Gallery 924 at the Arts Council will feature Lois Main Templeton in the solo exhibition It’s the Way They Mingle, opening on May 1. Templeton is an iconic figure in the Indianapolis visual arts community with decades of artwork, exhibitions, and collaborations in our city. Her expressive painting style which often incorporates text and gestural black lines has set her apart and made her one of the most revered and beloved contemporary painters of our era.

Fortunately, Lois is also one of the most prolific painters as she works daily either in her downtown Indianapolis studio or in her Maine studio, as she shares time in both states. It is not unusual for her to work on five paintings at once and complete one per day. Lois has artwork in the permanent collections of the Indiana State Museum and the Midwest Museum of American Art. Her work has twice been exhibited at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., and she has published two books, The Studio Book: Finding Your Way and a collaborative project called Who Makes the Sun Rise?, a book for children.

“Having Lois in our gallery will certainly be a highlight for the year. Not only is she one of our Creative Renewal Arts Fellows from the early years of the program in 2001, she has remained a consistent and committed professional artist for the city of Indianapolis and she constantly raises the bar for artists. Amazingly, she continues to prove that another level is always possible. We hope this show will be a homecoming and a reunion for the entire arts community as they join us in welcoming Lois back into an Indianapolis gallery,” said Shannon Linker, Vice President of the Arts Council and Director of Gallery 924.

Born in 1928, Templeton grew up in the rich countryside of Wisconsin, whose marshes and pastures still occasionally crop up in her work. Painting arrived in the 1970s when living near San Francisco. The high horizons and rimrock typical of the West can still be the first thing to climb onto her canvases. She is a graduate of Herron School of Art and Design (1981), a former Herron professor, and teacher of Master Artists with VSA International.