CURRENT EXHIBITION

I Brought You Flowers/Te Traje Flores is a site that considers the cultural resonance of gifting flowers as acts of nurturing within BIPOC communities.

Inspired by Nahua and Mayan codices and contemporary writing that breaks down their logographic terms. Flowers symbolize places and names, the exhibition explores the profound connection between botany, our ancestral heritage, and the act of giving. Central to the exhibit are ceramic pieces cradling flowers, each representing a spectrum of recipients: flowers to ourselves, xochitl to our ancestor, flores to the earth weaving a rich tapestry of interconnectedness and reconciliation.

Bio:

Marcela Torres is an artist, organizer, and educator that uses strength-building exercises and community rituals, to propose forms of reparations. Born in Salt Lake City, Utah and residing nomadically. Their physical research builds on methods of transcendental rituals, racial struggles within the United States and contemporary Latinx diaspora. Torres received a BA in Sculpture Intermedia and a BFA in Art History from the University of Utah, continuing their studies with a MFA in Performance from School of the Art Institute Chicago. Torres has performed at Performance Space New York, the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, The Momentary, Fringe Festival and Time Based Arts. Torres has exhibited work at Hyde Park Art Center, UW-Parkside University and Petzel Gallery. Torres has been in residency at John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Franconia Sculpture Park, Recess, Links Hall and Creative Exchange PICA. They were a 2022 Chicago Dance Maker Forum Lab Artist, and a 2023 IACA Artist Fellowship Awardee for New Forms.

Opening Reception

June 14, 2024 | 6:00-8:00 PM

Arts Incubator | 301 E. Garfield Blvd

Upcoming Exhibition

OF HER BECOMING: ELIZABETH CATLETT’S LEGACY IN CHICAGO

June 14- August 31, 2024

Arts + Public Life, Arts Incubator: 301 E Garfield Blvd

Gallery Hours Thursday-Saturday 1PM-5PM

Of Her Becoming highlights the printmaking, work, and impact of influential artist and activist Elizabeth Catlett (1915–2012) within an important site in Catlett’s career: Chicago’s South Side. The exhibition includes several of Catlett’s lithograph and woodcut prints as well as work of contemporary Black women printmakers on the South Side. Of Her Becoming sheds new light on the significance of Catlett’s time on Chicago’s South Side, how this period revolutionized her artistic practice, and how her practice still impacts artists and community organizers on the South Side.

Presented at Arts + Public Life’s (APL’s) Arts Incubator Gallery, an important community keystone of APL’s Arts Block, Of Her Becoming engages APL’s neighbors, youth enrolled in APL’s programs, and local and regional artistic and scholarly communities. This exhibition and related programs offer lessons for today from Catlett’s legacy of advocating, through her artwork, for the well–being and advancement of her communities.