OCtober 2019
kg
A sculptural badminton net. The net doubles as a sort of flag and contain small found objects within its crocheted structure. This work recalls the piece I showed at the final Terrain exhibition Sabina Ott curated. -kg
This special project by kg takes a different approach to the constraints of the box and uses it as a tiny footnote at one of the tripod’s feet. A footnote clarifies or augments a thought, which I think is an appropriate use of the space for kg’s memorial to Sabina. -Richard Medina
kg (American, b. Poland 1980) incorporates references ranging from addiction, personal and family histories, mourning, and pets to Polish immigration, badminton, language, Jim Morrison, and the Doors, and feminist fiber artists. http://www.karolinagnatowski.com
This special project by kg takes a different approach to the constraints of the box and uses it as a tiny footnote at one of the tripod’s feet. A footnote clarifies or augments a thought, which I think is an appropriate use of the space for kg’s memorial to Sabina. -Richard Medina
kg (American, b. Poland 1980) incorporates references ranging from addiction, personal and family histories, mourning, and pets to Polish immigration, badminton, language, Jim Morrison, and the Doors, and feminist fiber artists. http://www.karolinagnatowski.com
December 2018
Jonathan Korotko
How do we inform ourselves about ourselves? Constructing a framework to think through the act of play, "Body Informers" is a presentation of investigating space and objects. Ultimately encouraging the act of coquettish synergy between body and item.
“Currently, I construct "domestic" objects, which for me act as embodied/anthropomorphic forms. I am interested in the self-reflective moments that happen in spaces such as a bedroom or bathroom, whether this be in front of a vanity set or a computer screen. I think of it as an act in understanding one's identity. I am curious about the mirror as a signifier in queer identity. Based on the idea of an awareness to one's visibility, or how one might identify. What happens, however, when access is removed or limited. Realizing one cannot find themselves in an area that felt familiar at one time, and what are the reasons for this rejection? Objects or areas that hold a comfort through memory, or contain some sort of support, embody the same visceral qualities of queer kinship for me. Through this rejection comes a queered support. I strive to allow for a restructuring of language through specific, individualized diasporic engagement with my work, as a way of contextualizing personal lexicographic understandings of queerness."
Jonathan Korotko was born on September 30th in the year 1992. He grew up in small towns of rural Wisconsin, resulting in his affinity for pick-up trucks, and the smell of dairy farms. He loved to explore at an early age and had a curiosity his mother would call “ruthless”. Always wanting to know, learn, and simply understand, question asking was his favorite sport. His imagination acted as the vehicle in the pursuit of obtaining and realizing knowledge. He entered an undergraduate degree at Carroll University in 2012 majoring in Fine Arts where creatively he could continue questioning concepts, theories, and histories relevant to his own identity. Within his undergraduate degree, print and bookmaking quickly became the articulation of his art practice. For him, the dissemination of knowledge via a book or within print conceptualized the thematics he was trying to grasp. Graduating in 2016, he knew there were many questions he still sought answers to. In the fall of 2017 he entered an MFA program at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) within the Printmedia division.
“Currently, I construct "domestic" objects, which for me act as embodied/anthropomorphic forms. I am interested in the self-reflective moments that happen in spaces such as a bedroom or bathroom, whether this be in front of a vanity set or a computer screen. I think of it as an act in understanding one's identity. I am curious about the mirror as a signifier in queer identity. Based on the idea of an awareness to one's visibility, or how one might identify. What happens, however, when access is removed or limited. Realizing one cannot find themselves in an area that felt familiar at one time, and what are the reasons for this rejection? Objects or areas that hold a comfort through memory, or contain some sort of support, embody the same visceral qualities of queer kinship for me. Through this rejection comes a queered support. I strive to allow for a restructuring of language through specific, individualized diasporic engagement with my work, as a way of contextualizing personal lexicographic understandings of queerness."
Jonathan Korotko was born on September 30th in the year 1992. He grew up in small towns of rural Wisconsin, resulting in his affinity for pick-up trucks, and the smell of dairy farms. He loved to explore at an early age and had a curiosity his mother would call “ruthless”. Always wanting to know, learn, and simply understand, question asking was his favorite sport. His imagination acted as the vehicle in the pursuit of obtaining and realizing knowledge. He entered an undergraduate degree at Carroll University in 2012 majoring in Fine Arts where creatively he could continue questioning concepts, theories, and histories relevant to his own identity. Within his undergraduate degree, print and bookmaking quickly became the articulation of his art practice. For him, the dissemination of knowledge via a book or within print conceptualized the thematics he was trying to grasp. Graduating in 2016, he knew there were many questions he still sought answers to. In the fall of 2017 he entered an MFA program at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) within the Printmedia division.
