Flexspace
Outside the Box: Modern and Contemporary Houses in Riverside | September 10 - October 21, 2023
Catalogue Cover by Dan Streeting
Photo by Will Quam
The Riverside Arts Center presents Outside the Box: Modern and Contemporary Houses in Riverside. This FlexSpace exhibition is guest co-curated by Kim Freeark (Riverside homeowner) and Michelangelo Sabatino (Riverside homeowner, architectural historian and preservationist). Through their extensive research and with the participation of Riverside residents, they have enlisted the talents of photographer Will Quam to document modern and contemporary houses in Riverside built from the 1930s to the present. The exhibition highlights histories of the houses and their owners, along with personal stories from the residents. Included in the exhibition are a set of 3-D printed models of a selection of the houses created by architect Andrew Obendorf (Riverside homeowner). A walking tour led by 3rd generation Riversider Bianca Buckzo will be offered featuring some of the homes, and the catalogue designed by Board member Dan Streeting contains the photographs and stories of these homes and their owners.
Exhibition Dates: September 10 – October 21, 2023
Opening Reception: Sunday, September 10, 2023, 3:00 – 6:00 pm
Join us afterwards for a private happy hour across the street at the Quincy Street Distillery.
Gallery Hours: Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays 1:00 – 5:00 pm
Walking Tour: POSTPONED. New date TBD
Publication: Outside the Box: Modern and Contemporary Houses in Riverside will be aailable for purchase at the opening reception and afterwards.
Panel Discussion: Living in a Modern or Contemporary House in Riverside
Wednesday, October 18, 2023. 7:00 - 9:00 pm at the Riverside Public Library.
An informal conversation highlighting contemporary and modern houses in Riverside with co-curators Kim Freeark and Michelangelo Sabatino, photographer Will Quam, Riverside Homeowners and others participating in "Outside The Box", a photography exhibition at the Riverside Arts Center's FlexSpace September 10th - October 21, 2023. In collaboration with the Frederick Law Olmsted Society of Riverside (FLOS).
Guest Co-Curated by Kim Freeark and Michelangelo Sabatino with Photographs by Will Quam
Our Riverside is known for many things: Olmsted’s General Plan, a beautiful Water Tower, stately Victorians, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Tomek House, Coonley Estate, and Playhouse. But what about so many other houses: the contemporary ones, the modern and mid-century ones, the quirky ones, the interesting renovations and re-purposing? The houses whose owners and designers decided to do something different, something ‘outside the box’?
- Kim Freeark
Steel House
Kim Freeark is a retired IT consultant. She moved to Riverside in 2016, when she purchased her parent's home. Kim enjoys gardening, reading, and opining about architecture. She currently serves as Treasurer of two non-profit organizations: the Frederick Law Olmsted Society of Riverside (FLOS) and the Yucatan Environmental Foundation (YEF).
Michelangelo Sabatino is a publicly engaged architectural historian, curator, and preservationist. He is Professor at IIT’s College of Architecture where he directs the PhD program and is the inaugural John Vinci Distinguished Research Fellow. He serves on the Board of Directors of Docomomo US. Sabatino and his partner Serge Ambrose recently restored their late 1930s modern home in Riverside. Their forthcoming book is entitled Modern, Again. The Benda House & Garden in Chicagoland (2024)
Will Quam is an architecture photographer, architecture writer, and researcher and the heart behind Brick of Chicago. He loves bricks. He leads tours about bricks and architecture! You can learn more here. You can check out some of his media appearances, here.
Project team
Andrew Obendorf is an architect and urbanist who has lived in Riverside with his family since 2021. His work has spanned large-scale mixed-use, cultural, residential, retail, healthcare and government buildings throughout the world. His recent local work includes 800 West Fulton in Fulton Market and the urban plan for the 78, a new mixed-use neighborhood in the South Loop. Oberndorf’s approach is rooted in interdisciplinary design and collaboration, with a focus on place, history and climate. His work includes some of the highest performing and sustainable projects in their respective context, and have received a wide array of awards and publication.
Dan Streeting is the founder of Streeting Design, a graphic design studio that focuses on print publications, editorial illustration, and research projects. Dan is also the Art Director of Chicago’s Newcity magazine and a member of the Riverside Arts Center’s board of directors. In previous careers, Dan ran a storefront gallery in Berwyn with his wife Jessica, taught experimental typography and publication design, and played in a synth band in early-2000s Michigan. He holds an MFA in 2D Design from Cranbrook Academy of Art and a BFA from Northern Michigan University.
https://www.streetingdesign.com/
Bianca Buckzo grew up in Riverside, IL, where she was instilled with a deep respect for architecture and its presence in the environment. Her passion for architecture has led to her volunteer work as an interpreter at the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio in Oak Park, educating people from all over the world about the founder of the Prairie School of Architecture. She is a member of the Frederick Law Olmsted Society of Riverside (FLOS) and leads walking tours of Riverside. Buczko is a student at Illinois Institute of Technology studying in the School of Architecture.
Geoffrey Baer is a Chicago-based television personality, actor writer and producer, based at WTTW, Chicago’s PBS television station. His PBS program 10 Towns that Changed America (2016) and WTTW program Chicago’s Western Suburbs: From Prairie Soil to Prairie Style (2008) demonstrate his ongoing interest in what lies beyond Chicago’s famous skyline.
Liz Chilsen is an artist and Executive Director of the Riverside Arts Center (RAC). Her photographic study “Lessons of Place”, is part of a long-term study of place dynamics, immigration, and family, centered in rural and small town places. It is funded in part by Illinois Humanities and the Illinois Arts Council. Major commissions include “Landmarks Illinois, 25 years of Endangered Places in Illinois”, and “Loeb Fellows Park Place Charette” in Birmingham. Chilsen holds an MFA in Photography from Columbia College and a Bachelor of Science in Art from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Project related news
Riverside home up for National Register consideration, by Bob Uphuges, RB Landmark, June 13, 2023
Benda House would be village’s first ‘modern’ design
A Riverside couple has applied to U.S. Park Service to have their home added to the National Register of Historic Places, and after receiving unanimous support from the Riverside Preservation Commission in May the application will be considered for recommendation by the Illinois Historic Sites Advisory Council later this month.
If ultimately recommended for placement on the National Register, the Benda House at 211 Southcote Road, now owned by Michelangelo Sabatino and Serge Ambrose, would be the just fourth Riverside structure so designated.
“For me it was a slam dunk,” said Charles Pipal, chairman of the Riverside Preservation Commission, whose members voted unanimously on May 25 to support the National Register application to the state advisory council. “The application was impeccably researched.” More
Thank you to our exhibition partners!
The Riverside Arts Center gratefully acknowledges Kim Freeark and the Freeark family for their support always, and especially Kim's support of this exhibition.
Catalog and publication design
RAC Kids Exhibition | July 9 - 29, 2023
Bring in one of your children’s masterpieces to have it included in a gallery exhibition!
The Riverside Arts Center is pleased to present the annual RAC Kids’ Show, featuring artwork created by RAC students and children of the Riverside Arts Center’s members and school. This exhibition will be on display in our FlexSpace while our Freeark Gallery + Sculpture Garden will exhibit art by RAC’s members, volunteers, clay studio members, staff, board, and adults enrolled in RAC’s classes or workshops from summer 2022-2023.
