Freeark GALLERY & sculpture garden exhibitions
RAC Members’ Exhibition 2025 | June 29 - July 26, 2025
2025 RAC Members’ Exhibition
The Riverside Arts Center presents our annual exhibition featuring art by RAC’s talented members, volunteers, clay studio members, staff, board, and adults enrolled in RAC’s classes or workshops from summer 2024-2025. This exhibition will be shown in our Freeark Gallery + Sculpture Garden, while our FlexSpace will display artwork created by RAC students and children of the Riverside Arts Center’s members and school. Click to view last year’s exhibition here.
Exhibition on view: June 29 – July 26, 2025
Opening Reception: June 29, 2025, 3:00 – 6:00 PM
Artwork drop off dates:
Thursdays, June 12 and June 19: 1 – 5 PM
Fridays, June 13 and June 20: 1 – 5 PM
Saturdays, June 14 and June 21: 1 – 5 PM
Artwork pick up dates:
Thursday, July 31: 1 – 5 PM
Friday, August 1: 1 – 5 PM
Saturday, August 2: 1 – 5 PM
Note: Art must be dropped off and picked up on these dates. If you require other accommodations, please contact the Exhibitions Director well in advance.
Guidelines:
Current members, volunteers, clay studio members, children of, and students (kids and adults) enrolled in RAC’s classes or workshops from summer 2024 to 2025 are eligible.
Each artist is invited to submit one piece, no larger than 30" in width if exhibited inside the gallery. Artwork appropriate for outdoor weather can be submitted for the sculpture garden. Please contact Joanne prior to delivery with details if your work is intended for the sculpture garden.
All hanging art must be framed and/or ready for hanging with wire or sawtooth hanger on back. There can be acceptions, please contact Joanne.
3-D work for inside the gallery can be displayed on one of our pedestals or stand on the floor.
Please fill out the exhibition form and include it with your submission.
RAC reserves the right to reject any submission. Reasons could include but are not limited to excessive size, weight, or fragility (risk of damage to artwork on display).
Questions? Email Exhibitions Director, Joanne Aono: jaono@riversideartscenter.com
Join or renew your membership and be a part of this showcase of amazing artists.
Malgorzata Plummer | Angry Tulips, 2024, Watercolor on paper, 40 × 32 inches
Carlos Javier Ortiz | September 14 - October 18, 2025
The Riverside Arts Center’s Freeark Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of photography by Carlos Javier Ortiz, curated by Laura Husar Garcia.
Sculpture Garden | Terrain Biennial: Hillary Johnson | October 1 - December 6, 2025
The Riverside Arts Center is pleased to partner with the Terrain Biennial in presenting Hillary Johnson’s outdoor installation, The Threads Between Us. Viewable 24/7 from the back of RAC’s garden fence, the artist’s installation will continue into the sculpture garden. This artwork is part of the Freeark Gallery and Sculpture Garden exhibition, In the Circle of Melissa Potter.
In the Circle of Melissa Potter | October 26 - December 6, 2025
The Riverside Arts Center’s Freeark Gallery is pleased to present In the Circle of Melissa Potter, an exhibition of the artist’s practice of mentoring and collaboration curated by Joanne Aono.
Brian Dettmer | December 2025 - January 2026
The Riverside Arts Center’s Freeark Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of Brian Dettmer sculpture curated by Jeremy Black.
Pause: Julieta Beltrán Lazo, Steven Carrelli, Jason Dunda, Sofía Fernández Díaz, Xiaohan Jiang, Tulika Ladsariya, James Kao, SaraNoa Mark, and Connie Noyes | May 18 - June 21, 2025
Xiaohan Jiang | Shy Sky, 2024, Oil on velvet over panel, 8 × 10 inches
Opening Reception: Sunday, May 18, 2025, 3:00 - 6:00 PM
Exhibition Dates: May 18 - June 21, 2025
Exhibition on view: Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays 1:00 – 5:00 PM
Artist Talk and Closing Reception: Saturday, June 21, 2025 at 3:00 PM
The Riverside Arts Center is pleased to present Pause, a group exhibition of art by Julieta Beltrán Lazo, Steven Carrelli, Jason Dunda, Sofía Fernández Díaz, Xiaohan Jiang, Tulika Ladsariya, James Kao, SaraNoa Mark, and Connie Noyes, curated by Joanne Aono. Please join us for a reception for the artists on Sunday, May 18th from 3 - 6pm. An artist talk and closing reception will be held on Saturday, June 21st at 3pm. The exhibition will be on view Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays 1-5pm through June 21, 2025.
In these current days of chaos and confusion with our schedules and our thoughts full, we all seek the space to embrace the diminutive things that provide substance to our world. Unlike the cavernous white-walled corporate galleries showcasing immersive-scale art, the Riverside Arts Center's Freeark Gallery consists of two small rooms, directly entered from the sidewalk of a quaint tree-lined Chicago suburb. The exhibition Pause utilizes that setting with small artworks all measuring under 12 inches, one by each of nine artists, exhibited sparsely, inviting a concentrated viewing of each.
Bold strokes and color draw you into the small abstract painting by Jason Dunda. Recognizable as an obscured face, one is attracted by the gestures and freedom of composition. Julieta Beltrán Lazo's painting depicts a body in motion. The mixture of wax and oil invoke layers of tension in vibrant hues of skin. Xiaohan Jiang's choice to paint on velvet adds a material softness to the image, asking us to quietly wander into her allegorical land of sunshine yellows and sparkling blues. The dark moody oil painting by James Kao is reminiscent of night vision. You will find yourself staring deep into the scene, trying to decipher images within the layers.
Seen from afar, SaraNoa Mark's art looks minimal, but as you come closer you realize it is intricately detailed. The artist has meticulously carved patterns of markings into the stone. Connie Noyes combines plaster, glue, and pigment to create tactile oozing layers with edges of color on white in her depiction of the power and fragility of a glacier. The eye can be fooled by Steven Carrelli's adeptness with silverpoint. What appears as a folded piece of paper on the wall, upon closer inspection, is a beautifully rendered drawing. Tulika Ladsariya combines stoneware, thread and acrylic paint, contrasting smooth with rough textures and organic with geometric forms. Observing Sofía Fernández Díaz's diminutive sculpture made from found objects and manipulated materials leads to anthropomorphic threads and joyful discoveries.
The nine pieces of art selected for the exhibition Pause request the viewer to do just that; pause to look, pause to see. By choosing to create these pieces on a small-scale, the artists allow the viewer to have an intimate moment with one piece in full view, face-to-face. The art is installed with breathing room between, allowing for time to process one's thoughts. Art can inspire, teach, and heal. In the craziness of the times, take time to pause and view the art.
–Joanne Aono, curator
Julieta Beltrán Lazo | Body Portal N.4., Oil paint and cold wax on canvas, 10 x 8 inches
Julieta Beltrán Lazo is a visual artist residing in Guadalajara and Chicago. Working primarily in painting but incorporating writing, fibers and performance, Beltrán Lazo’s material exploration looks for the points of tension between desire and discomfort, creating layers or “second skins” that simultaneously protect and efface the figure, giving way for the artist's subconscious to emerge. She has held solo exhibitions at Palma Galería. Guadalajara, Mexico; Déficit Pintura. Barrio de Analco, Jalisco, Mexico; This is Now Art Gallery, Lima, Perú; and Espacio Cabeza. Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. Group exhibitions include Proxyco, New York, NY; Museum of Mexican American Art, Chicago, IL; Oklahoma Center of Contemporary Arts, Oklahoma City, OK, and Palazzo Cenci, Rome, Italy. Beltrán Lazo is the recipient of the Higher Education Scholarship from the Jumex Art Foundation. She will have received her Master of Fine Arts from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2025 and a BFA in Painting and Drawing from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2020.
https://julietabeltranlazo.com/
Steven Carrelli | Trust and Deception 18, 2023, silverpoint on primed paper, 11 x 11 inches
Steven Carrelli is a visual artist and writer based in Chicago. His artwork employs close observation and the contemplative nature of craft to explore the instability of perception and the poetics of representation as a means of interpreting our relationships to place, time, labor, and history. He holds an MFA in Painting from Northwestern University and a BA in Studio Art from Wheaton College. Carrelli's work has been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions, and is included in the collections of the Illinois State Museum, Elmhurst University, Northwestern University, and DePaul University, among others. His works have appeared in many publications, including the Chicago Sun-Times, the Chicago Reader, New American Paintings, Art Scene Chicago 2000, and Time Out Chicago. Awards include a Fulbright Grant to Florence, Italy, as well as grants from the Ruth and Harold Chenven Foundation, the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, and the Union League of Chicago. He lives in Chicago and teaches in The Art School at DePaul University.
