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Meet Artist Residents
As an Iranian Azerbaijanis-American woman, Laleh Motlagh delves into profound explorations of love, intimacy, spirituality, trust, and resilience while remaining present to her own localities. Based in Chicago, Motlagh challenges socio-cultural alienation and navigates the complexities of multicultural identity. Often collaborative with nonhumans, she employs drawing, painting, performance, video, and installation to question the boundaries between human and natural life, the admissible and the taboo, as well as the geopolitical overtones found so prevalently in the discourse of border zones and notions of belonging.
Laleh Motlagh لاله مطلق (b. Tabriz, Iran) is a Chicago-based artist and educator. Her work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions at institutions such as Museo Universitario del Chopo (Mexico City, Mexico), EXPO (Chicago, USA), Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts (Chicago, USA), Chicago Artist Coalition (Chicago, USA), KHB Studios (Berlin, Germany), NAHR (Sotechiesta, Italy), Teufelsberg (Berlin, Germany), Gallery 400 (Chicago, USA), Sarv Gallery (Tehran, Iran), Farhang Gallery (Tabriz, Iran) among others. She has received multiple awards and recognitions including Individual Artists Program grant from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, Newcity’s Breakout Artist, U.S. Fulbright Independent Artist Research grant, Provost’s Award for Graduate Research, and more. Motlagh received her MFA from the University of Illinois Chicago.
Image: Fearless Love, 2021. Still from a 60:00 minutes performance.
LOLA AYISHA OGBARA (cultural worker & artist) born and raised in Chicago, Illinois holds many talents under her belt, i.e. sculpture, sound, design, photography and installation art. !My practice explores the multifaceted implications and ramifications of being in regards to the Black experience. I work with clay as a material in order to emphasize a necessary fragility which symbolizes an essential contradiction implicit in empowerments”. Ogbara holds a Bachelor of Arts in Arts Entertainment & Media Management from Columbia College Chicago in 2013 and a MFA in Visual Arts from Washington University Sam Fox School of Art & Design.
In 2017, Ogbara co-founded Artists in the Room, a collective of artists and scholars who host artists, emerging and established, in hopes of serving as a catalyst for artist development and networking. Ogbara has also received numerous fellowships and awards, including the Multicultural Fellowship sponsored by the NCECA 52nd Annual Conference, the Arts + Public Life and Center for the Study of Race, Politics & Culture Residency at the University of Chicago, and the Coney Family Fund Award hosted by the Chicago Artists Coalition.
Ogbara has exhibited in art spaces across the country and is currently based in Chicago, Illinois.
Heashot photo: Adrian Octavius Walker
Image: Lola Ayisha Ogbara, Bubblegum, Bubblegum. 2021. Ceramic stoneware, acrylic varnish, nylon. 30” x 18” x 20”.
Michael Cuadrado (b. San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1995) is a visual artist working mostly between painting/drawing and collage. Largely influenced by ideas within queer theory, semiotics and phenomenology, his work is addressing topics within sexuality, desire/melancholia, spirituality, and his complex relationship to Western thinkers. He received a BFA in Drawing from Pratt Institute in 2018 and has done residencies at the Ox-Bow School of Art and Artists' Residency and The Wassaic Project. His work has been exhibited nationally in New York, Chicago, Florida, and Texas. He now lives and works in Chicago, IL.
Piece information:
Coded Collaboration Between Lovers
Chalk pastel and woven paper on canvas.
67in x 60in
2020
Born in 1998 in Prince George’s County, MD. R. Treshawn Williamson is a Chicago Based Essayist and Multidisciplinary artist of black American Descent. He earned his BFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Majoring in Visual critical studies and Interdisciplinary Studio practices.
Williamson’s work is a meditation on the obstruction and surveillance of the lived histories of African-Americans. Investigating the application of cultural re-imagination in the African Diaspora through the engagement of oral histories, post-colonial theory, folklore, and ethnomusicology.
Image:
Untitled iteration 1
(Diptych left half)
to be interested ~ captured by
love
2021. Charcoal rubbing, screen printed debris, White Oak, Etched plaque. Left half 15 x 20.
Sal Moreno (he/him) is an interdisciplinary artist based in Chicago who engages with computation, sound, performance, and new media. Sal experiments with free-drumming and emerging technology to dismantle the regimented traditions of marching band and its origins in Western militaristic and music ideologies.
He has shown work at Ars Electronica, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Mana Contemporary, and virtual platforms. Sal recently received the 2021 Excellency in New Media Award by the New Media Caucus. He is an instructor at Northeastern Illinois University in the Art + Design Department, and serves as Arts Technology Coordinator for Chicago Public Schools in the Arts Education Department.
Image: The Convergence of Rhythms (still), 2021. Performance, New Media. Duration: 23 min 05 sec.
Tulika Ladsariya is an Indian artist, born in Mumbai- living and working in Chicago. Working with the sentiment of longing, her work explores the footprint left by the invisible labor of the migrant. In a story-telling narrative style- she explores the notion of un-belonging and works to create a space for those who feel ‘othered’ to come together in cross cultural dialogue.
Qualified as a Chartered Accountant, she transitioned to a creative full-time studio practice after her stint working for an auction house in India. She has exhibited at the Hammond Museum NY, Ralph Arnold Gallery- Loyola University, Hyde Park Art Center, Woman-made Gallery, Expo Chicago, Riverside Arts Center, Jamaat Art gallery Mumbai and Art Heritage Gallery New Delhi.
Tulika is the recipient of the South Asian Artists Relief fund, the Make/Together grant from the ATHENA foundation. She has been a resident at the Hyde Park Art Center from 2019-2021
Image: I've Arrived, 2020. Acrylic, Wood, Ceramic. 36 x 34 x 6 in.
