Exhibition Opening (1315 Cherry Street)
Friday, 2 March 2007, 5-7 p.m.

Reception, Party, and Book Launch at
Reading Terminal Market (12th and Arch Streets)
Friday, 2 March 2007, 7-9 p.m.
Suggested donation at the door.

The Fabric Workshop and Museum (FWM) is pleased to present Will Stokes Jr., a retrospective exhibition spanning the self-taught artist's thirty year history with FWM. The exhibition features a selection of Stokes' dynamic figurative silk screen prints, paintings, drawings, and repeat yardage. On Friday, March 2, join us for a tour of the exhibition followed by a party and book launch for the accompanying publication, which includes essays by Marion Boulton Stroud, Founder/Artistic Director, The Fabric Workshop and Museum, John Ollman, Director, Fleisher/Ollman Gallery, Lonnie Graham, Professor of Visual and Integrative Arts, Pennsylvania State University, and Judith E. Stein, Ph.D.

On March 2, the tour begins at 5 p.m. at 1315 Cherry Street. Afterwards, join us for a stroll if the weather permits, or a trip via mini van, to 1222 Arch Street to view our Phlower Power window display created by Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates and Michael Wommack for the upcoming Philadelphia Flower Show. Also on view in the 1222 Arch Street windows is Virgil Marti's Bullies and a FWM shop display. Then, at 7 p.m., join us for a party and book launch celebrating Stokes at Reading Terminal Market (12th and Arch Streets), hosted by the FWM Board and The Friends of Will Stokes Jr. Joining in the celebration are other members of our 1315 Cherry Street arts building: the Asian Arts Initiative and Vox Populi. The exhibition will remain on view through March 2007.

Will Stokes Jr. Hidden (detail), 1979. Hand screenprint, pigment on cotton. 50 inch wide repeat yardage. Printed at The Fabric Workshop. Collection of The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, PA. Phot; Will Brown.

Will Stokes Jr. has been with The Fabric Workshop and Museum since its inception in 1977 and has maintained a small studio space at FWM for the last thirty years. FWM's Founding Director/Artistic Director, Marion Boulton Stroud, discovered Stokes' talent when he was still in high school, and she continues to support his artistic career and nurture his talent with the help of many other mentors and friends. Stokes is often described as a "self-taught" or "outsider" artist. He is an accurate observer of humanity with a brilliant sense of color, and his work infused with a distinctive combination of idealism, wry humor, sensitivity, and attention to detail. The exhibition, Will Stokes Jr., and accompanying publication, present Stokes' work chronologically starting with his work as a student at Prints in Progress in the 1970s, where, for the most part, he created simple prints of figures in indoor settings. When he started as an apprentice at FWM, Stokes' work became more complex. His work of the late 1970s and 80s, is characterized by fantastic landscapes filled with strange vegetation and populated by human nudes and imaginary creatures. These densely patterned paintings and silk screen yardages, including Hidden (1980) and People (1979), are enlivened by Stokes' use of bright colors and crayon textures, as well as by his energetic drawing style. During these formative years, Stokes' figures remained largely anonymous, more an integral part of the landscape than recognizable individuals.

Slowly Stokes' work moved towards portraiture again and in the 1980s he started an ongoing series of portraits and self-portraits he calls "Peoples Working," which includes numerous images of FWM studio staff. While in residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts in 1993 and later while attending Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, in Skowhegan, Maine (1996), Stokes developed his skills as a portraitist further, creating elaborate tableaus of fellow artists into which he often inserted an image of himself as an artist/documenter shown drawing or photographing the scene. Although Stokes has worked with a variety of subject matter - African animals roaming the plains, prehistoric pterodactyls, flying birds, and three-dimensional stuffed animals - portraiture remains a dominant theme. In his current series of group portraits, Stokes, inspired by television and magazines, paints celebrities interacting with one another in unexpected combinations. The individuals portrayed include pop culture icons and historical figures ranging from Michael Jackson (also the name of Stokes' pet turtle), to Anna Nicole Smith to Booker T. Washington.

