Current Art Gallery Exhibits
Galleries One and Two
Perry Pollock
Interplay
January 20 - February 20, 2026
Artist Reception: Wednesday, February 18, 2026
From 3:30 - 4:30 p.m. in Gallery One, A212
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Pollock's Statement
The painted wood constructions in this exhibition focus on the interplay of shape, color and edge. Some works reference objects of childhood play — game boards, blocks or candy — but fundamentally explore visual and tactile qualities within a geometric framework.
My process usually begins with small sketches that generate variations of an idea. I then select those that resonate most strongly and then work through the technical problems required to translate them into physical objects. Gestures, including sanding, fitting, and painting, keep the process alive until the objects achieve a strong presence.
My interest in formalism is rooted in the principle that the whole can be greater than the sum of its parts. When this kind of order is encountered, it can create an experience that disrupts or transcends our usual thought patterns. In these moments, we can let go of our fixed notions and connect more deeply with our capacity for openness and possibility. -
About Perry Pollock
Perry Pollock is a practicing artist and professor of drawing and painting at Harper College in Palatine, Illinois, where he has been a devoted educator since 1990. He received his BFA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1985 and his MFA from Bradley University in 1987.
His work has been exhibited predominantly in the Chicago area at venues including the Beverly Arts Center, Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Loyola University Crown Center Gallery and Rockford University Gallery. In 2024, he had a two-person show at Western Illinois University. His work is included in the Rockford Art Museum collection as well as several private collections.
In addition to exhibiting and teaching, Pollock founded the Harper College Art Exhibition and Visiting Artist Program and was its first curator from 2001 to 2006. He has routinely chaired the Harper College Art Collection Committee, which oversees the college's public art collection. He has two children and lives in Elgin, Illinois, with his wife. For more details about Pollock, visit his website and Instagram page.
Epping Gallery
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Sisul's Statement
I paint naturally occurring scenes from my life to bring clarity and vividness to the moments we quickly pass, depicting the inspiration within our dedication, attention, small desires and acts of service. Intentionally cropped and balanced compositions, along with precise forms and lighting, reflect the subject’s internal landscape. The environment acts as a witness and voice for figures that face away from the viewer.
A new hope, weary dedication, the ruffling discomfort of goodbye, willing commitments, simple pleasure — feelings present in the moment a reference was taken — are distilled into distance, placement and gesture. In domestic, private or public spaces, the relationship between figure and setting may shift: How much are we absorbed by a place that is not our own, and how much of our identity is revealed through the context of our surroundings versus pure self-expression?
My work explores this personal need to understand the value of our physical environments: why open horizons have comforted me and how body language can speak more accurately than words. The Posture of a Place follows this dance between figure and environment. I invite viewers to observe the places that hold their spirit and the power of being entangled with the moment around them. -
About Maria Sisul
Maria Sisul (b. 1998, Wisconsin) is a painter based in Beach Park, Illinois, working primarily with acrylic on wood panel. Raised with the values of a Midwestern farming family and a Croatian immigrant father, her work is rooted in an early awareness of labor, place and the quiet rituals that structure daily life. Her process reflects the restraint and spatial logic of her design training, with measured drawings and careful consideration of how people, objects and spaces relate to one another. She holds a BFA in industrial design from the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, and her painting practice has developed through mentorship, continuing education and self-directed study. Her inspiration recalls a childhood spent on her grandparents’ farm, observing how people tend to their environments and are shaped by them in return. For more details about Sisul, visit her website and Instagram page.
For more information, to request pricing, or to be added to the mailing list for upcoming exhibitions, contact Trevor Power, Art Gallery Curator.