Never The Same

Unfurling: Five Explorations in Art, Activism, and Archiving
A Never The Same Exhibition

Never The Same has commissioned five artists and scholars to produce work that activates archival materials related to Chicago’s rich history of politically- and socially-engaged art:  Liliana Angulo Cortés (with Sydney Stoudmire), Jayne Hileman, Faheem Majeed, Dan S. Wang, and Extinct Entities (presenting Brandon Alvendia, Alexandria Eregbu, Tomeka Reid, Baraka de Soleil).  

The exhibition, which inaugurates the Gray Center's new studio space at The University of Chicago’s historic Midway Studios, is titled Unfurling: Five Explorations in Art, Activism, and Archiving.  It will present new work by five individual artists or groups of artists working in local, socially engaged, art research and practice. The selected artists approach Chicago as a site of engagement from a variety of perspectives: as life-long Chicago dwellers, former residents, or newer and temporary residents. Taking inspiration from the Never The Same archive, they extend their investigations using forms such as mapping, archiving, performing, curating, braiding, typesetting, and imagining.

For the exhibition, Dan S. Wang will produce a suite of new letterpress posters announcing imaginary future events that speak to the current and past worlds of Chicago critical art. Liliana Angulo will develop a Chicago chapter of her ongoing ¡Quieto Pelo! (Mappy Hair) collaborative project on hair practices, traditions and politics in the African Diaspora. This Chicago chapter includes the participation of local natural hair stylist and artist Sydney Stoudmire, and will culminate in a hair-braiding event in the Gray Center gallery on October 20 developed in collaboration with community partners United African Organization and the Illinois Association of Hair Braiders. Jayne Hileman is producing a new three-dimensional map of the south side of Chicago as part of her ongoing engagement with experimental cartography. Faheem Majeed will be developing an autobiographical unfurling of archival materials from the South Side Community Arts Center that utilize his ongoing Perennial Garden shelving units inspired by the wood paneling in the Margaret Burroughs Gallery at the South Side Community Art Center SSCAC. Extinct Entities, a curatorial research group, will be commissioning several projects dealing with the legacy of the Affro-Arts Theater based on the Never The Same interview with Kelan Phil Cohran. These commissions will include a poster designed by artist Brandon Alvendia, and a performance event on October 12 with Alexandria Eregbu, Tomeka Reid and Baraka de Soleil. 

A publication will be released in conjunction with the exhibition incorporating material generated by a recent NTS seminar and Culture in Action: Public Art in Chicago Twenty Years Later, a public symposium (to be held on October 5, 2013), which marks the twentieth anniversay of Culture in Action, the seminal public art exhibition curated by early NTS interviewee Mary Jane Jacob.  An exhibition at the Logan Center this fall will feature the collectors group Diasporal Rhythms founded by Patric McCoy, also an NTS interviewee.  This exhibition is part of Chicago Artist Month. 

Exhibition Dates: September 24–October 20, 2013

Exhibition Hours:  Tuesdays & Wednesdays 12 pm - 3 pm; Saturdays 4 pm - 6 pm.  

Location: Gray Center Lab at the University of Chicago, 929 E. 60th St., Chicago, IL 60637

SPECIAL EXHIBITION EVENTS

Fri, Sep 27, 6-8pm, Artists' Reception

Sat, Oct 5, 1-7 pm, Culture in Action: Public Art in Chicago Twenty Years Later, a public symposium held at The University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration, 969 E. 60th St. (1-4:30 pm), followed by a reception at the NTS Exhibition space, 5-7 pm.

Sat, Oct 12, 7-9 pm, Extinct Entities presents performances by Alexandria Eregbu, Tomeka Reid, and Barak de Soleil.

Sat, Oct 19, 5-8 pm, Closing Reception.  Visitors are invited to contribute material artifacts to NTS ephemera archives from the history of Chicago’s socially and politically engaged art. The event will kick off with an Unfurling by members of the now-defunct Mess Hall.

Sun, Oct 20, all day Hair Braiders Summit with United African Organization and the Illinois Association of Hair Braiders

Please check back for more special events.
 

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

Artist Liliana Angulo graduated from the National University, Bogotá, Colombia. In 2010 she received a Fulbright Grant to pursue a Master in Fine Arts at UIC.  In her work she explores intersections of African-descent culture with issues of gender, language, power relations and racial politics. In addition to several solo shows and national expositions in Colombia, she has participated in international exhibitions in Europe, North and South America and the Caribbean. She has developed and collaborated in different collective projects with diverse communities. She has also contributed to design policies related to cultural and artistic practices in social and academic contexts. 

Jayne Hileman works as a visual artist, carpenter, cultural curator, and as art & design teacher at Saint Xavier University, Chicago. She has been doing mapping projects about Chicago’s South Side since 2005. Curated projects include Ocupados/ Occupations and Tent Cities at Art in These Times, 2013. 

Faheem Majeed is an artist, curator, and community facilitator.  Majeed blends his unique experience as a non-profit administrator, curator and artist to create works that focus on institutional critique and exhibitions that leverage collaboration to engage his immediate community as well as the broader community in meaningful dialogue. From 2005-2011, Majeed served as Executive Director and Curator for the South Side Community Art Center (SSCAC).  In 2012 Majeed served as artist in residence for the University of Chicago’s Arts and Public Life Initiative. Currently Majeed is associate director of undergraduate studies and faculty member in the University of Illinois at Chicago’s School of Art & Art History. 

Dan S. Wang is a writer, blogger, and printer living in Madison, Wisconsin. He lived and worked in Chicago from 1997 to 2007 and maintains close relationships with collaborators in the city. 

Extinct Entities (Erin Nixon, Anthony Romero and Anthony D. Stepter) is a project that explores the various histories of Chicago-based art spaces and collectives that no longer exist. Erin Nixon is an art writer and curator working in Chicago. She organizes experimental arts programming, self-publishes, and writes about alternative art histories and autonomous creative projects. Anthony Stepter is an organizer and educator based in Chicago. Anthony produces and hosts events designed to create new and interesting modes of engagement around the arts. Anthony Romero is an artist and writer based in Chicago. He has shown and published broadly most notably at Links Hall and the Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago, and through Ugly Duckling Presse.