http://stevencarrelli.com/
Jason Dunda | From the series False Faces, 2023, Graphite and gouache on paper, 8 x 6 inches
Jason Dunda is a Chicago-based Canadian painter who also creates sewn and carved objects. His work deals with intersections of power, labor, and humor, usually through depictions of figures and the spaces they occupy. He has exhibited in Chicago, New York, Sweden, Iceland, Kuwait, France, and Canada and his work is represented in the collections of Todd Oldham, the Agnes Etherington Art Centre and the Doris McCarthy Gallery at the University of Toronto. Recent projects include “A Hall of Unflattering Portraits,” a solo exhibition at the MacLaren Art Centre in Barrie, Ontario, Canada and “Highly Illogical,” a two-person collaborative installation at langeroverdickie in Chicago. International exhibits include the Heine-Onstad Art Centre in Oslo, and the Kuwait Art Foundation in Kuwait City. Recent residencies include the Haystack School of Craft in Deer Isle, Maine, and a four-month research and production residency in Paris sponsored by the Canada Council for the Arts. He holds the position of Assistant Professor of 2D Fundamentals at the Wonsook Kim School of Art at Illinois State University.
https://www.jasondunda.com
Sofía Fernández Díaz | La Cuchara Peltre, 2025, vintage marble (cdmx), glass beads and beeswax, 8 x 2 x 2 inches
Sofía Fernández Díaz is a multi-disciplinary artist and educator from Mexico City. Her experimental, process-driven practice combines meditative labor, repetition, and intuition with traditional fiber and craft techniques she has learned through working alongside Mexican artisans. Her art has been exhibited at Goldfinch, Co-Prosperity, Dominican University, and EXPO in Chicago; Mexico City/Berlin gallery Lagos at the Volta Art Fair in Switzerland; and proyecto ACE in Buenos Aires among others. Awards include the Joan Livingston scholarship, a Spark grant from the Chicago Artist Coalition, a Radicle Studio Residency at the Hyde Park Art Center, and she was named a Newcity 2025 Breakout Artist. She holds an MFA in Fiber and Material Studies from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, a BFA in Painting and Printmaking from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, and a degree in Art Anthropology from CIESAS in Mexico City. She is a lecturer at SAIC and a Resident and teaching artist at Lillstreet Art Center.
https://www.sofiafernandezdiaz.com/
Xiaohan Jiang | Shy Sky, 2024, oil on velvet over panel, 8 x 10 inches
Xiaohan Jiang is a painter and poet born in Hebei, China currently based in Chicago. Her work explores the intersection of painting and poetry, drawing from the pastoral landscapes of her childhood in Northern China. Themes of redemption, rebirth, and identity are central to her practice, reflecting her ongoing quest to reconcile personal and cultural dualities. Her work has been exhibited at venues including Patient Info Gallery, Chicago, IL; Art Clvb, Detroit, MI; Unveil Gallery, Irvine, CA, 4C Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; and Bonian Space, Beijing. She held her first solo exhibition at Août Gallery in Beirut, Lebanon. She has been awarded the New American Paintings Emerging Artist Grant and has been featured in Women United Art Magazine, Suboart, and Artsin Square Magazines. Xiaohan will have received her MFA in Painting and Drawing in 2025 and her BFA in 2022 from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
https://www.xiaohanjiang.com/
Tulika Ladsariya | Radical Transformation, 2025, Stoneware, acrylic and thread, 8 x 8 x 1.5 inches
Tulika Ladsariya explores connections using tenderness and nurturance to discuss beauty, identity, and history. Using an interdisciplinary practice of painting, ceramics, and installation, she creates work that explores threads that link multiple worlds. Born in Mumbai, India and having spent the last decade in Chicago, she has exhibited at the Hammond Museum, NY; Ralph Arnold Gallery, Loyola University; Shingoethe Center,Aurora University; Heaven Gallery, Chicago; Collar Works, NY; EXPO Chicago; Jamaat Art Gallery, Mumbai; and Kalakriti Gallery, New Delhi and Hyderabad. She is a member of the Spaceshift Collective, a cultural community group for South Asians in Chicago; Praxis, an artist collective in the Midwest; and the Midwest Clay Guild. She was a resident at the Hyde Park Art Center and a BOLT resident at Chicago Artists Coalition. She is a recipient of the In-Session Fellowship for Threewalls Foundation and a DCASE grant.
https://www.tulika.art/
James Kao | Lakeside, 2012, oil on panel, 6 x 6 inches
James Kao is a Chicago-based artist who makes paintings and drawings. Selected one-person exhibitions include China Projects, San Francisco, CA; Toomey Tourell Fine Art, San Francisco, CA; Adds Donna, Chicago, IL; Lloyd Dobler Gallery, Chicago, IL; and Sears Peyton Gallery, New York, NY. He has attended various artist residencies including: Marina Abramovic Institute-West, San Francisco, CA; White Mountain National Forest Artist in Residence, Center Sandwich, NH; Catwalk Institute, Catwalk, NY; The Alfred and Trafford Klots International Program for Artists, Lehon, France; Jentel Artist Residency, Banner, WY; and Montello Foundation, Montello, NV. Kao is co-founder and co-director of 4th Ward Project Space in Chicago, IL. He holds MFA and BFA degrees from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BA in Philosophy from the University of Chicago. He is Associate Professor of Art at Aurora University in Aurora, IL.
www.jameskao.org
SaraNoa Mark | Mostly Oudoors, 2021, Carved stone, 6 x 6 x 1 inches, Courtesy Goldfinch Gallery
SaraNoa Mark pursues a drawing practice that investigates traces left by time, as they exist in landscapes and in collective memory. Her work has been supported by a Fulbright research fellowship in Turkey along with grants from Artadia, the Harpo Foundation, U.S. Embassy Mission Grants Program in Turkey, Luminarts Cultural Foundation, Illinois Arts Council, DCASE, West Collection, and others. Mark's residencies include the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Chicago Artists Coalition, Montello Foundation, the Hyde Park Art Center, and in 2025 at Yaddo, the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, and Dieu Donné. Recent exhibitions include the Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL; Daniel Faira Gallery, Toronto, CA; The Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art, ME; Davis & Langdale, NY; 5533, Istanbul, among others. She co-directed the 4th Ward Project Space in Chicago from 2017-2023. Mark was named a Newcity magazine Breakout Artist in 2021. Her work has been reviewed in Hyperallergic, ARTNEWS, ArtAsiaPacific, and more.
https://www.saranoamark.com/
Connie Noyes | Ridge, Plaster, glue, and pigment on repurposed canvas, 10 × 10 x 3 inches
Connie Noyes is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice explores grief, cultural memory, and collective emotional growth. Noyes earned an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MA in psychology from Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, California. Her practice is further informed by her training as a death doula and her studies in Butoh, both of which shape her approach to embodiment, mourning, and ritual. Her work has been exhibited internationally in cities such as Paris, Innsbruck, Munich, Dubai, and Bangi. She has participated in Art Abu Dhabi, Art Bahrain, and the Biennale Internationale d’Art non-objectif in France. Her solo exhibitions include Compound Yellow, Oak Park, IL; Evanston Art Center, Wedge Projects, Chicago, IL; Abel Contemporary, Stoughton, WI; N’Namdi Contemporary, Miami, FL; and Blanc Gallery, Chicago, IL. Noyes has participated in residencies around the world, including in Berlin, Germany; Haukijärvi, Finland; Aulus-les-bains, France, New York, NY; Abu Dhabi, UAE; and Cape Town, South Africa.
https://www.connienoyes.com/
Ruminations on Home: Jennifer Mannebach, Jeffly Gabriela Molina, Brad Stumpf | April 6 - May 10, 2025
Brad Stumpf | Altar of Hope, 2024, Oil on panel, 24 x 24 inches
Exhibition Dates: April 6 - May 10, 2025
Opening Reception: Sunday, April 6, 2025, 3:00 - 6:00 PM
Join us afterwards for a private cocktail hour at the Quincy Street Distillery
Exhibition on view: Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays 1:00 – 5:00 PM
Artist Talk and Closing Reception: Saturday, May 10, 2025 at 2:00 PM
The Riverside Arts Center is pleased to present Ruminations on Home, an exhibition of art by Jennifer Mannebach, Jeffly Gabriela Molina, and Brad Stumpf, guest curated by Karen Azarnia. Please join us for a reception for the artists on Sunday, April 6th at 3pm. Stay later for a private cocktail hour of artisanal beverages across the street at the Quincy Street Distillery.
