Living Large by Maria Vergara

January 27 – February 25, 2012Opening Reception: Saturday, January 28, 5 – 8pm
Curated by Karen Azarnia

RAC presents Living Large, an exhibition of new paintings by Maria Vergara. Vergara’s previous work explores the public fascination with celebrity culture and decadence. As painter Susanna Coffey writes:

“The playful aspect of Maria Vergara’s work begins with the not so playful cult of celebrity, a cult that seems to be in control of our public imagination today. She twists and turns the painted queens, princesses, heiresses and movie stars until they and the worlds they inhabit look as grotesque as they really are.”

In her recent paintings, Vergara expands on themes of decadent materialism and excess. Depicting luxurious home interiors, she presents opulent rooms in the Baroque style. The patterns Vergara uses are intricate and compulsive, in an attempt to visually overwhelm the viewer. This use of pattern serves to signify excessive wealth and social status, or as Vergara states, to depict “expensive hoarders.” By referencing the art historical past, Vergara comments on current socio-economic issues. She also builds complex layers of meaning in the work, as the paintings embody contradictory impulses of pleasure, desire and revulsion.

Ms. Vergara received an MFA in Painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2009, and a BFA in Studio Arts from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2005. She is the recipient of a Merit Scholarship from SAIC and has exhibited her work both locally and nationally.  http://www.mariaastridvergara.com/

RAC Students + Members

RAC Students + Members
December 2, 2011 – January 14, 2012
Opening Reception: Friday, December 2, 6 – 9pm

Parallel Play by Kelli Connell and Betsy Odom

The Conversation #2
October 21 – November 19, 2011
Opening Reception: 3 – 6pm, Sunday, October 30, 2011
Curated by Anne Harris

RAC presents Kelli Connell and Betsy Odom in Parallel Play. This is the second exhibition in our series called The Conversation, featuring two artists who together have some form of creative discourse.

Kelli Connell and Betsy Odom have been together for 7 years, married for two. They share both home and studio. While their work is not collaborative, it’s made in crooked parallel with intersections, rhymes and overlaps. This show is about their mutual brainstorming. Both artists work prolifically in sketchbooks. In the spirit of conversation they’ve designed their show around this mutual creative process, their shared lives and shared studio practice. We’re invited to peruse the original sketchbooks, as well as over a thousand sketchbook pages reproduced and displayed to reflect the on-going conversation and non-conversation between these two artists.

Kelli Connell’s photography was described by Martha Schwendener in The New York Times as “ripe with big ideas: doubling (genetic versus digital), narcissism, same-sex relationships, the simulated versus the real, and the role of images in fabricating narratives.” She is best known for her work Double Life, now showing at Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago and just published in her book, also called Double Life. She has exhibited internationally at the Yossi Milo Gallery, New York, the Australian Centre for Photography in Sydney, the Cleveland Institute of Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago.

Betsy Odom has exhibited internationally at the Shanghai Museum of Fine Arts, Shanghai, China, the Galveston Arts Center, TX, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago and Three Walls Gallery, Chicago. She curated the group show “Tomboy” at the Glass Curtain Gallery, and was listed as one of Chicago’s strongest emerging artists in “Breakout Artists 2010,” Newcity Art

Anchor Graphics: Surveying the Collection

September 9 – October 15, 2011
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 10, 2011, 3 – 6pm
Curated by Garry Henderson

RAC is pleased to present Anchor Graphics: Surveying the Collection, a group exhibition featuring work from the Anchor Graphics print collection. Comprised of work spanning almost twenty years, the exhibition includes pieces produced during the ongoing artist residency program, prints by artists published through the facility, as well as work from portfolio print exchanges.

Exhibiting artists include Tim Anderson, McArthur Binion, Nyame Brown, Amanda Burk, Paul Coffey, Chris Dacre, Jeff Elrod, Steve Heyman, Richard Hull, Michiko Itatani, Anita Jung, Mike Lash, China Marks, David Teng Olsen, Kathryn Polk, Gordon Powell, Richard Repasky, Anne Roecklein, Karl Wirsum, Saya Woolfalk, and Jennifer Yorke.

Anchor Graphics was established as an independent non-profit in 1990, with the mission of providing printmaking facilities, studio space, and educational opportunities to students and professional artists. Since 2006, Anchor Graphics has been partnered with Columbia College Chicago as part of the Art + Design Department. This partnership serves both the school and Anchor Graphics by providing classes, academic internship opportunities, collaborative projects, and a platform for visiting artists and lecturers from across the country. Anchor Graphics has initiated a multitude of partnerships with local arts, educational and social organizations, strengthening its ability to fulfill its mission of education and public access to the fine art of printmaking.