May 2018
John Harness
"I keep a box made of Missouri walnut that holds my grandfather's cremated remains. Grandma didn't want to keep it.
Granddad's name was Paul. The name made me wonder about pallbearers: A pall was a burial veil put over a body or a casket.
I kept rhyming. Another shroud that covers a body is a caul, a part of the amniotic sac that can veil the head of a baby as it's born. They say a baby born with a caul will be prosperous, a seer or healer, immune to drowning, or otherwise cursed.
There's another fetal membrane, the chorion. It's called that because there's an old, old word that meant guts, like cat-gut strings on a violin. It's the same word as cord, and chord (notochord… harpsichord…). That same old, old word--through Old English this time instead of Greek--gave us a great little word if you're a weaver: yarn.
Thinking of Paul and palls and cauls and chords and yarn and birth and death, I made a little shroud for Box Gallery, but inside it, like the amnion inside the chorion, like the veil inside the cave."
John Harness co-founded and curates at The Condo Association, an anti-capitalist, pro-activist gallery in Humboldt Park, Chicago. His last show, Cat's Cradle (February, 2018), brought together fiber art works that encourage play and catalog memories. As an artist, his practice draws on traditional storytelling techniques, textile making, and game design.
Granddad's name was Paul. The name made me wonder about pallbearers: A pall was a burial veil put over a body or a casket.
I kept rhyming. Another shroud that covers a body is a caul, a part of the amniotic sac that can veil the head of a baby as it's born. They say a baby born with a caul will be prosperous, a seer or healer, immune to drowning, or otherwise cursed.
There's another fetal membrane, the chorion. It's called that because there's an old, old word that meant guts, like cat-gut strings on a violin. It's the same word as cord, and chord (notochord… harpsichord…). That same old, old word--through Old English this time instead of Greek--gave us a great little word if you're a weaver: yarn.
Thinking of Paul and palls and cauls and chords and yarn and birth and death, I made a little shroud for Box Gallery, but inside it, like the amnion inside the chorion, like the veil inside the cave."
John Harness co-founded and curates at The Condo Association, an anti-capitalist, pro-activist gallery in Humboldt Park, Chicago. His last show, Cat's Cradle (February, 2018), brought together fiber art works that encourage play and catalog memories. As an artist, his practice draws on traditional storytelling techniques, textile making, and game design.
April 2018
Alejandro T. Acierto
YOUARENEVERALWAYSHERE is an exploratory work that ruminates on the nonlinear. Enclosed within an enclosure and pushing out from within, the box of Box Gallery becomes a placeholder for an unpredictable set of new material that emerges from inside. As a site that is an object but also utilitarian in nature, the box withholds the capacity for a recognition of space, one that upends the linearity of progression as other dimensions complicate the singular. Using Box Gallery as a point of departure, as one that allows for the space of Compound Yellow to become activated through performance, this multichannel sound performance opens up a recognition of place through a series of fixed and unfixed events that may happen in the space.
Alejandro T. Acierto is an artist and musician whose work is largely informed by the breath, the voice, and the processes that enable them. He is an Artist in Residence in Critical Race Studies at Michigan State University, a 3Arts awardee, and has shown his work internationally at the Film Society of the Lincoln Center, MCA Chicago, and the Art Institute of Chicago among others. A founding member of Ensemble Dal Niente, Acierto holds an MFA from University of Illinois at Chicago, an MM from Manhattan School of Music, and a BM from DePaul University.
Alejandro T. Acierto is an artist and musician whose work is largely informed by the breath, the voice, and the processes that enable them. He is an Artist in Residence in Critical Race Studies at Michigan State University, a 3Arts awardee, and has shown his work internationally at the Film Society of the Lincoln Center, MCA Chicago, and the Art Institute of Chicago among others. A founding member of Ensemble Dal Niente, Acierto holds an MFA from University of Illinois at Chicago, an MM from Manhattan School of Music, and a BM from DePaul University.
March 2018
Tom Burtonwood
"Schrödinger's cat isn't dead after all" is a tongue in cheek project to explore states of possible simultaneity. A cardboard box is placed in the space and a url is distributed to attendees. By accessing the url one might look inside the box and observe whether or not Schrödinger's cat is present.
