- Home
- /
- Residencies
- /
- HATCH
- /
- Past Residents
Meet Artist Residents
ATYL (alexandra lee) is an interdisciplinary artist with a focus on installation and digital mixed-media. Her multi-layered, concept-driven work incorporates themes of tradition, femininity, myths, and justice, as well as the delicate interplay between human connection, environment and history. Lee works in a variety of media, including photography, computer generated and 3-D images, sculpture, new media, video installations, painting and drawing. Depending upon the concept behind each piece, Lee chooses the medium that provides the best method of communication. Generally, Lee's work is about time and being and the compulsions of day-to-day living and of love. Her work is about temporal versus eternal, the inter-relation of art and science, and human traditions and beliefs operate within the environments in which they live. Since 2009, Lee's work has fallen within "Project Silkworm." The mixed- and multi-media pieces and series are inspired by the history of Lee's family's silk farm that was confiscated by the Communist government, as well as and the science and cultural contexts of sericulture.
In Amanda Greive's art-making process, the portrayal of relationships symbolically through the interplay of objects in still-lifes or through figural work has been a priority. Greive relies heavily on the use of allegoryas a vehicle for the exploration of the human condition. While her paintings are unique to her experiences, the works also have a far-reaching quality that allows the viewer to relate his or her own relationships to the portrayals, making the act of viewing the paintings an experience in its own right. Greive's body of work serves as an exploration of the irreducible part of humanity that connect us all. Her work addresses the universal propensity for the search for purpose, the sense of curiosity, the desire to be loved and to give love, the acute acknowledgement of the inevitability of isolation, and the fear of death. She has exhibited her work at the St. Louis Artist’s Guild; Woman Made Gallery, Chicago; and the Louisville, Kentucky, Visual Arts Association. Most recently, she had solo shows at the Contemporary Art Center of Peoria, Lincoln Land Community College, and the Buchanan Center for the Arts, as well as a two-person exhibit at the Springfield Art Association. Greive graduated with a BFA in visual arts from the University of Illinois at Springfield in 2008.
Barbara Blacharczyk's drawings and multi-layered compositions on Mylar are based on elemental forms from nature. With her skillful mastery of materials, she creates complex explorations of how these forms and concepts intersect and build on one another, tracing a sequence of changes in time and space. Her transparent layering process develops these diverse natural elements, reveals their larger commonality, and demonstrates how, when juxtaposed, they create a unique visual harmony. Blacharczyk's work was featured in the Spring 2011 issue of Visual Overture magazine. Her drawings have been published in two recent volumes of Manifest's "International Drawing Annual," a juried international publication of contemporary drawing. Barbara Blacharczyk received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Carole Hennessy explores the landscape of her life—both real and imagined—through the creative use of watercolor and related media. The changing seasons, colors and patterns provide an endless supply of ideas and subjects. A drive along any highway or back road is a constant temptation to pull off the road and paint. And the view from aloft brings an entirely new aspect of pattern and design. From realism to abstracted design, the translucency, freshness and fluidity of watercolor provide her with a means of expression. The inspirations are many and bringing all these views and techniques together helps to bring a constant flow of ideas to her work. Hennessy has been involved with art and watercolor for over 40 years. A signature member of the National Watercolor Society, the Watercolor Honor Society, the Illinois Watercolor Society, the Missouri Watercolor Society and the Taos National Society of Watercolorists, she also serves on the board of the WHS and the IWS. In recent years she has had solo exhibits at the Union League Club, Chicago, and the Oesterle Gallery of North Central College, Chicago. She has exhibited work in many regional, national and international juried shows and has served as a juror for numerous exhibits.
David Wittig was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Wittig studied Photography and Political Science and graduated in 2000. His first solo show in 2006 in Northern Italy coincided with the publication of his first book, Alchimia Degli Elementi (Pieraldo Editore, 2006). His work has also been shown in Paris, New York City, Chicago, Mississippi and Germany. He is currently represented in Europe by Galerie Rivière Faiveley in Paris. He is based in Chicago and works as professional photographer.
Debra Kayes uses repetition of simple organic forms to explore the ways in which creatures large and small group to gain safety in numbers. Layered and repeated elements allow individuals to act as one. By investigating patterning techniques like emergence, gang-mentality, and swarm theory she has also found interest in the benefits of biodiversity, anomaly and metamorphosis. Her approach intentionally forces herself to be perceptive and open to change, with moments of hilarity, so she can discover modification and mutation, speaking to the fluid nature of groups quickly adapting based on local information. Both the pluses and minuses of such patterning systems are not necessarily evident at first glance in her work. One might be immediately stimulated by the bright shapes. Or one might follow the narrative of the shapes: a crowd of hands could be struggling or rallying. Layered folds of paper could be puffing up in defense or for courting. From trying to paint the same shape more than once, to an interest in emergent order and complex systems of behavior, she is fascinated by patterns. What connects her range in practice from painting to sculpture to graphic design to paper-folding is an interest in further understanding the power of the collective. While teaching full-time at Columbia College Chicago as a lecturer, Kayes is also a teaching artist with Chicago Arts Partnership in Education (CAPE) and a digital media mentor with the Convergence Academies. She runs an online archive of multi-media surface design, Pattern+Source. Kayes is an art editor at Muzzle Magazine.
Jim Zimpel’s works constructs factual and imaginary entry points and rituals: they are the means to process, explore, and understand things that are actually, or perceived as, inaccessible. A meaningful fishing experience, a trip to a natural wonder, a project built together in the garage shop behind the house. His practice is an attempt to attend to actual and desired familial bonds. It is location, object, or activity. A fire ring, a broken engine, a hug, the forced proximity between two men dictated by the hull of a 14-foot fishing boat. Zimpel's work is recollection and recognition, an interpretation of traditions, fiction and history, an exploration of the terms of patrilineal relationships as he understand them. Zimpel exhibits nationally and internationally and has attended numerous residencies abroad. He encourages his students to maintain an active and engaged social and personal practice and stresses the importance of flexibility and interdisciplinary practices. Zimpel attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago for his undergraduate degree and eventually traveled to New York for a graduate degree from The Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College.
Sandra Perlow's work is based on combinations of woodcut, monoprint, collage, and acrylic worked onto paper or canvas surfaces. The work begins with sketches that come from walks around the city; ideas that are developed come from these progressive sketches. As she works on the paintings and drawings, parts of the surface's shape are eliminated by scrapping, blotting, and smearing. Her selection of ideas for work comes from a continual interest in architecture and landscape. She also draws upon daily life, especially from the movement and expressions of people as they interact, which she interprets as shapes and colors in space. Born in Chicago, she studied painting and drawing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she received a B.A.E and M.F.A. She received a printmaking degree from the Illinois Institute of Design. Sandra is also the recipient of several awards, a residency at Yaddo as well as at the American Academy in Rome. Her work has been exhibited at the Dubhe Carreno gallery, Rockford Museum (IL), the Brauer Museum (IN), and the Linda Warren Galleries in Chicago, among others. She is currently a recipient of the Chicago Artist Coalition residency program in 2012.
Never miss a thing
Subscribe to our newsletter and get regular updates on news, events, grants, and the latest opportunities for artists
Support Chicago Artists
Make a gift to CAC today and join our growing community of supporters