The University of Illinois Springfield Visual Arts Gallery is proud to present “L’Éphémère,” an exhibition of recent paintings by celebrated Illinois artist Rosalyn Schwartz. The exhibition opens Aug. 25 and runs through Oct. 2, 2025. A public reception will take place from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Sept. 4 at the UIS Visual Arts Gallery. Admission is free and all are welcome to attend.

In conjunction with the exhibition, the UIS Visual Arts Gallery will host a conversation featuring Schwartz in dialogue with Allison Lacher, director of the Visual Arts Gallery, and Robert Sill, director of collections and research at the Illinois State Museum. Together, they will discuss themes within “L’Éphémère” as well as Schwartz’s broader practice and how artistic practices can reflect and challenge the complexities of the present moment. The event will take place at 3 p.m. Sept. 19 in the UIS Visual Arts Gallery. Admission is free and the event is open to all.

French for “the ephemeral” or “the fleeting,” “L’Éphémère” presents a series of paintings that hover between presence and absence. Schwartz writes that her recent work reflects “both the tumultuousness and uncertainty of world affairs, as well as the beauty and complexity of contemporary life.” She works with urgency and intuition, moving freely between subjects and embracing unpredictability in her materials and process.

“The speed and immediacy of working this way is essential,” Schwartz said. “My desire is to completely accept the will of the subconscious while working expediently as a way to question the burden of art history and the existential weight of the current political climate.”

Though grounded in the physicality of paint, these works offer more than a visual experience. They suggest a kind of emotional dwelling. Pattern, gesture and color converge in ways that evoke memory, interiority and the edge of recognition. Schwartz’s background, shaped by her childhood as the daughter of an interior decorator, resonates through her paintings. These influences are transformed into something more enigmatic, open-ended and responsive to change.

“L’Éphémère” is a meditation on transience. These paintings ask viewers to pause and reflect on the shifting nature of beauty and perception. In a time when so much feels uncertain, Schwartz’s paintings offer a quiet, powerful and beautiful space for reflection.

Schwartz has been exhibiting her work for more than 40 years. She has received numerous grants, fellowships and awards, including a NEA Fellowship, a Bush Foundation Fellowship and a McKnight Foundation Fellowship. She has an extensive exhibition record and has shown her work across the United States and abroad. Her work is in a number of both public and private collections, including the Illinois State Museum, the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio and General Mills Corporation World Headquarters in Minneapolis.

Schwartz's work has been reviewed in Artforum, Art in America, The New York Times  Bad at Sports and The Community Word, among other publications. She received her Bachelor of Arts in painting from Washington University in St. Louis and a Master of Fine Arts in painting from Fontbonne University in St. Louis. She has served on the faculty of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and West Virginia University in Morgantown. Most recently, she taught at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where she was a professor in the painting department. In 2008, she took an early retirement to focus full-time on her studio work and exhibitions.

The UIS Visual Arts Gallery acknowledges support from the Illinois Arts Council Agency. Located in the Health and Science Building (HSB 201) on the UIS campus, the gallery is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday. For more information about this and future exhibitions, visit UIS Visual Arts Gallery website.