An artist talk and closing reception will be held on Saturday, May 10th at 2pm. The exhibition will be on view Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays 1-5pm through May 10, 2025.
Read Hector Cervantes’ article in the RB Landmark’s ArtBeat, April 19, 2025
Exhibit at Riverside Arts Center focuses on personal reflections of home: Three artists featured at Ruminations on Home
Delving into the rich history of the Riverside Arts Center, the unassuming row of connected buildings housing the Freeark Gallery, Flex Space, and art studios were once apartment buildings. People lived out their lives there. They went about daily activities of work, school, and caregiving – mundane routines of the everyday. They celebrated milestones and holidays and mourned the loss of loved ones. The buildings housed not just people but helped forge relationships – between friends, family, and neighbors. Considering all this begets the question, one that holds myriad meanings to different people: what constitutes a home?
Home is a site where the familiar forms and contours of objects evoke fragments of memory, as seen in the sculptural works of Jennifer Mannebach. According to the artist, Mannebach’s formal investigations into material and surface “break down boundaries between body and environment, natural and unnatural objects, past and present.” In her recent sculptures, Mannebach casts and recreates parts of childhood objects from the home, including a slide and a small toy. Based on a video of a child struggling to balance on a slide, her inventive use of material transforms the familiar into something new, altering our perception of the object. There is a tension between the object as we remember it, and the new unfamiliar thing it has become. Through process, Mannebach reminds us that the home can become a space for risk-taking and uncertainty, and that memories exist as fluid constructs.
We can also locate home as a site of longing, something with a fragile precarity to seek out and protect, as seen through the lens of Jeffly Gabriel Molina. As a woman, wife, mother- to-be, and immigrant from Venezuela, Molina pulls from deeply personal events that have shaped her life. Her paintings and works on paper seek to embody and express a range of emotions to the viewer, including anxiety or loneliness. Using objects found around her home, Molina’s recent series of still lives titled “Homemade Sculptures” seeks to honorand protect the notion of the home. In a moment when so many people around the globe are being displaced from not only their homes but their countries, the vulnerability of a stable home reflected in Molina’s work is both timely and bittersweet.
Or perhaps home is a place of dreams intertwined with hope, love, and loss, as we see in the whimsical yet tenderly vulnerable works of Brad Stumpf. In his own words, his paintings are “acknowledgements of real and imaginary moments in life that make him want to hold his breath.” As part of his creative process, Stumpf carefully constructs small sets much akin to miniature doll houses or theater stages. They take a great deal of time to craft, and serve as a means to think through and plan a given painting. Working from direct observation, Stumpf then uses these sets to make paintings. With a deft touch his surfaces demonstrate a range of texture and application, and a very human touch that further enhances the sensitivity and humanity of the work.
Looking at the work of each artist in this exhibition, there is a shared tension between the concept of home and the reality. It can provide stability, but can also be precariously unstable. It can be a site of anxiety or pain, but also hold joy and reverie, with the optimism of what may come to be in the future. While many of us have strong memories of home, these too evolve as our perception shifts with time and experience. Our personal narratives shape different attitudes around the idea of home, and the physical structures themselves can differ wildly. While this exhibition presents three distinct viewpoints, it will hopefully serve as a catalyst for viewers to delve deeper into how they personally define and experience the thing we all call home.
– Karen Azarnia, curator
Jennifer Mannebach | Digress, 2025, Hydrocal, wood, acrylic rod, glass, acrylic paint 7.5 x 5 x 5 inches
Jennifer Mannebach is a Chicago based artist, curator, and Gallery Director. Her work addresses boundaries, remnants and where things collect. She has exhibited at the Hyde Park Art Center, Flatfile Gallery, Jack Olson Gallery and others, nationally and internationally. She has been a visiting artist at The American Academy in Rome, and more recently, an artist in residence at Playa Summer Lake in Oregon. Mannebach received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she subsequently taught for 6 years. She is an adjunct professor at Concordia University Chicago and North Central College, an Artist/Researcher with CAPE, and the Director for the O’Connor Gallery at Dominican University. Awards include the Illinois Arts Council Fellowship, CAAP grants, IAC grants, and the Governor’s International Arts Exchange Grant. Recent exhibitions include the two-person show Fissures, at Boundary in Chicago, and the group show Inform(al) in Batavia, IL.
www. jmannebach.com
Jeffly Gabriela Molina | Homemade Sculpture No. 11, 2023, Oil on linen, 9 x 11 x 1.5 inches
Jeffly Gabriela Molina is a Chicago-based artist from Táchira, Venezuela. Molina moved to the U.S. in 2007 and lived in Miami for four years before she transferred to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she graduated with a BFA in 2013 and an MFA in 2016. In addition to participating in multiple group and solo exhibitions, she has created two permanent public sculptures in Miami. Her most recent exhibitions include Con Todo el Corazon at Galeria Ambar Quijano in CDMX, Mexico and This House Is a Body / Esta Casa Es un Cuerpo at Artruss Chicago, Illinois. Molina has been awarded an Emerging Artist Fellowship from the Driehaus Museum, the AAF/Seebacher Prize for Fine Arts, and a John W. Kurtich scholarship..
www.jefflyart.com
Brad Stumpf | I Recall With Eyes Closed, 2022, Oil on panel, 24 x 24 inches
Brad Stumpf is a multidisciplinary artist living in Chicago. He graduated from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a BFA in 2015. His paintings function like miniature stage-sets and are acknowledgements of real and imaginary moments in his life that make him want to hold his breath. He has two permanent public sculptures: Point of Entrance at Jeske Sculpture Park in Ferguson, Missouri, and A Dream Set in Stone at Governors State University. Recent solo exhibitions include Shadow Plays at Harkawik Gallery and Still Life at The Weather Station. His most recent exhibitions include Con Todo el Corazón at Galería Ámbar Quijano in Mexico City and This House Is a Body / Esta Casa Es un Cuerpo at Artruss in Chicago.
www.bradstumpf.com
Karen Azarnia is an artist, educator and independent curator. Born in Miami, FL she currently lives and works in Chicago. She has exhibited nationally in numerous solo and group exhibitions including the Yale Institute of Sacred Music (New Haven, CT,) Alma Gallery (Chicago, IL), Olivet Nazarene University, (Bourbonnais, IL), and Geneva Center for the Arts (Geneva, IL). Azarnia is a grant recipient from the Illinois Arts Council, Chicago DCASE, and the 3Arts Foundation. Her work and curatorial projects have been featured in publications including the Chicago Tribune, Art in America, Hyperallergic, Newcity, and the Huffington Post. She received an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. Azarnia currently teaches in the Department of Painting and Drawing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she was recently awarded the Nick and Keven Wilder Award for excellence in teaching.
www.karenazarnia.com
Riverside Brookfield High School Advanced Placement Art | March 7 - 29, 2025
Delia Moriss | Another Ally, Acrylic and paint pen on paper
Exhibition Dates: March 7 - 29, 2025
Opening Reception: Friday, March 7, 2025, 5:00 – 7:00 pm
Gallery Hours: Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays 1:00 – 5:00 pm
The Riverside Arts Center’s Freeark Gallery and Riverside Brookfield High School are pleased to present the 15th annual presentation of exceptional artworks made by students enrolled in RBHS’s Advanced Placement Art class. This group exhibition includes painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, and digital art by students in their sophomore, junior, and senior years.
The exhibition is on view for three weeks, from March 7th through March 29th. Please celebrate the creativity of our community’s young artists by joining us for a reception on the evening of Friday March 7th from 5:00 - 7:00 PM. Pizza from Paisans Pizzeria and light refreshments will be served.
Thank you to our reception sponsor, Paisans Pizzeria of Brookfield!