Exhibition on view: July 9 – 29, 2023
Opening Reception: Sunday, July 9, 2023, 3:00 – 6:00 PM
Join or renew your membership and be a part of this showcase of amazing artists.
Renew your membership today
Artwork drop off dates:
Thursday, June 29: 1 – 5 PM
Friday, June 30: 1 – 5 PM
Saturday, July 1: 1 – 5 PM
Thursday, July 6: 1 – 5 PM
Download the Drop Off Form here.
Artwork pick up dates:
Thursday, August 3: 1 – 5 PM
Friday, August 4: 1 – 5 PM
Saturday, August 5: 1 – 5 PM
Guidelines:
Current members, volunteers, clay members, children of, and students enrolled in RAC’s classes or workshops from summer 2022-2023 are eligible.
Each artist is invited to submit one piece, no larger than 30" in width.
All hanging art must be framed and/or ready for hanging with wire or sawtooth hanger on back.
3-D work for inside the gallery, can be displayed on one of our pedestals or stand on the floor.
Please fill out the exhibition form and include it with your submission.
RAC reserves the right to reject any submission. Reasons could include but are not limited to excessive size, weight, or fragility (risk of damage to artwork on display).
Questions? Email Gallery Director, Joanne Aono: jaono@riversideartscenter.com
Jesse Howard | Reflection Of A Community As It Is | May 18 - June 24, 2023
The Soul of Urban Life, Charcoal and acrylic paint on paper, 37 x 29 inches
Exhibition Dates: May 18 – June 24, 2023
Opening Reception: Saturday, May 20, 2023, 3:00 – 6:00 pm
Gallery hours: Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays 1:00 – 5:00 pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, June 17, 2023, 2:00 pm
The Riverside Arts Center’s FlexSpace is pleased to present Reflection Of A Community As It Is, an exhibition featuring large-scale drawings by Jesse Howard.
You cannot escape from Jesse Howard’s drawings. The over-sized figures with bold strokes of charcoal outlining exaggerated features and the vibrant washes of acrylic color grab your attention. Who are these people? What is their story? They are all part of Jesse Howard’s community, from the homeless to the church elders, the disenfranchised to the selfie-taking millennials, and the demonstrators to the friends in conversation.
Growing up on the west side of Chicago, the budding artist watched his uncles draw on the kitchen table as he observed how the characters of his neighborhood could come to life on paper. His faces of men, whether they are down on their luck or confident of stature, are drawn with equal respect. The image is absent of a background or setting, allowing the individual to maintain center stage. Inner City Blues is one such portrait of a street person, his dreadlocks wild and his red-lipped mouth agape, with his penetrating blue eyes referencing back to slavery and the master’s assault.
Raised by African American women, Jesse Howard recognized how these strong females were the cornerstones of Black culture, teaching and maintaining the rules, traditions, and opportunities across the generations. The women in the artist’s Crowns series portray the proud female elders of the church, dressed in their Sunday finest topped by lavish headwear. The triptych Moment in Time depicts a woman and man on either side of a young male figure wearing a gas mask as if he’s ready for a protest, his hands rendered as massive nervous protrusions in the foreground. The woman stands with hands on hips, the folds of her belly exposed from her tied-up t-shirt. Her dyed red hair lends to her defiant gaze as the man, a barber, his hair in long braids, folds his arms as his concerned eyes focus on the youth.
Like the late artist Charles White, Jesse Howard depicts his community as “images of dignity” and celebrates who they are. These aren’t Hollywood models but real people shown in real life situations. Howard walks the streets of Chicago and interacts with his subjects, requesting to take photographs of those who touch him visually and emotionally. The young, old, indigent, and well-off are all subjects for Howard’s emotionally charged visualizations of the Black community and the roles they play in the here and now. Continual news about racism, violence, and inequality against Black people are fuel for his drawings, pushing his fevered strokes and washes of charcoal to shout out against the injustices.
- Joanne Aono, curator
Listen Here, 2021, Charcoal and acrylic paint on paper, 38 x 42 inches
In the past several years I have embodied a particular moment in time, sourced from media imagery of outrage and protest. I am impacted by the portrayal of African American through the media. My observations coupled with my studies within my community drive me to create distinctive images.
When one looks at the faces that I depict, they often appear to be looking directly at you. In doing so it directs my audience to acknowledge their presence. One must keep in mind the African American community is not as monolithic as one might think, but an array of different voices as well as viewpoints.
- Jesse Howard
Jesse Howard is a local artist whose large-scale drawings reflect his experiences as an African American in Chicago. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from Ball State University. Solo exhibitions include Bert Green Fine Art Gallery (Chicago), South Side Community Art Center (Chicago), University Club of Chicago, and Harold Washington College (Chicago). Group exhibitions include the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, DuSable Museum (Chicago), Logan Museum (Beloit, WI), and Hofheimer Gallery (Chicago).
Howard’s art is included in the permanent collections of the DePaul University Art Museum, Beloit College, Minnesota Museum of American Art, Rutgers University, along with numerous private collections. He has received several awards and grants including a 2022 3Arts nominee, Grand Prize at the Purdue University National Drawing Exhibition, First Place at 58th Annual Beloit & Vicinity Exhibition, and the Ragdale Foundation Residency Scholastic Award. His art has been reviewed in the Village Free Press, Scapi Magazine, and Wednesday Journal. The artist has been featured in the award winning Color of Art documentary along with videos for WYCC PBS, City Vanguard, and the Alphawood Foundation.
Regin Igloria | One Ends Another Begins | March 11 - May 6, 2023
Untitled, 2023, Ink on paper, 11 x 14 inches
Opening Reception: Sunday, March 26, 3:00 - 6:00 PM
Afterwards, join us for a private happy hour across the street at the Quincy Street Distillery.
Exhibition Dates: March 11 - May 6, 2023
On View: Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, 1:00 - 5:00 PM
Bookbinding Workshops: Regin will be teaching two bookbinding workshops.
Friday, April 28th, 12:30-4:30 During Central Elementary “Half Day/RAC Day”
Saturday, April 29th, 1:00-3:00 PM Ages 13+ Saturday Workshop sign up here
Curated by Joanne Aono
The Riverside Arts Center’s FlexSpace is pleased to present One Ends Another Begins, an exhibition featuring drawings qnd artists' books by Regin Igloria. His ongoing exploration of movement and travel is expressed in a series of narratives, one-liners, and characters. The works depict wanderers and walkers, a glimpse into their origin stories, and momentary encounters with the landscape.
Regin Igloria is a multidisciplinary artist and educator based in Chicago. His drawings, artists’ books, sculptures, and performances portray the human condition as it relates to the natural environment and inhabited spaces. Igloria has exhibited locally and internationally, notably at the Chicago Cultural Center, the DePaul Art Museum, 6018 North (Chicago), Weinberg Newton Gallery (Chicago), Zg Gallery (Chicago), and EXPO Chicago. His art has been reviewed in Bad At Sports, The Chicago Tribune, and Time Out Chicago. He received a 3Arts Individual Artist Award as well as local, national, and international grants, and was awarded residencies with Camargo Foundation Residency, Cassis, France, ACRE Residency, and Wormfarm Residency (Wisconsin). He received his MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design.
