptures, Mannebach casts and recreates parts of childhood objects from the home, including a slide and a small toy. Based on a video of a child struggling to balance on a slide, her inventive use of material transforms the familiar into something new, altering our perception of the object. There is a tension between the object as we remember it, and the new unfamiliar thing it has become. Through process, Mannebach reminds us that the home can become a space for risk-taking and uncertainty, and that memories exist as fluid constructs. We can also locate home as a site of longing, something with a fragile precarity to seek out and protect, as seen through the lens of Jeffly Gabriel Molina. As a woman, wife, mother- to-be, and immigrant from Venezuela, Molina pulls from deeply personal events that have shaped her life. Her paintings and works on paper seek to embody and express a range of emotions to the viewer, including anxiety or loneliness. Using objects found around her home, Molina’s recent series of still lives titled “Homemade Sculptures” seeks to honorand protect the notion of the home. In a moment when so many people around the globe are being displaced from not only their homes but their countries, the vulnerability of a stable home reflected in Molina’s work is both timely and bittersweet. Or perhaps home is a place of dreams intertwined with hope, love, and loss, as we see in the whimsical yet tenderly vulnerable works of Brad Stumpf. In his own words, his paintings are “acknowledgements of real and imaginary moments in life that make him want to hold his breath.” As part of his creative process, Stumpf carefully constructs small sets much akin to miniature doll houses or theater stages. They take a great deal of time to craft, and serve as a means to think through and plan a given painting. Working from direct observation, Stumpf then uses these sets to make paintings. With a deft touch his surfaces demonstrate a range of texture and application, and a very human touch that further enhances the sensitivity and humanity of the work. Looking at the work of each artist in this exhibition, there is a shared tension between the concept of home and the reality. It can provide stability, but can also be precariously unstable. It can be a site of anxiety or pain, but also hold joy and reverie, with the optimism of what may come to be in the future. While many of us have strong memories of home, these too evolve as our perception shifts with time and experience. Our personal narratives shape different attitudes around the idea of home, and the physical structures themselves can differ wildly. While this exhibition presents three distinct viewpoints, it will hopefully serve as a catalyst for viewers to delve deeper into how they personally define and experience the thing we all call home. – Karen Azarnia, curator Riverside Arts Center 32 East Quincy Street Riverside IL 60546 www.riversideartscenter.com image: Jeffly Gabriela Molina | A Broken Jar Won’t Hold Much Candy, 2023, Oil on linen, 50 x 40 x 2 inches

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