The actual "Schrödinger's cat" is a thought experiment whereby a cat in a sealed box can be both dead and alive at the same time. In this paradox a cat is locked in a steel box with a geiger counter, a radioactive substance and a flask of poison. Radioactive decay recorded by the geiger counter would trigger a mechanism to smash the flask, releasing the poison and killing the cat.
Schrödinger coined the term Verschränkung (entanglement) whilst developing the paradox. Entanglement describes a physical phenomenon whereby the quantum state of each pairs or groups of particles cannot be described independently from the state of the others.
By observing the cat in the box are we entangled with it?
Tom Burtonwood (b. United Kingdom) is a Chicago-based interdisciplinary artist, curator and educator. He/they are engaged in research probing thresholds between the virtual and the real, between image and object. Recent projects are motivated by an investigation of surface, texture and representation through sculpture, installation and time based media. Recent venues presenting Burtonwood's work include Lawrence and Clark, Chicago; CICA Museum Gyeonggi-do, Korea, DEMO Project, Springfield, IL; Terrain Biennial 2017, Oak Park, IL; Cedarhurst Center for the Arts, Mount Vernon, IL; Flux Factory, NY, NY; The Compound Gallery, Oakland, CA; The University of Illinois Springfield, Springfield, IL; Bruce High Quality Foundation University, NY, NY; Firecat Projects, Chicago; The Printing Museum, Houston, TX; Terrain Biennial, Oak Park, IL; Fuseworks, Brooklyn, NY; Front Room Gallery Brooklyn, NY; New Capital, Chicago, IL; The Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL; and Printed Matter, NY, NY.
The actual "Schrödinger's cat" is a thought experiment whereby a cat in a sealed box can be both dead and alive at the same time. In this paradox a cat is locked in a steel box with a geiger counter, a radioactive substance and a flask of poison. Radioactive decay recorded by the geiger counter would trigger a mechanism to smash the flask, releasing the poison and killing the cat.
Schrödinger coined the term Verschränkung (entanglement) whilst developing the paradox. Entanglement describes a physical phenomenon whereby the quantum state of each pairs or groups of particles cannot be described independently from the state of the others.
By observing the cat in the box are we entangled with it?
Tom Burtonwood (b. United Kingdom) is a Chicago-based interdisciplinary artist, curator and educator. He/they are engaged in research probing thresholds between the virtual and the real, between image and object. Recent projects are motivated by an investigation of surface, texture and representation through sculpture, installation and time based media. Recent venues presenting Burtonwood's work include Lawrence and Clark, Chicago; CICA Museum Gyeonggi-do, Korea, DEMO Project, Springfield, IL; Terrain Biennial 2017, Oak Park, IL; Cedarhurst Center for the Arts, Mount Vernon, IL; Flux Factory, NY, NY; The Compound Gallery, Oakland, CA; The University of Illinois Springfield, Springfield, IL; Bruce High Quality Foundation University, NY, NY; Firecat Projects, Chicago; The Printing Museum, Houston, TX; Terrain Biennial, Oak Park, IL; Fuseworks, Brooklyn, NY; Front Room Gallery Brooklyn, NY; New Capital, Chicago, IL; The Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL; and Printed Matter, NY, NY.
February 2018
Gabrielle Egnater
The Matzah House acts as an extension to Egnater’s recent body of work titled “A Jewish Home.” Egnater’s practice transforms Jewish food into symbols and surrealist still lifes to open up the discussion about Jewish culture. The Matzah House acts as an ode to the nomadic history of the Jewish people and finds a Jewish equivalent to a ginger bread house.
Gabrielle Egnater was born in Los Angeles, California to a family of printmakers and lighting designers. She transplanted to Chicago to pursue a BFA in Sculpture at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work has been primarily shown in Chicago, including the Roger Brown Study Collection, Lincoln Park; The Sharp Building of SAIC, Downtown; Gallery X, Downtown; Prairie State College, Chicago Heights. Egnater has recently been chosen as a Buonanno Scholar at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and has been the recipient of the LeRoy Neiman Scholarship to attend the Ox-bow School of Art.
Gabrielle Egnater was born in Los Angeles, California to a family of printmakers and lighting designers. She transplanted to Chicago to pursue a BFA in Sculpture at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work has been primarily shown in Chicago, including the Roger Brown Study Collection, Lincoln Park; The Sharp Building of SAIC, Downtown; Gallery X, Downtown; Prairie State College, Chicago Heights. Egnater has recently been chosen as a Buonanno Scholar at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and has been the recipient of the LeRoy Neiman Scholarship to attend the Ox-bow School of Art.