Igloria has served as a lecturer, panelist, and curator for a multitude of institutions including Ragdale, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and Marwen. With several years of arts administration and teaching experience, he founded North Branch Projects, an organization that builds connections through the book arts. He works with various communities to create crossover between disparate populations and cultures, aiming to broaden the roles of both artists and non-artists.
Untitled, 2023, Ink on paper, 11 x 14 inches
Creativity Fest | Saturdays in February
Creativity Fest Workshops: Featuring themes of love and care and Black History Month
ALL ARE WELCOME! Fun for all ages.
Join us for Creativity Fest; an Open House Family Day Format. Every Saturday in February from 10 AM to 2PM. Creative projects and Family activities. Projects for kids ages 5+ *options available for younger kids too!
Stay the whole time, or as long as you like!
Suggested minimum donation $10/person each day
Watch our website for more creativity fest activities and adults-only evening workshops
Continue a Poem: Nicholas Frank, Lauren Fueyo, Nyeema Morgan | November 13 - December 30, 2022
Lauren Fueyo | Faithful film still, 2022, Video, 00:04:23
Opening Reception: Sunday, November 13, 3:00 - 6:00 PM
Exhibition Dates: November 13 - December 30, 2022
On View: Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, 1:00 - 5:00 PM
Curated by Matthew Girson
In conjunction with Matthew Girson’s exhibition, Plot Structure in the Freeark Gallery
The purpose of a poem is to restore silence.
-Ana Blandiana
A line is a dot that went for a walk.
-Paul Klee
A poem is an invitation to pause and ruminate. It is a singular event that invites silence and stillness. Adding to or amending a poem unsettles both the silence and the stillness.
Continue a Poem is a directive. It assumes a fragment that doesn’t fit, a draft without completion, or a whole open to expansion. In each case a moment is extended and morphed into a duration, some elements are added, others may be taken away. The process nudges an event into narration, from the stillness of a poem into the temporal unfolding of a story.
Artists in this exhibition are story tellers though none of them provide discreet beginnings, middles, or ends. Instead, they give us points on a journey, although each journey is hard to pin down. Encountering each work elicits questions about the narrative parts and how they fit together. In each we ask, what is the backstory, where do the characters come from and where are they heading? What happened in that place before these events and what will happen after? Similarly, our experience in the art gallery elicits questions about previous experiences in that space, as well as other exhibitions and artworks that have been installed there. The questions open from there into other artworks and other exhibitions at other venues. These questions may then extend out to art historical narratives that fold back to elements from the artworks on display. In the best case scenario, the narrative threads leave the art context all together, and remind us that works of art and exhibitions are points on longer, more complex, and more complicated journeys.
Continue a Poem also operates on other planes: three words, thirteen letters, two spaces. The phrase is an anagram for “Come on Petunia” and ‘Once upon a time”. The former turns the plotline to Gary Hill’s 1984 video Why Do Things Get in a Muddle? (Come on Petunia), an early example of video art. That work is a metalogue, a narrative about narrative, derived from Gregory Batesons’ Steps to an Ecology of Mind. From a stillness to a narrative to a wormhole. The latter, “once upon a time,” has other associations. A poem is an invitation to pause and ruminate. It is a singular event that invites silence and stillness. Adding to or amending a poem unsettles both the silence and the stillness.
-Matthew Girson, curator
Nicholas Frank | Nicholas Frank Biography p. 302 (Beyonce), 2015, toner ink on aged book paper, 5.5 x 4.25 inches
Nicholas Frank is an artist, writer, and curator formerly residing in Milwaukee, until relocating to San Antonio following a 2017 Artpace residency. After a 2015 solo exhibition at Western Exhibitions, he was called "the most interesting artist in Milwaukee" by a Chicago critic. He is represented by Western Exhibitions in Chicago, and has had solo exhibitions with the Green Gallery (Milwaukee), Nathalie Karg (New York), Lump (Raleigh), Suitable (Chicago), Peregrine Program (Chicago), and Fl!ght gallery in San Antonio; with group exhibitions at Locust Projects (Miami), Laurel Gitlen and Gavin Brown's Passerby (both New York), Pepin Moore (Los Angeles), Hyde Park Art Center and Golden Age (both Chicago). Frank was chosen as one of seven San Antonio artists in the 2020 Contemporary Art Month Perennial Exhibition at the McNay Art Museum.
https://westernexhibitions.com/artist/nicholas-frank/
Lauren Fueyo is a Cuban-Honduran-American artist from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Moving between performance, writing, sculpture, and painting, Fueyo leans on strategies of improvisation and storytelling to explore questions of how we believe. Exhibitions include UrbanGlass (Brooklyn, NY), the Pittsburgh Glass Center (Pittsburgh, PA), Amos Enos Gallery (Brooklyn, NY), Fowler-Kellogg Art Center (Chautauqua, NY), Vox Populi (Philadelphia, PA), Pilot Projects (Philadelphia, PA), Practice Gallery (Philadelphia, PA), Delaware County Community College (Media, PA), the Center for Visual Art (Denver, CO), and the forthcoming solo exhibition at KonstBunkern (Örebro, Sweden). Fueyo holds an MFA in Sculpture from Tyler School of Art and Architecture, a BA in Art, Media, and Design from DePaul University, and was a 2019 resident of the Chautauqua School of Art. She lives and works in Örebro, Sweden.
Nyeema Morgan (born Philadelphia, PA) is an interdisciplinary who lives and works in Chicago, Illinois. Her works include large-scale drawings, sculptures and printed based media that raise questions about how we articulate and construct meaning within a complex system of socio-political relations. Exhibitions include The Set-Up at Patron Gallery, Chicago, IL; THE STEM. THE FLOWER. THE ROOT. THE SEED. At The Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder, CO; Like It Is at the Philadelphia Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PA; horror horror at Grant Wahlquist Gallery, Portland, ME; There is a Woman in Every Color, The Bowdoin Museum of Art and Us, We, Them at the Worcester Museum of Art, Worcester, MA. Morgan attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and earned her MFA from the California College of the Arts and her BFA from the Cooper Union School of Art.
Nyeema Morgan | Studies for 'Like It Is: Extraordinary Togetherness', No. 19, 2016, paper collage, 8.5 x 11 inches
Matthew Girson has been exhibiting his paintings, drawings and other work locally, nationally, and internationally since the mid 1990s. The full breadth of his creative output includes sculpture, sound installations, a perfume, a type-face, and the adaptation of the correspondence between poets Paul Celan and Nelly Sachs into a theatrical production called Dear Poet, All Light. From January 2017 through January 2021 he hosted monthly Murmurs of Democracy performances inviting people to reflect on the successes and failures of our democratic republic. He laments that he’s never written a novel though that has not stopped him from exploring narrative, character development, and setting in his work.
He teaches painting, drawing, and seminars on contemporary art at the Art School at DePaul University in Chicago. He lives, works, and gardens in Oak Park, IL.
The Shape of Things to Come | September 18 - October 1, 2022 Fundraiser
Launch party: Sunday, September 18, 4:00 - 7:00 PM
September 18 - October 1, 2022
Curated by Paul D’Amato
The Shape of Things to Come is a limited edition print fundraiser for the Riverside Arts Center (RAC). It is a phrase that has been used by many artists from H.G. Wells in 1933 to the Yardbirds in 1967. We invited 11 artists, all of whom have had exhibitions at the Arts Center, to respond conceptually and formally to that phrase to create a set of unique images, which we have made into a limited edition of 20 ink jet prints.
