2130 W. Fulton St., Chicago, IL 60612
Wednesday-Thursday: 11AM-5PM
Friday-Saturday: by advance appointment
12.19
by will or by trust
Friday, November 1, 2024 from 5-8pm
Sungho Bae Sophia Karina English
Chicago Artists Coalition proudly presents by will or by trust, a two-person exhibition by 2023-24 HATCH Residents Sungho Bae and Sophia Karina English.
The show features framed works by Sungho Bae and sculptural and beaded works by Sophia Karina English.
Sungho Bae is a mixed media artist born in Seoul, South Korea. He received his BFA from Seoul National University and his MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Stemming from a fascination with the evolution of consumer culture and its impact on collective memory, Bae’s work explores the remnants of counterfeit toys as a reflection of South Korea’s socio-economic landscape during the 1980s and 1990s. By assembling architectural models from these fragments, Bae examines the complexities of intellectual property rights and the cultural implications of mass production. Through this lens, Bae examines how these toys serve as artifacts of subcultural heritage, shedding light on issues of content scarcity, market demand, and national competitiveness, while also questioning the value systems intertwined with nostalgia and sentimentality.
Sophia Karina English is a latinx crafts person, sculptor, and performance artist from San Francisco, CA and based in Chicago, IL. They received their BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, with an emphasis in sculpture and fiber arts.
English’s research centers around their own families’ dynamics and the objects and habits which are passed down through generations. Their work memorializes lost narratives and speculates on greater cultural impacts of one’s familial inheritance. English is specifically interested in exploring the material languages from their families’ origins in Nicaragua, Mexico, and the Californian coast.
Both artists utilize many individual parts to make a whole; forms are built through the collection of relevant bits and remnants. The works in “by will or by trust” ask the viewer to contemplate the authenticity of cultural capital and the relevance of individual memory in the shadow of broader histories.
The opening reception will be on November 1 from 5-8pm.
Image: Mixed media collage of work by Sungho Bae and Sophia Karina English
About Artists
Sungho Bae (b. Seoul, Korea 1988) is an artist working primarily in sculpture, video, and installation. He focuses on re-rendering the visual domain, considering images as mediators, consumption as a strategy, and humans as mutants. This is to navigate the mechanism of the image-making system and how an individual processes such images as superficial data. The symbiotic but dissonant relationship between the visual status of collected images and their context has been the driving force behind an act of repurposing. He received a BFA from Seoul National University and an MFA from School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Above all, he is an avid toy collector.
Acupuncture Anatomy_How to be Unnamed, but Loved, 2022, Anatomical model produced from repurposed plush toys of various Frankenstein's monsters, product tags of plush toys, panel with plush toy fragments, RGB map tacks indicating which plush toys were used, anatomy kit, medical cart, 78in. x 35in. x 18in. / 25in. x 17in. x 33in.
Sophia Karina English (they/them) is a latinx crafts person, sculptor, and performance artist from San Francisco,CA and based in Chicago,IL. Presented with a series of eradicated cultural and personal histories due to colonization, poor record keeping, and family secrets, English uses their work to ask questions and keep track of what feels important at the time. Working from their home studio English uses beadwork as reference to the Latin American tradition of storytelling through beaded textiles.
If Then How Long, glass beads, adhesive, wooden board, thread, ready made shelf 15"x18"x4" 2018
