Past Curatorial Projects:
Installation view: The Land Between the Sea, July 23 - August 26, 2022 ENGAGE Projects, Image credit: Avery Campbell
Farah Salem, Mirage / سراب
8.6.2022
Mirage is a participatory performance centered around the common Kuwaiti children’s' game; "Baar/Bahar." “Baar” means dry desert, and “Bahar” means sea. The game is based on shifting body postures in response to the changes of the landscape (desert/sea). In this performance the artist explored Kuwaiti folkloric rituals,, language and other elements of these landscapes, as well as philosophical understanding of play and abandon while interacting with an audience.
M_m<M
8.26.2022
In their talk M_m<M discusses the space race , the desert, NASA’s relationship with America’s military industrial complex, and the artist’s own history and complicity within NASA.
Taking inspiration from Chicana theorist Gloria Anzaldúa, The Land Between the Sea references the experience of nepantla, a Nahuatl word for a space between two bodies of water or worlds, as well as a manifestation of personal, social, spiritual, and cultural ‘in between-ness.’ This exhibition explores the desert as a space in which history, geography, and identity exist in a state of perpetual transition.
Though the desert often evokes a particular geopolitical and environmental border zone, these artists instead consider how our personal labors within the landscape produce our roots, narratives, and identities, encouraging us to perceive the desert as a space that is both the product of human existence and in opposition to it.
The Land Between the Sea features work by Juan Molina Hernandez, M_m<M, SaraNoa Mark, and Farah Salem
When or If I was there: Hale Ekinci & Rachel de Cuba / Tiger Strikes Asteroid Chicago / April 30 - June 11, 2022
Installation shot of When or if I was there at Tiger Strikes Asteroid from April 30 - June 11, 2022. Courtesy of Tom Van Eynde.
Installation shot of When or if I was there at Tiger Strikes Asteroid from April 30 - June 11, 2022. Courtesy of Tom Van Eynde.
When or If I was there, is an exhibition featuring the work of artists Rachel de Cuba and Hale Ekinci. Making use of both found textiles and digital family archives, de Cuba and Ekinci address identity as well as cultural and family histories through storytelling. These narratives are both personal and ambiguous as they blend factual realities with communal gossip, encouraging the viewer to consider how we document and record often obscured and codified material pasts.
Artists Run Chicago 2.0 / Hyde Park Art Center / Fall 2020
First floor installations for Artists Run Chicago 2.0 on view at the Hyde Park Art Center from September 1, 2020 - November 1, 2020, provided by Hyde Park Art Center. Courtesy of Tom Van Eynde.
Chuquimarca (left) and LVL3 (right) installations for Artists Run Chicago 2.0 on view at the Hyde Park Art Center from September 1, 2020 - November 1, 2020, provided by Hyde Park Art Center. Courtesy of Tom Van Eynde.
Hyde Park Art Center is proud to celebrate the work of fifty artist-run spaces and organizations that fuel Chicago’s independent art scene in the upcoming exhibition Artists Run Chicago 2.0
To mark the ten-year anniversary of the original Art Center exhibition, Artists Run Chicago (2009), this upcoming exhibition examines the core motivations, trajectories, and philosophies that have made the past decade more generative for new models of artist-run initiatives to exist throughout the city and suburbs. As they did in the 2009 exhibition, participating artists-run spaces have continued to transform storefronts, apartments, warehouses, garages, and nomadic existences into environments in which art can be experienced at its most experimental and critical stage. These spaces challenge conventional expectations of exhibition, discourse, and community, encouraging us to consider the nature of art-devoted spaces and their relationship to each other, as well as the neighborhoods they embrace and the artists they support.
Not Just Another Pretty Face / Hyde Park Art Center / Winter 2019
Created by Hyde Park Art Center, Not Just Another Pretty Face allows the Art Center to play matchmaker for artists and potential art buyers, facilitating a fun, accessible commissioning process that builds lasting relationships between artists and patrons, creates a new base of support for artists, and invests in the vitality of Chicago’s cultural community. 2019-2020 marks the seventh installment of this dynamic program.
Hauser Gallery
From 2012-2013, I worked with curator Claire Molek to build a gallery focused on merging the collection of Chicago photographer Marc Hauser with emerging artists. Together we organized three successful exhibitions. More is More (Winter 2012: Harvey Moon, Matt Taber & Meryl Bennett, Marc Hauser, Jeanloup Sief, Rabbits, Jane Georges, Xiao Tse, Anders Lindseth, Bill Sosin, Britton Black, Roger Grimes, On The Real Film, Deborah Maris Lader, Alfredo Salazar-Caro, and John Kurtz) Wind & Water / Transported Wind (Winter 2012: Bill Sosin and Harvey Moon), and Atalanta & The Lion (Spring 2013: Meryl Bennett, Anita Brathwaite, Gracie Hagen, The Happy Collaborationists, Nick Knowlton, and Brittany Southworth Laflamme)
As Assistant:
The Tokyo Show: Black & Brown are Beautiful / Hyde Park Art Center / Curated by Asha Iman Veal / Summer 2019
Carris Adams, Brandon Breaux, Cog•nate Collective, Alex Bradley Cohen, Sarita Garcia, Jose Resendiz, Diana Quiñones Rivera, William Greaves
Intersectional Touch / Hyde Park Art Center / Curated by Juarez Hawkins / Fall 2019
Yesenia Bello, Jared Brown, Liz Chilsen, Katie Chung, Barbara Ciurej, Shir Ende, Veronica Casado Hernandez, Wen Liu, John-Michael Korpal, India Martin, Ricardo Mondragon, Michael Moore, Elissa Osterland, Sara Rouse, Anne Stevens, Maryam Taghavi, Devi Vallabhaneni, Juliann Wang, Shanna Zentner, Chunbo Zhang
Ashley M. Freeby: Plots & Hems / Hyde Park Art Center/Curated by Allison Peters Quinn / Fall 2019
Extended Self: Transformations and Connections / Hyde Park Art Center / Curated by Sara Holwerda and Angela Lopez (Extended Practice) / Winter 2019
Tanya Aguiñiga, Wisdom Baty, Andrea Chung, Karen Dana, Sabba Elahi, Noelle Garcia, Megan Hildebrandt, Jessica Labatte, Emily Lindskoog, Bobbi Meir, Jessica Mueller, Irene Perez, Kaitlynn Redell, Tracy Marie Taylor, Selina Trepp, Marie Watt