The images have been printed on Canson Arches 310 gsm paper and are signed, titled and numbered by the artists. These prints will be available online for 2 weeks in order to raise funds to support programming at RAC, the epicenter for contemporary art in the western suburbs of Chicago.
The production of these prints was made possible by the generous support of Document, Chicago’s preeminent digital print facility, and IT Supplies, who donated the amazing paper on which they are printed.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
What is a limited edition print?
It is a print made by mechanical means such as etching or lithograph — and now ink jet prints — that is guaranteed to have been reproduced a limited number of times. In this case, only 20 prints have been made. They are signed and number by the artist from #1 to #20. And that’s it — when they are gone there are no more.
How does this fundraiser support programming at RAC?
The Riverside Arts Center (RAC) is a nonprofit arts organization providing services to the public and to artists. We offer creative opportunities that contribute to the health and wellbeing of our community and stimulate ideas and conversation around the arts. Our programs are funded in part by appeals like this one that invite people to support exhibitions, events, classes, artist studios, administration, etc. 100% of the sale of these prints will go to support all of that.
How will I receive the prints and will they be framed?
The prints will be shipped by USPS and will arrive typically within 5 to 7 days after purchase and will not be framed. Framing is always a personal choice and, as such, is up to the buyer. Prints can also be picked up directly from the RAC during the times that it is open. Visit our website for address and hours. www.riversideartscenter.com
RAC’s MISSION:
The Riverside Arts Center strives to be the epicenter for contemporary art in the near west suburbs of Chicago. Through exhibitions, education, artist studios and public events, the RAC is an advocate for the vital role the arts play in nurturing community, and amplifying diverse experiences, ideas, and backgrounds.
SPONSORS
RAC Kids Exhibition | July 10 - 30, 2022
Bring in one of your children’s masterpieces to have it included in a gallery exhibition!
Noah Nyenhuis, Self Portrait, Watercolor
The Riverside Arts Center is pleased to present the annual RAC Kids’ Exhibition, featuring artwork created by kids and students of the Riverside Arts Center’s members and school. This exhibition will be on display in our FlexSpace while our Freeark Gallery will exhibit art by RAC’s members.
Join or renew your membership with the Riverside Arts Center now!
Exhibition on view: July 10 - 30, 2022
Reception for the Artists: Sunday, July 10, 3:00 - 6:00 PM
Artwork drop off dates:
Thursday, June 30: 1 – 5 PM
Friday, July 1: 1 – 5 PM
Saturday, July 2: 1 – 5 PM
Thursday, July 7: 1 - 5 PM
Download the Drop-off Form Here
Guidelines: Each artist is invited to submit one piece, no larger than 30" in width. All work must be framed and/or ready for hanging or display with wire or sawtooth hanger affixed to back. RAC reserves the right to reject any submission. Reasons could include excessive size or weight or fragility (risk of damage to artwork on display) or violating community standards
Artwork pick up dates:
Thursday, August 4: 1 – 5 PM
Friday, August 5: 1 – 5 PM
Saturday, August 6: 1 – 5 PM
Questions? Email Gallery Director, Joanne Aono: jaono@riversideartscenter.com
The Riverside Arts Center follows guidelines from the State of Illinois for safety during the Covid-19 pandemic. Currently masks are optional, and social distancing is requested inside the galleries.
All of RAC'S exhibitions are free and open to the public
Flock: Catherine Schwalbe | May 15 - June 25, 2022
Detail, Flock, 2022, 100 year old oak staves and white paint
Opening Reception: Sunday, May 15, 3:00 - 6:00 PM
Mending Workshop: Saturday, June 4, 1:00 - 5:00 PM
The Riverside Arts Center is pleased to present Flock, a site-specific installation by Catherine Schwalbe in our FlexSpace.
Catherine Schwalbe writes:
More and more deeply, I realize that we are nature. So many of us cite “nature” as inspiration for our work. I have for years. I am feeling the need to update my own words to reflect my current thoughts and therefore my works, and this work, in particular. I look out my own window and appreciate the most common of birds – the sparrow, the American robin (my favorite), crows, to the occasional oriole, and the Coopers Hawk that visited this winter. My interest in the natural world, a trip to Maine last year (to the Puffin sanctuary), life near the Chicago River North Branch with countless heron, snapping turtles, and napping coyote, Purple martins at Montrose Beach, a bluebird on a country road in Wisconsin, living under the migration flight path of whooping cranes, and so much more, have enriched my life beyond words. My mind swims with prior, old school Chicago Reader, columns called Field and Street by Jerry Sullivan. His weekly missives centered on city life and wildlife within and helped me pay attention to my surroundings in new, fulfilling, and urban ways.
The installation is also founded on my need to honor my work with and for the many elders and those that serve them. Forty-two years as a recreation therapist and early, as a paraprofessional, in long term care have grounded me and helped me practice what my own aging process might be like.
July 1, 2021 marked my last day working as a consultant in dozens of long term care communities filled with hundreds of fellow humans that lived, worked, and visited those communities. Most know the (continued) devastation of Covid on these communities and we fellow humans. We are not yet in the after times to fully understand what we have been through. Time will afford that understanding and perspective for us, when our minds and hearts will be less clouded by trauma.
Cranes, long a symbol for elders in some cultures, may also be what comes to mind with you as it has come to mine.I think of human migration over the millennia due to war, famine, weather, opportunity. We too have ebbs and flows to our behavior because of needs and wants, just like all the other creatures on this globe.
Before and After: Mending a life after a pandemic or some other catastrophic event in your life, An artwork and experience with Cathi Schwalbe
Mending Workshop: Saturday, June 4, 1:00-5:00 PM
Please join Catherine Schwalbe for a free mending event in the sculpture garden on Saturday, June 4th. Drop in anytime between 1:00 - 5:00 PM and bring clothing or any fabric item in need of repair. It will be a casual gathering of people to share conversation and stories. There will be sewing supplies for those who can offer the skills to mend and refreshments for everyone. Don’t know how to sew? No problem, Catherine and others will be there to assist or do it for you. This event is free, donations are appreciated. Join us as we bring the community together to help each other through repair and mending.
Catherine Schwalbe writes:
As the life as we have known fades away, how will we humans around the globe mend our lives as individuals and as a community? What will we keep? Of what will we rid ourselves? What shall we strengthen? For some, the pandemic has been a portal to something new. For others, it has been nothing short of traumatic in every way. What have we discovered about each other? How do we go forward? This work honors the fact for so many; mending is necessary. To mend and repair, the very root word of reparations, is clearly part of this work. Lastly, counting on each other and declaring our interdependence, is more important than ever.
Catherine Schwalbe is a Chicago-based artist, whose social practice art centers around issues and aesthetics related to food systems, water, agriculture, reuse, connection, and being human. She received a BFA in sculpture from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee with additional education through Artist Bookworks, Columbia College for the Book and Paper Arts, Lillstreet Art Center, and Chicago Industrial Arts and Design Center. Her previous role as a part-time Recreation Therapist/Consultant, contributes to her social practice art, combining her art, caring, and engaging others.
Among numerous exhibitions throughout the country, Schwalbe’s mixed media sculptures, installations, and site specific works, have been exhibited locally at Oliva Gallery, the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. Accolades include a CAAP grant and reviews in Lumpen and Chicago Art Magazine. She creates at her home-based Haptic Studios and in a clay-centric studio at Lillstreet Art Center.