	Will Stokes Jr. working in the studio, 1992.

About the Artist Will Stokes Jr. was born in Philadelphia, PA in 1955. He was introduced to printmaking at Prints in Progress where he met Marion Boulton Stroud. When Stroud founded The Fabric Workshop and Museum in 1977, Stokes was the first High School Apprentice and he has continued to maintain a studio at FWM ever since. Encouraged by Stroud, Stokes studied painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) and later at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Skowhegan, ME (1996). He has also participated in several artist residencies. In 1998, the Printmaking Workshop sponsored his print residency at the Mohammed Kahlil Studio, New York, NY. He also did a residency at Headlands Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA (1993) and at The Printmaking Workshop, New York, NY (1988). Stokes had several one-person exhibitions in Philadelphia at the Esther M. Klein Art Gallery (1991), FWM (1986), the Janet Fleisher Gallery (1980), and at The Painted Bride Art Center (1979), as well as outside the city at the Haynes Art Center Glass Gallery, Chapel Hill, North Carolina (1990). His work has also been included in numerous group exhibitions including Material World - From Lichtenstein to Viola: 25 Years of the FWM, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia (2002), Verso, guest curated by Nancy Spector, FWM (1997), and Pattern in Print: Artists Celebrate Cloth, United States Information Agency, touring exhibition (1991-93). His work is also in numerous private collections including that of Marion Boulton Stroud, Anne d'Harnoncourt, Eudora Moore, John and Ann Ollman, Charles and Noelle Fahlen, Janet Fleisher, Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz, Ted and Barbara Aronson, Ann Percy Stroud, Dr. and Mrs. William Wolgin. Stokes currently lives in Baltimore, but regularly commutes to The Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia.

A variety of Will Stokes Jr.'s original works, handmade jewelry, silk scarves, canvas bags, stuffed animals, and silk screen yardage is available through the FWM Shop. For more information, please contact Tracey Blackman, Museum Shop Manager, tracey@fabricworkshopandmuseum.org, at 215.568.1111.

The Fabric Workshop and Museum (FWM) is the only museum of its kind, offering internationally renowned artists the resources to create new work in experimental materials. Artists come from all media-including sculpture, installation, video, painting, ceramics, and architecture-and use FWM's facilities and technical expertise to create works of art that they could not create on their own. Research, construction, and fabrication occur on-site in studios that are open to the public, providing visitors with the opportunity to see works of art from conception to completion. FWM's permanent collections include not only complete works of art, but also material research, samples, prototypes, and photography and video of artists making and speaking about their work. Access to the creative process provides visitors with a point of entry into understanding challenging works of contemporary art. FWM offers an unparalleled experience to the most significant artists of our time, students, and the general public.

FWM Exhibitions and Programs Admission: $3 for Adults, Children under 12 and FWM Members for Free. Group tours available by appointment.
Hours: Mon.–Fri. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sat.–Sun., 12 noon to 4 p.m.

The programs of The Fabric Workshop and Museum are supported by The Pew Charitable Trusts; The Judith Rothschild Foundation; Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency; National Endowment for the Arts; Miller-Plummer Foundation; LLWW Foundation; U. S. Institute of Museum and Library Services; Nimoy Foundation; The Arcadia Foundation; Claneil Foundation; Agnes Gund and Daniel Shapiro; Independence Foundation; The Philadelphia Cultural Fund; E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation; Stockton Rush Bartol Foundation; Dolfinger-McMahon Foundation; The Henry Luce Foundation matching gifts program; The Barra Foundation; LEF Foundation; Louis N. Cassett Foundation; Quaker Chemical Foundation; and the Board of Directors and members of The Fabric Workshop and Museum.

For more information, please contact Jeffrey Bussman, Assistant to the Directors, at 215-561-8888 ext. 229 jeff@fabricworkshopandmuseum.org. For general information, call 215-561-8888.

Threads of History: The Fabric Workshop and Museum 1977—2008

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