Jess Atieno will share her experience as Artist-in-Residence with APL and CSRPC and discuss her new body of work. Jess’ practice has expanded to include photographs and short films that explore the migrant object and body at the intersection of personal and collective historical memory, leading to new questions on representation, history, and photographic capture.

Following the discussion Jess will be giving a tour of the exhibition.  

Jess Atieno maintains a practice informed by inquiries on place, home and dispossession through the lens of the post-colonial. Atieno sees herself as carrying inscriptions of a colonial past and studying as an adult in the US made her increasingly unable to situate herself in a static reality of belonging. With this inspiration, she time travels into history through its material remains: historical photographs, maps and documents, employing them in prints, installation and tapestry. She turns to the idea of place as the transformative site of hybridity that offers alternative strategies for and models of representation within the post-colonial. Atieno holds an MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is an alum of Asiko Art School. Her work has been shown in Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Angola, Austria, Germany, Ivory Coast and the United States. Atieno is also the founder of the Nairobi Print Project.

Black is the Color of the Cosmos is the culminating exhibition of the 2022-23 cohort of the Arts + Public Life (APL) and the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture (CSRPC) Artists in Residence program. Produced during a ten-month residency at the Arts Incubator in Washington Park, each artist reflects on themes of iconography, identity, and tactility through, public art, photography, and single-channel video as medium.

In partnership with the Center for the Study of Race, Politics & Culture, Arts + Public Life supports individual artists through the Artists-in-Residence program by advancing the opportunities available to artists who are underrepresented in the Chicago and national arts scenes. The ten-month paid residency program provides space, materials, and stipends, eliminating barriers to participation. During this program, artists have access to rehearsal, performance and exhibition space at the Arts Incubator in Washington Park and access to the academic and research resources of the University.