Jay Wolke | Building Place: Big Boat Little Pond | December 8, 2024 - February 22, 2025
Quarry Workshop, Carrara, Italy, 2014, Archival inkjet print, 30 x 40 inches
Exhibition Dates: December 8, 2024 - February 22, 2025
Exhibition on view: Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays 1:00 – 5:00 PM
Special Preview: During the Riverside Holiday Stroll, Friday, December 6, 2024, 5:30 - 9:00 PM
Opening Reception for the Artist: Sunday, December 8, 2024, 3:00 - 6:00 PM
Join us afterwards for a private cocktail hour at the Quincy Street Distillery
Artist Talk: Sunday, February 9, 2025, 3:00 PM
Join us afterwards at the Quincy Street Distillery
Media Coverage of Jay Wolke’s exhibition Building Place: Big Boat Little Pond:
Jay Wolke: Building Place: Big Boat Little Pond, by Barbara Ciurej, Lenscratch. February 22, 2025
Riverside Arts Center Hosts Artist Talk With Jay Wolke, by Hector Cervantes, Riverside Brookfield Landmark, Austin Weekly News, Wednesday Journal, and Forest Park Review, February 26, 2025
New photo exhibit at Riverside Arts Center calls for more than cursory looks, by Gregg Voss, Riverside Brookfield Landmark, December 17, 2025
The Riverside Arts Center is excited to present Building Place: Big Boat Little Pond, a solo exhibition of Jay Wolke's photography in both the Freeark Gallery and FlexSpace, curated by Paul D'Amato and Laura Husar Garcia. Please join us for an opening reception for the artist on Sunday, December 8th from 3-6pm, followed by a private cocktail hour at the Quincy Street Distillery. The exhibition will have a preview on Friday, December 6th from 5:30-9pm during the Riverside Holiday Stroll. The exhibition will be on view Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays 1-5pm through February 22, 2025. A panel discussion will be held with the artist and curators on Sunday, February 9, 2025 at 3pm. All events are free and open to the public.
Yellow Exercise Bike, Rehovot, Israel, 2014, Archival inkjet print, 14 x 18 inches
If all we had were Jay Wolke’s photographs in “Building Place: Big Boat Little Pond” as evidence of life on earth, one could be forgiven for thinking what a strange and unknowable species these humans were. Given the evidence of Wolke’s pictures, the viewer is invited to wonder: who were these people capable of such impressive, functionless and mysterious structures all running into one another in a cacophony of design? Were they one people or many who never agreed to a hierarchy of purpose and meaning? Is then what remains the architectural consequence of the Tower of Babel?
I use the past tense because in almost all of Wolke’s’ pictures, there are no people in and around the many structures that were built for so many. Their absence is deafening. What happened and where did they go? Again, without anything else to go on, all we have are the pictures. But one offers a clue, “Zip Line, Niagara Falls, Canada 2023”. It shows four figures flying on guide wires up and out of the frame. On the right side of the frame is a line of people, perhaps waiting their turn to leave, with the last one, Jay Wolke – the man with the camera - recording how they all left.
Garry Winogrand once said “there is nothing so mysterious as a fact well described”. In the end, that’s the pleasure that underlies all of Wolke’s pictures. These humans may be odd, but Wolke loves what he sees and makes images that savor every detail. His images run the gamut from playful, disquieting, weird to serenely beautiful. All full of wonder and hard to believe were it not for the irrefutable evidence of the photograph.
He may photograph from the point of view of the last person to leave - or the first to return from a long absence - but everywhere he goes and everything he sees is an opportunity for a tour de force of composition, light and color. I’m sure if Wolke had been in charge of things all along, then the built environment might have the aesthetic coherence of his pictures. The world might be a better place, but then what would Wolke photograph?
–Paul D'Amato, co-curator
Shelter Hi Rises, Chicago, USA, 2022, Archival inkjet print, 40 x 30 inches
Big Boat Little Pond is a photographic project that focuses on the disparities between design and consumption; spaces and systems that characterize intersections of nature, architecture, and habitation. The environments that I investigate reflect the continuous re-imaginings of human enterprise and reveal the individual and institutional stratifications of ambition and power that dominate the visual landscape. I understand the built environment as an expression of multiple, historical narratives – interwoven and frequently at cross-purposes. As an observer and as a documentarian, I grapple with these often, capricious relationships by producing images composed of visual hierarchies – signifiers described through the language of large-format, color photography. In my attempt to clarify and amplify these conditions, I’m presenting a grammar for visual learning; my photographs are intended to suggest purposeful neutrality, but my hope is to present a web of selected non-fictions inducing apprehension and scrutiny.
–Jay Wolke
![Wolke_Yellow Exercise Bike_Rehovot_18[78].jpg](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c3d179a2487fdb89882a2a6/1740187748784-JGG3DP74MNKIXY5R8TQY/Wolke_Yellow+Exercise+Bike_Rehovot_18%5B78%5D.jpg)
Jay Wolke is an artist and educator living in Chicago Illinois. His photographic monographs include All Around the House: Photographs of American-Jewish Communal Life, 1998; Along the Divide: Photographs of the Dan Ryan Expressway, 2004; Architecture of Resignation: Photographs from the Mezzogiorno, 2011 and Same Dream Another Time, 2017. His works have been exhibited internationally and are in the permanent print collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York MOMA, the Art Institute of Chicago, and San Francisco MOMA, among others. His photographs have appeared in numerous publications including The New York Times Magazine, Guardian Magazine, Financial Times Magazine, Geo France, Exposure, Newsweek, Fortune, and the Village Voice. He is currently a Professor of Photography at Columbia College Chicago, where he was Chair of the Art and Design Department from 2000-2005 and again from 2008-2013.
Publications Available by Jay Wolke:
Click images for more information and to purchase
Paul D'Amato was born in Boston where he attended Boston Latin School at the height of racial unrest and civil rights. He moved west to attend Reed College and claims to have learned as much from traveling cross-country - often by hitch-hiking and freight trains - as he did in class. After receiving an MFA from Yale he moved to Chicago where he discovered the community of Pilsen. The pictures and writing D'Amato produced there were made into the book, Barrio published by the University of Chicago Press. His book of images made in the African-American community on the west side of Chicago, entitled Here/Still/Now published by Kehrer Verlag, was awarded the Lucie Foundation Book Prize in 2018. Rave published by Skylark Editions in 2019, is about work made in the underground Techno scene in the early 90’s. He is now finishing work for a book entitled Midway.
Paul D’Amato has been awarded numerous grants and fellowships including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Pollock-Krasner Fellowship, a Rockefeller Foundation Grant to Bellagio, Italy, and a number of Illinois Arts Council fellowships and his work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The Art Institute of Chicago among others.
Laura Husar Garcia is an artist, curator, and creative director. Her photography has been exhibited widely, including The Biennial of Fine Art and Documentary Photography in Prague, Fotofever at the Carrousel du Louvre in Paris, The Polish Museum of America in Chicago, Fotofest Biennial in Houston, Photo Independent in Los Angeles, The Rangefinder Gallery in Chicago and The Griffin Museum of Photography in Boston. Garcia will be exhibiting her work at the Barcelona Foto Biennial in April, 2025. Grants and awards include The Illinois Humanities Council, International Julia Margaret Cameron Photography Award and Photolucida Critical Mass top 200 finalist. Her work has been published in several books, as well as The New York Times, National Geographic Magazine, Newsweek, Slate Magazine, Suddeutsche Zeitung, Le Monde, and more.
Garcia serves on the Riverside Arts Center’s Board of Directors and is a member of RAC’s Exhibition Committee. She is also an Advisory Board Member of Fresh Lens Chicago, a free youth photography program in Chicago. Garcia is Creative Director and Co-Founder of Three Story Media, which produces visual media through non-fiction storytelling.
Metro Obelisk, Naples, Italy, 2014, Archival inkjet print, 40 x 30 inches
Alison Ruttan | Falling to Pieces | October 20 - November 30, 2024
Midnight, 2020, 2-part ceramic, 22 x 21 x 9 inches
Exhibition Dates: October 20 – November 30, 2024
Opening Reception: Sunday, October 20, 2024, 3:00 - 6:00 PM
Join us afterwards for a private happy hour at the Quincy Street Distillery
Exhibition on view: Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays 1:00 – 5:00 PM
Artist Talk: Saturday, November 16, 2024, 2:00 PM
The Riverside Arts Center’s Freeark Gallery is pleased to present Falling to Pieces, a solo exhibition of Alison Ruttan’s ceramic sculpture. Please join us for an opening reception on Sunday, October 20th from 3-6pm and an artist talk on Saturday, November 16th at 2pm. The exhibition is on view Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays 1-5pm through November 30th.
Read the Newcity review by Vera Scekic here
“Here we are, arguably the most intelligent being that’s ever walked planet Earth, with this extraordinary brain, yet we’re destroying the only home we have.”
–Jane Goodall
Home, be it a building or a planet, conjures up thoughts of comfort and safety. However, current newsfeeds are filled with images of war-torn structures, flooded villages, and devastated housing. Alison Ruttan transforms her observations of this human-created violence, climate change, and neglect into moving architectural sculptures.
