1431 W. Hubbard St., Ste. 201, Chicago, IL 60642
By advance appointment only. Please email contact@chicagoartistscoalition.org
12.11
Chelsea Bighorn, an emard, Ruth L. Poor
Friday, October 17, 2025 from 5-8pm
Chelsea Bighorn an emard Ruth Poor
Christine Magill
Chicago Artists Coalition presents a three-person exhibition by 2024-26 Artist Residents Chelsea Bighorn, an emard, and Ruth L. Poor, curated by 2024-26 Curatorial Resident Christine Magill.
The opening reception will be on October 17 from 5-8pm.
About Curators
Christine Magill (she/they; b. Boston, MA, 1996) is a curator, nonprofit administrator, and art collections professional currently based in Chicago, Illinois. She received a BA in French Studies from Boston University in 2018 and MAs in Modern and Contemporary Art History and Arts Administration and Policy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2023. Previous curatorial projects include two iterations of <i>New Work</i> and the 2022 SAIC <i>Faculty Sabbatical Triennial</i> at SAIC Galleries.
Christine's curatorial practice centers around ideas of space, time, materials, and connections, specifically examining architecture and spatial layout of display spaces in direct conversation with the artworks shown alongside artists' material processes of creating. They are also interested in languages, translations, cultural differences, and global understanding as methods of both curation and communication. As such, she speaks proficient French alongside her native English and is working on their literacy in Korean and German.
Image: Christine Magill, Installation shot of New Work, 2021. Work pictured: Liang He, Running Bunny (2021), plastic fabrics, fans, cardboard, and wires; and Xinyan Wang, Intriguing Uncertaintied (2020), acrylic on cardboard
About Artists
Chelsea Bighorn (b.1989) was born and raised in Tempe, Arizona, and is Lakota, Dakota and Shoshone – Paiute. She is a textile artist that works in finding the beauty in her rich mixed Native American and Irish American heritage. Finding great inspiration in the history of traditional dance, Bighorn works to celebrate her memories of attending Powwows with her grandmother through her large-scale textile pieces.
Bighorn has a BFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Fiber Material Studies. Her work has been shown at the Museum of Contemporary Native Art, SITE Santa Fe, EXPO Chicago and Center for Native Futures.
Image: Chelsea Bighorn, Vertebrae, 2024, Canvas, MX dye, artificial sinew, glass beads, 64" x 68"
Headshot: Lillian Heredia
an emard’s practice is a meditative process exploring world-building mythologies and the myth-making potential of queerness. Working with oil paint and leaded glass, they find poetry in the space between art and meaning; between concept, intention, and form.
In emard’s paintings, the surface of the canvas is in an interstitial state at all times. The image finds its way through processes of rubbing and blending paint on the surface and acts of removal by sanding and scraping. It is through this approach that emard creates an atmosphere of becoming, where boundaries are forgiving and time is nonlinear. Emard’s leaded-glass objects function as viewfinders and are a means to implicate and imprint physical space. The accumulation of glass and solder impose image, gesture, and frame onto their surroundings as an acknowledgement and question. In doing so, these leaded-glass objects create a kaleidoscope of the coexisting queer mythologies.
Like queerness, the future exists in the cracks and gestures of the present. It is from this devotional, affective space that emard creates art that enchants, clinging to the notion that art is a conduit towards new places, dimensions, and futures.
an emard was born into a working-class family in suburban Chumash Land / Ventura, CA and spent their formative years navigating queerness in the shadow of the Catholic Church and the light of lemon orchards, asphalt, and the Pacific Ocean. emard now resides on the unceded homelands of the people of the Council of Three Fires / Chicago, IL. emard has exhibited in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and Vermont at venues including Steve Turner Gallery, Block Museum, Usdan Gallery, Kibum MacArthur, Weatherproof, Some Clouds, among others.
Image: an emard, Viewfinder, 2022
Ruth L. Poor (b. 1989), raised in Indiana, uses their work to dissect memories of the rural Midwest and to investigate intersections between power, American history, faith, and deviancy. Poor received their MFA from the Painting & Drawing department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) and completed their B.A. in Studio Art and Religious Studies at Cornell College and DePauw University. They currently reside in Chicago, Illinois, where they teach at SAIC, North Central College, College of DuPage, and advise with the Prison + Neighborhood Arts Project. They have shown work nationally and internationally at venues such as the University of Chicago [Chicago, IL], A.C.L.I. Gallery [Monte Castillo di Vibio, Italy], Secrist|Beach Gallery [Chicago, IL], the New York Academy of Art [New York, NY], Zolla/Lieberman Gallery [Chicago, IL], Art EXPO [Chicago, IL], The Green Gallery [Milwaukee, WI], ADDS DONNA Gallery [Chicago, IL], Manifest Gallery [Cincinnati, OH], Woman Made Gallery [Chicago, IL], and Indiana University [Bloomington, IN]. They are also the current Artist-in-Residence with the Chicago Artist Coalition (2024-2026).
Headshot: Ricardo Bouyett
Image: Broken Covenant (After the World on a Foot), 2023, Found tapestry, embroidery, spray paint, acrylic, and oil on canvas, 18" x 24" x 1"
(updated 2025)
