School of Art & Design Speaker Series

The University of Wisconsin–Stout School of Art and Design proudly welcomes renowned Wisconsin painter and educator Fred Stonehouse to campus for an evening exploring his decades-long career, distinctive artistic vision, and studio practice.

Stonehouse has established an international reputation for his evocative, dream-infused visual language that blurs the boundaries between contemporary neo-surrealism, vernacular folk art, pop culture, and classical devotional paintings. Working in layered acrylic, ink, and collage, his narrative-driven panels and canvases feature an unmistakable lexicon of enigmatic motifs: weeping figures, antlered and hybrid animals, shadowed silhouettes, and hand-lettered text that reads like fragmented poetry, forgotten adages, or half-remembered confessions.

His work balances melancholy with dry wit, pairing the uncanny and bizarre with profound human empathy. Rather than presenting straightforward narratives, Stonehouse invites viewers into open-ended psychological spaces where myth, personal memory, and the collective subconscious intertwine.

Fred Stonehouse (b. 1960) is an acclaimed American painter and educator widely regarded as one of Wisconsin’s most distinctive contemporary visual artists. Known for his idiosyncratic brand of neo-surrealism and magic realism, Stonehouse builds uncanny, emotionally charged dreamscapes populated by weeping hybrids, antlered creatures, and enigmatic characters often paired with cryptic, hand-lettered text.

Born and raised in Milwaukee, Stonehouse earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee in 1982. He mounted his first major solo exhibition in Chicago in 1983 and quickly gained national and international recognition. Over a career spanning more than four decades, he has exhibited extensively across the United States—regularly showing in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago—as well as internationally in Mexico, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom.

Stonehouse’s visual lexicon draws from an eclectic convergence of influences: Mexican folk art and devotional retablo paintings, Northern Renaissance portraiture, Catholic iconography, sideshow banners, vintage illustration, and the direct, untutored honesty of outsider and vernacular art. His work delicately balances melancholy and dark humor, using dream logic to explore human vulnerability, anxiety, and the subconscious mind.

His honors include an Arts Midwest Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, an Individual Artist Grant from the Joan Mitchell Foundation, and the Wisconsin Institute of Visual Arts Lifetime Achievement Award. Stonehouse’s paintings and prints are held in prominent public and private collections, including the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMoCA), the San Jose Museum of Art, the Tacoma Art Museum, and the Spencer Museum of Art.

Stonehouse serves as a Professor of Painting and Drawing at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he has mentored emerging artists for years while maintaining an active studio practice in Wisconsin.

CEO, Modern Edge Inc.

Charles Austen Angell is the founder of Modern Edge Inc., a strategic industrial design firm based in Portland, OR. Modern Edge is known for original work in the fields of health and wellness, mobility, home products and experiential environments. As president and CEO, Angell oversees all Modern Edge projects, from client contact through human factors research, design refinement, product and program management, market positioning and customer experience. He maintains a special focus on the role of culture, politics and geography in shaping human needs and meeting those needs with responsive product design. He is passionate about designing products that transcend cultural boundaries to enhance the shared human experience.

Inducted into Academy of Fellows: 2015
IDSA Chair Emeritus 2015-2016
IDSA Chair 2013- 2015
IDSA New Website Committee 2014
IDSA Search Committee for the Executive Director
IDSA Chair-Elect 2012-2013
Chair, IDSA International Design Conference, Boston: “THE FUTURE IS…”
IDSA Executive Vice President 2003-2004
IDSA Midwest District Vice President 1999-2000
IDSA District Conference Chair St Louis MO 2000
IDSA District Conference Chair Madison WI 1999
IDSA Wisconsin Chapter Chair 1998
IDSA Pod Moderator 2005-2008
INNOVATION Magazine: Guest Editor
Design Foundation: Original Trustee / Formation Team 2001-2002