Ruttan’s queries into human behavior led her to Jane Goodall’s research of chimpanzees, our species’ closest living relatives, and their ability to strategically wage war against each other. The artist first transferred these observations of aggression into photography then took up ceramics in 2011. With armed conflicts in Syria, Sudan, Ukraine, and Gaza, climate change wreaking havoc in the forms of wildfires and floods, and the increase of mass shootings, the topic of violence in her art has become more universal.
The ceramic pieces depict miniature buildings collapsing, the walls crumbled, as if a bomb had been dropped. Her somber palette of earthen reds, deep greens, and smokey blues ooze down in thick glazing. To achieve the appearance of destruction the artist relies on chance, combining low fire and high fire clays in the kiln along with physically toppling over parts of her sculpture. In at least one case, she repurposed the remnants of a shattered sculpture to create a new piece.
Her newest series of ceramic rooftops replicates the all too often viewed footage of submerged homes after flooding from hurricanes. A portion of the “Rising Water” project that will be shown at the Hyde Park Art Center in 2026 is exhibited outside in the Riverside Arts Center’s sculpture garden. Rows of these rooftops appear as a neighborhood of houses seemingly submerged into the pebbled ground. The installation reminds us of climate change disasters, while the art itself is subject to the elements of nature, as the shadows, the rain, and even the squirrels, add to the visual interplay.
As the world seems to be falling apart, we also grapple with our own personal lives. The buildings could be viewed as one’s own body, subject to the violence of human-caused circumstances and elements out of our control. Our humanity is expressed in Ruttan’s ceramic buildings that are embedded into found furniture. With this contrast in scale, the furniture caresses the broken structures, reminding us of the domestic contents of what once were inside and the human lives that called it home.
–Joanne Aono, curator
Alison Ruttan is an interdisciplinary, research-based artist working within the realms of sculpture, ceramics, architecture, and photography. She has exhibited at numerous local and international venues including Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago; Wit, Wageningen, Netherlands; the Chicago Cultural Center; 4th Ward Project Space, Chicago; and the Lubeznik Center for the Arts, Michigan City, Michigan. Her art has been profiled in the Chicago Tribune, WTTW PBS, Art in America, and the Chicago Reader among many others.
Ruttan is the recipient of several Illinois Arts Council grants and Faculty grants from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has been awarded residencies in Krems, Austria, Escondido, California, and the Wexner Center for the Arts at Ohio State University. Her art is held in private and public collections including Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas and the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, Illinois. She holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BFA from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Lost Records, 2019, 2-part ceramic with bookshelves, 16.25 x 14 x 64 inches
Yvette Marie Dostatni | Face Value: Identities Both Seen and Unseen | September 8 - October 12, 2024
Althea, Waiting for Miracles, Maxworks, 2000, 6x7 Color Negative
Exhibition Dates: September 8 – October 12, 2024
Opening Reception: Sunday, September 8, 2024, 3:00 - 6:00 PM
Join us afterwards for a private happy hour at the Quincy Street Distillery
Exhibition on view: Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays
Artist Talk: Saturday, September 14, 2024, 2:00 PM
The Riverside Arts Center’s Freeark Gallery is pleased to present Face Value: Identities Both Seen and Unseen, a solo photography exhibition by Yvette Marie Dostatni, curated by Laura Husar Garcia. Please join us for an opening reception on Sunday, September 8th from 3-6pm and a talk with the artist and the curator on Saturday, September 14th at 2pm. This exhibition is held in conjunction with Filter Photo Festival.
In "Face Value: Identities Both Seen and Unseen", Yvette Marie Dostatni's photographs offer a profound exploration of borrowed, invented and cultivated identities from individuals who find belonging in unconventional ways. Her raw and sometimes gritty imagery sheds light on the stark contrast between the subjects' self-perception and the external gaze from society. From her "American Dream" series to her "Unconventional" photographs, Dostatni's work provides viewers a front-row seat to her visual narrative. This exhibit delves into the complexities of self-expression, personal personas, cultural costuming and the underlying common thread of our search for identity.
–Laura Husar Garcia, curator
My Sister Clara and Snowball, 1994, 6x6 Black and White Negative
Yvette Marie Dostatni uses the camera as a passport to explore the lives of neighbors, friends, and strangers. Her subjects range from personal memories of growing up in small towns throughout the Midwest to more complex matters while living in Chicago. She has exhibited her photography in group shows across the United States, including the Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles, California, the Houston Center for Photography in Houston, Texas, the Chicago Cultural Center in Chicago, Illinois, and the Griffin Museum in Winchester, Massachusetts. Her portfolio is part of The Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Contemporary Photography Midwest Photographer’s Collection.
Dostatni was selected for Chicago’s CITY 2000; was one of fifty American artists invited to the Lishui Arts Festival in China; and was nominated by Time Magazine as one of the “Unsung Female Photographers of the Past Century.” She has been a finalist and recipient of the Julia Margaret Cameron Award (2010/2019/2023) and a Top-Fifty Photographer for Critical Mass (2007/2019). Her work has been featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times Lens Blog, Russian Esquire, LENSCRATCH, LensCulture, AINT-BAD, The Paris Review, Photographer’s Quarterly, National Geographic, Chicago Magazine, The Chicago Tribune Magazine, and The Chicago Reader.
Laura Husar Garcia is an artist, curator, and creative director. Her photography has been exhibited widely, including The Biennial of Fine Art and Documentary Photography in Prague, Fotofever at the Carrousel du Louvre in Paris, The Polish Museum of America in Chicago, Fotofest Biennial in Houston, Photo Independent in Los Angeles, The Rangefinder Gallery in Chicago and The Griffin Museum of Photography in Boston. Grants and awards include The Illinois Humanities Council, International Julia Margaret Cameron Photography Award and Photolucida Critical Mass top 200 finalist. Garcia will be exhibiting her work at the Schingoethe Center Museum in Aurora this fall and the Barcelona Foto Biennial in April, 2025. Her work has been published in several books, as well as The New York Times, National Geographic Magazine, Newsweek, Slate Magazine, Suddeutsche Zeitung, Le Monde, and more.
Garcia serves on the Riverside Arts Center’s Board of Directors and is a member of RAC’s Exhibition Committee. She has curated Alice Hargrave and Barbara Diener’s “Semblance: Unfolded and Brought to Light” (2022) and co-curated “Past Perfect: Celebrating 30 Years with 30 Artists” (2023). She is also an Advisory Board Member of Fresh Lens Chicago, a free youth photography program in Chicago. Garcia is Creative Director and Co-Founder of Three Story Media, which produces visual media through non-fiction storytelling.
RAC Members Exhibition 2024 | July 7 - 27, 2024
2024 RAC Members Exhibition
The Riverside Arts Center presents our annual exhibition featuring art by RAC’s talented members, volunteers, clay studio members, staff, board, and adults enrolled in RAC’s classes or workshops from summer 2023-2024. This exhibition will be shown in our Freeark Gallery + Sculpture Garden, while our FlexSpace will display artwork created by RAC students and children of the Riverside Arts Center’s members and school. View last year’s exhibition here.
Exhibition on view: July 7 – 27, 2024
Opening Reception: July 7, 2024, 3:00 – 6:00 PM
Artwork drop off dates:
Thursday, June 27: 1 – 5 PM
Friday, June 28: 1 – 5 PM
Saturday, June 29: 1 – 5 PM
Artwork pick up dates:
Thursday, August 1: 1 – 5 PM
Friday, August 2: 1 – 5 PM
Saturday, August 3: 1 – 5 PM
Guidelines:
Current members, volunteers, clay studio members, and students enrolled in RAC’s classes or workshops from summer 2023-2024 are eligible.
Each artist is invited to submit one piece, no larger than 30" in width if exhibited inside the gallery. Artwork appropriate for outdoor weather can be submitted for the sculpture garden. Please contact Joanne prior to delivery with details if your work is intended for the sculpture garden.
All hanging art must be framed and/or ready for hanging with wire or sawtooth hanger on back.
3-D work for inside the gallery can be displayed on one of our pedestals or stand on the floor.
Please fill out the exhibition form and include it with your submission.
RAC reserves the right to reject any submission. Reasons could include but are not limited to excessive size, weight, or fragility (risk of damage to artwork on display).
Join or renew your membership and be a part of this showcase of amazing artists.
Questions? Email Gallery Director, Joanne Aono: jaono@riversideartscenter.com
Kwamé Azure Gomez | Social Chromaticism | Guest curator chris d. reeder | May 24 - June 22, 2024
We comb through the cosmos (secondary succession is the groove), 2024 Acrylic paint, modeling paste and spray paint on upcycled fabric
The Riverside Arts Center’s Freeark Gallery is pleased to present Social Chromaticism, an exhibition of painting and assemblage by Kwamé Azure Gomez, guest curated by chris d. reeder.
