Fred Stonehouse - Journal Sentinel - December 2015

With incredible skill, Fred Stonehouse embraces the weird

The title of Stonehouse's retrospective at the Museum of Wisconsin Art, "The Promise of Distant Things," describes the mystery of viewing these paintings perfectly. We can't comprehend everything the artist conjures, but he is assuring us that this knowledge isn't that far away, is perhaps tucked away in some bizarre nook of the work.

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Fred Stonehouse on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee Sep 2015

A black bear is suspended over a waterfall and inky tears are falling from his eyes, from his body, running down his chest and off of his clawed toes.

A demonic bat creature soars through moss-draped trees, his nostrils flared and his nub teeth bared.

A bearded man is chest-deep in a thick marsh, his lips wrapped around the body of a fish, tears of green sliding down the side of his head.

These are paintings of disturbing images that are disturbingly relevant to your life. This is the art of Fred Stonehouse.

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Secrets seen: John Wilde’s private collection at MOWA - 2015

The night is coming on in “Eventide at the Duchess’s.” The sky glows orange with an apocalyptic burn, familiar in the paintings of artist John Wilde (1919–2006). The sunset bathes a wild bunch of cavorting bodies. Some couples embrace and others face off, while in other vignettes single figures dot the improbable landscape. A woman lounges on a gigantic leaf as another balances on a beach ball floating in water, or on a head sticking up from the ground. In the distance, with striking nonchalance, is the painter who busies himself working at his easel.

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