Three of a Kind at Oak Park Art League

The Oak Park Art League will premiere a new exhibit on Friday from 7-9 p.m. The reception is free and open to the public, and will feature live music, food, beverages and wine.

The “3 Person Exhibition” runs through August 5. Artists Deborah Peacock Stoklosa, Greg Johannes and LuEllen Joy Giera were selected through a lottery for this annual group show.

Ken Reif, president of the Art League’s Board of Directors, said there are about 30 artist-members in the lottery pool.

“This is part of our 90th year celebration,” he said. “It’s a great group of people. Everyone is very friendly and welcoming, so people should come see some fantastic art and hear some great music.”

Reif said the Art League, located in the E.E. Roberts building at 720 Chicago Ave., has about 250 members. 

The exhibit will also be viewable during normal gallery hours, from 1-5 p.m. Monday to Friday and 1-4 p.m. Saturday, or by appointment.

Giera said the group discussed what they wanted to display and decided on a theme of “Black and White and Red All Over.”

“I have a series of 13 black and white collages, and that’s what I submitted for my part of the show as well as some additional black and white artwork," she said. 

Giera had 13 other collage pieces exhibited at the Annual International Collage Exchange in April in New Zealand. In addition, she also curates a monthly international postcard exchange.

Johannes’ work in the exhibition features numerous illustrations. Working as a freelancer since 1993, he's had illustrations used for print campaigns for big companies like Budweiser, McDonalds and Corona. For eight years he was the official illustrator of the Geico gecko. His latest work focuses more on fine art.

Stoklosa is also a collage artist, but focuses on “green” art. She takes discarded items and molds them into something different, such as a piece of jewelry.

Giera said the exhibit should make for fun viewing for anyone who stops by.

“This has been kind of exciting,” she said. “It was a nice surprise because we didn’t know about it before we were picked.”