Exhibition Dates: May 24 - June 22, 2024
Opening Reception: Friday, May 24 2024, 6:00 – 8:00 pm
Gallery Hours: Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays 1:00 – 5:00 pm
Artist Talk: Sunday, June 23, 2024, 2:00pm
Frequency of Touch (I bead clouds into your hair, you braid vowels into mine), 2023 Acrylic paint, spray paint, colored pencil, and oil on canvas, 75 x 60 inches
Abstraction transcends mere stylistic choice—it's a prism to explore the depths of color's social and ontological dimensions. Guided by intuition, each brushstroke relinquishes control to the divine system of creative expression, inviting us to delve into the interplay between surface and depth. In Kwamé Azure Gomez's work, this exploration extends beyond the visual realm, echoing Fred Moten’s notion of Blackness as a social relation and chromatic descriptor. Gomez's work beckons us to probe the sensation of color, going beyond appearance to investigate the implications of color on our very social experiences. Through a quotidian lens, the canvas becomes not just a site of aesthetic inquiry, but a space where the politics of color intersect with questions of identity, power, and sentimental experience.
As Moten suggests in his 2008 article “The Case of Blackness”, the color black exceeds the visual field, and in this legacy, Gomez's work invites us to consider the depths and impact of color beyond chromatic descriptors.In this exploration, the surface becomes a site of interrogation, a threshold where the exchange between the phenomenological category of color and the chromatic descriptor of color unfolds.
Gomez uses varying levels of opacity and transparency to create an evocative interplay, reminiscent of memory or fleeting moments. Figures emerge and recede, blurring the boundaries between presence and absence, visibility and invisibility. This manipulation of transparency serves as a note on visibility, and is informed by teachings by Art historian and professor Dr. Sampada Aranke and Fred Moten’s exploration of the visibility and invisibility of Blackness.
Moreover, Gomez's use of assemblage techniques further enriches the dialogue between surface and depth. Many works become a collage of physical pieces, assembled to evoke a sense of fragmented narratives and layered meanings. Within Kwamé's practice, the canvas becomes a liminal space where rituals of self reflection, reality, philosophical processing and imagination intertwine, reflecting the multifaceted nature of identity and experience. Here, color works as a social relation posed as an aesthetic question, inviting viewers to navigate the vibrant layers of meaning and connection embedded within each artwork.
As we explore the depths of Kwamé's art, may we engage in a deep investigation of the surfaces and epistemologies that shape our understanding of color and its material and affective implications on our social relations.
— chris d. reeder
Swing low (To Freedom/ Shoulda never gave me a Pegasus), 2024, Acrylic paint, modeling paste colored pencil, and spray paint on ceramic tile on canvas and upcycled table placemat, 35 x 38 inches
In these works I explore personal rituals and ceremonies of self reflection, affirmation, intuitive guidance, free will and choice. These realizations and emotional responses to them are informed by my individual experiences and collective encounters. Mirroring the quotidian moments of my own sentimental restoration through color, texture, form and the figure/ non figure space as a formation of processing is a fundamental element within this presentation of works. Sitting with myself, feeling the arrangement of my breathing- closely examining my body’s sonic registers, dancing under a lover, surveying the tender worlds within and around me are namely a few of the anecdotes to finding center during high volumes of intensity.
I believe that these works do not solely operate simply as a means to remind or provide evidence of my material presence and existence to our contemporary social climate. I think to fully depend and place value on those kinds of optics over the intuitive voice inside me would be another way to deny my own self determination and evolution. In this space there is no convincing of my humanity to you- no persuasion. My humanity is an objective truth.
(The works) are really here to remind myself that I exist. That my experiences are real. That my tears, my laughter, my love, my pain is not invisible. They serve to convince me, to take my hand and help me recall my own free will with grace and compassion. Inspired by a shared interest in the abstraction of daily life, physics, divination, temporality, philosophy and human nature, these works operate both as temperamental present record and destined archive. Through their affect I am invested in what this conjures up for the viewer within their own interpersonal stasis. I understand that this is an invitation to enter my garden, but I’d like to enter yours too.
In experiencing derealization it is not an overstatement to say it’s easy to forget you exist. You add in a societal system that thrives on the constant suppression yet simultaneous exploitation of your image and you have a recipe for self censorship of the heart. These works are a contention for opacity. Before all else, a kaleidoscope into the depth of selfhood. An affirmation to continuously meet one’s self over and over again. To daily reintroduce every version of who you are to who you’ve been. To move always in favor of that reflection.
I view the indexical mark / gesture as proof of life.
As essential matter in the mystic augmentation of my narrative
My story
My life
I want to to encounter the fullness of my humanity In whatever form it eclipses me In the failure of trying to compartmentalize chaos I find beauty.
I want the viewers to walk away feeling held, to be reminded of the texture of their life. To give more meditative space and attention to their interior world. To consider the contents of their hearts, boundaries and needs. To take time to process, notice patterns and be present in the savoring of the everyday. To sit with discomfort, joy, pain and love- to know it’s okay to feel, and to feel deeply.
— Kwamé Azure Gomez
Self Portrait of the artist as Man at the crossroads, 2024, Acrylic paint, colored graphite on canvas, 11 x 8 inches
Kwamé Azure Gomez (b. 1999 Akron, OH) is a Chicago based interdisciplinary painter, and writer. Inspired by an interest in the abstraction of daily life, physics, temporality, entropy, divination philosophy and human nature, Gomez explores the personal rituals and ceremonies of self-reflection, affirmation, intuitive guidance, free will and choice. Gomez earned their MFA from the School of the Art Institute, Chicago and their BFA from the University of Akron. They received an Emerging Artist grant from New American Paintings and the following year was selected for New American Paintings MFA Issue 165. Gomez's work was featured in i-D Magazine for Cierra Britton’s group exhibition, A Color Story. Their work has been exhibited at New Image Art Gallery in West Hollywood, California; SoLA Contemporary in Los Angeles, CA; Stony Island Arts bank, Chicago, IL; Anthony Gallery Chicago, IL; and Dada Gallery, London, among others.
@_kwame.azuregomez
Atlanta-born on Creek and Cherokee land, chris d. reeder, is a scholar, curator, and arts administrator based in Chicago. Their academic journey through Spelman College and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) was driven by a deep interest in Black feminist anthropology and Diasporic Studies. Investigating the intersection of culture, memory, and art, they interrogate the influence of visual expression on social consciousness. At Mariane Ibrahim, chris blends writing, research, and gallery administration, while their independent practice encompasses bookmaking, exhibitions, and public art projects.
@chrisdreeder
Susan Giles | Words to Grasp | April 7 - May 11, 2024
Strife, 2024, Honeycomb cardboard, 101 x 36 x 48 inches
The Riverside Arts Center’s Freeark Gallery is pleased to present Words to Grasp, a solo exhibition of sculpture, drawing, and video by Susan Giles, curated by Anne Harris.
Exhibition Dates: April 7 - May 11, 2024
Opening Reception: Sunday, April 7, 2024, 3:00 – 6:00 pm
Join us afterwards for a private happy hour across the street at the Quincy Street Distillery.
Gallery Hours: Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays 1:00 – 5:00 pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, April 27, 2024, 2:00 pm
“Movement never lies. It is a barometer telling the state of the soul's weather to all who can read it.”
–Martha Graham (1991), Blood Memory
Susan Giles uses motion-capture technology to record the moving hands of speakers as they express emotion. She then gives sculptural form to these emphatic gestures. The result is monumental ephemerality -- fluid stillness suspended in space and time. Built with honeycombed layers of cardboard (the most ordinary stuff), Giles’s recent site-specific sculptures swirl through large institutional spaces, unfurling and floating. They are weightless and uncanny, like ballet or baroque sculpture. The flying robes of Bernini’s twisting David come to mind.
The organic drama of this experience is at odds with its technologically sophisticated, analytical beginnings. In the end, we’re suspended between sensations: the magical marvel of tour-de-force construction, and the quiet poetry of dispassionate observation -- that emotion can be recorded, measured, and translated into data, like any other natural phenomenon.
In the context of this evolving extended project, we’re excited to see how Giles responds directly to the human scale, domestic character, and intimacy of RAC’s Freeark Gallery.
