Rhonda Gates’ paintings strike a delicate balance between the suggestion of spatial depth and the flatness of surface. Simplified representations of natural forms serve as environmental cues, furthering the tension between surface and space.

Gates spent her formative years between rural southwest Michigan and a small town in northwestern Missouri. She went on to complete her master’s degree before moving to the Chicago area.

She exhibits her work through the U.S. and is included in important private and corporate collections including the Elmhurst Art Museum (IL) and Swedish American Regional Cancer Center (IL). Gates’ paintings have been the subject of reviews in Art in America, artnet and the Chicago Tribune. Her work has been described as presenting surfaces that are “luscious and juicy,” radiating “a powerful inner light” that beckons the viewer closer.

She currently lives and paints in Rockford, Illinois.