Post on 10-Jan-2020
transcript
THE
OF
THE M
ATTE
R
“Art was, in effect, something that
was happening to me, happening at
that very moment. And the world
seemed new again, moved by an
invisible impulse. Everything was
so relaxing and admirable, it was
impossible not to look. Blessed is
the morning, I thought.” 1
-Enrique Vila-Matas
As cultural producers, how is our capacity and desire to keep making
catalyzed by what Vila-Matas calls the ‘invisible impulses’ that move
through the world? In this sense, how is the work we make something
of a vital record; a form of transmission; an extraction from the
everyday?
Exploratory and observational, the exhibition “The Heart of the
Matter” is what curator Carolyn Christov–Bakargiev might call a “veil”
or “draft”2 as opposed to a thematic or analytical exhibition, and it is
comprised of 12 artists recently affiliated with organizations funded
by the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation. What unites these
works—mostly “faces and places”—is some observable manifestation
of the artist’s everyday life through closely observed gestures that
span intimacy, awkwardness, specificity and inimitability. Some artists
in the exhibition engage in some form of locational abstraction – or,
abstract works that are rooted in the logic or poetry of place. Others
Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation Curatorial Fellowship in partnership with the Chicago Artists Coalition
Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, 35 East Upper Wacker Drive, Chicago
January 29 – June 16, 2016
The protagonist of the meta-fictional novel, The Illogic of Kassel, is a
Spanish writer-in-residence at the citywide Documenta biennial, where
he moves through a sometimes-foreign, sometimes-familiar sea of
contemporary art and ideas, experiencing in near-simultaneity the
cyclical highs and lows of an artist’s inner life. On his last day walking
the German city of Kassel, he expresses an absorptive “peak”:
Curated by
Jessica Cochran,
Curatorial Fellow
Artists
Alex Bradley Cohen
Laura Davis
Howard Fonda
Roberto Jamora
Anna Kunz
Esau McGhee
Jovencio de la Paz
Josue Pellot
LJ Roberts
Jean Schuster
Alice Tippet
Polly Yates
The following is a list of participating artists, and the organizations, all supported by the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, with which they were affiliated:
Alex Bradley Cohen Roots & Culture, Elmhurst Art Museum
Laura Davis Threewalls, Elmhurst Art Museum
Howard Fonda Heaven Gallery, Roots and Culture
Roberto Jamora Ragdale
Anna Kunz Woman Made Gallery
Esau McGhee Elastic Arts, Chicago Artists Coalition
Jovencio de la Paz Threewalls, Chicago Artists Coalition
Josue Pellot Heaven Gallery
LJ Roberts ACRE
Jean Schuster Union Street Gallery
Alice Tippit Roots & Culture
Polly Yates Spudnik Press
For more information visit chicagoartistscoalition.org and gddf.org
The mission of the Chicago Artists Coalition is to build a sustainable
marketplace for entrepreneurial artists and creatives. As pioneers in
advocacy and professional development, we capitalize on the intersection
of art and enterprise by activating collaborative partnerships and
developing innovative resources. The Chicago Artists Coalition is
committed to cultivating groundbreaking exhibitions and educational
opportunities, and to building a diverse community of artistic leaders that
defines the place of art and artists in our culture and economy.
The Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation’s Gen Ops Plus strategy in the Chicago region provides
general operations grants and an array of other kinds of support to help grantees sustain their artistry and
strengthen their operations.
HEA
RT
are engaging in a deeply emotive type of figuration—the human or
animal body rendered with wit, affection or, sometimes, pathos.
At the heart of each work we can perhaps locate, at arms length, the
mobilization of some “invisible impulse” or energizing force – it may
be an Instagram photo, a magazine, a bottle, studio remnants, rocks,
a residency, a friend, a joke, or a llama. In a world saturated and fast,
these artists model slowness and divergence, situating themselves
and re-situating themselves in relation to the world, as if art is
always, “in effect,” happening.
The location of this exhibition within a foundation headquarters
prompted several curatorial goals:
First, by alternating between figuration and abstraction, I hope to
disrupt the psychological overhead of the office by introducing into
the space an orchestrated sequence of interruptions – a nice, steady
hum. New “officemates” peering off picture planes; the essences
of other places emergent and expressed through abstracted color,
pattern or surface.
Finally, I hope to bring to the Donnelley Foundation headquarters
the special, quotidian corners of artists’ lived spaces and inner lives
through works that feel intimately rendered and tremendously
specific, if not emotional, funny, eccentric and sometimes just
practical.
-Jessica Cochran
Jessica Cochran is a curator living in Chicago, where she also manages a
private family art collection and teaches at the School of the Art Institute
of Chicago.
1 Enrique Vila-Matas, The Illogic of Kassel, trans Anne McLean and Anna
Milsom (New York: New Directions, 2015), 220.
2 See “A Powerful Curator’s Idiosyncratic Genius” by Emily Stokes, the New
York Times, December 1, 2015
ALEX BRADLEY COHEN
A Friendly Ritual, 2015, oil on canvas
(Roots & Culture, Elmhurst Art
Museum)
LJ ROBERTS
Jenny Romaine and Kubby Bear at Idyll
Dandy Arts Smithville, TN, 2013
Single-strand embroidery on cotton
(ACRE)
JEAN SCHUSTER
Llama, oil on canvas, 2013
(Union Street Gallery)
ANNA KUNZ
The painter, 2009 styrofoam, gesso,
branch, ink (Woman Made Gallery)
ALICE TIPPIT
Flush, 2015, oil on canvas
(Roots & Culture)
POLLY YATES
From the Landscape Series, 2013-2015,
found photo collages (Spudnik Press)
ROBERTO JAMORA
Walking around Seashore State Park by
myself one day, 2015, oil and beeswax
on MDF (Ragdale)
ESAU MCGHEE
Untitled Post-Racial Pyramid #1
Dedicated to the Body Defined as Other,
2015, collage of archival prints,
staples and archival tape in frame
built by artist (Elastic Arts)
JOSUE PELLOT
Untitled-Blue, 2015, mixed media
(Heaven Gallery)
JOVENCIO DE LA PAZ
The Window’s Gifts, 2015, screen print
and monoprint on canvas (Chicago
Artists Coalition, Threewalls)
HOWARD FONDA
Untitled, 2015, oil on canvas (Heaven
Gallery, Roots & Culture)
LAURA DAVIS
Untitled drawing, 2014, pencil on
paper (Threewalls, Elmhurst Art
Museum, Chicago Artists Coalition)