December 2017
Madeleine Aguilar
Madeleine Aguilar was born in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1998, where she lived in the home of her grandparents. She moved to an apartment in Lombard, Illinois, in 1999, across the street from a cemetery. Her mother frequently took her to the library to play computer games and build towers with soft, colored blocks. In 2001, her parents bought their first house in Cicero, IL, where both her younger sister and brother were born. After a speeding car flipped over in front of her house, she moved to Lyons, IL, in 2003. There, her family was complete with the arrival of her youngest brother. Her father got a new job in 2004, so she moved to Crystal Lake, IL, where her neighbor with a big garden taught her how to sew. In 2006, she moved to her current home in Chicago, IL, which is directly in the path of airplane landings and departures. She just got her own bedroom in the basement and currently attends the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. As of now, this home is her favorite residence.
November 2017
Luis Mejico
Luis Mejico is a multidisciplinary artist and independent curator. Xe has performed and exhibited work at the Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago, Queens Museum in New York, Mana Contemporary Chicago, Links Hall, Zhou Brothers Art Center, The Oak Park Art League, The Uptown Arts Center, and Jan Brandt Gallery, among others. Xis first solo show, I will hurt you, recently opened in February 2017. Mejico just finished a summer-long fellowship at Oxbow, and will begin a curatorial project with AIR Gallery in New York, set to premiere in 2019. Xe is a 2017 FIELD/WORK Resident.
Mejico’s practice gives form to trans anxieties and excitations. Through video, performance, and fiber works, xe exposes the complexities and absurdities of a body undefinable. The work largely addresses the trans body's confusion and opposition toward itself, and communicates an ambivalence to the carnal experience of transhood. This and other frustrations are addressed through works that are often humorous, displaying a sense of sarcasm in pithy bursts that replicate the jarring feeling of thinking of one's body as only a semblance of truth. Mejico’s practice collapses real and unreal realms to produce uncomfortable and alluring half-truths.
Mejico’s practice gives form to trans anxieties and excitations. Through video, performance, and fiber works, xe exposes the complexities and absurdities of a body undefinable. The work largely addresses the trans body's confusion and opposition toward itself, and communicates an ambivalence to the carnal experience of transhood. This and other frustrations are addressed through works that are often humorous, displaying a sense of sarcasm in pithy bursts that replicate the jarring feeling of thinking of one's body as only a semblance of truth. Mejico’s practice collapses real and unreal realms to produce uncomfortable and alluring half-truths.
October 2017
2017 Terrain Biennial
Box Gallery presents new work by Yvette Mayorga, Benjamin Cook, Alejandro Acierto, and Steve Juras, for the 2017 Terrain Biennial. For the biennial, Box Gallery mutated into four refrigerator- sized cardboard boxes to show installations by the four artists. Visitors are invited to crawl into each artists’ box with flashlights (provided) to view their unique method of addressing the space.
The Terrain Biennial is an international exhibition of site-specific art made for front yards, balconies, and porches. Centered in the historic village of Oak Park, IL, the Biennial opened on Sunday, October 1st and runs until November 15th, 2017.
The Terrain Biennial is an international exhibition of site-specific art made for front yards, balconies, and porches. Centered in the historic village of Oak Park, IL, the Biennial opened on Sunday, October 1st and runs until November 15th, 2017.
June 2017
Anna Fredrick
Anna Fredrick is a Chicago artist currently residing in Peoria, Illinois. She received her BA in Studio Art with a concentration in Graphic Design from Bradley University in May 2017, and primarily creates artwork using assemblage techniques, featuring a variety of found objects.
"I create work that examines the intimate bond of the body and mind. Each piece I create explores narratives from my past when I struggled to keep body and mind in tune. I piece these narratives together through the use of assemblage and found objects that are deeply personal, including love letters, notes-to-self, receipts, and feminine product packaging. These found objects, collected over the span of a year, portray hope in a time of desperation. My artwork is as much a meditative practice as it is a creative act, and offers a physical manifestation of meditation itself- allowing one’s self to examine the stresses of their mind and body without judgment in order to live a life fully aware and in the moment."
"I create work that examines the intimate bond of the body and mind. Each piece I create explores narratives from my past when I struggled to keep body and mind in tune. I piece these narratives together through the use of assemblage and found objects that are deeply personal, including love letters, notes-to-self, receipts, and feminine product packaging. These found objects, collected over the span of a year, portray hope in a time of desperation. My artwork is as much a meditative practice as it is a creative act, and offers a physical manifestation of meditation itself- allowing one’s self to examine the stresses of their mind and body without judgment in order to live a life fully aware and in the moment."
