Chris Holbrook and I met in high school and we became friends and bonded over the fact that both of us could draw. I wrote about our relationship last year while posting about a retrospective showing of his art at Bradley and you can read that post by clicking here: Christopher Holbrook: His Own Private Circus.
Chris is probably the most true and prolific artist I’ve ever known. He was also a teacher and spent most of his life creating art. He died in the summer of 2018, but his art will live on forever. Proof of that is a show that’s happening in the Preston Jackson Gallery titled: Christopher Holbrook: Unique Impressions.
This show features his collagraphic artwork and it’s on display until February 21, so you still have a couple days to stop by and check it out.
Last Saturday, his partner, Susanne Nestory gave a gallery talk at the space and below are photos from the exhibit and the gallery talk.
Here we are at the Contemporary Art Center on Water Street in beautiful downtown Peoria. Inside is a schedule of the happenings here including the Christopher Holbrook art exhibition.
We’ll take the elevator up…
And here we are, I see a familiar face over there adjusting the art on the walls…It’s Susanne Nestory, who I met last year at Chris’ show at Bradley.
Susanne is Chris’ partner and she’s curating this show and will be giving the gallery talk about this exhibit and Chris’ life and artwork.
I came early to take some photos and she told me to feel free to wander around and take pictures until other people arrive, so let’s take some photos!
This is the Preston Jackson Gallery, named after another famous Peoria artist.
As I mentioned earlier, this display of Chris’ collagraphic artwork is on display till this Friday, so you still have a chance to come and enjoy it in the gallery.
Here’s some of Chris’ artwork framed and hanging on the walls of the gallery. Such beautiful artwork!
More art is displayed on the table of this bar in the gallery.
A real treat for me was that on this day, Susanne took a bunch of Chris’ sketch pads and put them out on display for everyone to take a look at.
I really enjoyed thumbing through these. It took me back to the days in high school when Chris and I would hang out and draw together.
As I mentioned in my post a year ago, the only other person I ever sat and drew pictures with was my brother Jim. Drawing together creates a real bond and looking at these sketch pads brought back many memories of sitting and drawing with Chris back in high school.
This was also a glimpse into Chris’ personal thoughts as there’s a lot of writing in the sketch pads.
Chris had a fertile and inventive mind and imagination that was always going a million different directions all at once and these sketch pads reflect his unique outlook on life. I really enjoyed looking at them.
Other people have started arriving for the gallery talk and here they are admiring the artwork on the walls and on the tables.
Susanne gave a wonderful talk about Chris and his art and his unique perspective on life.
Chris is no longer here, but I’m happy that his art lives on and I want to thank Susanne for this wonderful gallery talk and art exhibition.
Self portrait of Christopher Holbrook. Glad I got to know you Chris and thanks for the friendship and your beautiful artwork.
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Christopher Holbrook: Unique Impressions
Contemporary Art Center (Exhibition runs until February 21st)
305 SW Water Street
Peoria
309-674-6822
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Related Post: Christopher Holbrook: His Own Private Circus.