Wisconsin artis will show work at Abode

A new exhibit, "Lois Ireland Zwettler: A View into a Life: Intimate Works of a Wisconsin Legend," can be seen Aug. 13 to Sept. 15 at Abode Gallery in downtown Stockholm.

The artist will be present for a public reception from 3 to 5 p.m. Aug. 14 at the gallery, N2030 Spring St.

Lois Ireland was discovered in a steakhouse by American scene painter John Steuart Curry when he was the University of Wisconsin-Madison's first artist-in-residence in 1936. She was the star pupil of the newly formed Wisconsin Rural Art Program.

"From the start, her style possessed a kind of freshness typically associated with folk and naïve art - a visual simplicity," according to an Abode press release.

Curry became her mentor. She became a Wisconsin landscape painter, learned lithography from Wisconsin printmaker Alfred Sessler, then went on to study painting in New York before returning to Wisconsin - all by age 24.

In the 1950s she married, became a mother and turned away from her art for about 20 years.

Zwettler's early work depicting the world she knew as a teenager and as a young woman living in rural Wisconsin was exhibited at Abode in 2007-08. The new exhibit will be a collection of scenes from her current life.

"The new works reflect her past work but capture a very intimate glimpse into the life of this living treasure," Abode's press release said. For more information, contact the store at 715-442-2266.

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