First Friday Artist Talks: New Dimensions
Schedule
Fri Mar 06 2026 at 05:00 pm to 08:00 pm
UTC-06:00Location
706 West Main Street, Peoria, IL, United States, Illinois 61606 | Peoria, IL
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Join us for artist talks at 5:20pm and 6:30pm at the Follow Your Arts Gallery (706 West Main St., Peoria, IL) featuring artist Alan Atkins about his new exhibition: New Dimensions. Doors will be open 5-8pm. Light snacks and beverages will be available.ABOUT NEW DIMENSIONS:
New Dimensions explores the idea of portals as both visual and psychological spaces within the work. Through collage, mirrored imagery, and figures confronting their own reflections, Alan Atkins constructs scenes that suggest moments of transition—thresholds between interior and exterior worlds, reality and imagination, presence and possibility.
The subjects in these works are melanated people whose cultural identity is central to the imagery. Hair functions as a powerful visual and cultural language throughout the exhibition, with textured styles such as braids, locs, and twists serving as markers of history, care, resistance, and self-definition. These hairstyles are not decorative elements, but intentional symbols that assert identity and visibility within spaces that have historically limited or excluded them.
Set within surreal, dreamlike environments, the figures inhabit bright, layered worlds shaped by vivid color, flowers, and reflective surfaces. Mirrors act as tools of self-confrontation and transformation, while collage allows multiple realities and identities to exist simultaneously within a single composition. Escapist aesthetics create spaces of refuge and possibility, offering alternative dimensions where self-recognition and cultural affirmation can unfold.
In New Dimensions, each work becomes a portal—an invitation to enter imagined spaces where cultural identity, self-reflection, and transformation converge, and where melanated bodies are centered, celebrated, and reimagined.
ARTIST BIO: Alan Atkins is a Birmingham, Alabama–born artist and illustrator based in Peoria, Illinois. He is an Art Coordinator at EP!C, teaching art to individuals with developmental disabilities and supporting the sale of their work. His practice uses markers, posters, and cardboard to channel protest art and punk DIY aesthetics while celebrating the diversity of Black hairstyles and melanated identities. He earned his MFA from Illinois State University in 2024.
This exhibition is part of the continued growth of Follow Your Arts Gallery, made possible through the care and leadership of our Gallery Team, chaired by Harry Sidebotham, whose steady commitment helps ensure the gallery remains a welcoming, trusted space for artists and audiences, allowing emerging artists to explore and grow.
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Where is it happening?
706 West Main Street, Peoria, IL, United States, Illinois 61606Event Location & Nearby Stays:
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