Riverside's Community Quarantine Quilt | April 23 - May 7, 2022
Riverside Arts Center Community Quarantine Quilt | March 2020 - March 2021
The Riverside Arts Center is thrilled to report that our Community Quarantine Quilt is headed to the Field Museum's permanent collections!
The quilt will become a part of the new Pandemic Collection, housed in the Field Museum’s Anthropology Collection.
According to the Field Museum, The Pandemic Collection is "a new collection of artifacts and materials that reflect cultural responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic, the economic devastation, and the simultaneous related activism for social justice. The collection will capture the diverse ways in which people have invested meaning and taken action in this time of rapid social change. In doing so, the Museum will create a dynamic collections resource for current and future generations."
An exhibition is also planned.
In celebration of this momentous occasion, we are giving the Quilt a farewell local exhibition in the FlexSpace at Riverside Arts Center, 32 East Quincy Street, now through May 7th. Gallery hours are Thursday, Friday and Saturday 1:00-5:00PM
Created by community members and sponsored by Riverside Arts Center (RAC), this beautiful community quilt, offers an uplifting perspective on the Coronavirus Pandemic. The quilt draws together experiences from the RAC community during 2020’s stay-home period.
The project was spearheaded by Riversider Bridget Juister. Joined by RAC School Manager Shawn Vincent, packets of fabrics were distributed and the project was completely free for the community and offered a creative reprieve during a difficult time. Juister completed the quilt using a golden thread woven between the squares, serving as a symbolic link between diverse communities and individuals within them. The quilt commemorates the belief that when basic human needs are met, peace and joy lie at the core for every human experience.
Riverside Arts Center (RAC) is proud to support this beautiful volunteer effort, an antidote of togetherness during what was otherwise a time of isolation and anxiety. These artists created gentle expressions of optimism and patience, assertions of solidarity and hope, and a bit of fun. Individually and as a whole these creations are inspiring to witness.
Click Here to Download a Copy of Artists Statements by each Quilt Participant
(The file will download automatically)
The Bigger the Fear and Despair...: Mayumi Lake and Stacia Yeapanis | January 16 - March 19, 2022
Mayumi Lake | Unison (Kaleidoscope), 2021, Pigment print on canvas, acrylic paint, PVC tape, metal, chain, ribbon, plastic, and thread, 84 x 24 x 24 inches
EXHIBITION DATES: January 16 – March 19, 2022
OPENING RECEPTION: Sunday, January 16th, 3-6pm
ARTISTS’ TALK: Saturday, January 22nd at 2pm (In-person and via Zoom)
Read the exhibition review by Annie Raab for Sixty Inches From Center
The Riverside Arts Center’s FlexSpace is pleased to present The Bigger the Fear and Despair…, a two-person exhibition by Mayumi Lake and Stacia Yeapanis. Each artist reflects upon personal experiences of coping with trauma and anxiety while creating their large colorful assemblages and installations.
Mayumi Lake’s “Unison” series stems from Housouge, colorful mythical Japanese flowers believed to bloom in the afterlife. Hers are created by meticulously cutting scanned vintage kimono patterns then incorporating toy parts, sequins, plastic flowers and other elements from her childhood in Japan with their references to American pop culture, into the creation of fantastic and vibrant hangings.
Stacia Yeapanis’ “The Bounty and Burden of Caretaking” began during a residency in Houston while tending to her aging cats, listening to the news, and living with Covid. Transforming the refuse of cat food and beverage containers with colorful embroidery allowed her artmaking to chronicle the care for her felines and herself. Yeapanis will be exhibiting several of her vivid installations created by her repetitive and meditative processes.
Stacia Yeapanis | Detail of The Bounty and Burden of Caretaking, 2021, Embroidered cat food cans and aluminum can tabs
Mayumi Lake is a Chicago-based artist, originally from Japan. Her installations, photography and video art have been exhibited in solo exhibitions at the Yoshinaga Gallery (New York), Chicago Artists Coalition, Witzenhausen Gallery (Netherlands), and Cornelius Pleser Galerie (Germany), as well as in numerous group exhibitions including Hyde Park Art Center (Chicago), Carrie Secrist Gallery (Chicago), and Paci Contemporary (Italy). Lake is the recipient of several grants from Chicago’s DCASE, the Illinois Arts Council, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Residencies include The Chicago Artists’ Coalition Hatch and Bolt, Roger Brown, Skowhegan, and a residency in Krems, Austria. In addition, she has published two monographs from Nazraeli Press. Her art is in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, The Museum of Fine Arts (Houston), Asia Society, and Facebook. Lake holds an M.F.A and B.F.A. in photography from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Mayumi Lake Artist statement:
Driven by my childhood fantasy, phobia, and desire, my artwork interacts with the ideas of time, memory, and floating between the real and imaginary.
I use photography to weave my autobiographical narrative - From the mimicry of prepubescent flesh surrounded by soft pastel clothing, emotionally-charged landscapes with a solitary girl soldier standing, and darkly illuminated and saturated stereotyped females; to bright and sparkly photo-sculptural mythical flowers. I also incorporate sculpture, sound, moving images, and installation to expand my narrative into more complex layers.
As a Japanese immigrant, my work is continually floating/shifting between states: East and West, longing and hope, memories and oblivion, and past and future. I am interested in archiving things that could be forgotten or become obsolete over time - otherwise I will forget where I came from. The awareness of the impermanence of things, or "Mono-No-Aware" in Japanese, has turned into an obsession and obligation to preserve the past as knowledge for the future. The idea of photography works very well to freeze and package the floating moments to archive them.
Although my obsession is rooted in a very personal narrative, I believe that the most personal is the most universal. In this way, I evoke emotional reactions from my viewers.
Unison project:
In Ancient Japan, when political chaos and a series of natural disasters occurred, the people believed the last days of this world were near. To calm their fear and despair, they filled sacred prayer sites with bright and bold images of mythical flowers, believed to bloom throughout the afterlife. Those flowers were called Housouge. The bigger the fear and despair, the more colorful and immense the flowers.
Unison is an ongoing sculptural photographic work, which features my interpretations of the mythical heavenly flowers or Housouge. The blossoms are constructed from motifs scanned directly from vintage girls’ kimonos. They are cut by hand and then reassembled, and include toy parts, plastic flowers, imitation gold, sequins, and various other objects that recall my own childhood in Japan which was saturated with objects that directly referenced American pop culture. The use of the kimono goes beyond being just a reference to my Japanese cultural heritage, it signifies a dying cultural tradition as the use of this traditional garb has all but disappeared and is relegated to a symbolic gesture reserved for special and rare occasions. Elements of the two opposing cultures are intertwined creating a strained and unique harmony illuminated through the constructed blossoms.
