2130 W. Fulton St., Chicago, IL 60612
Wednesday-Thursday: 11AM-5PM
Friday-Saturday: by advance appointment
02.13
Tracing Faults
Friday, January 3, 2020 / 5-8PM
Cass Davis Kelly Kristin Jones kwabena foli Mark Blanchard
Jeff Robinson
Chicago Artists Coalition is pleased to present Tracing Faults, a group exhibition featuring new works by HATCH artists-in-residence, Mark Blanchard, Cass Davis, kwabena foli, and Kelly Kristin Jones.
The exhibition runs from January 3 - February 13, 2020, with an opening reception on Friday, January, 3 from 5-8PM.
Tracing Faults is one of two synchronous exhibitions featuring works from Blanchard, Davis, foli, and Jones. The companion exhibition, To Unmake a Fold, will take place at University of Illinois Springfield (UIS) Visual Arts Gallery. Both exhibitions are curated by Jeff Robinson who works as HATCH curatorial resident and as Director of the Visual Arts Gallery at UIS.
In geology, faults and folds refer to tectonic activities that result from immense stress and pressure below the Earth’s surface. These environmental tensions trigger groundbreaking events that reshape the visible landscape. As joint exhibitions, Tracing Faults (and) To Unmake a Fold use these seismic actions as an analogy for the social, cultural, and political rifts that permeate our present human condition, and consider how these quandaries prompt opportunities for collective renewal and redemption. Blanchard, Davis, foli, and Jones create works that trace the underlying structures and systems that infringe upon our human rights to equality, freedom of expression, and freedom from discrimination. Working in video, sculpture, installation, and poetry, these artists present transformed narratives that unmake discord by re-visualizing the freedom intrinsic to our being.
It is no coincidence that Tracing Faults and its companion exhibition To Unmake a Fold reside in two Illinoisan cities with an established history of ideological discord and that together have significant influence over the governance of our state. These exhibitions express a desire to undo those rifts between us. In numerous ways, the works on display at both galleries will converse with each other. This desire to bridge the gap and connect these disparate communities is echoed in the exhibition titles. Alone, each title provides only a fragmented glimpse; an incomplete thought. But together, their words urge us to use adversity in order to achieve self-actualization. Through their work and across these social, political, and geographical chasms, these artists are tracing faults to unmake a fold.
Tracing Faults is curated by Jeff Robinson.
Image: Kelly Kristin Jones, Dodge Test #43, 2019, Video still, 5 minutes
About Curators
Jeff Robinson is a curator, artist, and arts advocate based in both Chicago and Springfield, Illinois. Robinson has curated and organized numerous exhibitions at the UIS Visual Arts Gallery, where he serves as Gallery Director, and at DEMO Project, which he co-founded and co-directed until its demolition in early 2018. In 2017, Robinson co-organized the Terrain Biennial: Outpost in Enos Park. He currently serves as Co-Vice President on the board for Terrain. His curatorial and studio practices have been featured on Daily Serving, in NewCity Magazine (Chicago), FLOORR Magazine (London) the Riverfront Times (St. Louis), and NPR Illinois, among others.
About Artists
Cass Davis is a Chicago-based artist with an MFA in Fiber and Material Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her solo shows include No Body on Earth But Yours in conjunction with the Chicago Underground Film Festival, and Of Roses and Jessamine at SUGS gallery in Chicago. Davis has shown in group exhibitions and screenings at York St. John University, UK, Tile Blush in Miami, FL, The Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, The American Medium in NYC, Terrain Biennial, Chicago Home Theater Festival, Mana Contemporary, Sullivan Galleries, and the Silent Funny in Chicago, IL. She has been awarded the Oxbow Summer Artist's MFA Residency, Roger Brown Artist's Residency, and the IOTO Summer Residency, Shapiro Center Eager Research Grant, the World Less Traveled Grant, Dean’s Merit Scholarship, and has been lecturing faculty in Fiber and Material Studies at SAIC.
Kelly Kristin Jones uses her photo-based installation work as a vehicle to explore competing narratives within urban cultural landscapes. She received an MFA in Photography from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and was a Post-MFA Faculty Fellow at the University of Georgia in 2013. Kelly has completed residencies at MASS MoCA, LATITUDE, Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Emory University, and ACRE. Her current work with contested US monument sites has been exhibited at museums, galleries, and universities across the US.
kwabena foli is an multidisciplinary artist from the Southside of Chicago. His work has appeared on cultural platforms such as All Def Poetry, madamnoire, blkcreatives, elephant journal and elsewhere. He is the author of "learning rhythm" with Flowered Concrete Press, listing within Amazon’s top 100 for African-American poetry, as well as African Art + Photography for ebooks. His work is also anthologized in "Revise the Psalm: Work Celebrating the Writing of Gwendolyn Brooks" from Curbside Press. Forthcoming publications include Meridian, Crab Orchard Review, and cream city review. Residencies include the Poetry Center of Chicago and Banff Centre of Arts & Creativity in Canada. He is currently resides in Chicago.
Mark Blanchard (b. 1991 Chicago, Illinois) received his BA at Oberlin College (2014) and MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2017). His work manifests in photography, video, cinemagraphs, sound and virtual reality. He explores identity within the framework of considering the misrepresentations applied to persons of color propagandized through mainstream media within the United States. His practice, in response, has been a process of decentralizing those representations and building digital spaces that cultivate reconciliation of our identities. His role as the artist involves establishing varied perspectives that better articulate us as complex beings whose essence expresses an individuality beyond constructions of an Earthly realm.
