ARTIST TO ARTIST. Internationally acclaimed visual artist and UW-Madison faculty, Fred Stonehouse, will present an artist talk for “Emblem and Epigraph/Curses and Catchphrases” on Oct. 8 in the Furlong Art Gallery of UW-Stout Polytechnic. In this retrospective collection, Stonehouse uses both humor and language throughout his paintings. ("Night King II" by Fred Stonehouse, pictured; acrylic on canvas)

Fred Stonehouse finds it disingenuous to act as an authority figure or to let his status as a professor dictate the relationship he shares with students – or as he likes to call them, “young artists.” 

For the internationally celebrated, neo-surrealist visual artist, these same beliefs continue to animate his practice today much as they did when he, too, was a burgeoning young artist.

“My biggest job, the way I see it, is to put myself in their shoes – not try to get them into my shoes,” Stonehouse, a faculty member at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said.

“The challenge for educators – people who are teaching creative arts – is to see through your students’ eyes,” he continued. “See what they are trying to accomplish … artist to artist, (rather) than academic to student.”

Stonehouse will look to lean into the unexpected when he arrives at the University of Wisconsin-Stout Polytechnic for an artist talk with community members, students and staff on Oct. 8.

Currently on display inside the campus’ Furlong Art Gallery, his featured ten-year retrospective exhibition – “Emblem and Epigraph/Curses and Catchphrases” – collates paintings spanning from 2015 to 2025.

“(MY WORK) exists somewhere between a joke and a prayer.”

Fred Stonehouse

visual artist, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

“I have long been fascinated by how text can work in conjunction with images, not so much to close the loop or limit how a piece is understood, but to suggest a more compelling or complex possible narrative,” Stonehouse shared with Furlong Art Gallery staff.

Fred Stonehouse, featured artist at UW-Stout Polytechnic, pictured above. "The language of my work is interesting," he said. "I've always been interested in language and I secretly write poetry and fiction."

“Another thing that I have been saying about my work for years is that it exists somewhere between a joke and a prayer.”

Creations in “Emblem and Epigraph” strike a chord between meticulous execution and “direct sensibilities” from his upbringing in and around Milwaukee, he said.

The visual vocabulary on display reflects a deeply personal mythology, sacred iconography and biomorphic figures. Landscapes signature to the surrounding Wisconsin Northwoods and marshlands echo through the collection’s backdrops.

“You wouldn’t think of my work as necessarily being landscape driven,” Stonehouse said. “But something about the atmosphere of the landscape in Wisconsin … (it’s) a gentler landscape, more human landscape somehow for me.”

A native of Milwaukee, Stonehouse earned his BFA from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the 1980s; his career launched through an initial exhibition in Chicago, Ill. He has since maintained a recurring presence in New York and Los Angeles arts scenes, with international exposure across venues in Mexico, Amsterdam, Berlin, among others.

Regionally, Stonehouse is in his 20th year of teaching and currently acts as an associate professor of painting and drawing at UW-Madison. His paintings have been displayed in La Crosse, Madison, Milwaukee and now Menomonie.

A free to attend artist reception for “Emblem and Epigraph/Curses and Catchphrases” is slated from 4:30pm-7pm on Oct. 8 at the Furlong Art Gallery in the University of Wisconsin-Stout Polytechnic campus (410 10th Ave. E, Menomonie). Visit fredstonehouseart.com or Stonehouse’s social media page (@fstoney1960) to learn more and view previous painted works.