Stacia Yeapanis is a Chicago-based, interdisciplinary artist, educator and writer. She explores the relationship between repetition, desire, suffering and impermanence in cross-stitch embroideries, remix videos, temporary collages and improvised, sculptural installations. Yeapanis is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Fiber and Material Studies at SAIC, where she earned her MFA in 2006 and won a Marion Kryczka Excellence in Teaching Award in 2020. Her first monograph was published jointly by Aperture and The Museum of Contemporary Photography in 2009. Yeapanis was a 2011-2012 Artist-in-Residence and a 2012-2013 Mentor-in-Residence at Chicago Artists’ Coalition’s BOLT Residency. Her solo exhibitions include shows at Siena Heights University (Michigan 2013), Heaven Gallery (Chicago 2014), Indianapolis Art Center (Indianapolis 2017), Robert F. DeCaprio Art Gallery (Palos Hills, Illinois 2018) and Kent State, Stark (North Canton, Ohio 2019), Finlandia University (Hancock, Michigan 2020) and Material Exhibitions (Chicago, 2021). Stacia was the Spring 2021 Artist-in-Residence at Zócalo Apartments in Houston, TX.
Stacia Yeapanis Artist Statement:
I began “The Bounty and the Burden of Caretaking” while in residence at Zócalo Apartments in Houston during the summer of 2021. I traveled across the country with my two aging cats, Gertie and Gloria, just as Covid vaccinations were being rolled out. It was (still is) a time of tremendous personal and collective anxiety. I listened to mounting reports of climate crisis weather and politics that don’t serve people, while managing my cats’ declining health.
Spurred on by the lack of recycling at Zócalo, I hand-embroidered the accumulating metal cat food cans daily in search of solace. I combined the beverage can tabs that resulted from my personal consumption with those of my neighbors in hanging garlands that clinked musically in the breeze.
Part hanging wind chime, part heavy chainmail shroud, part celebratory banner, “The Bounty and the Burden of Caretaking” uses the byproducts of consumption—most notably the cans that act as a tangible documentation of caring for my cats—as visible evidence of ongoing anxiety. The act of hand-embroidering sharp metal and giving new life to garbage is an act of solace seeking and transformation.
This piece was exhibited outdoors at Zócalo in numerous forms as it grew in scale and evolved in form. The modular parts of this changing installation were arranged and rearranged on the concrete ground of my patio and in the grass at the center of the apartment complex. They were hung from shepphard’s hooks around the property for multiple one-day installations.
Vessels: Tulika Ladsariya, Melissa Zeigler Monroe, Shawn Vincent | December 3 - 31, 2021
Three ceramic artists explore multiple meanings of the Vessel form
Opening Reception: Friday, December 3rd, 6-9 PM in conjunction with Riverside’s Holiday Stroll.
Artworks in this exhibition are priced to sell for unique holiday gift-giving
Tulika Ladsariya | Trophy Mother, High-Fired Ceramic. 2021
Tulika Ladsariya is an Indian artist, born in Mumbai- living and working in Chicago. Working with the sentiment of longing, her work explores the footprint left behind by the invisible labor of motherhood and migration. Through her ceramics, she explores the space of un-belonging and attempts to create a space for those who feel ‘othered’ to come together in cross cultural dialogue and understanding. Her propagation vessels allow for a space to root, whilst her vases and boats use her mother’s embroidery and tatting to create texture and use the clay’s memory to preserve her own. Her work mulls on the sentiment that for a first-generation migrant the in-between is oft the ‘home’.
Qualified as a Chartered Accountant, she transitioned to a creative full-time studio practice after her stint working for an auction house in India. Her art has been widely exhibited in the USA and India notably at the Hammond Museum NY, Ralph Arnold Gallery- Loyola University, Hyde Park Art Center, Woman-made Gallery, Expo Chicago, Chicago Art Department, Jamaat Art gallery Mumbai and Art Heritage Gallery New Delhi.
She has contributed to several public art projects including the streetscape design for Devon Avenue (little India) and the terrain biennale. Through community programming- she invites participants to engage in growing roots, meditative inward looking and cross-cultural exploration. Tulika is the recipient of the South Asian Artists Relief fund, the Make/Together grant from the ATHENA foundation and the recipient of the Illinois Art Fund- 3 Arts Relief grant 2020.
http://tulika.art | IG @tulikaartist
Melissa Zeigler Monroe | Heads, High Fired Stoneware.
Melissa Monroe is a ceramic artist who is exploring the use of the female head as artistic expression, decoration, and interactive medium. Ceramic vases are often utilitarian items for arranging flowers and other displays. These pieces are created with the intention that each piece has an artistic life of its own that will extend into the home space with the purpose and use changing as the owner interacts with the piece.
The lady vases expressions are moody, pleasant and sometimes neutral and distant. These faces can artistically stand alone or be complemented with flowers, branches or other natural elements to add an expressive explosion from the top of the heads.
The surface of the pieces vary in color and have undergone very different glazing techniques. Those with running glazes are covered in an ash glaze created using the left-over ash from a friend’s smoker. These vases are coming from the ashes to live again. Other vases have a gas fire glazing with a reduction firing that creates surprise flashes of color and variation that cannot be replicated. The all-white vases reflect the controlled environment of an electric kiln.
Several of the pieces in the show are closed form with a variety of interaction intended. Some function as rattles that you are invited to handle, shake and appreciate the weight and texture. These pieces are about managing life and taking your head on a journey in which you are often not fully in control. The internal pieces “roll with” the head while the face smiles and carries on.
Shawn Vincent | Trickle Down, Ceramic, crystals, wire, pipe. 2021
Shawn Vincent Artist Statement
I have been a practicing ceramic artist for 28 years. I work primarily on the wheel and strive for simplicity, elegance, and grace of form. Although my work is functional I have a tendency to make my pieces as unique as possible. After I throw my pieces I usually cut them down, carve them or take them out of the round. I also use found objects, gemstones, or Swarovski crystals, wiring them into bowls to create a sense of movement and balance. When I am making a piece I do it with the intent that it be used. I think using a piece daily keeps it alive.
When I have an exhibit, I tend to be more experimental and do many installations. Drawing on my degree in biology, much of my installation work deals with the body and how our everyday life affects our physiological make-up. The interaction between our physical space and how we incorporate it into our system is reflected in my ceramic pieces.
As an instructor I use creativity and innovation to motivate, impart knowledge, and facilitate learning. The ability to inspire people to stretch themselves and their work is something I strive for everyday.
Shawn Vincent received a B.S. degree from Western Illinois University with majors in both Fine Art and Biology. She spent many years working as an art director for an advertising agency and has also freelanced. Finding her true passion, Shawn has been a practicing ceramic artist for over 28 years and has been teaching for 23 years. She teaches all levels of ceramics and other mediums and has worked within the community to create one-of-a-kind installations as a visiting artist in area schools. She has exhibited her pottery and ceramic installations at various galleries and venues throughout the Chicago land area and her work is collected nationwide. Shawn has been School Manager at Riverside Arts Center for over 12 years.
Proposals and Speculations: Shir Ende and Lancer Livermont
Shir Ende, Walking a Room (#1), Screen print on paper, 14” x 17”
Curated by Camille Silverman
Shir Ende, Walking a Corner (for three), 2019, Screen print on paper, 19” x 24” framed, 15” x 20” print size
In conjunction with the 2021 Chicago Architecture Biennial
September 9 – November 20, 2021
Artist Reception: Saturday, October 23rd, 3-6pm
Artists’ Talk: Saturday, October 9th at 2pm (register here)
The FlexSpace is pleased to present a two-person exhibit exploring ideas, new possibilities and practices in architecture from both a visual artist and a seasoned architect.