–Anne Harris, Curator
Barb, 2022, Colored pencil on paper, 18 x 24 inches
Susan Giles is an artist working in interdisciplinary media. Her work has been shown in Chicago at the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Hyde Park Art Center, THE MISSION Gallery, and The Renaissance Society, as well as Mixed Greens in New York, Five Years in London, and Galeria Valle Orti in Valencia, Spain. Among her honors are a Louis Comfort Tiffany Award, a Fulbright Grant, Individual Artist Project Grants from Chicago’s DCASE, and multiple Illinois Arts Council grants. Major commissions include a permanent sculpture for the University of Chicago and a public art commission with Jason Rosenthal in memory of Amy Krouse Rosenthal for the Chicago Park District.
Giles holds a MFA from Northwestern University and a MA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is Associate Professor in the Department of Contemporary Practices at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a Visiting Teaching Fellow in Built Environment, Arts, Design & Architecture at University of New South Wales in Sydney.
Anne Harris’s paintings and drawings have been exhibited at venues ranging from Alexandre Gallery, DC Moore Gallery and Nielsen Gallery to the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian Institute, The Portland Museum of Art, and the California Center for Contemporary Art. Her art is in such public collections as The Fogg Museum at Harvard, The Yale University Art Gallery and The New York Public Library. Grants and awards received include a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship and an NEA Individual Artists Fellowship.
Harris is an Associate Professor in the Painting and Drawing Department at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is Chair of the Exhibition Committee at the Riverside Arts Center and has curated numerous exhibitions there. She also is the originator of The Mind's I—an expanding traveling drawing project she does with other artists, which is designed to investigate the complexities of perception and self-perception.
https://anneharrispainting.com/home.html
Gestural Traces and Material Memory, 2023, Artist book with Risograph and inkjet prints, Artwork by Susan Giles, Design and publishing by Riesling Dong, 5 x 10.5 inches, 20 pages, Edition of 27
This project is partially supported by an Individual Artist Program Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events, as well as a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency, a state agency through federal funds provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.
This project is partially supported by The Hambidge Center where the drawings for this project were created during a 2022 residency.
Riverside Brookfield High School Advanced Placement Art Exhibition | March 8 - 30, 2024
Sophia Alexander, Senior | to love, 2024, Acrylic Paint, 11 x 14 inches
Opening Reception: Friday, March 8. 2024, 5:00 - 7:00 PM
Exhibition Dates: March 8 - May 30, 2024
On View: Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, 1:00 - 5:00 PM
The Riverside Arts Center’s Freeark Gallery and Riverside Brookfield High School are pleased to present the 14th annual presentation of exceptional artworks made by students enrolled in RBHS’s Advanced Placement Art class. This group exhibition includes paintings, sculpture, drawings, photography, and digital art by students in their sophomore, junior, and senior years.
The exhibition of artworks is on view for three weeks, from March 8th through March 30th. Please celebrate the creativity of our community’s young artists by joining us for a reception on the evening of Friday March 8th from 5:00 - 7:00 PM. Pizza from Paisans Pizzeria and light refreshments will be served.
Makayla Angshed, Senior | Violin Lady, 2024, Oil stick paint and pen, 12 x 18 inches
Emilia Toro, Junior | Dusk, 2024, Digital, 16 x 12 inches
Michal Plummer, Junior | Different Wavelengths, 2024, Wire, 6 x 8 x 1 inches
Thank you to our reception sponsor, Brookfield’s Paisans Pizzeria!
Cydney Lewis | Flowing within the recesses | January 21 - March 2, 2024
Finding Grace Through Darkness, 2023, Hand cut paper, engraving, ink, paper, on plexiglass, 36 x 24 inches
The Riverside Arts Center’s Freeark Gallery is pleased to present Flowing Within the Recesses, a solo exhibition of collage and mixed media art by Cydney Lewis, curated by Joanne Aono.
Exhibition Dates: January 21 – March 2, 2024
Opening Reception: Sunday, January 21, 2024, 3:00 – 6:00 pm
Join us afterwards for a private happy hour across the street at the Quincy Street Distillery.
Gallery Hours: Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays 1:00 – 5:00 pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, February 10, 2024 at 2:00 pm
Cydney Lewis creates art that is both mysterious and familiar. Her collages of materials used in unconventional ways portray scenes of disruption and calm; tragedy and beauty; fear and reflection. Afrofuturism and its basis in Black history, science fiction, and fantasy lends to her story-filled depictions of the past, present, and future. She combines truncated images cut from magazines, discarded styrofoam packing, hand-knotted post-consumer plastic bags, rhinestones, and other objects. These are manipulated through repetitious markings made with paint, ink, and engraving. Lewis’s exhibition, Flowing Within the Recesses, at the Riverside Arts Center invokes otherworldly settings, encouraging us to find relations within the plantlike forms and the fragments of human bodies.
Self Sabotage, from the Beauty Amongst Darkness series, can be read as a confession to sweet indulgences or a cover to deep tragedy. The strawberry-topped cake is ensnarled with overstuffed fabric, a fancy neck scarf, and foil paper akin to candy wrappers. The resulting creature appears to be struggling to free itself. Finding Grace Through Darkness is seemingly an underwater scene. The muted engraved and inked repetitive marks on plexiglass create a somber yet calming tone, while the colorful hard-edged magazine cutouts create multiple interpretations. Is the periwinkle rope a safety line or a noose? Are the hands graceful in joy or desperately calling out for help? The open-ended stories allow us room for personal thoughts and emotions.
Lewis’s installation above/between/below was inspired by the recent discovery of a hidden landscape under the Antarctic ice; of hills and valleys carved by ancient rivers for millions of years. As an artist involved in dance, teaching, and architecture, Lewis uses space, material, color, movement, and form. The ancient flow of water over time is like the spatial movement of a dancer or an architect’s connection of rooms within a building’s design. Slick images from magazines are cropped in haunting ways while two-dimensional materials are folded, twisted, and stacked. These combined with found objects, create an illusion of three-dimensional space and invite us to wander into and reflect on our connection with the environment.
— Joanne Aono, curator
Self Sabotage, 2023, Hand cut paper, metal foil, cork, plastic, acrylic marker, 20 x 16 inches
Cydney Lewis is a Chicago-based Multimedia artist. She holds a BS in Architecture from the Univerisity of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, attended the L’École D’architecture de Versailles, France, and took further studies through the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Ballet and film add to her multidisciplinary background. Her art is held in private collections around the world and has been exhibited widely at venues including the Union League Chicago, Hyde Park Art Center and The Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art. She has received various honors, among them residencies with Chicago Public Schools and Lyseloth Musikerwohnhaus Basel, Switzerland, as well as awards including 3Arts Make A Wave and the Black Creativity/Green Art Award from the Museum of Science and Industry. Her art has been reviewed by Newcity, NBC Chicago, and Bad at Sports. Currently, she is a member of Tiger Strikes Asteroid of Chicago.
Flowing Downstream, 2023
Artist Statement
Walking through my community inspires me to imagine multidimensional landscapes created from everyday objects. These unconventional artifacts reflect the world we live in, consume, and fill with things. Printed material and imagery document our existence. Discarded objects reveal what (and who) our society values, and what gets thrown away. Through drawing, sculpture, and installation assembled around these materials, I discover their stories, their beauty, and endless adaptation. They create worlds that seem familiar and surreal.
My work imagines the places and spaces where the natural environment, the spiritual world, and manmade materials collide. I am drawn to the patterns of growth and renewal I find in nature, through drawing and collage, images and textures, and the stuff of our day-to-day life. Sometimes a drawing is layered upon a collage of images, paper, and cork; other times, I assemble or forge new landscapes from melted plastics and synthetics generated by our past and present. Stretching the boundaries of the form and materials until something – or someplace – new emerges.
Afrofuturism inspires who and what you see as the installations are portals to an immersive experience of Black life past, present, and future. I conjure and celebrate infinite Black existence, taking up space in reimagined and reconstructed territories. We must see ourselves in boundless multidimensional landscapes. It is part of who we are. It is liberation.
Pattern, repetition, and constant movement form the foundation of my work. By twisting, tearing, melting, and re-shaping, my hands are tools to reinvent the natural and human-made elements. As we increasingly lean toward artificial materials and intelligence, my practice honors something slow, meditative, and intentional. The layered and textured landscapes invite you to look closely, to slow down and discover the layers of materials, drawing and imagery. My intentions are to unite real human labor and real materials to motivate human connections.
— Cydney Lewis
Past Perfect: Celebrating 30 Years with 30 Artists | November 5, 2023 - January 6, 2024
The Riverside Arts Center is pleased to present Past Perfect: Celebrating 30 Years with 30 Artists, a group exhibition commemorating our thirtieth anniversary. This exhibition will be on view in RAC’s Freeark Gallery, FlexSpace, and Sculpture Garden from November 5, 2023 through January 6, 2024.
