April 15 – May 10
Reception: Friday, May 3, 6-9pm
Location: Apex Gallery, Tandem Press, 1743 Commercial Ave, Madison, WI
Tandem Press is pleased to host RETAINING WALLS, a Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition by Devon Stackonis, University of Wisconsin-Madison MFA Candidate and 2023-2024 Tandem Press Curatorial Project Assistant. In RETAINING WALLS, Stackonis presents an artist book installation rooted in ancestral lineage, resource extraction, and inhabitation of the Pennsylvania Coal Region. Echoing the form of 19th-century dental manuscripts, this bound series of etchings addresses the lasting psychological, health, environmental, and socioeconomic impacts of an obsolete industry.
Devon Stackonis is a visual artist and printmaker specializing in mezzotint and intaglio processes. Stackonis’ current body of work serves as a personal reflection of the mountainous coal regions of Eastern Pennsylvania where she grew up and the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of extractive industry. The inhabitants and the landscape never truly recovered from this industrial past, and she finds this to be compelling grounds for her creative practice. She received her BFA from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania in 2018 and worked as Assistant in Printmaking at Bucknell University from 2018-2020. Her work is held in the Kohler Art Library Artist Book Collection at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, The National Library and Archives of Québec, and Special Collections at the University of Washington Libraries, Seattle. Since 2021, Stackonis has been pursuing her MFA in Printmaking at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and is currently the Curatorial Project Assistant at Tandem Press.
This exhibition is supported by the Anonymous Fund.