Opening Reception with artist-led tour on Saturday, November 14, 2026 from 3-6 p.m. CT
The New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art is pleased to present Coleman Stevenson: Inhabited, on view November 7 - December 19, 2026. Developed over the course of two years and delving into the process of historic home renovation, works on view in the exhibition are inspired by architectural fragments, seasonal changes, and spirits of place and time. Working with scraps and artifacts found in attics, basements, and even inside of walls, Stevenson has documented the often uncanny process of making an old house into a new home. She interprets her experiences via mark-making, primarily through the mediums of print, illustration, abstract painting, and assemblage, coalescing these works using materials collected from the house and the land.
Alchemical processes permeate the artwork on view, with inks created directly from objects sourced on the artist’s property used in many of her paintings. Stevenson follows the natural unfurling of these processes, as various layers peel away and new layers accumulate through shifting seasons. A central theme throughout the range of artwork on view is Stevenson’s focus on uncovering lost histories while grappling with what it means to be the custodian of other people’s stories.
The house that inspired Inhabited, located in Mount Carmel, Illinois, was built in 1920 and was the home of three generations of one family before Stevenson took it over. In the years before this, the house had faced neglect that weighed heavily upon the future of the building. Present-day renovations have consisted of urgent repair work, restoring original features that had been stripped out, and liberating spaces from the piles of trash and invasive overgrowth left behind. Despite the ongoing labor required to restore the home, Stevenson describes an inexplicable pull towards the house and its surroundings, and cites a series of uncanny occurrences that began to amass even before she officially moved in. It was as if she belonged there, and the work for this show has been part of the process of figuring out why. Stevenson says of her process, “There is something incredibly intimate about seeing the insides of a house’s walls, about understanding how door frames are constructed, and learning where your pipes travel and connect as they supply and remove. Knowing this home on such a level is a spiritual thing for me now. The materials are alive and speak; I live with them as I do the organic beings that also make this yard their home. The seasons themselves are alive and communicating. And the broken scraps of toys, pieces of clothing, and ephemera left behind by other owners also speak to me, asking to be saved from the trash heap of unknown history. All this was the motivation for my work in Inhabited. I wanted to communicate what I had found here – the strange and wonderful experience of this place’s recovery as it came back to life.”
Stevenson is curating a separate local artists' small works show in BG Projects on view for the duration of 'Inhabited': please see BG Projects' web page for more information, including on an artists' reception taking place Saturday, December 5th 2026.
About the artist
Artist and writer Coleman Stevenson is the author of three collections of poems (Light Sleeper, Breakfast, and The Accidental Rarefication of Pattern #5609), and several books about the Tarot including The Dark Exact Tarot Guide and a series of cartomantic spread collections. Her writing has appeared in a variety of literary journals, anthologies, and websites. In addition to her work as a designer of tarot and oracle decks through her company The Dark Exact, her fine art work, exhibited in galleries around the US, focuses on the intersections between image and text. She has been a guest curator for various gallery spaces and has taught poetry, tarot, design theory, and cultural studies for many educational and community organizations across the country, as well as online. Originally from Birmingham, AL, she now lives in Mount Carmel, Illinois. Learn more about her work: colemanstevenson.com @darkexact on IG
Lead image: Detail, House Ink (Rooms) by Coleman Stevenson
New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art at University of Southern Indiana promotes discourse about and access to contemporary art in the southern Indiana region. New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art is a proud outreach partner of the University of Southern Indiana
The gallery is grateful for the continued support of the Efroymson Family Fund for ensuring continuation of our exhibitions and programming, with additional funding provided for arts educational activities by funds administered from the Indiana Arts Commission, which receives support from the State of Indiana and the National Endowment for the Arts.s.