Dominican in the Round

June 17 – July 30, 2011
Opening Reception: Friday, June 17, 6-9pm
Curated by Noelle Allen and John Harmon

RAC is pleased to present Dominican in the Round, a group exhibition featuring sculpture from Dominican University. This exhibit marks the three year-old sculpture program’s first major off-campus exhibition. Jane Arvis, Dorothy Bugalski, Kate Brown, Carly Connelly, Theresa Farris, Joshua Johnson, Douglas McGillivray, Brenda Ocampo, and Anthony Perri are among the exhibiting artists.

The works included span a variety of mediums. They embody a diverse range of haptic sensibilities, from concrete physicality to ephemeral delicacy. Ceramic, plaster, wood, metal, concrete, cloth, blood, paper, wax, and tissue are among the materials incorporated into the different pieces. Attention to presentation also plays a vital role. Some pieces are intended to function in a variety of settings, while others are site-specific, including outdoor installation work in the sculpture garden.

Delible Marks by Karen Azarnia

January 21 – March 5, 2011
Opening Reception: Sunday, January 23, 3 – 6pm
Curated by Anne Harris

Karen’s work can be related to 20th century “painter’s painters” such as Edwin Dickenson, but can also be seen in the context of established painters such as Eric Aho and Hanneline Rogeberg, and has a kinship with emerging artists such as Josephine Halvorson and Vera Iliatova.  Like Karen, these artists use fluid, expressive paint to convey air, light, hinted stories, and the mystery of revealed and concealed forms.

Having only received her MFA from SAIC in 2008, Karen has already been awarded an Illinois Arts Council Development Grant, a CAAP Grant, and a residency at the Ragdale Foundation. Her work has been exhibited at such venues as the Knock Knock Gallery and Gallery Uno in Chicago; the ASA Exhibition in the Puck Building, NYC; and at Miami Dade College in Florida. Delible Marks is her third solo show in the last two years. http://www.karenazarnia.com

Dana DeGiulio and Molly Zuckerman-Hartung

The Conversation #1
To fill a Gap – Insert the Thing that caused it
October 15 – November 20, 2010
Curated by Anne Harris

This will be the first exhibition in a RAC series, titled The Conversation, featuring two artists who together have some form of creative discourse.

The artists met in graduate school at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where they both received MFA’s in 2007. Their studios are next door to each other, they share an apartment and have been, as described by Molly, “traveling companions” for the last four years. Both are promising emerging artists. Their work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at such notable venues as Rowley Kennerk Gallery, Chicago; Lisa Cooley Fine Art, New York; Galerie Im Regierungsviertel, Berlin (Molly); and Devening Projects, Chicago; Sullivan Galleries, Chicago; Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago; Co-Lab, Copenhagen (Dana). Together they founded and “co-operate” the alternative exhibition space Julius Caesar

Too Hard To Keep by Jason Lazarus

September 3–October 9, 2010
Curated by Anne Harris

RAC presents Jason Lazarus’s photo archive Too Hard to Keep, a repository for photographs both too painful to keep and too meaningful to destroy. This on-going and expanding project will be displayed in two parts: an installation of photographs from the archive and a “drop box.” Anyone can add to the archive by depositing pictures in this box.

Jason’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, with solo exhibitions at such venues as the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Spertus Institute, Kaune Sudendorf Gallery in Cologne, Germany; Das Weisse Haus, Austria; and D3 projects, Los Angeles.

http://toohardtokeep.blogspot.com/
http://artswithoutborders-eddee.blogspot.com/

Found by Nancy Hejna

July 1 – 31, 2010

The use of “found” material (recycled canvases, wood doors, cutting boards, drawers, window frames and screens, paneling, clippings from a 1956 Good Housekeeping magazine, a bowling trophy) is a common element of this body of work comprised of 2 and 3 dimensional pieces by Riverside artist, Nancy Hejna. For her, found surfaces suggest composition and add dimension to a piece. Sometimes the subject matter requires a search for the right surface, but more often the surface suggests the subject, ranging from traditional landscapes, industrial and agricultural scenery, or more personally based collage and sculpture. Typically, Hejna paints landscapes she has experienced first-hand, or those that have an internal sense of place for her. She continues to be inspired by 19th century painters; pre-impressionistic, painterly artists who border on the atmospheric such as Whistler, Turner, and Innes. She also draws from Midwest iconic scenery (farm/factory) often reflected in the stark, nostalgic black and white photography of David Plowden.

Pink Paint

April 30 – June 4, 2010
Opening Reception: Saturday, May 8, 5 – 8pm
Curated by Anne Harris

Candida Alvarez / “OD” /2008-2009 / 25 1/2″ x 20″ / acrylic on panel

Exhibiting Artists: Candida Alvarez, Deborah Boardman, Paul D’Amato, Susanne Doremus, Jason Dunda, Fatima Haider, Anne Harris, Jim Lutes, Rachel Niffenegger, Kim Piotrowski, Scott Reeder, and Liz Tjepkema.