APril 2017
Lisa Wicka
I explore the cyclical dialogue of internal/external architecture, the body as a mediator and its role in the instability of identity. Through the breakdown and rebuilding of both constructed architectural spaces and the human form, I mimic the everyday filtering and application of our surroundings to one’s self. My choice of materials and techniques become a direct reflection of my past spaces. Materials such as wood, sawdust, charcoal, wax, enamel and gold leaf allow me to maintain connections with my past while simultaneously becoming structural elements of my present.
This conversation of past/present, internal/external, and our perception of our self is always in flux, and it is the body that becomes a surface in which this dialogue is made visible. Whether that display is a physical feature, a fashion, conduct or movement, the body becomes the physical representation of our current identity. My work, in a similar way, becomes a surface where the digestion of internal and external architecture can exist, but separate from the body. The work then becomes a tangible exploration of my surroundings and my identity, as if a surrogate self with limitless possibilities.
This conversation of past/present, internal/external, and our perception of our self is always in flux, and it is the body that becomes a surface in which this dialogue is made visible. Whether that display is a physical feature, a fashion, conduct or movement, the body becomes the physical representation of our current identity. My work, in a similar way, becomes a surface where the digestion of internal and external architecture can exist, but separate from the body. The work then becomes a tangible exploration of my surroundings and my identity, as if a surrogate self with limitless possibilities.
January 2017
Jacklyn Brickman
By obstructing one's ability to get close to the fragment of the nature encased within, MossBox mimics our culture's dynamic relationship with the natural world. A desire to be close, yet a set of challenges established to keep our distance. This is achieved by the lens which teases the possibility of closer inspection, the dim LED light and sanded acrylic surrounds.
My artwork attempts at gaining a closeness with nature by exploring the relationship between people and their environments. With a background in photography, light remains at the core of my work as does the use of synthetic materials, especially plastic. I’m drawn to the innate quality plastic has in replicating natural substances, in addition to its translucency and versatility. Man-made objects used in multiples, also make frequent appearances in my work, mirroring our societal propensity towards a throwaway culture. These materials combined to discuss environmental concerns incite imagery that questions nature’s existence and mourns the loss of an environment where nothing is left untouched. Bachelard suggests in The Poetics of Space that by naturalizing man made objects, they become more relatable and comfortable. This may leave us with either a longing for the continued existence of nature, creating a compulsion for preservation or in a state of comfortable complacency. Barthes states in Mythologies that “Plastic’s real contribution to culture lies in it’s ability to be prosaic rather than luxurious.” My work aims to distill questions about the environment and society.
My artwork attempts at gaining a closeness with nature by exploring the relationship between people and their environments. With a background in photography, light remains at the core of my work as does the use of synthetic materials, especially plastic. I’m drawn to the innate quality plastic has in replicating natural substances, in addition to its translucency and versatility. Man-made objects used in multiples, also make frequent appearances in my work, mirroring our societal propensity towards a throwaway culture. These materials combined to discuss environmental concerns incite imagery that questions nature’s existence and mourns the loss of an environment where nothing is left untouched. Bachelard suggests in The Poetics of Space that by naturalizing man made objects, they become more relatable and comfortable. This may leave us with either a longing for the continued existence of nature, creating a compulsion for preservation or in a state of comfortable complacency. Barthes states in Mythologies that “Plastic’s real contribution to culture lies in it’s ability to be prosaic rather than luxurious.” My work aims to distill questions about the environment and society.
November 2016
Daniel Fromberg
JUNE 2016
Jessica Bingham
Notes We Wrote is a series of collections and memories from my childhood including dirt, handwritten notes, and a handmade tool. The dirt within the box comes from three locations: (1) my childhood home; (2) my best friends childhood home; and (3) the cemetery from which we lived across from. These three places collectively mark the “playground” of my childhood. Buried within the dirt are four notes, two from me to my friend and two from my friend to me; they are misspelled, awkward, and innocent. The notes have been replicated, as I do not want to risk ruining the originals. The pink and violet handmade tool rests outside the box, waiting for curious viewers to dig up the notes to read.
Returning to that home, as a visitor, was a rather emotional experience. I was flooded with bittersweet memories as I dug into the earth of my childhood. --Jessica Bingham
Returning to that home, as a visitor, was a rather emotional experience. I was flooded with bittersweet memories as I dug into the earth of my childhood. --Jessica Bingham
May 2016
Dave Swensen
Wasteland Smear is an abstraction of moving glaciers on a digital plane. Pulsing forms combine and constantly reshape the negative space found within the void. From a fixed perspective the high contrast ghostly shapes rebuild and deconstruct. The use of repetition is key by looping a dreamy blend of nightmarish landscapes.
