"I am interested in the relationship one has with landscape, in which unity between body and place exists through one’s labor, and what we are asking of the landscape, a negotiation and a system of transaction. This relationship is found throughout the landscape of southeast Louisiana, where a person can feel the weight of history through the relics of former industries. We believe the places we labor are extensions of ourselves, because they remind us of the blood and toil we’ve expended. And when they’re gone, we feel left behind. I position my artwork between reverence and contempt of industry, to show action and consequence, and how the negotiation is never easy. These artworks examine memory and re-creation, specifically how past history shapes the present and future outlook."

Elliott Stokes (B. 1990, New Orleans, LA.) Stokes received his Studio MFA from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign with a concentration in painting, sculpture and new media. His artwork exists within the gray area of necessity and critique of industrial and agricultural processes and how they reflect past histories and infer future trajectories. Positioning his artwork between reverence and contempt of industry, specifically petrochemicals, Stokes uses this tension as a launching point for cultural examination and introspection. He has exhibited nationally, including Zhou B. Arts Center in Chicago, Ogden Museum of Southern Art and Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans. He is currently a member of The Front gallery and collective in New Orleans