Shir Ende
Through drawing, print, performance, and video, Shir Ende uses a degree of speculative thinking to explore movement within modern space. Ende works to reduce the “bigness” of architecture, re-imagining built structures as intimately scaled forms generated by movement. Ende holds a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She has shown work at the University of Illinois Springfield, Buddy Chicago, the Chicago Artist Coalition, Gallery 400, Heaven Gallery, Hyde Park Art Center, Terrain Biennial, and was a sponsored artist at High Concept Labs. Ende has screened videos at Comfort Station, Nightingale, and Roman Susan. She has participated in the Center Program at the Hyde Park Art Center and was a 2018–19 Hatch Resident at the Chicago Artist Coalition.
Lancer Livermont
The works of this exhibit explore a design process of drawing and making for three simple projects including a beehive, totem, and sauna. Unlike the conventional architectural design process where a project develops through iterations studied by separate overlay, or the digital design process of iteration through algorithm, the process for these works developed through consolidating systems of site, structure, program, imagery, drafting, and sketching into compound drawings where multiple orientations operate simultaneously and from which physical constructions of the projects were extracted and fabricated.
Lancer Livermont is an architect recently grafted to Chicago from western Colorado. He has practiced architecture for 25 years including the last 15 as owner of Intermountain Architecture Ltd in Colorado. He studied architecture at the University of Arkansas, University of Virginia, and University of Brighton, UK. He began his career working with American Institute of Architects (AIA) Gold Medalist, E. Fay Jones in Fayetteville, Arkansas and is currently a member of the AIA Chicago.
Lancer Livermont, Sauna Building, (Drawing 22”H x 30”W, Model 26”H x 12”W x 12”L)
Lancer Livermont, Beehive,(Drawing 22”H x 30”W, Model 36”H x 20”W x 30”L)
From Here to There: Young Adult & Teen Teaching Artists + Key Volunteers | July 8 to July 30, 2021
Eleanor Perrier | Butterfly Collage. Mixed media, 17x14”
Guest Curated by Camille Silverman
Ellie Perrier | butterfly collage, mixed media
From Here to There: Young Adult and Teen Staffers + Key Volunteers
July 8 to July 30, 2021
Opening Reception Saturday, July 10, 2-5pm
In the Galleries and Garden
With a dance performance by The Seldoms at 3 PM
In 2019 and 2020 Riverside Arts Center (RAC) had a record number of teens and young adults working alongside our staff. Though many had their plans, goals, and ambitions interrupted during the Covid -19 pandemic, some discovered a community and renewed purpose by assisting the RAC with exhibits, events, educational programs, and fundraising efforts.
Riverside Arts Center (RAC) benefits richly through the help of these young volunteers, especially during the pandemic. Their help with fundraising events like the Used Book and Plant Store, the Fine Art Auction was invaluable. Hours spent helping load content to our new website, and teaching free online workshops enhanced their own skills while also expanding our programming to new audiences. Each one of these young leaders stepped up to help in so many different ways it is impossible to list them all.
Eight of these assistants return and we spotlight their work as individual artists. They are the most generous among us and we are so happy to be working with them once again for this signature exhibit. Some are currently attending colleges both near and far, one is working on her dream of pursuing furniture design and working for a cabinetry company, while others are finishing up their final years of high school. Each has endured a year and a half of uncertainties during a very transitional period of life. Just gently walking with them through this time has been inspiring.
From Here to There features the works of Myca Bryan, Ella Hane, Audrey Hicks, Oakley McCormack, Zachary Ozga, Eleanor Perrier, Emily Riddiford, Maddy Roldan.
Oakley McCormack working on Door Series | Artist Process
Zachary Ozga, oasisplusplus | video
Myca Bryan, plans for a cabinet, working sketch, 8” x 11”
ONÈ RESPÈ (HONOR DIGNITY) | Cindy Lys | June 1 - 27, 2021
CINDY LYS | left: silver scribble. right: mama mama
ONÈ RESPÈ (HONOR DIGNITY) | Cindy Lys
The title is in Haitian Kreyol which is the greeting one uses to enter a home and a social expectation. The person entering says "honor", the person dwelling in the home responds with "respect" or "dignity".
Artist Talk: Saturday, June 19, 2021
Click here to download a PDF with all the exhibition images
Closing reception: Saturday, June 26, 2021
3:00 - 5:00 in the RAC Galleries and Garden
Cindy Lys
8:46 George Floyd
A contemplation of the dispossession of Black humanity and an attempt to spiritually restore honor to those who have been defiled by police.
Artist Statement:
My art investigates Haitian history, its sacred tradition of Vodou and the divine feminine inspired by my waking dreams. A physical result of binding, tension, alteration, submersion, exposure, transformation and release of the materials. I also explore timed mark-making in an attempt to address the emotional weight of violence against Black people by police. In ONÈ RESPÈ, I specifically explore the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and the home invasion of Anjanette Young. Haitian Vodou is a spiritual tradition that has been similarly dishonored and disrespected. Historically there have been overt and violent campaigns to eradicate Haiti’s spiritual traditions. The aim of my work is to promote healing by channeling the ancestors and so honoring Haitian spiritual expression as well as black lives, traditions, narratives and power.
BIO
Cindy Lys is a Haitian American fiber and mixed media visual artist using textile design, indigo, Japanese Shibori, collage, stamping, painting, ink, sculpture and graphic design. Her art investigates Haitian history, its sacred tradition of Vodou, the divine feminine, the Black diasporic experience, trauma and loss. Lys has taught at Hyde Park Art Center since 2016, and has shown work at THE.creaetive.ROOM (2018-2019), Hyde Park Art Center (2020), Haitian-American Museum of Chicago (2019 & 2020), and the Black Creativity Juried Art Exhibition (2020 & 2021) at the Museum of Science and Industry placing second in the adult category in 2020. Lys is a Clinical Social Worker on the southside of Chicago and Clinical Manager at Pivot Collaborative.
BYSTANDER REFLECT : You gon let him kill that man in front of you?. paper, ink, 9m29s. 12x16”. 2021.
Cindy Lys | The Wall that Got More Justice Than Breonna Taylor. Mixed Media on Canvas. Paint, Fire, Collage. 18” x 24”. 2021.
Cindy Lys | New Life. Erzuli Batique Round. Mixed Media; Indigo, cowrie shells, embroidery frame. 10” x 10”.
Cindy Lys | Treatment. Indigo dye on fabric, 60” x 102”
FlexSpace Artist in Residence | Laura Husar Garcia | March 1 - MAy 15, 2021
Riverside Resident Laura Husar Garcia will be in residence in the FlexSpace March 1, 2021 - May 15, 2021.
Laura Husar Garcia’s work investigates the study of hope and endurance of the human spirit during trying times. Laura plans to research and prepare a body of work for her upcoming exhibit at The Fermilab Art Gallery, America’s particle physics and accelerator laboratory. She also plans to explore additional mediums, including mixed media painting and video installation.
Laura’s photography has been exhibited widely, including The Barcelona Foto Biennial, The Biennial of Fine Art and Documentary Photography in Prague, Fotofever at the Carrousel du Louvre in Paris, France, The Polish Museum of America in Chicago, Fotofest Biennial in Houston, Texas, Photo Independent in Los Angeles, California, The Rangefinder Gallery in Chicago, Tilt Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona and Galeria El Zocalo in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Her awards include the Julia Margaret Cameron Photography Award, Photolucida Critical Mass top 200 award and a 1st Place Community Grant from the Illinois Humanities Council.
