Arts + Literature Laboratory presents Rivering, an exhibition featuring the work of Marilyn Prescott on display from Tuesday, March 3 through Saturday, April 18, 2026 (Reception + Mezzanine Galleries).
An opening reception for the new exhibitions at Arts + Literature Laboratory will be held Friday, March 13, 2026 from 6:00pm to 8:00pm.
In the Rivering Series, Marilyn Prescott explores the lush forest environment surrounding the Fox River in NE Wisconsin. In an exhibit consisting of over 30 paintings and artist’s books, the artist has used her long walks as the springboard for large, heavily textured mixed media paintings. Monotype collage, Oriental papers, silk stripping and other experimental and eccentric media coalesce into abstract paintings that feature luminous, atmospheric backgrounds layered with hints of plants, animals, twigs, ice, snow.
Taking up a challenge originating with Cezanne, Prescott wrestles with colliding perspectives to explore the scrambled rhythms of our perception and memory when applied to the natural world. Visual memories are internalized then recontextualized in the studio to create a concrete artifact of the earlier experience. The resulting works are fractured glimpses seen through the prism of time. Human consciousness thus assumes an equal role in the act of creation.
Rivering
Marilyn Prescott’s current series flows from her long solitary walks and hikes along the Fox River. She describes herself as “the supervisor of accidents”-developing imagery intuitively, by responding to evolving colors, shapes, textures in acrylic paint and mixed media. The artist says of her work, “I don’t make vistas. I don’t want an appreciative distancing. I want you to come close, to get dirt under your nails. I want you to walk along with me; to join me in willful immersion into a natural world that may be time limited." Marilyn Prescott has a BA from California State University at Long Beach, and graduate work at California State University at Fullerton and the University of California at Irvine. She has exhibited nationally and her work is in significant institutional and corporate collections across the US. She moved to NE Wisconsin in 2023.
PLAN YOUR VISIT
Arts + Literature Laboratory is located at 111 S. Livingston Street #100, Madison, Wisconsin, 53703.
Our galleries are open Tuesday through Friday 10am-5pm and Saturday noon to 5pm, and other programs take place throughout the week. Please check the events calendar and education section for details.