Tory Folliard Gallery is pleased to present The Book of Imaginary Beings, a new exhibition of paintings by Fred Stonehouse.

The exhibition takes its title and inspiration from Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges’s celebrated Book of Imaginary Beings, first published in 1957. Borges’s book brings together an extraordinary collection of mythical creatures drawn from folklore, legends, and literature from around the world, described with his characteristic wit and imagination.

Inspired by Borges’s fantastical bestiary, Stonehouse reimagines these creatures through his own distinctive visual language. Blending mythology, memory, humor, and surrealism, he creates strange and compelling characters that seem at once ancient, contemporary, and otherworldly. As in much of Stonehouse’s work, the extraordinary exists comfortably alongside the everyday, creating a world that is strange, mysterious, and sometimes humorous.

A major figure in Wisconsin art, Stonehouse has exhibited widely throughout the United States and internationally and has been the subject of more than fifteen museum exhibitions, including retrospectives at the Museum of Wisconsin Art and the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. His work is held in numerous public collections, including the Milwaukee Art Museum, Museum of Wisconsin Art, San Jose Museum of Art, Chazen Museum of Art, Tacoma Art Museum, and Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, among others.

Tory Folliard Gallery has represented Fred Stonehouse since 2002.

Paintings

To see more of Fred Stonehouse’s available work, please click HERE