Opening Reception: Sunday, November 5, 2023, 3:00 – 6:00 pm
Please join us afterwards for a private happy hour with handcrafted artisanal spirits across the street at the Quincy Street Distillery.
Exhibition Dates: November 5, 2023 – January 6, 2024
Gallery Hours: Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays 1:00 – 5:00 pm
Artist Panel Discussions: Saturdays at 2pm
December 2nd: Artists Aimée Beaubien, Tom Burtonwood, Andreas Fischer, Tim Lowly, Yoonshin Park, Kim Piotrowski, and Colleen Plumb, with curators Anne Harris, Laura Husar Garcia, and Joanne Aono
December 9th: Artists Larry Bookbinder and Matthew Girson, Jason Lazarus (via zoom) and Ali Feser, Camille Silverman, and Erin Washington, with curators Anne Harris, Laura Husar Garcia, and Joanne Aono
January 6th Closing Reception and Artist Panel Talk: Artists Whitney Bradshaw, Bob Faust, Nancy Hejna, Heather Hug, Indira Freitas Johnson, Tim Lowly, and Jennifer Taylor, with curators Anne Harris and Joanne Aono
Established in 1993, the Riverside Arts Center has evolved into a respected destination led by its world-class exhibition programming. In recognition of the hundreds of artists whose art has similarly grown through the years, thirty extraordinary artists were selected from RAC’s solo and two-person exhibitions.
Representing a diverse range of artistic mediums, the exhibition includes a wood sculpture by one of the Riverside Arts Center’s founders, Ruth Freeark; a colorful multimedia installation by Aimée Beaubien; and a figurative oil painting by Janice Nowinski. Photography and video are explored by Whitney Bradshaw and Colleen Plumb, while painting is represented by respected artists such as Kim Piotrowski, Anna Kunz, Candida Alvarez, and Andreas Fischer. In addition, we honor Sabina Ott and Deborah Boardman posthumously through their art.
The exhibition will open with a reception for the artists on Sunday, November 5th from 3-6pm. Coinciding with the exhibition, several of the exhibiting artists will participate in panel discussions led by the exhibition’s curators, Anne Harris, Laura Husar Garcia, and Joanne Aono, on select Saturday afternoons.
The artists in Past Perfect: Celebrating 30 Years with 30 Artists include: Candida Alvarez, Karen Azarnia, Aimeé Beaubien, Deborah Boardman, Larry Bookbinder, Whitney Bradshaw, Tom Burtonwood, Paola Cabal, Bob Faust, Andreas Fischer, Ruth Freeark, Nancy Hejna, Heather Hug, Indira Freitas Johnson, Anna Kunz, Jason Lazarus, Riva Lehrer, Tim Lowly, Janice Nowinski, Nnenna Okore, Sabina Ott, Yoonshin Park, Tony Phillips, Kim Piotrowski, Colleen Plumb, Judith Raphael, Camille Silverman, Altoon Sultan, Jennifer Taylor, and Erin Washington.
Terrain Biennial: Youree Kim | October 1 - November 15, 2023
1909 Installation, 2023, sand, clay, wood, cotton cloth, hemp cloth, laquer, stones
The Riverside Arts Center is pleased to present Youree Kim’s installation, 1909 as part of the 2023 Terrain Biennial. Located outside RAC’s back fence, the installation is accessible to viewers 24/7.
On view: October 1 - November 15, 2023
1909 echoes the tangled history of transnational sex trade/tourism, colonialism, militarized violence and control on disabled bodymind. It was inspired by architectural remnants in Hibarimachi, one of the government-run brothel villages in Korea by Japanese settlers to efficiently profit and control women’s bodies and sexuality, later replicated to and by colonized communities. The statue was first built with sand, clay, and wood, layered with cotton and hemp cloth, and then lacquered, resonating a process of filling and emptying to create a form. The shape and size was referenced from the imported Japanese style Buddha statues.
-Youree Kim
Youree Kim is an interdisciplinary artist, activist, and researcher. Their works seek to navigate the complicated realities of how disabilities are produced, perceived, and represented in the face of critical socio political issues. Their artistic practice and process entails combining lived experience, research, and community engagement. They hold a Master of Public Policy from Adler University and a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Kim has exbited with HATCH, The Other Art Fair, and the Hyde Park Art Center. They have been awarded Ignite Fund, Illinois Humanities Envisioning Justice, and Third Wave grants as well as residencies with HATCH and Acre. Projects organized or curated by Kim include Alternatives to Calling the Police During Mental Health Crisis (Chicago) and Disability Day of Mourning (HPAC). Their writings have been published in Truthout, AK Press, and Riksha Magazine. Kim’s work is in the collections of the Milstein Center of Columbia University, Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America (MA), and The Joseph Regenstein Library at University of Chicago.
About Terrain
Terrain Biennial is organized by Terrain Exhibitions. Terrain was founded on the front porch of late artist Sabina Ott out of a spirit of generosity and community building through art. Terrain has produced six editions of the Biennial and continues to bring public art to more and more neighborhoods across the world with every installment.
Terrain Exhibitions is a 501c3 Not for Profit organization founded in the State of Illinois. Terrain is partially funded by the Oak Park Area Arts Council, in partnership with the Village of Oak Park, the Illinois Arts Council Agency and the National Endowment for the Arts. Terrain also receives support from The Hyde Park Art Center Artist Run Chicago 2.0 Fund and the Montage Foundation.
I
Michelle Wasson | Aurea Nova | September 10 - October 21, 2023
The Riverside Arts Center’s Freeark Gallery is pleased to present Aurea Nova, a solo exhibition of paintings by Michelle Wasson, curated by Judith Mullen
Exhibition Dates: September 10 – October 21, 2023
Opening Reception: Sunday, September 10, 2023, 3:00 – 6:00 pm
Join us afterwards for a private happy hour across the street at the Quincy Street Distillery.
Gallery hours: Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays 1:00 – 5:00 pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, October 14, 2023, 2:00 pm
Curated by Judith Mullen
Finding and unlocking shapes and ideas from her unconscious mind, Michelle Wasson continues to push the boundaries of making space in the two-dimensional realm. In Wasson’s latest body of work, born from her form of psychic automatism, gone are obvious painterly strategies—evidence of striving and trickery—to fool the viewer's eye and heart into pictorial engagement. Instead, we as audience, are gifted layered paintings such as “Chimera,” oil on canvas, rendered out of a sense of love, gratitude, and a seamless flow of energy and ultimately, an intimate relationship with shadow; generously woven together with qualities and experiences found in our own humanness and in the natural world.
All of Wasson’s paintings are tenderly painted in oil on canvas where recognizable and unrecognizable forms converge into a mysterious new reality in which we find ourselves transported for a rest, a wander, or an enlightened repose. Quoting a section of Andre Breton’s Surrealist Manifesto, Breton stated “I believe in the future of these two states, dream and reality, which are seemingly so contradictory, into a kind of absolute reality, a surreality, if one may so speak.”
- Judith Mullen
Michelle Wasson is an internationally exhibiting artist based in Chicago, IL. Her work has recently been included in exhibitions at Hyde Park Art Center, Elmhurst Art Museum, Galleri Urbane (Dallas, TX), Epiphany Art Center (Chicago), and Brand Library Art Center (Glendale, CA). She is the recipient of several Illinois Arts Council grants and a City of Chicago DCASE grant. Her art has been reviewed in The Chicago Tribune, Bad At Sports, Newcity, and Hyperallergic. She has served as faculty at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Columbia College Chicago and The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In 2016 she co-founded the artist run exhibition space Tiger Strikes Asteroid Chicago. Wasson received her MFA from Washington University in St. Louis, MO.
Judith Mullen’s sculptures, paintings and drawings have been exhibited at venues both nationally and internationally to include Devening Projects, Woldt Gallery London, Linda Warren Projects, The Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Krasl Art Museum, Trinity College, Dominican University, Lois Lambert Gallery, Hyde Park Art Center, University of St. Francis, The Green Gallery, Elmhurst Art Museum and Cultivator. Mullen holds her BFA and MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work was chosen as a finalist in the Chicago 2022 Artadia Awards. She is the recipient of an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship and a member of the Viewing Program, NY. Publications of her work can be found in Newcity Art Magazine, Bad at Sports, Progressive Pulse.com, Newcity Art, Hyperallergic and The Chicago Tribune. Mullen’s work can be found in both private and public collections.
The Riverside Arts Center is grateful to the Quincy Street Distillery for their partnership in hosting a private happy hour for Michelle Wasson’s opening reception.
