1431 W. Hubbard St., Ste. 201, Chicago, IL 60642
By advance appointment only. Please email contact@chicagoartistscoalition.org
03.20
Reevah Agarwaal, Cay B. Mims, Nekita Thomas
Friday, February 6 2025 from 5-8pm
Reevah Agarwaal Cay B. Mims Nekita Thomas
Sidney Garrett
Chicago Artists Coalition presents a three-person exhibition by 2024-26 Artist Residents Reevah Agarwaal, Cay B. Mims, and Nekita Thomas, curated by 2024-26 Curatorial Resident Sidney Mori Garrett.
The opening reception will be on February 6 from 5-8pm.
About Curators
Sidney Mori Garrett is a Houston, TX born, Chicago, IL based curator, arts administrator, and artist. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography and Digital Media from University of Houston and a Masters of Fine Art in Arts Administration and Policy from the School of Art Institute of Chicago. Garrett has created multimedia works that have exhibited nationally and internationally at Alabama Song Art Space, Blaffer Art Museum, Art Licks Weekend and Wedge Gallery among others. Her written works have been published in Byline Houston, Gulf Coast Journal, and The Smartest Thing. In 2017, Garrett performed in Scales with Solange Knowles at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, TX and later continued to work with Knowles in 2019 for When I Get Home. She is also a founding member of JUICEBOX, a community platform for Black and Brown women, queer, and transgender & gender-nonconforming (TGNC) DJ’s. She has curated exhibitions for Project Row Houses’ Community Gallery, ICOSA Collective, and the School of Art Institute of Chicago's Wellness Center. Her artistic, administrative, and curatorial practice is rooted in her southern Black Feminist’s lens of love, mindfulness, and care. Garrett has held previous positions at Lawndale Art Center, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, and Project Row Houses while also serving as an Artist Board member for Art League Houston from 2018-2019. She is currently Manager of Programs at 3Arts, Communications Manager at Hyde Park Jazz Festival, a member of Nikkei Uprising (a group of Japanese American activists in Chicago organizing towards abolition & the collective liberation of all peoples), and a core member of Companion Cooperative (a volunteer-run art exhibition and programming space in Chicago).
Image: Sidney Garrett, Finding Necessities curation at ICOSA Collective, 2020
About Artists
Reevah Agarwaal is an artist from New Delhi, India, currently based in Chicago, IL. She received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) in 2024. Working primarily with textiles and print media, her practice explores themes of girlhood, nostalgia, and intergenerational domestic relationships. Using repurposed textiles with personal histories, she creates quilts and collages that reference childhood, intimacy, and coming of age. Through material memory, intuition, and inherited knowledge, she reclaims and reimagines narratives of women and girls.
Her work has been exhibited at The Plan, Parlour and Ramp, EXPO Chicago, Citrus Gallery, Bridgeport Art Center, among other venues. She received the New Futures Award from The Other Art Fair in 2024 and is currently an Artist in Residence at the Chicago Artists Coalition.
Headshot: Inaara Vishnani
Image: Lost Page, 2024, Satin bedsheet, canvas, repurposed brassiere, press-on nails, felt, thread, sequins, and acrylic paint, 16 x 12.5 in
(updated 2025)
Cay Mims (she/they) is a Black, queer artist living on the Northside of Chicago. Their primary goal is to synthesize sociological frameworks with their personal experiences. Their work is overwhelmingly concerned with representing themes of displacement, erasure, impermanence and memory. Qualitative and curious, never didactic, and infused with personality; they seek to create moments that are comfortably familiar to some, while amicably informative to others.
Cay also is an emerging, independent arts programmer and curator. Placing an emphasis on marginalized artists, they have hosted and supported creative events around the city for the past year. This includes facilitating/moderating a series of artist conversations in conjunction with shows at the German Cultural Center and (formerly) The Martin; curating an emerging artist pop-up at DragonFly Gallery; and hosting a Black Pride Movie Screening at the Logan Theater.
Cay graduated in 2021 from Vanderbilt University with a BA in Studio Art and a BA in Sociology. They have shown work in a number of galleries nationally including Space 204, Nashville TN; Dedo Maranville Fine Arts Gallery, Valdosta, FL; Buckham Gallery, Flint, MI; M. G. Nelson Gallery, Springfield, IL; The Bridgeport Art Center, Chicago, IL.
Cay also loves cooking, jazz records, trivia, and YouTube.
Image: Cay Mims, DURAG, 2022, Oil on Panel, 35" x 30"
Nekita Thomas is a multidisciplinary experiential graphic designer, educator, and researcher dedicated to harnessing design for social impact. Her work focuses on the intersection of race, well-being, and urban design, spatializing justice and reimagining the civic role of design in our lives and communities. Bridging graphic design, tactical urbanism, and civic engagement, her research explores design's capacity to strengthen communities, initiate radical imagining, and amplify civic participation through anti-racist placemaking solutions. Thomas's initiatives, including public installations and participatory design workshops, guide communities toward envisioning and actualizing healthier, more inclusive, and just spatial environments and futures.
Thomas’s practice has helped steward projects with the National Public Housing Museum's Corner Store Co-op, the Chicago Sukkah Festival as part of the 2023 Chicago Architecture Biennial, and SkyART Chicago in reimagining the future of South-Chicago. These collaborations highlight her dedication to creating spaces that foster dialogue and understanding, emphasizing the critical role of design in addressing societal issues.
She has presented her work across disciplinary domains on both national and international stages, including venues such as the Krannert Art Museum, the Black in Design Conference at Harvard (BiD), the American Institute of Graphic Arts Design Educators Conference (AIGA), the International Association of Societies of Design Research Conference (IASDR), and artist residencies such as at Ragdale Foundation. These platforms have not only showcased her contributions to the field but also amplified her voice in the critical conversations around spatial justice.
Thomas holds a BFA in Graphic Design from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MFA in Visual Studies from the University at Buffalo New York. She is an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design and Design for Responsible Innovation at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Image: Nekita Thomas, Black Space Protocols, 2022, Public Installation