The properties of narrative are explored through abstract audio and dream like moods created by the use of repetition. Dave Swensen’s work is focused on minimalistic conceptual based video performances and experimental video loops. These video works frequently include abstract installation techniques that support more than one video channel. Video images are given a sculptural element enhancing functionality and the overall purpose of the work. Minimalistic and visually clean, these performances serve as reflections on the language of video as well as observations on physical space and the creation of alternate environments. Manipulating images and using time as a physical quality.
The properties of narrative are explored through abstract audio and dream like moods created by the use of repetition. Dave Swensen’s work is focused on minimalistic conceptual based video performances and experimental video loops. These video works frequently include abstract installation techniques that support more than one video channel. Video images are given a sculptural element enhancing functionality and the overall purpose of the work. Minimalistic and visually clean, these performances serve as reflections on the language of video as well as observations on physical space and the creation of alternate environments. Manipulating images and using time as a physical quality.
April 2016
Richard Medina
Steve Juras
In October 2015 artist Steve Juras exhibited a work titled Transplant at Box Gallery.
His original statement read, “Transplant is a collaborative exchange between artist and curator. The artist has planted anise and mint seeds, herbs with medicinal and culinary uses, inside a 6 x 6 inch box filled with potting soil. The health and success of the work depends on the frequency and diligence with which the curator waters the soil and cultivates the seeds. Upon the conclusion of the exhibition, artist and curator will remove the work from the gallery and transplant it to a separate venue.”
Due to unfortunate circumstances, the anise and mint seeds never sprouted, leaving the work unresolved. Steve Juras gave three options for how to complete the work. The first was to transplant the soil into one of my asphalt emulsion sculptures, the second to transplant into a new pot and keep inside, and the third was to transplant outside.
I decided to go with the third option, and transported the soil to my acre of land in northeastern Arizona, where I planted the soil in the center of my property. I then refilled Box Gallery with red sand collected from various sites in Arizona, completing the original intention of a collaborative exchange between artist and curator.
The title "Re:Transplant" is a reference to our sporadic email communication and the referential nature of this new work.
Richard Medina is an artist, curator, and filmmaker from Palatine, IL.
Steve Juras is an artist, educator and occasional curator. His work has been exhibited at the Fulton Street Collective, Kitchen Space, Hyde Park Art Center and the Garfield Park Arts Center in Indianapolis, IN. He lives in Chicago with his wife and their dog, Wallace.
His original statement read, “Transplant is a collaborative exchange between artist and curator. The artist has planted anise and mint seeds, herbs with medicinal and culinary uses, inside a 6 x 6 inch box filled with potting soil. The health and success of the work depends on the frequency and diligence with which the curator waters the soil and cultivates the seeds. Upon the conclusion of the exhibition, artist and curator will remove the work from the gallery and transplant it to a separate venue.”
Due to unfortunate circumstances, the anise and mint seeds never sprouted, leaving the work unresolved. Steve Juras gave three options for how to complete the work. The first was to transplant the soil into one of my asphalt emulsion sculptures, the second to transplant into a new pot and keep inside, and the third was to transplant outside.
I decided to go with the third option, and transported the soil to my acre of land in northeastern Arizona, where I planted the soil in the center of my property. I then refilled Box Gallery with red sand collected from various sites in Arizona, completing the original intention of a collaborative exchange between artist and curator.
The title "Re:Transplant" is a reference to our sporadic email communication and the referential nature of this new work.
Richard Medina is an artist, curator, and filmmaker from Palatine, IL.
Steve Juras is an artist, educator and occasional curator. His work has been exhibited at the Fulton Street Collective, Kitchen Space, Hyde Park Art Center and the Garfield Park Arts Center in Indianapolis, IN. He lives in Chicago with his wife and their dog, Wallace.
March 2016
HEATHER BRAMMEIER
Rejected was inspired by a presentation I recently gave for art students about putting together artist proposals. I included a variety of Photoshopped images with PEX and vinyl stripes in gallery and outdoor spaces. To emphasize how many proposals I sent out in order to get exhibitions, I included many that were rejected. In the Powerpoint, I put a large red REJECTED stamp over the images. Not many students laughed, but I made the point that artists deal with rejection all the time. For Box Gallery, I collaged together various proposals for outdoor and indoor settings to create a fictitious space. The materials (tape, zip ties, straws) are a tongue-in-cheek reference to those that would be used in large-scale installations.
