Gallery 2D, Resident Curators: Grace Chicago Curatorial Project: Making Peace
Opening Reception: Friday, October 19, 2007, 6:00 9:00 PM On View: Stained Glass, until November 24, 2007; Making Peace, until November 17, 2007.
ThreeWalls announces two new exhibitions, opening Friday, October 19, 2007. On view in Gallery 2D: resident curators, Grace Chicago Curatorial Project, Making Peace and in Gallery 2A (SOLO): Ann Toebbe, Stained Glass (Chicago).
The Grace Chicago Curatorial Project brings together eight artists to address the subject of Making Peace, an exhibition grounded by the concept of forgiving ones enemies. Initially inspired by Miroslav Volf: "To Triumph fully, evil needs two victories, not one. The first victory happens when an evil deed is perpetrated; the second victory, when evil is returned. After the first victory, evil would die if the second victory did not infuse it with new life;" Grace Chicago Curatorial Project has organized work that addresses themes of Palestinian exile, economic disparity and disadvantage, democracy, and meditation among others.
Making Peace features work by: Mel Davis (Berkley, CA), Juan Garcia(Grand Rapids, MI), Diana Guerrero-Macia (Chicago, IL), Emily Jacir (Ramallah, Palestine and New York, NY), Jesikah Reuhle (Chicago, IL), Mika Rottenberg (New York, NY), Christine Tarkowski (Chicago, IL) and James Westwater (Beacon, NY).
SOLO artist Ann Toebbe condenses everyday lived experience into crystallized portraits of moments in time. Reconstructing her memories into paintings that depict multiple viewpoints, abstract perspective and symbolic reference, Toebbes technique demotes nostalgia, instead focusing on the objects and space that surround these memorialized moments, in effect turning the mundane (memories of a room and the banal activities that took place there) into jewel-like objects whose link to Russian icon and medieval painting, Cubism and folk art re-examine the ordinary as a site for contemplation.
For her SOLO exhibition, Toebbe will investigate church interiors and religious holidays, crystallizing the experience of detached parishioner into graphic images that manage to capture both the mysticism of faith and the pop culture undertones of contemporary religion.
Toebbe earned her MFA at Yale School of Art in 2004. She since studied at The Universitdt der Kunst in Berlin. Her work has been included in exhibitions at Spaces, Cleveland; Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago; 537 Gallery, Cincinnati and AfterModern, San Francisco, among others. In 2005, Toebbe was a recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant.
Grace Chicago Curatorial Project is made up of artists and arts administrators from Grace Chicago Church. It was formed 2006 with the desire to engage in the life of the city, support the arts, and understand artistic and cultural expressions for their significance to the individual and for their reflection of the reality of our collective condition.
ThreeWalls is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization dedicated to contemporary art practice and discourse. Through the residency program, SOLO project and quarterly publication Paper and Carriage, ThreeWalls aims to provide opportunities for experimentation, chance, critical dialogue and context for artists, curators and writers who are at pivotal points in their careers.
