CONNEXION
Claire Elizabeth Gallery is pleased to present “Connexion”, a two person exhibition featuring artwork by Lisa Di Stefano & George Marks. Titled for the French word for “connection”, the exhibition highlights the artists’ relationships with the land and communities of South Louisiana. Friends and collaborators for over twenty-five years, Marks and Di Stefano speak a common visual language. Rich greens and blues in each of their compositions, which represent earth and sky, balance more human elements like power lines cutting across the viewer’s sight line. By highlighting visual markers that we all see and interact with on a daily basis, they aim to create a common thread or human connection in a time where many communities can feel divided.
The exhibition will be on view from Oct. 30th to Dec. 8th with an opening reception on Sunday, Nov. 16th from 2-5pm. For inquiries or commission requests, please, email us at claire@claireelizabethgallery.com.
Artwork: Lisa Di Stefano, “Louisiana Landscape, I”, acrylic on panel, 40 x 40 in.
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George Marks
*Note: Marks is from a multigenerational Francophone family and has been a tireless advocate for the preservation of Cajun & Creole French dialects in Louisiana. To honor his ancestral roots, the titles of most of his compositions are given in French.
EntreLesFils*
George Marks
Note - This work was originally presented in the exhibition “Kont Kréyol-ye,” At the West Baton Rouge Museum. Rooted in the storytelling traditions celebrated in the book Kont Kréyol-ye, Karankro Dévine extends the Creole narrative into the visual realm. The title, written in Louisiana Creole, translates as “Carencro foresees” or “Carencro knows“.
In this work, George Marks reimagines the landscape of Carencro as both witness and oracle a terrain that remembers, intuits, and speaks in the language of line and light. Fractured marks and intersecting pathways drift across the surface, suggesting communication lines or stories half-remembered, interrupted, and reconnected by the open sky above.
Like the Creole folktales gathered in Kont Kréyol-ye, Karankro Dévine resists linear storytelling. It offers instead a landscape of intuition — where memory, history, and imagination coexist. The piece asks viewers to see Louisiana’s land not as backdrop, but as a living archive of voices and visions, both ancestral and ongoing.
From the West Baton Rouge Museum’s exhibition “Kont Kréyol-ye” to its current presentation at Claire Elizabeth Gallery, Karankro Dévine continues to explore how place and language interlace a dialogue between earth and sky, art and story, past and possibility.
Mixed media & mylar mounted on panel, 40 x 30 in., panel; 42 x 32 in., framed, $4200
KarankroDévine
Lisa Di Stefano
LouisianaLandscape,II
Acrylic on paper, 28 x 20 in., image; 37.5 x 30.5 in., framed. $2550 May be sold unframed upon request.
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George Marks
PaysageRecomposé,#1&2
Mixed media & mylar collage on paper, each 20 x 16 in., sheet; each 21.25 x 17.25 in., framed. $925/each framed or $700/each unframed.
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Louisiana Landscape, #1, 2, & 3
Acrylic on panel
1) 12 x 12 in., panel ; 13 x 13 in., framed, $1225/framed 2) 8 x 10 in., panel, SOLD 3) 8 x 8 in., panel, SOLD
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George Marks
LignesPerdues
Mixed media on mylar on panel, 12 x 12 x 6 in., $1400
This work comes with a deep cradle and can be mounted on the wall or displayed on a pedestal.
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George Marks
George Marks is a contemporary artist living and working in Arnaudville, LA. Marks attended Louisiana State University, where he received a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Art. Marks’ work includes a collection of textures, colors and surfaces that he has acquired through his past and present experiences. Growing up in Arnaudville, an area known for its rich heritage and connection to the land, Marks acquired an innate appreciation for the natural world.
Many of his works include the subtle blues and greens of the land, although, he is not tied to one palette, but rather allows his memories and materials to drive the creative process. The end product of Marks’ works is one of beauty, subtlety and serenity. Marks’ paintings are included in a number of corporate and private collections nationally and internationally including Iberia Bank, Louisiana; Piedmont Hospital, Georgia; and Duckworth Realty, Mississippi. Marks has exhibited throughout Louisiana, Atlanta, Chicago, San Francisco Los Angeles and France. His works have been featured in a number of art and design publications including New Orleans Homes & Lifestyles, House Beautiful, and Architectural Digest
In addition to creating his own works of art, Marks has been a seminal member of the creative community of Louisiana. He served as a member of the State Arts Council and founded NUNU Arts and Culture Collective, a meeting place for visual artists, writers, musicians and cultural ambassadors from the local community of Arnaudville and surrounding region.
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Lisa Di Stefano
Lisa Di Stefano is a contemporary artist living and working in South Louisiana. Di Stefano’s work reflects the beauty of subtlety and the harmony of color. Although she is most well known for her hazy Louisiana landscapes with a palette of soft blues and greens, her abstract work often takes on a wider range of hues and diversity of brushstroke. This free-form style of abstraction allows Di Stefano to tap into a more personal perspective and allows the viewer to experience a more in-depth look into her process and creative voice.
Di Stefano grew up in Baton Rouge, LA, and attended Louisiana State University earning a BFA in painting and drawing. Upon completion of her BFA, Di Stefano worked in visual merchandising, which helped hone her skills in spatial composition and her unique use of color and design. Di Stefano’s paintings are included in a number of corporate and private collections nationally and internationally including the Bellagio Hotel, Las Vegas, NV; Ritz Carlton Hotel, Miami, FL; and Iberia Bank, Baton Rouge & New Orleans, LA. Di Stefano has exhibited throughout Louisiana, Dallas, San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles and the Brittany region of France. Her work can be seen in a number of national publications including Traditional Home, Better Homes and Gardens, and Veranda
Di Stefano was a founding member of Studio 801, an artist cooperative in Baton Rouge, and is an artist-in-residence and Membership Director of the NUNU Arts and Culture Collective in Arnaudville, LA. Di Stefano also participated in Degrees of Separation, a two-year interdisciplinary international exchange between visual and literary artists from Louisiana and France.
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