February 2016
Rosalynn and Adam Rothstein
We, Adam and Rosalynn Rothstein, are a partnership, both co-habitating and working together. Our artistic and conceptual interests are in a process of merging to a cohesive narrative.
Much of Rosalynn’s current influence comes from the practice and methodologies of Ikebana–the Japanese art of flower arranging. She holds a fourth grade teacher’s certificate in the Sogetsu school. The founder of the Sogetsu school did not see a boundary between sculpture and flower arranging. The floral arrangements of students in the Sogetsu school utilizes flowers and “unconventional materials” under the condition that floral arrangements can be made by anyone, using any material at any time. Rosalynn’s work in the academic field of folklore also informs the partnership’s thinking about vernacular practice and the relationship between tradition and innovation in the fields of art and craft. Her own artistic work also involves weaving, natural dyeing knitting and other modes of manipulating fiber.
Adam writes about politics, media, and technology. He is most interested in the canons of history and prediction, the so-called “Future-Weird”, and the unstable ramifications of today’s cultural technology. He is interested technology-based art and the interaction between manufacturing technology and craft. This includes the social aspects of production and art–not only art’s effect on society, but the work of production’s effect on society. He studies, maps, and illustrates how infrastructure and technology work together to form the bedrock of human social conditions.
We produce large scale, immersive installations; small, intricate pieces; and conceptual work that extends outward from its form with both idealistic and electromagnetic rays. We regularly work with re-purposed and re-used material to intervene in the typical human material supply chains, and create feedback loops that educate and initiate the viewer through aesthetic means, to intercede with our collective notions of what object are, what they are for and where their value lies. We conduct small scale, everyday magical experiments, to see what forms of aether currently have speculative capital in our technological, catastrophically inclined world.
Much of Rosalynn’s current influence comes from the practice and methodologies of Ikebana–the Japanese art of flower arranging. She holds a fourth grade teacher’s certificate in the Sogetsu school. The founder of the Sogetsu school did not see a boundary between sculpture and flower arranging. The floral arrangements of students in the Sogetsu school utilizes flowers and “unconventional materials” under the condition that floral arrangements can be made by anyone, using any material at any time. Rosalynn’s work in the academic field of folklore also informs the partnership’s thinking about vernacular practice and the relationship between tradition and innovation in the fields of art and craft. Her own artistic work also involves weaving, natural dyeing knitting and other modes of manipulating fiber.
Adam writes about politics, media, and technology. He is most interested in the canons of history and prediction, the so-called “Future-Weird”, and the unstable ramifications of today’s cultural technology. He is interested technology-based art and the interaction between manufacturing technology and craft. This includes the social aspects of production and art–not only art’s effect on society, but the work of production’s effect on society. He studies, maps, and illustrates how infrastructure and technology work together to form the bedrock of human social conditions.
We produce large scale, immersive installations; small, intricate pieces; and conceptual work that extends outward from its form with both idealistic and electromagnetic rays. We regularly work with re-purposed and re-used material to intervene in the typical human material supply chains, and create feedback loops that educate and initiate the viewer through aesthetic means, to intercede with our collective notions of what object are, what they are for and where their value lies. We conduct small scale, everyday magical experiments, to see what forms of aether currently have speculative capital in our technological, catastrophically inclined world.
October 2015
Steve Juras
Transplant is a collaborative exchange between artist and curator. The artist has planted anise and mint seeds, herbs with medicinal and culinary uses, inside a 6 x 6 inch box filled with potting soil. The health and success of the work depends on the frequency and diligence with which the curator waters the soil and cultivates the seeds. Upon the conclusion of the exhibition, artist and curator will remove the work from the gallery and transplant it to a separate venue.
Steve Juras is an artist, educator and occasional curator. His work has been exhibited at the Fulton Street Collective, Kitchen Space, Hyde Park Art Center and the Garfield Park Arts Center in Indianapolis, IN. He lives in Chicago with his wife and their dog, Wallace.
Steve Juras is an artist, educator and occasional curator. His work has been exhibited at the Fulton Street Collective, Kitchen Space, Hyde Park Art Center and the Garfield Park Arts Center in Indianapolis, IN. He lives in Chicago with his wife and their dog, Wallace.
August 2015
2nd Terrain Biennial
2:1 is a two-person exhibition by artist Richard Medina and musician Reade Wildman. Their unique collaboration unites aspects of contemporary classical music and multimedia sculpture assemblages in a sonically and visually propulsive exploration of form and space.