Laura’s photography has been published in The New York Times, National Geographic Magazine, Newsweek, Slate Magazine, The Santa Fe New Mexican, Lenscratch Magazine, as well as several books.
Colleen Plumb with writings by Katherine Kassouf Cummings | January 10 - February 22, 2021
Invisible Visible
Colleen Plumb | INVISIBLE VISIBLE
Invisible Visible is a site-specific installation in the FlexSpace, to be seen and heard from outside on the street, through the storefront window of the gallery. The installation formed through conversation between Colleen Plumb, an artist, and Katherine Kassouf Cummings, a writer; between images and words; between the individual and society. Expressed through photography, sculpture, video, and writing, this collaboration invites an examination of our relationship with the invisible that exists all around us. With this installation, we are invited to join an act of witnessing the lives of chickens and workers, together subjected to the suffering created by our industrial food system.
Visit “Events and Talks” on our website for a video recording of Colleen and Katherine speaking about their work.
Click below to listen to Katherine Kassouf Cummings reading her writings for "Invisible Visible”
Colleen Plumb makes photographs, videos, and installations investigating systems that perpetuate power imbalance. Her work is held in several permanent collections and has been widely published and exhibited. Plumb’s first photography monograph, Animals Are Outside Today (Radius, 2011), critically documents humans’ ambivalent dispositions towards animals. Plumb’s recent photography book, Thirty Times a Minute (Radius, 2020), examines the plight of captive elephants. Plumb lives in Chicago and has taught photography and video at Columbia College Chicago since 1999.
Katherine Kassouf Cummings is a daughter, a sister, a friend, a teacher, an ecological citizen, and a writer. She co-edited the book What Kind of Ancestor Do You Want to Be? (University of Chicago Press, 2021). She serves as Managing Editor at the Center for Humans and Nature. When not at her desk, Katherine shares her passion for movement and women's health as a Pilates instructor.
Kelly Kristin Jones | October 25-November 28, 2020
IN TIME AND PARADISE
IN TIME AND PARADISE
Kelly Kristin Jones | in time and paradise
Stay tuned for online programming.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment. While a milestone in the United States’ story of suffrage and equal rights for women, in practice, the historic document granted voting rights only to those well-off and white.
In time and paradise is a site-specific installation celebrating nineteen Illinoisan women who fought for the rights of all women. Disillusioned with early 20th century white suffragettes who claimed others would have rights “in time,” they formed some of the first women’s organizations and feminist newspapers, created and sold photographs, and marched for ALL women’s rights. Using the tools of both photography and protest, this installation honors the work of
Mary Livermore
Ellen Martin
Ida B Wells-Barnett
Frances Willard
Prudence Crandall
Elizabeth Boynton Harbert
Elizabeth Maloney
Agnes Nestor
Flora Witkowsky
Mary C. Bryon
Mary Fitzbutler Waring
Myra Colby Bradwell
Corinne Brown
Catharine Waugh McCulloch
Lottie Holman O'Neill
Susan Hoxie Richardson
Emma Steghagen
Celia Parker Woolley
Mary Eliza Church Terrell
Throughout the run of the exhibition, pieces from the installation will be used to “dodge out” contested monuments across Chicagoland. Performances will be recorded and available online and in the gallery. Each photograph and each action offers an alternative that is perhaps only available in time and paradise.
“Mary” October 25, 2020
“Ellen” October 31, 2020
Jerry Bleem: STILL - in the FlexSpace & Freeark Galleries
September 6 – October 17, 2020
Reception: Sunday, September 6, 12 ‐ 6pm
Gallery hours Thursday, Friday, and Saturday 1-5pm, by appointment.
Masks and social distancing are required.
Curated by Anne Harris
VIRTUAL ARTIST TALK
In Performance, In Conversation:Jerry Bleem and Anne Harris
Saturday, October 10, 2020
2:00 – 3:00 PM
REGISTER on EventBrite
This Performance, Conversation will take place on Zoom
A Zoom link will be sent to the email address you provide.
Exhibition essay by Anne Harris: Jerry Bleem: STILL
List of works in the exhibition: Jerry Bleem: STILL - List of Works
Video Jerry Bleem: YEARNING Emma Lazarus' poem The New Colossus is spoken in a number of languages as Jerry Bleem crochets work from a stripped U.S.A. flag.
“Towards Luminescence: Radiant Frisson | a citizen’s statement”
A two-part exhibition featuring work by Chicago artists Mayumi Lake and Stacia Yeapanis
curated by FlexSpace Director, Liz Chilsen
May 18 – June 26, 2020
Part 1 Mayumi Lake: Radiant Frission, May 18th – June 7, 2020.
* Artist Talk July 11, 2020. 2-3 PM a virtual conversation with Mayumi Lake.
Enjoy this virtual visit to Mayumi’s studio; “Alone With Materials“.
FlexSpace offers the exhibit as a form of healing; a turn toward luminescence and repair. During this unique time when each of us is called upon to be both self-protecting and altruistic, maintaining active lives within quarantine, this show provides two unique visions of the potential for hopefulness within the dark.
Mayumi Lake’s Radiant Frisson had both daytime and nighttime viewing options.
8:00am – midnight – the works are activated
5:00pm – midnight – Disco-ball and LED light show
Description
Exploring the idea of Awareness of Impermanence (Mono-no-Aware) and childhood phobia, my work is continually floating between the real and imaginary, East and West, longing and hope, memories and oblivion, past and future.
Inspired by Housouge, mythical flowers that ancient Japanese adored to ease their despair from political chaos and natural disasters, “Unison” series is comprised of photographic sculptures, consisting of layers of hand-cut photo-paper floral motifs directly scanned from discarded antique kimonos and objects that symbolize the shiny Western culture that I craved. The bigger my fear of an uncertain future, the more immersive my flowers become, echoing ancient Housouge.
For Art-In-Place initiation features colorful, spirited floral sculpture Unison (Radiant Frisson) and Unison (Typecasting) within a bedazzling installation of light.
Mayumi Lake (b. Osaka, Japan) is an interdisciplinary artist, whose work delves into childhood and pubescent dreams, phobia and desires. She employs herself and others as her models, as well as dolls, toys, weapons, vintage clothes, and altered landscapes as her props.
View a short Video clip here: Mayumi Lake Radiant Frisson on YouTub
Mayumi Lake Towards Luminescence | Radiant Frisson
Support Art-In-Place fundraising for Illinois artists. Click image for more info.
Part 2 a citizen’s statement, June 14 – June 26, 2020. *
Part 2 has been changed by the artist who chose to make a statement as a citizen vs installing an artwork.
The artist’s statement appearing in the FlexSpace window is:
“This is not an artwork. The artwork that was scheduled to be in this window is not relevant at this moment in time. The artist has chosen to use the space offered to display her work to instead make a statement as a citizen. Black Lives Matter.”
The exhibition is viewable from the street, while the galleries remain closed.
FlexSpace initiated this two-part exhibit as an offering of healing; a turn toward luminescence and repair during the pandemic which calls on us to be both self-protecting and altruistic. The second half of the exhibit is not what had been planned. The artist chose to make a statement as a citizen, listening to calls for justice following the killing of George Floyd, vs installing an artwork.
The exhibition provides two unique visions of humanity and compassion.