READE WILDMAN is a musician and filmmaker from Chicago. Reade studies classical guitar at the Chicago Academy For The Arts. Reade's influences span from John Cage to God Speed You! Black Emperor, and Paul Thomas Anderson to Alejandro Jodorowsky.
RICHARD MEDINA is an artist, curator, and filmmaker from Palatine, IL.
READE WILDMAN is a musician and filmmaker from Chicago. Reade studies classical guitar at the Chicago Academy For The Arts. Reade's influences span from John Cage to God Speed You! Black Emperor, and Paul Thomas Anderson to Alejandro Jodorowsky.
RICHARD MEDINA is an artist, curator, and filmmaker from Palatine, IL.
MAY 2015
Erin Smego
I am a sculptor. I work with plaster, cement, and paper mache. I draw ideas from people's personalities and emotions, including my own, pouring all of myself into each piece. Curiosity lies in what really makes people tick - how people act, react and why - and then attempting to channel this energy into a piece. Subjects I engage in include: persistence, awkwardness, peculiarity, embarrassment, embracing, gripping, falling (apart), giving, isolation, separation, emptiness, hyper-optimism, and sadness. Elements of playfulness sometimes appear, and color (or lack of) is used to reflect emotion.
The idea of form and simultaneously formless drives my intrigue as well as hints of honoring impermanence, imperfection, and vulnerability. Attempts at invention are ongoing; experimentation plays an active role in my studio practice. Paintings are thought of as less dimensional sculptures that are flattened, while installations are ideas expanded.
Industrial materials are utilized to connect to the viewer as a nod to accessibility.
The idea of form and simultaneously formless drives my intrigue as well as hints of honoring impermanence, imperfection, and vulnerability. Attempts at invention are ongoing; experimentation plays an active role in my studio practice. Paintings are thought of as less dimensional sculptures that are flattened, while installations are ideas expanded.
Industrial materials are utilized to connect to the viewer as a nod to accessibility.
APRIL 2015
Lindsey French
Shipping considers the history of the cardboard box, which extends back to the first commercial cardboard box makers in about 1817 in Great Britian. For much of the 1800s in the US, shipping boxes were made of white pine, at the time plentiful in New England and in the midwest. Shipping is an audio installation relaying the sounds of the Chicago Rivier through a box of white pine, which fits snugly within the Box Gallery.
March 2015
Kelman Duran
The video installation is about the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, the poorest reservation in the U.S. The video work experimentally and discursively documents housing conditions and the architectural typologies of this specific reservation, and juxtaposes spoken histories and the oral tradition of the Oglala Sioux to create a counternarrative of how they see and saw their landscape, and the changes that come with planned reservations, open air prisons as they call it.
FEBRUARY 2015
Krissy Wilson
The Thames River foreshore is an accumulative public midden, littered with artifacts that anyone can go hunting for. Those who comb the foreshore at low tide call themselves mudlarks (or mudlarkers), a reclaimed pejorative term used to describe the London poor who sought to make a living off of the river’s detritus in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. While studying at the London Rare Books School in the summer of 2011, I took a few walks on the Thames at low tide. I found fragments of clay pipes, questionable bones, plastic bags, and certainly nothing that would garner the legal term treasure. As a writer and a researcher, I found that broken pieces of glass, pottery, porcelain, and ceramic that included fragments of text were some of the most interesting.
JANUARY 2015
Klaus Pinter
NOVEMBER 2014
Alejandro Franco
The "Urban Resemblance" project, is a simple exercise of curiosity that turn into a hypothetical theory which explains a fascinating phenomenon of existence such as fractals, using a combination of physical elements easily recognizable. What I did was to arrange a city with electrical circuits, manipulating them with great subtlety, without changing them much. The result has a close similarity with the city at its most physical level, as if they could be two links in a long chain of fractals. Fractals are define as "geometric objects whose basic structure, fragmented or irregular repeats at different scales". I found it really valuable just for the fact that structure is an essential factor in the elements of our environment, and trying to understand the structure of artificial developments is a strong effort to learn who we are, and how are we programed.
SEPTEMBER 2014
Lee Ferdinand
The first in a series of videos that decontruct the experience of The Detroit International Auto Show. Rubber Head #1 is part of an ongoing series of short structural videos that isolate small moments and gestures as a way to playfully contemplate the spectacular tribute to consumption that is The Detroit International Auto Show. I chose the structural approach as an homage to Robert Breer, Peter Kubelka and Hollis Frampton's work in this area, as well as P. Adams Sitney's excellent explication of their methods in his book Visionary Film.